ITEMS IN BRIEF.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLVI, Issue 808, 9 June 1903, Page 2

ITEMS IN BRIEF.

So successful are the Ilford municipal electric tramways that the number of cars in use, deemed more than amjple at the opening, is found to bo insufficient, particularly on Saturdays and Sundays, and more have now been ordered. On one day the receipts were £134, and the total of passengers over thirty thousand.

In a printed reply to a ParHhimentary question, the Chancellor of .the Exchequer states tirat Ireland's contribution towards Imperifakl expenditure in 1901-02 was 2.54 per cent of the total amount contributed by the United Kingdom. In other «words, Ireland contributed about one thirtyeighth of that of Great Britain.

Sentence of twelve months' hard labor has been passed on the expoliceman at Brentford (England), who obtained £50 from a widow on a promise to marry her. The girl to whom he was engaged , at the time declared that she would have no more to do with him ; but as soon as ha was sentenced she begged the Bench to let her see him before he went to gaol.

A bull fight in Portugal is a very different tbi'n^ from the function of Spain. The Portuguese bull sores nothing, and is not slain. After a gay sham fight he trots out, generally applauded, and the horses leave the ring; as whole as they entered it. Buttons on the bull's horns make all safe ; but play is exceedingly adroit, and — to all, presumably, ejeoopt S peiniards— exciting-. As an example of British carefulness in observing a promise we m»y quote the following story i— An officer who had to investigate cases of unauthorised commandeering came across a receipt given to a Boer widow. It ran. th'u» : " Being without rations and hungry, we have taken all this poor woman had of liveA~ stock and food. She asks for a re^^ceipt. I give it. God help her !f— AHy-* Sloper." To the credit of the British military administration, it nrUat be said that this document, thougfc irregular, was accepted as genuine, ek*l duly honored by payment in full.

King Christian of Denmark was walking- in the streets of Copenhagen recently when h e s» w two little children, four # and five years of ag© respectively, in imminent danger of being run over \ty an apprpaohinig' electric tramcar running at a higfc fltwqd. With wonderful presence of mi&d, and at serious risk to his own safety, tfie eigihty-five-year-okl monarch sprang in front of the car, seized the little girls, (and dragged them into safety, live- witnesses 0/ the scene declare that nothing cpuld have saved them from death if the King- had not acted so promptly and courageously. The Marquis of Conyngfiam, wfco will be twenty-one next year, ia the largest land owner in Irelanjd, where his estaftes, according to the last .return isgued, embrace 129,846 acres in Donegal, 24,059 in Clare, 9634 in Meath, and, :58 in Limerick, afcd with nearly 10,000 in Kent, he has a grand total of 173,314 acres. The Secretary of War in Englaird has approved of a Motor-ear Corps for volunteers. Upwards of 400 cars have been placed at the disposal of the Government should occasion arise.

The pamphlet in which Mr J. G. Wilson, President of the Farmer*' Union, has so ably »et out the reason* for the existence of the Union, has had a Terj wide circulation, and its fame has reached other lands. The latest requests for copies came from England and Tasmania. The pamphlet has done much for Farmers' Unionism in New Zealand, and is likely to stimulate thought among farmers in other countries. — Rangitikei Advocate. Meeting ot Ladies' Committee of Hospital Ball on Friday next, at 3 p.m. Reward for recovery of lost grey gelding. Sou And Swollin Joints, sharp shoot ing pains, torturing muscles, no rest, no Bleep — that means rheumatism. It is a stubborn disease to fight, but Chamberlain's Pain Balm has conquered it tbossands of times. One application gives relief. Try it. W. X, Wallace, Chemist, sells it.