HERE AND THERE.

Evening Star, Issue 11895, 25 May 1903, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

What may happen in Australia under the Kingston regime;—Just before the. Orient liner Oruba left London a Miss Cole gave a sailor named Tin gey a small parcel for her sister in New Zealand, asking him to post it on from Sydney. Tingey walked ashore to post the parcel about mid-day, without attempt at concealment or idea "that he was breaking the law. He was immediately stopped by a Customs officer, and arrested for removing a parcel without permission. The parcel was found to contain a Bible and some lace, etp. Tingev was kept in gaol at Darlinghurst till 10 a.m. next day, when he was fined £5 and costs, and the Customs kept the parcel, this though the Court was shown a letter from New Zealand stating that Miss Cole had written out about the present for her sister, and giving the address to which to post.it. and though both the Customs and the magistrate admitted that Tingey had acted honestly, and that there was no intention to defraud, nothing but the technical offence of removing goods without permission. The ‘ Mail,’ in its comments on the case, savs from the first it appeared to be one in which the fine should have been remitted for the credit of the country, and the additional particulars now published emphas se that view. Sir Edmund Barton has himself perceived this, as he ordered the remission of 80 per cent, of the fine, and the return of the parcel to the unfortunate sailor.

The cables recently advised that a duel had been fought between M. Marcel Prevost and M. Thouret, brother of a lady whom Prevost had abandoned. The duel was conducted in the orthodox manner, and honor was satisfied by the brother, who championed his sister’s cause, being wounded in the forearm. In the course of an interview M. Prevost said; “ The sage who seeks his knowledge of feminine psychology in the intense mentality of Parisian life must take his chance of adventures of this kind. I met Mdlle. Emma Thouret in society, and was invited to her mother’s house trine years ago. .1 was struck by her originality, and this was succeeded by another more intimate period which I broke off two years ago for the sufficient reason that I was about to be married to another. I fully explained the situation in several letters, but Mdlle. Thouret would not hear of a rupture. I merely wish to add that I have not received, as was alleged, any challenge from her brother, nor have I been threatened by any member of the family. Still, 1 have always had a presentiment that some romantic or tragic incident might be the outcome of this transient idyll.” How very French it all reads.

It is estimated (says a ‘Times’ correspondent) that there are eighty millions of oysters available for the present fishery, at Manar, Ceylon, and in twelve davs recently as many as twelve to thirteen millions were taken, the Government's share of which (two-thirds) was sold by auction each day, and realised in all R5.216.594. The highest price paid was Rs.4l per 1.000, a very handsome rate, to judge by the experience of past fisheries. Unless anything unforeseen occurs, such as an exceptionally early break of the monsoon or an outbreak of epidemic sickness among the many thousands of people congregated from all parts of India for the fishery—and so far, all is well— l see no reason why at least a million of rupees should not be netted to the Government from the present fishery. Sir M. Hicks-Beach Ex-Chancellor of the Exchequer, visited these beds in March last.

The, present Italian King’s fondness for motor driving occasionally gets him info an amusing situation, as is shown by a story told bv the ‘World’s Work,’ in a sketch of TTis Majesty, In Naples Victor Emmanuel 111. nearly ran down a motor car coming from the opposite direction. Both pulled up, and the first thing the King heard wag an imprecation in English, his opponent saying: “Well, I’ll be dashed if I would allow a scorcher like you about! You ought !o be hanged and quartered “In front of my own palace,” added His Majesty. “I don’t care where it is,” said the angrv motorist, “ so long as it is done, you are a public nuisance.” Before any answer could he made, he mounted and drove off. Some time later Mr. M. P. C., of Massachusetts, was due for an andience. The doors were thrown open, and the two automobilists confronted each other. The American felt “ as cheap as dirt,” as he expressed it afterwards, but the King relieved the tension by laughing and saying: “Are all Americans as peppery as you?”

Mr John Costigan, •whose resolution on Home Rule for Ireland has been carried in th® Canadian Parliament, is one of the moderate men in Canadian politics, who declares his politics to be “loyalty to the Empire, loyalty to the country we live in, and loyalty to its institutions. ” Mr. Costigan emphasises his moderation by styling himself a Liberal Conservative, and he has sat in Conservative Cabinets. He is sixtyeight this year, and has been in the House of Commons more than half his life. He is a strong-Roman Catholic, and has let the House of Commons know it. For years he fought against an anti-Calholic clause in the Schools Act until he got it expunged, and for years he has been persuading the Canadian Parliament to declare itself in favor of Irish Home Rule. He is the son of Irish parents, though colonial born, and went oyer to the Irish National Convention in Dublin seven years ago.

