ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9184, 13 October 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

ITEMS OF SOCIAL NEWS.

[from the society papers.] Whether brewers swindle publicans orr not, they make huge profits. The Guinness Company divided 15 per cent, on the year's working, the net profit after makingallowance for bad debts being £790,930. In addition to the dividend, £49,000 was carried forward, £30,000 transferred to thedopreciation fund, and £150,000 to the reserve fund. If Mr. Morton Frewen is right when he contends that instead of nationalising the land, which barely pays '2 per cent., wo should nationalise the quasi-monopolies which pay 10 to 15 per cent., we certainly should begin with Guinness.

Though there may be "nothing like leather," most people, says the Newcastle Chronicle, will be of opinion that Mr. Pritchard Morgan has devised a binding for a book better than the choicest morocco or the. stoutest Cordova. The Princess of Wales has accepted the dedication of "A History and Geography of Wales for the Young," by an owner of Welsh land, about; to be issued ; and Mr. Pritchard Morgan is binding a copy for presentation to Her Royal Highness in Welsh gold from hi? mines near Dolgelly.

The Prince of Wales is at Homburg; so is that aristocratic Australian squatter, Sir Samuel Wilson, whose headquarters are at the " Russicherhof." Besides Mr. Mackenzie of Kintail, Sir Samuel, according to " Atlas," in the World, is the principal "entertainer of guests." His parties, we are told, are frequent and large, and as an Irish judge observed of them, " there mighb be an honourable or two at the lower end of the table, but those around himself would be earls."

The story in circulation about Princess Christian becoming a Roman Catholic is so ridiculously untrue, ib seems hardly worth noticing ; yet, remarks a writer in the World, such rumours go abroad, and are largerly credited, and ultimately accepted as facts. The Princess is one of the strongest of Protestants, a devoted adherent of the National Church, and one of its most earnest and tried friends. Not one of the royal family is more interested in all tho work appertaining to the Church, and she is practical and zealous in her assistance. In the East End of London she is always known as "our Princess,' , and her frequent public visits there on occasions of ceremonial, when she goes to open bazaars or inaugurate any work in which she cakes an interest, have made her appearance familiar to the poorer classes in Whitechapel and Bethnal Green. But where she is best known and beloved is at the London Hospital, where she goes regularly when in England to visit the wards and read to the patients; and her kind smile and gentle voice have soothed many a sufferer, independently of the more practical help with which she follows up the fortunes of thoss who on leaving the hospital need assistance.

The Freeman's Journal London correspondent, referring to the above contradiction, says:—"ltisan undoubted fact thata change of religion in the case of Her Royal Highness was imminent m> *-o a feu , days ago, but it is said that the oen has stepped in to dissuade her daug t from the conversion, and those who proles.-, to know say that for the moment, at all events, Her Majesty has succeeded."

The Salisbury justices the other day disposed of a curious case, which reminds one of the story of a sailor who committed an assault upon a Jew, and who, on the latter remonstrating that the provocation was eighteen hundred years old, remarked that it didn't matter, as he had only just heard of it. The defendant in the Salisbury case pleaded as an excuse for punching the head of tho complainant that the latter had thrashed him when he was a boy thirty-five years ago. • As the magistrates merely bound the defendant over in his own recognisances to keep the peace for six months, they evidently thought he had some justification for nursing his revenge so long. If all boys who get the worst of pugilistic encounters at school were to carry the memory of the event up to their maturer years, and to decide to " have it out" with their assailants on happening to meet with them after the lapse of years, the number of our magistrates would have to be largely increased. Time must hang rather heavily upon the hands of those who can afford to preserve the memory of their wrongs for thirty-five years. The vast majority of men, we trust, find life too short to make its worth their while to trouble themselves about avenging the indignities to which they had to submit in their boyhood.

Carlyle's house, soys a London correspondent, has at last found a tenant, and tho windows from which the philosophor looked forth upon a world which he did not regard too hopefully fire this summer gay with scarlet geraniums. All through the winter and spring the home of the Chelsea sage looked the picture of desolation ; indeed, ib would then have been difficult to imagine a more dreary or neglected-lookiug dwelling. But all that is changed to-day, and the place has suddenly become positively cheerful. It is devoutly to be hoped that the external aspect of Carlyle's house will nob be altered.

A story is told of Mr. Justice Hannen, who is to preside over the Parnell Commission. He is said to be so correct and conscientious that he has scarcely ever made a mistake ; but he did once. A demure, sombre - dressed juryman, in melancholy tones, claimed exemption from serving, and his lordship asked in kind and sympathetic tones, "on what ground?" "My lord," said the applicant, "I am deeply interested in a funeral which takes place to-day,and am mostanxious to follow." "Certainly, sir, your plea i.s a just one." The man departed, and a moment after Mr. Justice Hannen learnt) that he was—the undertaker] •-*