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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 13 June 1907, Page 3

A young man named Bernell, of Motueka, was taken to the Hospital today from the ketch Transit, seriously ill. At the institution, it was found that he was suffering from enteric fever, and more than one similar case has recently been treated. In the course of a discussion at a '„ mid-Sussex urban council meeting the chairman remarked : "We have, the ' greatest difficulty in obtaining a quo- ' rum." A new working-man councillor thereupon said "Well, then I think it's ; about time we bought one of those j things for ourselves.' ' William Stanton, "specialist," was arrested at Heathcote on Saturday evening by Detective Bishop and Act-ing-Detective Kennedy, on the following charge : — ' 'That in the mocjUi of April, 1907,- at Christchurch, he was ' guilty of the crime of manslaughter in that while administering medical treatment to one John Joseph Greaney he did fail to have and. to use reasonable i knowledge, skill, and care in such ; treatment and did thereby cause the death of the said John Joseph Grean- . ey." Soon after his arrival at the police station the accused was released oh bail, consisting of two sureties of fc £100 each and his own recognisance jof £100. The charge was laid as the result of the verdict given by the 1 Coroner's jury at an inquest held in April last, touching the death of John Joseph Greaney, a youth of 18 years. • The verdict was as follows : — 'That deceased's death was due to diphtheria, . accelerated by the treatment adopted by Mr Stanton." The New York correspondent of the ' "Guardian." a religious paper, under < date March 25tb, announces that the ' American Bible Society the British and Foreign Bible Society, and the National Bible Society of Scotland have formed themselves into a trust with the intention of stifling 'competition in Bi- • bles, and raising their prices to the ?üblic and to local Bible Societies. Mr : „ M. Hutchinson, of Melbourne, who deals largely in Bibles, explains that | some years ago the Bible-publishing business was mainly in the hands of Blackie and Sons, Edinburgh, the Oxford Press, and Messrs Eyre and Spottiswood, of London, besides certain American publishers ; but these things have changed, and more recently other firms have gone largely intoj Bible production, with the consequence that the prices of Bibles have been reduced to very low figures, just as the prices of < secular books havo been reduced. Bibles J have been sold in Melbourne by drap- r cms -as cheap lines, as people in the same < trade have sold low-priced editions of . Dickens's and Lytton's works. The ' tendency of the alleged combine would be, of course, to raise prices. Mr F. G. Barley, of Melbourne, agent for the British and Foreign Bible Society, > states that he has heard of the formation of the trust, but he has not been aware of details. Mr Fox, of the Sun- . day School Union, Melbourne, mentions ' that about two months ago the British ' and Foreign Bible Society informed him that the retail price of "Penny - Testaments" would in future have to be twopence in the colonies, and Mr Hutchinson has received the same intimation from the National Bible Society of Scotland, of whicu he is agent. Mr Fox adds that in raising the price : of the "Penny Testaments ' to twopence the British and Foreign Bible ■ i Society informed him that it did not : pay to produce it for sale at a penny. A deficiency had regularly to be made up out of subscriptions to the Society, and it was resolved to raise the price merely to make the work pay for itself. The increase was not apparently a trust manoeuvre to make undue profits. From Russia come details of revolting tortures inflicted on prisoners at Riga and other places, which recalls the barbarities of the middle ages. The facts came out at a meeting of the Duma, in a report by M. Pergament, who described the various outrages inflicted by the police and the rjrison ad^. mini6trators at Riga and other Baltic 1 towns. M. Makaroff (Deputy Minister of the Interior) admitted the touth of most of the statements made in M. Pergament's report, as far as they had reference to the secret police. The report constitutes a horrible, catalogue of tortures inflicted on political prisoners and suspects with the object of extracting confessions.,. Some of the descriptions of the tortures employed are ; ! unprintable. The report alleges that finger and toe nails and hair were torn ' ( out, and the prisoers were flailed with i idiarubber sticks until the flesh was I hanging in s'kips. Salt was then ■ rubbed in. One young man, who was i shot after being tortured, had one leg > almost cut offj and. his body covered ■ with wounds. ' Another man was tied > to a bench, a plank was laid across > his bodyi and then two policemen see- • sawed oh it until the victims back I broke. The police jumped on the 1 body of a third lad until his chest- - bones were smashed in, and his lnter- - nal organs were in such a state that » he could swallow pnly -water until he i-l died. After being tortured the Inftims eS wretches were generally shot near V the Riga Central Prison. Old and s - young were treated alike. A child of i eighti for instance, was brutally floggP- e'd'to'make him tell where his father !t. was. When the speeches on 'the repeat I are ended an interpellation will be adp dressed to the Government askine what ° measures had been taken to stop the 'f tortures and to punish the guilty. d A school of languages for parrots it has been founded in Paris, and M. La- • > lemant,i (the doctor, offers to' teach »1 birds in English, French, German, and Italian, ' i ■ ; T ' -'