On April 1 a Berlin message announced that a shacking crime had been committed by a military officer, who, after firing at and wounding his paramour, committed suicide. The details were as follows : Lieutenant Von Cranagh, of the 4tb Infantry of the Guard, had been intimate for the last six months with a young woman from Frankfurt-on-Oder; and she went to his quarters in the barracks on the fatal night; waiting there till be came back from mess. She states that, for some unknown reason, her lover proposed that they should both commit suicide, and that when she emphatically refused he forced her on her knees and fired at her with a revolver. She recollects no more, but an officer and several non-commissioned officers, on hearing shots and cries for help, hurried to the lieutenant’s room, where they found him dead, .and the girl severely wounded. Lieutenant Von Cranagh had shot the girl in the right side, and himself through the brain. His victim at latest advices was lying at the hospital in a critical state, and her mother, who arrived from Frankfurt, was not allowed to see her.

It is surely a unique experience to have twice crossed the Atlantic Ocean all the time buried in slumber. This is what happened to a young man who recently escaped from Gothenburg on an emigrant steams’ 1 , for the purpose of evading conscription When on hoard he fell into a deep sleep. During the whole journey he was unconscious, taking no food whatever. On arriving at New York he was taken to a hospital, where he remained for one month, steadily sleeping all the time, and receiving nourishment by artificial means. As nobody identified him, he was put on board a Danish steamer, and again crossed the Atlantic. He never awakened even during a frightful hurricane which raged on the voyage. Arriving at Copenhagen, he was brought to the hospital, and tie is now slowly beginning to awake.

The recent decision in the Sidney City Coun il’s ca-e that gas and hydraulic pipes, power conduits, etc., laid in the city streets are liable to municipal rating has been followed by a like decision from Mr Justice Will ams in the case of the Melbourne Metropolitan Board of Works v. the Metropolitan Gas Company. The former sued for £3.422 as sewer and general rates for 1893-99 and. 1901-1902 on gas mains regarded as “ sewered or unsewered property,” and the Judge held that they could be so described, and gave judgment for the plaintiffs. The decision, following on the Sidney proceedings, opens up for municipalities a new source of revenue, and for gas, electric lighting, and power companies a hitherto unregarded Liability.

Russia is making the first effort on a grand scale to help the ex-convict and general nondescript. Among the 11,112 employees of the Siberian Railway, 1,000 are ox-convicts, while 4,000 men are under suspicion of having been in prison, as they were unable to furnish satisfactory references from the police. Of the 1.000 known as ex-convicts, 597 were sentenced to Siberia either for murder, manslaughter, robbery, or other acts of violence. Most of these are now employed as gnaids, while former thieves are entrusted with the care of the freight and baggage. Among the cashiers and bookkeepers are 32 emb zzlers and 24 forgers convicted of falsifying State papers or private documents. All these convicts have made a splendid record for themselves in the State’s service-

Perhaps the most astonishing statistics in Mr Coghlan’s book ‘Seven Colonies of Australasia’ are those that describe what the average Australian eats and drinks. Apparently he has the best appetite, if not the best digestion, of any hunuth being on the planet. He eats every year 2641b of meat, which works out an average of two sheep and one-fiith of a bullock for every man, woman, and baby in Australasia! He eats than twice "as much meat as the average Englishman, three times as much as the average Frenchman, and four times as much as the average German or Swiss. He eats in addition about of wheat. 2,Jcwt of potatoes,- and almos.t lewt of sugar. If he is a Tasmanian he eats a quarter of a ton of potatoes in a year—a quite surprising feat.

