NEAR AND FAR

Evening Star, Issue 14638, 7 August 1911, Page 2

NEAR AND FAR

Memorial services to the late Mr T. E. Taylor were held, in many of the Christehurch chiirchos last evening. The Prohibition League and the Labor partv also held services, the former in the 'afternoon and the latter in the evening. A service at the Town Hall, Wellington, yesterday .afternoon was attended by over 2.000 people. Among those present were the Mayor (Mr AVilt'ord), the Chief Justice (Sir E. Stout), and members., of: Parliament. The speakers'' included Messrs A.- R. Atkinson and G. Laurenson, M.P. Fire at Westport last night destroyed, a two-story building in the heart of j the towu, owned by Mis M'Gill and j occupied by Mrs Patterson, milliner,! and S. L. Freeman,, jeweller. The fire : had a big hold when it'was discovered, ! and it looked as if it would sweep the j block, but by the strenuous efforts of i the brigade it was practically confined j to the one building. The waits of pre- I raises owned by T. P. Williams, aud' occupied by Rosenberg, and of a build-, ing.jOwned and occupied by Bedell, and a building in course of erection owned by G. W. Martin, we're partly burned. Goods in Rosenbergs drapery shop aud in Bedell's tailoring, shop were inueh damaged by water. . -.-■ The first*'Federal, 'faciory is '-".nnw in working order, says the. ; Age.' At Clifton Hill expert saddlers and harness makers, gathered from all States, have commenced to make in a Commonwealth-owned building the leathern equipment for the senior cadets. The full complement of GO workers has not yet arrived, but the factory will soon be iu full swing, and it ia expected that all the benches will be, occupied; yheu the official ppening place * about' August 15. : Iri: referring to this event, tho Acting Minis-ter-of Defence stated that the factory manager was prepared to take up the making of canvas goods for defence and postal requirements. It was proposed to establish in connection with the harijess factory a canvas workshop, in $-hieli tho tents and bags needed for military, naval, and postal purposes would be made. About a dozen young women who have come- from the United Kingdom during the ' last year or two have nominated for assisted passages, the young men they left behind them, and swains have enme to the State to be i married to their faithful sweethearts I (says the ' Sydney Daily Telegraph'). Two instances, however, have opine- | under notice iu which the ladies have I withdrawn such nominations after making them, and have caused cable j messages to be sent to the Agent- j General notifying hiro accordingly, j Both-ladies admitted shyly that they'. had met suitors whom they preferred i to those to wTTom they were plighted in j Great-Britain.. In one case it is just j possible that the young man may have \ started for Melbourne. . j The ' British Medical Journal' re- j calls a story showing how people arc ! more ready to pin their faith on a quack thjfti on a properly trained man of science. A quack at a fair near Paris was driving a roaring trade selling nostrums, drawing teeth, and beguiling the crowd in the. usual ways. The letter of the French law against unqualified practice is very- strong, though, owing to the iudifferencc of tho magistrates, it is not strictly carried out. This, however, was a particularly flagrant case, and the police felt compelled to intervene. The quack was therefore accosted by the guardians of the law, taken to a tent at the back of his stand,- and. requested to show his diploma. To the stupefaction of the gendarmes he exhibited a perfectly authentic degree of Doctor of Medicine of the University of Paris. They were profuse in their apologies, which the doctor cut short with an urgent entreaty that they should say nothing about what they had seen. "For," he. said, "if the people know that I am a qualified doctor I shall have no more customers!"