NEAR AND FAR.

Evening Star, Issue 15035, 18 November 1912, Page 6

NEAR AND FAR.

Mr Grahame White, the famous English aviator, is out with a daring project—the institution of a service of aerial "cabs." If his scheme materialises, they will start from the roof of a big London hotel. One will tly to Paris and back, one to Edinburgh and back, and a third to the top of Snowdoa and back. Tho trip to Paris is to occupy two hours each way, to Snowdon two and a-hnif, and to Edinburgh four. Each aeroplane if to have a kind of motor-car body, padded and upholstered, with room for four passengers to sit in comfort-. "Abide by the Conf-equcr,ees of Your Acts" is the significant nom de plume, adopted by a correspondent of the London. ' Times,' who offers a pertinent eu;;gestion for overcoming the hunger strike expedient. As the writer properly points out, '■here must, be many people who view with considerable uneasiness the present system whereby prisoners can avoid serving their cent.mces at the expense of certain temporary inconvenience, discomfort, or even Miffering. Should the practice of the hunger strike, become the usual procedure of convicts, he =:*=& no reason why prisoners of the sterner sex should not avail themselves of its means to transmute a. sentence of. say, 20 years' penal servitude into oiv? of a month or weelw. The remedy seems to me (proceeds this correspondent) to be to paw a law providing that n. sentence may be. served in instalments if the health of the prisoner prevents its being carried through in one, and if the indisposilion is occasioned by the deliberate act of the prisoner. To the. objection that the temporarily-relMeed prisoner might fly the country, I can only reply that voluntary exile, would be the ideal solution, and for the country the best .and cheapest in tlw end.

According to the recent census returns, out of 607,762 nrirrioil men of the Bantu race 516.607 have only one wife each, 69,846 have two wives, 14,538 liavo three wives. 4,164 have four wives, and fo on, until we come to a native gentleman who has no fewer than 46 wives. All that the statistics tell us about this modern Solomon is that he is between 50 and 35 years °f 3g e ; a id lives in the Transvaal. He easily out-distances all his fellow-country-men, for on one else i& returned as having more than 28 wives. There are two men with this number, one- being a Transvaal resident- who in not yet 25 yea.rs old. and the other a Free State, native, between 25 and 30. Xatal's best is 23 wives, two middle-aged native? being returned 86 having, this number each. The Cape ■is quite out of it compared with the other provinces, for the lj;-st the Cape can show is a patriarch of over 75 years with 20 wives to his credit.

During the recent chilly weather, My 6 the ' New York Herald,' Mrs Forrest Ferrill. cf Waukegan. was confronted with the problem of caring for 200 little chickens which had arrived at that stage when their feathers were few and far between. She bought many yards oi baby flannel, and designed suits for the shivering chicks- She made dresses for these 6he figured were of the variety needling dresses, and for the others smart and cutaway coats. The clothing was sewed firmly upon the chickens, and no more, of them died. When the. hot wave struck the country Mrs Ferrill "undressed"' her big brood, but saved the garments for emergenciecs. The- premises at Dumfries known as Buvns's Honse, and numerous relics of the immortal bard, a.re. to be f.old shortly. The fact was referred to by Mr Jas. Watt at tie annual conference of the Burn* Federation, held at Carlisle on September 7, and attended by delegates from every part of the British lekc." Mr Watt suggested that the federation should give a lead. tow«uxis securing these Burns treasures, and thought that the Dumfries Town Council might purchase tho house. The next conference of the federation ia t« Ik: huld at G&kisbiek.