A typical story about De Blowitz, ‘The Tmes’s ’ late representative in Paris, is told in ‘ Cassell’s ’ for April by Mr John Bell in an illustrated article on the Paris correspondents for London newspapers. De Blowitz was spending an evening with the Duke Dccazes at the Quai d’Orsay, in 1875. The Foreign Minister and the Journalist were playing billiards. A messenger appeared with a bundle of despatches. One telegram greatly disconcerted the Foreign Minister. He became livid with auger, and, without uttering a word, broke his billiard cue over his knee. Iheu, turning to M. De Blowitz, he said that the telegram intimated that Lord Derby hud just bought 200,000 Suez Canal shares from Ismail. “-It is an infamy I’’ he added. “ England has her hand on the Isthmus of Suez. You can say what you have seen, and you can add that Lord r , by ,7, !l1 bave t0 pay for this. ,1 swear ’*• • first act of most correspondents would have been to put this news on the wire, arid, having, regard to the Minister’s injunction to publish it, no one could have blamed M. De Blowitz had he done so. But he thought otherwise. He did not send it to his paper. He remembered his duty the duty of preserving the peace of nations. When next he saw the Duke Decazes the Minister was brimming over nith gratitude. “lou have'acted as my friend, be said. “1 shull never forget what you have done for France. You are. indeed, a friend of peace.”

On March 28, at unhead Cemetery, Miss Charlotte Pace, who was Mr Chamlain s teacher at Camberwell, was buried. When the future Colonial Secretary lived with his parents at Camberwell Grove they sent him to Miss Pace’s school, winch then and for many years afterwards was carried on in partnership with her sister. Tile family subsequently moved to the North of London, but the future statesman never forgot his old tear her. He and his family very' frequently visited Miss Pace, who was eighty-four'years of rT I .' ■ one occasions that the Colonial Secretary renewed acquaintance with the scenes of his early youth he was accompanied by Mrs Clianib rlain and Mr Austen Chambcilain, and he took with him several beautiful orchids, which he presented, with some graceiul words regarding the memory of long ago, to Miss Pace, who ■was wont to speak in high terms of the gifts and promise of her pupil.

Every post, it is said, brings the First Lord of the Admiralty the news that the German- Empire is building up a great navy, and that France is making a special feature of- submarine boats, and his correspondents take the trouble at time to set down their information in rhyme. Lord Selbome most have been greatly astonished to learn from one of his correspondents that ,

“The German Navy it Titanic, The Kaiser’s knowledge is encyclopedic, Mark ‘The Times’ don’t be seasick” ;

and he was so interested in the lines, he publicly stated some time ago, that he had thought it over and concluded that they emanated fro mthe brain of—well, a well-known politician.

The ‘Printers’ Register’ is responsible for the following story “On the evening of the 7th January the clerical world of 1 v oiiiC was much upset by not receiving its usual paper, the ‘Osservatore llomano,’ which, being the official organ of the Vatican, is read with deep interest. The printers had gone on strike, so the paper failed to appear for the first time in its fortytwo years of existence. The Pope is said to have been somewhat disturbed, as he is

a man of habit, and never misses his clerical and Liberal papers. He said, when informed that he most do without it; ‘I shall not sleep all night. Who knows what may have happened of which I am in ignorance!’”

The Emperor-Meneltk of Abyssinia is ' sixty years of age; the Sultan of Turkey sixty-one, the Prince of Montenegro sixtytwo, EdwaAl' VTL sixty-two. Bong Charles of Ronmania sixty-four, the King of Belgium sixty-eight, Emperor Francis Joseph of Austria seventy-three, King Oscar of Sweden seventy-four, King Christian of Denmark eighty-five, and the reigning Grand Duke of Oldenburg eighty-six. President Loubet is sixty-five, the Presiden of the Argentine Republic sixty-one, the President of Salvador forty-'one, the President of Paraguay forty-one, President Castro forty-three, the President of Nicaragua fifty-one, the President of Bolivia fifty-four, the Presidents of Honduras and Peru are both fifty-six, and President 1 Roosevelt is forty-five.

' The life of the Dowager-Empress of Russia has had more than its share of Russian terrors. Once, it is said, she found a carious little jewel case on the Emperor’s dressing table, and on picking it up found it surprisingly heavy. Taking it into her own room, she placed it in a basin of water and sent for the Prefect of Police, who found it. to. be one .of the most ingenious infernal machines devised by the hand of man. One night in the Winter Palace, when Alexander in. was still alive, the Empress is said to have hekrd a slight noise in his room. With remarkable presence of mind, she begged her husband to come and speak to the children, and as he left the room she locked the door and gave the key to a party of soldiers,. who, on entering, found that somebody had escaned through the window.