NEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR

Evening Star, Issue 13091, 26 October 1908, Page 3

NEWS FROM NEAR AND FAR

> It ia told of a New Plymouth man who had a"‘reputation to lose that he received an account from his grocer addressed —, Liar.” He hastened to the grocer’s ehbp bursting with indignation. After a little while He came out of the shop showing no tendency to burst, but rather looking a little fHamefaced. The clerk who . had written the opprobrious epithet had explained. He had’ bren addieesing , the account when the youthful son of the insulted one had entered the shop. The clerk, not noticing that the addre s was incomple’e, liad handed (he account to the toy. The insulted one lives in Liardet street. An explanation of much of the “misery of married life” has been discovered by the lady writer of tlvs Wellington ‘Post’ (presumably herself a married woman). To diminish this misery she gives the following advice:—When a man is tired, dis-’ pirited, worn out, worried, don’t even try to bo amusing. As a matter of fact, this is one of the reasons why friendship between man and man w deepen than that between woman and man. Anvoman seldom understands the desire for silence, the communion of thought, the perfect bond of sympathy, whore speech is utterly superfluous. If he doesn’t want to talk, she straightway talks for two, or else sulks, which proves the truth of the areertion that a woman can he a man’s wife, sweetheart, friend even, but seldom become his comrade. The Picton ‘ Press ’ reprrts that a right whale was sighted the other morning by Mr James Norton from Queen Charlotte Sound heads. Two boats were quickly manned by Messrs Jackson and Norton, who rowed out to the heads and waited for the whale to' come in with the tide. At an opportune moment the harpoon was hurled into the body of the monct er. and it was spouting blood within two or three minutes, and in two hours was dead. The “ kill ” was witnessed by practically every resident of To Awaiti. The estimated value of the whale is about £BCO. A charitably disposed lady in Geraldine had her faith in humanity badly shaken recently. The ‘Tcmuka Leader’ states that a man called at her house, and, -striking a pathetic attidude, produced a piece of dirty paper, which conveyed the sad news that he was deaf and dumb. The lady’s sympathy was stirred, and she gave a shilling to the unfortunate man. Some hours later, when the lady was making some purchases in a store, the same man walked in and told the storekeeper a pitiful tale of woe about a fruitless search for work, and begged for a bit of tobacco. The lady was bo taken aback at bearing the dumb speak that she allowed him to take the tobacco and go away without making a protest.

The Minister of Education estimates that it will take about £6,000 per year to maintain the supply of free school books. That computation is based upon the present roll number of children attending the schools of the Dominion. The sum of £3,500 provided for in this year's Estimates will enable the education boards to supply free text books in the primary classes and Standards I. and 11. About the same amount or a little more will be voted next year to maintain the supply in these classes and to enable the boards to furnish Standard 111. with free books. The grant will then require to be increased during the next three years to enable Standards IV., V., and VI. to be taken in, and at the same time maintain the free books in the lower standards. It is possible that the grant in one of these years, when reaching the higher standards, mar be increased to £9,000, bat after the classes are supplied the sum necessary for maintenance will drop down to £6.000. It is estimated that the books will last on an average between two and three rears.

A cruel hoax was recently perpetrated at Reigato (England) on a woman in a very delicate state of health, which makes the matter much more serious than it would ordinarily be. Her nine-year-old son was sent to the local hospital for a minor operation, and one morning afterwards she received through the post a leter to this effect: “ (Madam, I am sorry to say your son passed, away to-night at 9.3o.—(Signed) Matron.” The distracted mother was prostrated with grief. Eventually, accompanied by a neighbor, she went to the hospial, where the matron assured her that the litle fellow was alive and well, the operation having been a success, and she was afterwards rejoiced to find him in his bed in the wards, happy and talkative. The police have the matter in hand.

