CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVIII, Issue 12942, 9 October 1902, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

Lady Raglan's determinX peeress ation to exhibit herself in ox snow. her Coronation robes in aid

of the funds a cottage hospital naturally excited some indignation among the ladies of her own rank, but the general public seemed to take the performance in good part, and the hospital, even at the small charge of 3d a head for admission, did wonderfully well out of her ladyship's adventure. Gowns always have an irresistible attraction for women, and a Coronation gown could hardly prove an exception to the rule. Wives of leading residents patronised the " show " with their daughters, working men's wives with their whole families, and nursemaids with their charges. Lady Raglan, we are told, went through the ordeal admirably, sometimes seated in the chair she occupied in the Abbey, and sometimes parading in response to a sweet request to show the length of the train. \lt was somewhat grotesque to see a real peeress of the realm arrayed in show fashion and surrounded by sightseers, bub everyone seemed to enjoy it. " Lor!" said one buxom old dame to her daughter, "what a sight the Coronation must have been, to be sure! Look at the diamonds and her ta-ra-ra!" " Sh ! mother," answered the daughter, "that's a coronet. It ain't what you called it." The eyes of the nursemaids could not stray from the ermine. "It is just splendid," said one, "and doesn't her ladyship set it of! beautifully " "That she does," answered her companion, "but I wouldn't go through it, nob for tho world." The chair was the object of much curiosity. "It's a very good your ladyship," one matron assured its occupant. "Mahogany, I should say. It's got a good bottom, and will last a life-time." " Yes," her ladyship meekly assented. Some of the visitors, perhaps not quite content with the value tliey received for their threepence, suggested that Lord Raglan, in his uniform, was required to make the show complete, but his lordship was not possessed by his wife's enthusiasm for good works. Some other members of his family, however, entered into the spirit of the whole affair, ono taking the money at the hall door, another assisting in the exhibition of the robes, and a third supplementing the receipts by the sale of flowers. Between them they contributed very materially to the success of-the unique exhibition.

' DEEP SEA! FISHING.

Fishermen are a hardy race, and they need to be. "It's a hard life, take it as you will; you'll never meet

a fisherman who wouldn't remain on shore if he could," said a fishing captain to a

contributor to "Macmillan's Magazine." "Yes," he continued, "it's haul, haul, haul, the whole time. Your hands got that cold, yen can't feel 'cm, and you can't wear mits 'cause of the fish. That's the cruellest thing of all. It'll freeze and snow for days and days, and the ice will form thick on the deck, and the ropes, and the sails —not slush, but regular ice—till you have to knock it off ia blocks with handspikes. And all the time you've got to be working at that blessed net. One night, the mate yonder was turning in, after his watch, took his boots off, when up he has to come; net had caught or something. Went down again, got one boot off, when up he's fetched again. Next time he didn't take his boots off at all, but turned in, boots and all, and was settling down to sleep, when he's called out a third time, and when that was over it was his watch." It is not uncommon for the captain or the mate to be kept on deck for twelve hours at a stretch, and occasionally, in bad weather, a twenty.four hour watch may be necessary. The men feel the cold more keenly than do most sailors, because their work is so wet; but, severe as are their sufferings from, this cause, the process of getting warm again is declared to be even more cruel. At times the pain will be so «xcrutiating that men will faint. And the skin of the hands cracks; but still the fisher must take his turn ait ropes and nets.j Tho rewards cannot be regarded as generous, and the return is terribly uncertain. In bad weather the fisher gets nothing, and, even in good weather, he cannot count on a steady haul. The market, too, fluctuates considerably. "I've known a boat come 'in with a tidy load of fish and clear a heap of money, forty pounds, said one captain, " and you'll conio in an hour after, and nob make ten pounds for the same lot of fish." The article in "Macmillan's" gives a very good account of. the fisher's life, but it shows that the fisher, like the farmer, occasionally exercises his privilege of grumbling.

MR MANN IN MELBOUENE.

We received by cable a brief account of Mr Tom Mann's first public appear-

ancc Jn Melbourne, and the reports that Lave reached, us by mail confirm the impression that he descended upon the Victorian capital at anything but an opportune moment. Interviewed by an " Age" reporter he spoke in high commendation of the New Zealand Arbitration and Conciliation Act. " I would not care," he said, "to express myself very freely in regard to some phases of life in New Zealand, but, speaking industrially, any kind of man would be exceedingly glad to find the same condition of things at home. If any man at home were to ask me about the place I should say, ' You will receive 15s more ai week for an hour a day less. Of that 15s 'you will have to spend half, because of the higher cost of living, and that will leave you a margin of 7s 6d 'for an hour a day less work.'" In the evening he went to Port Melbourne to address an open air meeting in support of Mr Beard, the "approved" Labour candidate. Beard got along very well for nn hour, and then Mr Mann drove up in a cab. The Chairman called for three;cheers for him, and at once a wild tumult broke out, and the cheers were " drowned In yells, boohoos, choruses, accordions and the infernal blare of a motor-car horn." Mr Mann, got up on the platform, "amid loud cheers and a hundred indescribable noises," and attempted to address the meeting. He was advised to go home, informed that he was not .wanted, and generally interrupted. He managed to say that he knew nothing of splits and local differences, and was there to plead the.cause of labour generally, but the crowd evidently did not relish his interference. The Chairman's apneals for order were lost .'in the uproar, and finally Mr Mann, failing to obtain a hearing, left the platform. Probably, after this experience he will :be inclined to eaiy that there are some phases of life in Victoria upon which he would not care to express himself; freely. New Zealand, at any rate, gave him a hearing. He intends to remain about a year in the Commonwealth.