WEEKLY WHISPERS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLIII, Issue XLIII, 18 September 1909, Page 2

WEEKLY WHISPERS.

J/ lien's a hole in a' your coats, I rede ye tent it i - \ A chiefs among yc taiin' notes, ' Aid, faith, he'Uprmt it. — Burns. An unusual aplication in the Probate Jurisdiction of the Supreme Court at Melbourne was made the other day when a lawyer applied for probate "in solemn form" to the will of Alexander Mann, formerly of Richmond. The circumstances were peculiar. The will was executed Bn June, 1883, and by it testator left to "My dear wife, Johanna Mann," all the property, consisting of two houses in Richmond and some personal property, the whole valued at £650. He also appointed his widow his sole executrix. At the time tlie will was executed he showed it to his wife, and she read it and placed tit in a deed-box in the house, where it remained until after the testator's death on February 16th, 190, In July, 1900, Mrs Mann took the will out that she might draw some money out of the Savings Bank. Having done so, she returned the will to the deed-box. Her belief Was firm that the document was on "white paper. It remained in the deedbox until 1906, when Mrs Mann again took lit out, and, to her astonishment, found it was on blue paper. She was so surprised that she declined to believe that it was the same document, tbou»h the terms were exactly the same as tEose of the .will which she read at the time of its execution ..in 1883,. and again in 1900. Her solicitors and Wit' nesses, however, were confident that it was her husband's. will, but Mrs Mann was so doubtful and conscientiously sera, pulous that she declined to act upon it without an order "in solemn form' by the Judge of the Supreme Court. The judge granted leave to make application to a judge in Chambers.

Optimism and dress may not appear to have much connection, yet an Australian politician in a recent lecture on optimism gave his views on ladies' fashions of the day. The pessimist, he said, saw moral degeneracy in the styles now affected by ladies. The gloomy in. dividual said that the fashions were far less modest than they used to, and he compared the closely-fitting clothes worn by ladies with the styles of 60 years ago. As ail optimist, ho regarded the crinoline of the olden days as a good thing to be rid of. The dresses of the present were on more natural lines, and should not shock the admirers of the old school. The new styles were a graceful reversion to the unsophisticated fashion of antiquity.

In a country so young as Australia there is something pathetic in the fact that a once-flotlrishing and important town should now have almost ceased to exist. This was a leading point brought out in a paper read at a meeting of the Australian Historical Association, on the "History of Hartley" (N.S.W.) The contribution was written by the late Mr W. D. O'Sullivan, ex-Minister of Works, shortly before his death, and the story of the rise and fall of the town was full of interesting facts. Hartley, .it was shown, was founded as a convict camp in 1814, and almost contemporaneously John Grant, "the father of Hartley," appeared in the district as the first free settler. It was in 1834, that the town passd into police control, and very soon* after the Government established there the post office opened in Australia. From that time Hartley made rapid progress, and grew into a prosperous business centre, with a papulation of 1000 souls. It enjoyed the hey-day of its existence when the gTeat traffic to "the EJdorados on the Turon and at Wattle Flat streamed through its busy main thoroughfare, and halted at its many hostelries. But its death-knell was sounded when the iron horse crossed the Blue Mountains, end diverted the traffic. Hartley now is a scene of decay and desolation, and the home of a mere hand, ful of residents. "Most of the evidences of the early settlement," wrote Mr O'Sullivan, "have been obliterated as completely as if swept away by a tornado." Yetlthe history of Hartley covers onlp 95 years.

That honesty is a question of location is the expressed opinion on oath. Ol a witness from Central Queensland, who attended the Sydney Quarter Sessions recently. He was telling from the wit-ness-box a story of a stay in Sydney of a stranger within the city gates, of the meeting with a strange man, who told of a squatter father then leisuring at the Hotel Australia, and finally of the parting with £6 10s of witness' money to the engaging stranger, who found himself suddenly called upon to pay a bill, and who, in furtherance of that praiseworthy purpose, went in one door of a building and exit-ted from the door in the other street, leaving the Queenslander to a long and weary wait. The attorney for ths accused showed much indignation at the Crown's insinuation that the procedure yas larceny by trick, .ahd he asked the prosecutor to admit candidly that the money was lent. The prosecutor so firmly intimated his unwillingness to look upon the deal as a f riendly^ loan as to tempt the legal representative for the prisoner to 'ask facetiously if, he., had' ever in his eventful career lent' any money to anybody. "I have," replied the witness, "and, what is better, I always got it back." The solicitor seemed to be thrown somewhat out of his stride at what he considered a thing unprecedented in the borrowing world, and said, "Well, you are lucky; my experience is that when I lend money I can say good-bye to it." "Strange friends you must have !" quietly remarked - the Crown Prosecutor; but it remained for the man from Central Queensland to say on oath where honesty lived. _ "The money I lend is to' the people in the bush. The bush is different from . the cities." .--■-'

The attentive listener at our Police Courts will not find it difficult to detect some of the amazing "bulls" that are frequently made. At one Court, which is the very essence' of despatch, and where things are done with rapidity, a voluble witness invariably causes trouble, and officials get very much twisted sometimes in their efforts fo stop the flow of eloquence. Not long ago such a witness was worrying the magistrate and everyone else, when that gentleman commanded him to answer the question, adding, "But don't talk." Five_ minutes later the genial sergeant,, who had smiled at the magistrate's remark, had oc-, casion to check the same witness. 'Answer this question, yes or no," he said sternly, "but don't Eay anything." It is questionable, however, if'these two examples of English as she is spoken were not eclipsed by the effort of a Celestial, who blandly informed the Court that' he had "disponed" an appointment. "You mean 'postponed' ? " said the. solicitor. "No,' replied the Chinese, "I crossed it right off."

"How many of these brilliant young fellows who win University distinctions ar* evenhseardfof afterwards^" demanded Mr G. H. Reid, the well-known Australian politician and lawyer, ih a recent lecture.on "The Battle of Life." .firfo": ceeding to answer his own <"uesti6h,7he said that many of them by intense study broke down the physical bases of their, minds before they were properly' niatured. This was why men like. Sir .Henry Parkes— who left school at*- B—^jime out like giants in the battle of life. "When I left school I was 13," said Mr Reid, becoming reminiscent, "and I don't think I knew much.. (Laughter.) I learned more in the- first 12 months I was in an office than ever before; and if I . had "had the luck to have a rich" father and had gone to Sydney University, I might have worked hard, won a scholarship, and rested on my laurels ever 6ince." Of the two evils in childhood, underwork of the brain, he held, was infinitely safer than overwork But he was not afraid that the young Australian was in danger of j overworking himself. (Laughter.) .

MOFUSSILITE.