NEWS AND NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLI, Issue 21, 27 January 1906, Page 1

NEWS AND NOTES.

While about a dozen believers ia ifch'elnical compounds- Have . struggled for tha paslfc twelve months: Totiira to prove that their com-: osition will eiudicat.' tho Canadian' thistle. Mr Thomas Hedle>V 'whoso fnrin is on tho Kakanui flat, hast compassed the destruction - of i'a large area of the thistle ,by a'very. simple means. When- the .thistle had ' ripened and the stalks v wer« hollow, he put a back-delivery : over them. The hollow stalks filled "with .water, and' the .water, following down the- trend of the roots>iuto the ground, rotted the' plants' out. At all events Mr Hedley.has. v-now a splendid crop of turnip's r on '.i the land that previously wasa'inass'ol* ' Canadian thistles, and V there -.^are' now no thistles. tWe-' miehtioooU' Seyeml years ago (says the. "North" Ot)jgo T.mes "\ that Mr Crawfool -Anderson; -of the Clutha, had accomplished .the same dosirV-leV end • by tin* sume. method! " r - It Is a'rtUn-.expensiv-j nieiiiis of overcoming Xa ferave menace to -the farming \ comniunity, tind although, the cuttipK may not be followed by -the £6069-'' sary rainfalls to make it complete, yet it is worth trying, even four ' orfiyetin.es. It costs very little and that is giaatly'iri its;{avbur. One of the strangest of Father Gapon's revelations „in his book,, '; The Story of, My Lifo,"- recontly published relates to the methods ) adopted by the secret police of organising Labour movements, . 'and evengreat strikes, with the' object, of finding out .who, were the 'natural I leaders of the men, and then "- arj.resfting them. Zubatoff, "chief pf the political section of the- DopaFt,ment of Police, was the chiof, instigator -of this clever scheme, but one of his pre-arranged strikes in I Odessa gart, out of bounds, the city ' authorities prove dhis implication in it, and he was deprived "of bis post and he was exiled. Father Gapon went to see Zubatoff at the Dept.r j.cnt of Police " \\'«s | ns»ed through a number of largo rooms, all of them, fillodt with little black boxes, which, as I learned afterwards, contained the history and photographs of political suspects in various parts of the Empire. Tlie collection is known in Russia as " Tho Book of Fate.'-'. . The watohiriaikers nnid jewellers m Dunedin have arrived nt a : sort" iof deadlock. Recently 26 of thein applied to the City Council to have Saturday recommended as a halfholidays. Later, five of the 26 pe- . titioncrs withdrew their names, and I a counter /petition asking for ; a : Wednesday ha«-(holiday was put in. i signed by twenty-one persons. Thisgives twortty-one signatures to each . petition, and in this condition ' points were rafcsted' as to ihe qualiflcations of certain signatories. Tha , matter 'was 'referred to the 'General Committee of rthe -City Council for. ' report, al recommendation being made that the petitioners conduct j another canvass of the trade and t s tf iv e to arrive at some settlement j There things stabd at:pre!ssnit7^ " ' ," Pr OEramme" stands absolutely, alone in English i n possessing tho redundant y 'me.'i A few yeeis ago , the Conservative ."Standard" tonished Londoners by dropping the final letters and making the word conform to suoh rotated forms as ; 4?- asra . m L ??. w the Conservative l^'S^J has fallen int ° toe. And the Rfldical "Westminster "Garotte". says: "Frankly, we think the innovation detestable I,'i ' „ A half -length portrait of «u> German Empress occupiod a prominent place in a Roman Catholic boys'school in Eastern Prussia. Becentta tho Chaplain happened ,to look at tho picture closely, and was horrified to find that her Majesty was decolletee.. A local house patatetf provided a, -chaste covering- 0 f lace ft r p Hf\ M^sty's neck, the picture was permitted to ho rehung i n the schoolroom. This incident (says the "Tatlor") is. now forming the subject of an ihvesftieati)on by the Minister of -Education who considers it a gross insult to the Empress to assume that - any picture of her could be immoitil. j Flelch'erism and vegetarianism— . tho one meaning the chewini? of meat, and tho other the eschewing . 01 , it— havo dona much to «ause tho butcher to grumble, says the Loni 0 , n _* D . aily Ex Pre3S." but tho latest cult of the. well-to-do, whose digestion has been impaired by too many dinners, is quite enoughto ' "drive the worthy purveyor of meat frantic with rage. Nuts now form I« Z s A a P le diet of many people, who find that tho French chef ia supori flu P^s- , Even the festive. vegetaJHev j cutlet is considered inadequate for • tho purposes of the advanced! diner. - | _ Lord ChSairtes Beresford," says a journal, 'has for some time beon a i J e setanan, and now Ladytßercs-, ; ford has adopted tho same form of . diet, and lives principally on nuts. The Earl of Buchan and Mr Neville Lytton are also - amongst . - re-' cent recruits." Nuts served Hot and cold constitute the principal course . at many a lordly mansion nowadays. ."If tho unemployed only £"? w * s*" l ,. 0 - ''nuttyiV convert, they could live luxuriously on two • •or three pence a day on the - finest food an the world, ana- it could be . vane* so much that "there . .would oe.no monotony of Atahcs.'-A v '".. The Tsaritza of Russia itis reported, recently commissioned' a 'philanthropist to ascertain what arrangements m tho several villages for the relief- of the poor. Ho travelled - from village "' to village, and at Mir was informed thatr" there were twenty-three paupers, some of them cripples. "How do you pro--™e for them!" asked the commissioner. ?.'. ve , r y wel1 ' indeed," he waa assured, and it costs us nothing."' "How do you do it?" he demanded. "What ia ;your system!" "Why," answered the btarosta, " we send them out tb beg in ' other villages. They are all out now!"