Dr Carroll Dunham, of Harvard University (U.S.), told the medical division of the British Association, sitting at Dublin in September, seme extraordinary instances of personal immunity from disease. The first was that of an Irish cook in New York. For two years she was the cause of epidemics of typhoid fever in a household in whiqh she was employed, yet she was herself perfectly well. But, privately and lawlessly, she was arrested and removed by the Health Board and carried off to ajr island in the harbor. She was full of typhoid fever micro-organisms, and she remained full, though still quite well. Then there was an outbreak of diphtheria in a girls’ school. It originated in a maidservant. They put the maid into quarantine and kept her under observation, and found her full of diphtheria. Yet she was personally well.

A correspondent of ‘ The Times ’ points out that there is an irtn in London the license of which has been held by one generation after another of Speedys. At the sign of the Boot, a few hundred yards to the west of Gray’s Inn road, in Cromer street, which was then a semi-rural district on the outskirts of London, there lived in the eighteenth century a certain Mr Speedy, and it was here that in 1780 the ringleaders of the Gordon riots met in secret conclave to organise their plans. The tavern was familiar to Dickens, who lived in Doughty street, and introduced the Boot and the plotters frequenting it during the famous riots into ‘ Barnaby Rudge. The fact that the license, now nearly 130 years after those events, is still held by the Speedy family, who alto own the premises, must approach a record for London inns.

An echo of the Belfast riots, arising out of the dockers’ strike last year, is heard in the demand to recover the surcharges made on three members of the Belfast Corporation by the Local Government Board. It will be remembered that the military were poured into the city at the request of Lord ■Shaftesbury, who was then Lord Mayor. When order was restored the military authorities jnade a claim on the Corporation for £540 for feeding the troops during that troublesome period, and it was paid by cheque signed by three councillors, who were members of the Finance Committee. , The auditor of the Irish Local Government Board has since declared the to be illegal, and the Board surcharged each of the unfortunate councillors £IBO. The Belfast Corporation are verv indignant at the Board’s action, and are defying the latter to recover the money. A pretty story of Irish courtesy and good-will IS told of the Bnal for the Irish golf championship at Newcastle, County iV° W vr. [ n „ th ° of one of rounds Mr Mitchell and his opponent were caught in one of those heavy showers for which Newcastle is notorious. The champion turned up the collar of his jacket but finding he had no pin with which to fasten it about his throat he asked his caddie if he could oblige him. The caddie fumbled at the foot of his waistcoat, failed to find what he wanted, and then, taking off hi s cap hesitatingly and looking at it silently for a second or two ha replied: “ Well sor, I have a pin, but, sure, it fastens a little bit av white heather in mi cap, and that’s for goed luck for yon, sor.” “Ah pou are the right sort,” said Mr Mitchell! “On no account remove your whit© heather.” A pin was secured from another quarter, and the white heather remained in that caddie’s cap until the championship was safe in his master’s keeping.

It is stated that the Roads Department is likely to be troubled with a scarcity of labor in expending the special grant of £250,000 for- back-block roads this year. There are now 2,734 men at work, and the department could find employment for another 400 in various parts of the Dominion. A singular incident occurred at a banquet given in Rome by Cardinal Merry del Val, the Papal Secretary, to a number of members of the Clerical party. -Tlie guests were at table when a violent thunderstorm occurred, at.’the height of which lightning entered the dining hall, attracted presumably by the covers of the dishes and other metal objects. According to one account. Cardinal Merry del Val was in the act of serving fish with a silver knife when the lightning struck the dish, hurling the knife from his hand, and carrying the dish off the table. A daring burglary was committed' on September 4 in one of the most crowded streets of Manchester. A gang of burglars made their way into the shop of Mr Stein, in Oxford street, and though the premises were well lighted they managed without arousing suspicion to remove a safe weighing nearly 6cwt, and to operate on it at the rear of the shop undisturbed. Their booty comprised 500 rings (many of which were set with pearls), a costly pearl necklace, gold and silver watches, chains, brooches, and bracelets; and they left in return a chisel, a jemmy, and a big hammer. The safe stood on a pedestal in the shop, immediately opposite an opening in the, shutter made for the purpose of allowing inspection by the police on the beat.