NEAR AND FAR.

Evening Star, Issue 14038, 20 April 1909, Page 8

NEAR AND FAR.

A preliminary meeting of citizens in favor of urging the Government to establish universal military training was held m Wellington last evening. Mr J. P. Luke, M.P., who presided, said that something superior to the presentsystem of defence was needed. Speaking as an employer, he thought employers would' be prepared, to sacrifice /the time of their workmen necessary for thy purposes of efficient tr/tining. They should make recommendations which would assist the Prime Minister in bringing his defence scheme before Parliament. He hoped the meeting would be the birth of a broader arid truer and quicker spirit in regard to defence. The following motion was carried unanimously: —“That the meeting resolve themselves into a committee to co-operate with the National Deferice League in holding a public meeting erf citizens to urge the Government to institute a system of universal military training.” | The Hon. T. (Mackenzie stated to an interviewer at Christchurch that he intended to place before the Government a proposal by which accommodation might be provided at Hammer and Rotorua for invalids suffering from rheumatism and other complaints who were unable, through lack of funds, to visit the health resorts. His idea was to reduce the present charges for treatment, the balance of the expense being borne by the boards of hospital and charitable aid districts from which patients came, thus relieving the Government of any extra expense in connection with these already expensive and practically nonreyenue producing places. ‘ The Minister -pointed out that subsidies and rates received by the local bodies in question would enable them to bear this charge, and many invalids who, through straitened circumstances, had fo linger on ,in ill-health would have a good opportunity of being i cured.

| "Our Own” writes from Cromwell ; On Thursday evening Messrs Reid and M‘Dowell lost a valuable d; aught horse. It appears that one of their waggoners was unyoking the team at the Lowburn, when one of the horses took fright and dashed down the road to the Punt ferry and jumped into the river. As the chains were still on the animal, it must have got , entangled in them, and was drowned, j At the of the Bible Research Society on Sunday the subject taken bv the lecturer was ‘The Bible in Relation to the Drink Problem.’ The arguments set forth in support of his contention went to show- that the teachings of the Bible were in the direction of setting out who should and should not take strong drink to excess, j also vrho should and should not take strong drink in moderation. The speaker also ; contended that strong drink was a creation |of God for the use of man. A discussion j followed, those taking part showing that j they had a' wide knowledge of Biblical teachings. The vice-president (Mr M‘Donakl) presided over the meeting, which was largely attended by working men.

The problem “ What to do with our boys” is evidently not so pressing in Australia as it used to be. Colonel Lasseter, of Messrs Lasse ter and Co., in giving evidence before the Postal Commission in Sydney, stated that the chief difficulty his firm experienced now was in getting good men to fill the responsible positions in the business, even though the employees were advanced on their individual merits, instead of by any system of seniority as in the public service. The labor trouble with them commenced at the bottom of the ladder. Time was when they advertised for_ a messenger the street 'in front of their establishment would have been blocked with boys and their mothers trying to get in. Now they could advertise for two or three days without getting a suitable applicant. That was evidence of the general prosperity, and also that boys were not crowding into the city as was the case a few years ago.

On the problem of unemployment, Colonel Weinstoek, the Californian Labor Commissioner, who is visiting New Zealand, told a ‘Post’ reporter that there were different ideas in England and in Australia. In the Old Country he had talked with many prominent Labor men on the question, and their general opinion was that the employed should work shorter hours to leave work for the unemployed. The employed, not the employers,- were to bear the burden in the shape of reduced wages. In Australia, on the contrary, it appeared from the judgment of Mr Justice Higgins in the Broken Hill case that there was an idea that industries unable to pay a minimum waga. should go to the wall. .“In England, then,” said the Labor Commissioner, “the idea is that half a loaf is better than no bread; in Australia it is the whole loaf or nothing.” The biggest order ever taken from the Empire of Japan for electrical apparatus for the conversion of a steam railroad to electric power has been accepted bv an American engineering corporation. ' The units will be 1.000 kilowatt turbine generator sets, and the whole contract for power-house apparatus, line material, car motors, and supplies, involves the expenditure by Japan of 7,000,000d01. This is the_ first unit of electrification of an imperial line of railways that serves Tokio and seven manufacturing > cities. Other railway sections will be electrified after the Tokio zone has been attended to, so that the prospects are bright for the receipt of other contracts from Japan.

The Comtesse de la Pommiere, a daughter of Napoleon 111., was recently discovered in a pitiable plight at her lodging in the P,ue St. Yves, Senlis. The fears of the neighbors were aroused bv their not having seen the countess about for several days, and the police were seat for. - They obtained entrance by breaking a window, and found the countess lying on a sofa half dead from fright and hanstion, and afraid to move on account of a swarm of rats which had invaded her apartment. The floor of the room was strewn with, title deeds, and bank notes,

which the -rats' were nibbling to pieces. I The poor woman, whose mind appeared to I be temporarily unhinged, refused to take any food, and it was decided to remove her to the asylum at Clermont. A,Ei!i providing that no man who is twice convicted of intoxication in one. year shall- be allowed to be married, and that- two convictions for drunkenness within . a year shall be a ground* for divorce, h;s been introduced in the State of Illinois. ; j The American maidens who are petition- ! ing Oongres to introduce a titular distinction between bachelors and married men, have a logical ground for their damnad, thongh.it may be doubted whether the -re- : form would remit, "s they fondly imagine, in the abolition of the married flirt. Miss, and Mrs are only con-tractions of mi&trerjs, and as late rs the reign of George II; unmarried ladies. used to be. styled Mrs. Then it became convenient to distinguish-, between the "married and umn-rrried wo'- . man; and Mirs .was the original spelling of the new label. Mister —novy the common form for adult -males, whether married or single—stands, of coUrse; for master ; and if the Illinois girls have their way. “Mas” might, on the same plan, be used to indicate a bachelor. Or Master, which now."as in the .time of Swift, and perhaps before, meant a young Gentleman, could be earmarked for the purpose. But has the fact that women' are catalocrued j abolished the female i}iarried : flirt ? 1