THE WIDE WORLD.

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 2089, 24 January 1896, Page 3

THE WIDE WORLD.

So far back as 1886 the following paragraph appeared in the "New York Tribune ".—Some fifteen years ago an American was travelling on one of the Messageries steamers from Marseilles to Alexandria. The captain of the ship came up to him as hewas wl*" ing the deck, and asked if he could tell him the name of a passenger whom lie pointed out. "You know," said the captain, "we have had bad weather the last two davs. and the ship has had to do her best'. Well, that man has been on deck half the time, and he knows just as well how to handle this ship a» I do." He was Mr Thomas Brassey, and then, as now. held the certificate of a master mariner. No holiday sailor he. When he took Mr Gladstone across the North Sea. Lord. Brassey would trust nobody but himself to command his own yacht.

"I remember" (writes a correspondent) "Sir Charles Halle's ready wit at a concert, in a Northern manufacturing town, some sixteen or seventeen years ago, with the famous band. It was a large hall, and was well filled. It was known that, the concert party must return to Manchester by a certain late train the same night, but that knowledge did not stop the applause, which grew longer and louder as the programme proceeded. Almost at the last, the performance of a certain piece aroused an enthusiasm that was quite ungovernable. People fairly howled with pleasure! Sir Charles smiled at first, and then shook his head and looked solemn. Still the tornado continued. At last he smiled again, and quietly drew forth his watch, looked at it, nodded. held it forth to the audience, and, after a burst of laughter, drowned by another round of applause, the concert was allowed to proceed to its appointed end. In its way, it was a perfect bit of pantomime—nothing could have been more expressive. Mdlle. Jane May herself could not have conveyed more by gesture!" The Victorian Alliance Annual for IS9<>, .iust published, contains an interesting table, showing the arrests for drunkenness iu the Australian colonies. The figures for last year are as follow —New South Wales (including persons summonedl, 20,145; Queensland, 3843; South Australia, 2370; Tasmania, 565; (Victoria. 11,020; and New Zealand (year 1893), 5295. The police records of Western Australia do not distinguish the arrests for drunkenness from those of other offences against good order generally. Presuming that each arrest represents a separate individual which, however, is not the case, the proportion to the population would be as follows —New South Wales. 1 person arrested to each 61; Queensland, to each 113; South Australia, to each 148; Tasmania, to each 270; Victoria, to each 106 ; and New Zealand, to each 132. In the year 1888 the arrests in Victoria represented 1 to each 57 of the population, so that the rate now is reduced by nearly one half. The Crondale hoard of Saxon and Merovingian gold coins, which was found by Mr C. E. Lefroy on Crondale Heath, in Hampshire, nearly seventy years ago. was to come under the hammer at Sotheby's last month. With the hoard, which consisted of a hundred small gold coins, were two jewelled ornaments, and one of these Is to be sold. A description of this Saxon jewel may be read with interest:—lt Is formed of two triangular box-shaped settings of gold, the points set with three cabochon garnets. The remaining portion of the surface is divided into cloisons the centre one shaped as a cross, and set with sections of garnet laid over a gold-foil ground, which Is impressed with a delicate diaper pattern. The base of the triangle has three holes, and at the apex is a ring, to which is attached a small length of chain of fine plaited wire, each piece fastened by a rivet to a hook, of which a portion is shaped like a duck's head. Our ancestors evidently were not without a good idea of decorative work. In the hearing of a money-lending case recently at the Shoreditch County Court. 180 per cent, was claimed for interest—quite an ordinary rate for usurers in this colony. The total sum due was £ll lis Bd, of which £4 10s was a balance on a promissory note and £7 Is 8d interest. An order for the balance of the loan (£4 10s) at 10s per month was juade. the £7 Is 8d interest to l>e paid at one penny per month. The payment of interest at this rate would occupy 141 years and eight months. A few sensible and humane decisions of this kind on the part of judges would soon stamp out usury. If the.law gives the pound of flesh, the judge can decide that it shall be had iu very small pieces.