THE GATHERER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 112, 15 May 1906, Page 1

THE GATHERER.

THE WATERS OF THE EARTH. It lias been computed by geographers that if the sea were emptied of its waters and all the rivers of the earth were to pour their present floods into the vacant space, allowing nothing for evaporation, 40,000 years would be required to bring the water of the ocean up to its present level. ACCOMPLISHED LIARS. Mine. Isabolle Massiou, the French lady explorer, has been made a Knight of the Legion of Honour. She has just returned to Paris from Annam and Tonkin, and says the Annamites are the most accomplished liars in the world. One chief told her that he had seen an English vessel so large that his father, who was a young man when he started to walk down the deck, had white hair before he reached the mainmast. Thereupon another chief remarked that there are trees in France so tall that a bird takes ten years to reach the top. "That is impossible," said the first chief. "Then how was the mainmast of your ship made?" asked the other.CREMATION. According to the " British Medical' Journal," the total number of cremations in Great Britain during the year 1905 was, 600, as against 566 in 1904 and 475 in 1903. Whereas, however, in 1904 there were only nine crematories at work, in 1905 there were twelve. The cremations were distributed among these as follows:— Golder's Green, Hampstead, 252; Woking, 95; Manchester, 100; Liverpool, 35; Glasgow, 35; Hull (Municipal), 16; Darlington, 4; Leicester (Corporation), 16; Ilford (City of London); 9; Bradford (Corporation), 1. The total number of cremations carried out at Woking from the date of its opening twenty years ago, to the end of 1905, is 2748;.th05e performed a.", Golder's Green number 635. CLUB E~TIQUETTE. A man sat in his club dining-room at luncheon when a bill collector, having somehow eluded the attendants in the hall, walked up to him and laid on the table his overdue account. The clubman glared at the account, his fork suspended in the air. Then solemnly and indignantly he handed the paper back to the collector. ." How dare you," he said, " infringe upon the rules of my club in this manner? Don't you know a man's club is like his home? Don't you know I can have you forcibly ejected for coming in here without a card of membership or an introduction? The rules of this club require that, if you have business with a member, you wait in the hall while j an attendant brings in your name. I Now, I demand tlfat you go out into . the hall immediately, taking this bill with you, and that you send in your card to me in the proper way." The collector, red in the face but hopeful on the whole, complied. He retired to the hall and sent in his card with all formality. The clubman, eating steadily, received the card on a silver salver. He studied it gravely. Then he said to the waiter: " Not in."

ROMANCE IN HIGH LIFE. Florence Lady Hastings has had a chequered and most romantic career. She was Lady Florence Paget, a radiantly beautiful girl, known by the name of the "Pocket Venus," and in 1864 married the late and last Marquis of Hastings. Most of us have hoard her story. She was first engaged to Mr Henry Qhapliii, the wed-ding-day had been fixed, when one fine morning she drove out alone, went into a well-known shop, came out by another entrance, met Lord Hastings, and went off with him to be married. But the hand of fate w-as not long stayed. Both her husband and her discarded lover were ardent sportsmen, and it was Mr Chaplin's Derby triumph with Hermit that proved the ruin of Lord Hastings. Hermit ,was a rank outsider who started for the Derby at- 66 to 1 against. Mr Chaplin backed'him ;Lord Hastings bet against him. Hermit win; Mr Chaplin raked in £141,000, and the Marquis was ruined. That was in 1867. Lady Hastings married Sir George Chetwynd in 1870, and they have three children, one son and two daughters, the elder of whom is now Lady Anglesey. And this affords the somewhat uncommon case of a mother and daughter who are both marchionesses at the same time, a similar instance being supplied by Lady Lansdowne and her daughter, Lady Waterford. Romantic marriages seem to ru.n in this family, ac not many years ago Mr George Chetwynd made a runaway love match with Miss Secor, a young and pretty- American. Sir George Chetwynd is one of our most popular sporting baronets, rides well to hounds, is a famous dincsr-ou.fe, and although now ftfty^aiK r«tains many of the attributes of youth. A MAORI ROMANCE.

A romantic termination to the ceremonies attendant on the unveiling of the monument erected to the memory of the late chief Te Koepa, at Whakarewarewft (says the "New Zealand Herald "), took place when the Maoris who had assembled to take part in the ceremonies commenced to make preparations for their departure. It appears that'when the late shwf died, a niece of the> Qhief Papaurl, of Taupo, had been fixed upon as a wife for Kecpa, son of tlie late chief. Keepa, however, had not claimed her so far, and had not, up to the hour of the departure of the visitors from Taupo, given indication that he intended to do so. Just as everything was in readiness for the ppojjle to make a move homf>war-d!ij," liowever, Keepa camq forward and claimed Ani Patent, to the surprise of everybody, and insisted on her taking up -her abode with him at Whakarewavmva. Her people we're, t« part with her, but, after tioiigratulations had been exchanged, the happy couple were left rejoicing.