NEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR

Evening Star, Issue 12732, 5 August 1907, Page 6

NEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR

Mr A. R. Hislop, secretary of the Institute of Marine Engineers, has just returned to Wellington. He left the colony in February last as a Government delegate to the Imperial Navigation Conference. To an interviewer Mr Hislop said: " New Zealandtrained engineers are in. great request in England. I met quite a number of lads who had- worked their passage Home, or otherwise found their way there, and they wero all holding good positions in the marine engineering world. I did not find one of them out of employment, and all wero quite satisfied with their positions." Mt George M'Laren presided .it the strangers' tea. at the Y.M.C.A. yesterday. There were visitors from England, Scotland, Gamaru, Seacliff, and the surrounding districts. Mr Alf. Snowball, the speaker for the meeting, hails from Bradford, where for a number of vcuts he was engaged in Christian work. Ho spoke of the work of the Y.M.C.A., with which ho has been connected since his boyhood, and of his special work in the Brotherhood and the great work of reformation in individual lives, in families, and in cities which was being accomplished through its instrumentality.

In tho last issue of the 'Now Zealand Building, Engineering, and Mining Jouinal' a. contrast is made of the prices paid lor the supply of electricity in Dunedin and Wellington. The comparison puts Dunedin in a very favorable light, The systems upon which tho respective charges are based differ, as the Dunedin rates are upon the maximum demand plan, but a comparison is arrived at by taking an installation of 500 kilowats in each city. In Wellington that power for one hour would be 600 units at 6d, cost £l2 10s; and in Dunedin 500 unite at sd, total £lO 8s 4d. In Wcllingt<% 2,000 units at s£d cost £45 16s Bd. and in Dunedin the same number cost £2O 16a 8d- " The Government rato at Wellington is 5d per unit," says the journal, "while in Dunedin it is 2d per unit up to the two-hour standard, all in excess of that limit being charged for at {d per unit. Tho latter, however, does not include elevator motors, which are charged for at tho rate of 3d per unit (flat, rate)." '' There was a good attendance at last night'a meeting of tho Progressive Society, when an address was given by Ml W. H. Perry on 'Does Beauty Suffice?' The lecturer emphasised tbe noocssiCy of more discrimination on tho part of men in selecting a wife, as moral and intellectual worth would outlast all mero external beauty. The town clerk of Christchurch has been in correspondence with the Collector of Customs with reference to tho duty ou tbe Exhibition organ, when has beeu demanded, pointing out that the demand for duty was never mentioned throughout tho negotiations, nor by tho Minister when handing over the organ. The reply of tho Collector is to the effect that tho demand is mado by order of the Minister. It U-is been decided to write to tlie Hon. Mr Fowlds on the subject, protesting against the demand, pointing out that tho organ wa.s handed over absolutely free of any conditions.

It was stated by a witness in a case heard in the Civil Court on Friday (says the Wellington ' Post') that it was a regular custom on the part of the insurance companies not to pay their canvassers regular salaries, but to make them weekly allowances, with a stipulation that a certain amount of business must be done. For instance, in the case mentioned the canvasser had to do £4,000 business a quarter in order to earn his allowance of £5 per week. If the work done were less than that, the arrears would be piled up against the canvasser, and any commissions earned would bo deducted to pay off bis debt to tbe company.

A special service in connection with the Church of Christ Sunday School anniversary was held in the- Tabernacle, Kiug street, yesterday afternoon. Mr C. Halo addressed the children, and Mr W. J. Hastie also spoke to them. Several anthems were sung by the children, and a solo was contributed by Mr D. A. Craig. Mr Leslie Reynolds, formerly of this City, will be the engineer associated wit v Messrs J. M'Lean and Sons, whose contract (£600,000) was accepted by Iho Government last week for piercing the Alp in connection with the Midland Railwaj construction.

Truamt firemen delayed the Rotomahana's departure from Wellington for half an hour on Thursday night. An imperative call for n>en—for it would have been a breach of the law had the vessel sailed without her full complement—was responded to by two firemen amongst, tho passengers, who consented to fill the breach. -^

The Government poultry grader at Auckland (Mr It. Pounsford) recently forwarded one dozen eggs, which had been kept in the cool store for one year and ten moothu, to Mr T. Burke, Government grader at Dunedin, and asked him to give anopmiop a-s to their state of preservation. Mr Burke has written to Mr Pounsford stating that he gave some of tho eggs to his friends, and the reports as to their condition were most favorable. "I have tried them myself," writes Mr Burke, "and I can only add that, even with mv experience of chiJed egg.-,, it is difficult to believe that these eggs were in the cool store one year and ten months. I must conyou on the excellent state of preservation they are in. If all eggs plaeed in a cool store oou'd be kept up to the standard of your sample, the number chilled each year would increase by leaps and bounds."—'New Zealand Herald.' "The standard of civilisation of every nation may he measured by the status of tho women-folk of that nation," said the Hon. G. FowlcLs, Minister of Education, at a meeting of the Young Women's Christian Association at Wellington. '" And . whatever we do to elevate our sisters," he went on to say, '' we are doing something to elevate our country. The need of companionship, the need of association, is just as great on the part of the young women as it is on the part of the young men, and the. result that will flow from endeavoring to raise our national life will be the reward of any little sacrifice we make to that end." The Minister made these remarks when appealing to the public for funds for the new branch of the Y.W C.A. which has betn established in Wellington. The desire of Mr Cecil Rhod.es for posthumons renown, to which Lord Rosebory recently referred,, recalls an observation of Mi- Parnell with reference to Mr Rhodes which may take its place among the errors of political predictions. This was uttered after the introduction of Mr Rhodes to Mr Parnell at the House of Commons in 1888. When, after a long and interesting conversation on South African subjects, Mr Rhodes had taken leave, Mr Parnell remarked : r ' What a verv interesting personality he is, and what "a pitv his lot is cast in South Africa and not here With all his abilities hj« will not live 'c history."

Tx>ng as .she has lived, Florence Nightingale is not the sole survivor of the nurses who gave swot in the tvery-hes a,nd the cholera hospita's of the Crimea. There is a Miss Doy'e, known amon<? Sisters oi Mercy as Mother Mary Alovsius. She is eighty-seven, and is still able to recall the

memorable setting forth from Carlow, the embarkation at Portsmouth, under the charge of that other heroic woman, Mary Stanley (sister of the Doan), and the terrible experiences at Scutari, which the late Queen remembered in 1897, when ehe invited the Irish nun to Windsor and gave her the Boyal Red Grose. Anyone who reads a little book she wrote, ‘Memories of the Crimea,’ will be inclined to come rorond to Mr Bright’s revised version of the word—“A Chime.” Mr Balfour was a witness before the Select Committee of the House of Commons which is considering the present method of reporting and publishing parliamentary debates. For a long time, be said, the present system of reporting the debates had been unsatisfactory. Before an official reporter was put on thtf floor of the House an endeavor should be made to improve the present arrangements. A full official report might bi made and supplied to all newspapers who cared to take it. A member of the Committee said that many scats in the Press Gallery which were allotted originally to reporters were now occupied by men who wrote what were called parliamentary sketches.—-Mr Balfour: The first claim for seats in the gallery should be for those who givo reports of our proceedings —for those who make our arguments public, not our oddities.—(Laughter.) Mr Balfour added that he Devcr rcad reports of his own speeches, and implied that bo read very little journalism of any sort.