HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1151, 23 March 1894, Page 12

HERE AND THERE.

CLIPPINGS, CONDENSATIONS, AND COMMENTS.

Sir Walter Duller had not been long back in the Colony before he fell a victim to the irrepressible " interviewer." Sir Walter has a higher opinion of the Imperial Institute than most people : •' I look upon the Institute properly managed," said Sir Walter, '"as a most important factor in the direction of Imperial Federation, and I think any colony adequately represented there must derive advantage in many respects. It is a cheap -way of advertising a colony which Villi be prepared to spend a reasonable amount to equip a gallery and keep it going. As it is, the colony frets the services of well-known men, who {rive their time and services to the Institute. All that is required is a small ainnnal expenditure of from .£l5O to £2OO a year. That is not very much, for within my own experience I have known several •colonial companies who have spent £IOOO in a single day in advertising. The New Zealand section, especially tho frozen meat kiosk, illustrating that important industry, is the best and undoubtedly the cheapest advertisement the Colony has had in London for many years, past. I have great faith in the future of tho Imperial Institute. In the course of the interview, Sir Walter pays a high tribute to the esteem in which New Zealand is now held in the Old Country:— *' The Colony." said Sir Walter, " never -stood higher in the public estimation than •at the present moment, a position due to •the administration of Sir Harry Atkinson a administration and the present Government in insisting thero shall be no borrowing. I have always taken pride in describing New Zealand as the ! premier ' colony, and that is now accepted, and the term adopted. I think, too, that the good opinion which prevails in regard to New Zealand is, in a ereat measure, due to the present AgentGeneral, who has proved himself an admirable person for the post-"

Sir John Hall, like Sir George Grey, is -off to London. Curious if these two veteran political opponents meet on the same platform at Home. Quite possible, if either gentleman be taken up by the Woman's Suffrage supporters. Talking about long words, the Auckland Observer attacks the custom of setting " jaw-br«akers " in the dictation papers of the " examined " school teachers. Here are specimens from the papers for 1594 : " Icthyosaurus," "metempsychosis," "caoutchouc," " fricassee " and " paleontology." From Who's Who in 1894, we extract the following interesting particulars as to the oldest and youngest of Home celebrities: — The oldest Cabinet Minister is (now, alas, was _ —EP..M.) Mr Gladstone, aged 84; the youngest is Mr Asquith, aged 42. The oldest dukois the Duko of Northumberland, agedS3; the voungest, the Duke of Leinster, aged six. The" oldest marquess is the Marquess of Northampton, aged 75; the youngest, the Marquess Camden, aged 21. Tho oldest carl is Earl Grey, aged 91 ; the youngest is the Earl of Leitrim, aged 14. The oldest member of the House of Commons is Mr Villiers, aged 92; tho youngest, Mr William Shepherd Allen, aged 23. The oldest judge in England is Lord Esher, Master of the Kolls, aged 77 ; the youngest, Sir John Gorell Barnes, aged 45. The oldest prelate of the Church of England is the Bight Rev Richard Durnford, D.D., Lord Bishop of Chichester (who is the oldest peer of the realm, aged 91: the youngest, the Right Rev. Alfred George Edwards, D.D., Lord Bishop of St. Asaph, aged 45.

The Pall having asked its readers to send in specimens of the most ungrammatical lines ever written, a correspondent writes as follows -. — With regard to ungrammatical lines, the following were not written, but said by a little girl in answer to a gentleman who -told her that her mother was calling her : •• Her ain't a-calling we. Us don't belong to she." Which " takes the cake," as far as our experience goes. The rough Western men evidently won't stand what they call " dude politicians." The famous Colonel Cody, better known - as " Buffalo Bill," had determined to stand for Governor of Nebraska, but, alas ! he is held by many to have become a " dude." The Nebraskan Bulletin says : The fact of Buffalo Bill having been known to wear patent leather shoes and chrysanthemums in Chicago last autumn. has hurt him with Rattlesnake Pete and other influential Platte River men who visited the World's Fair. Talk about Mark Twain's famous " Jumpin" Frog," which that amusing scamp Jim Smiley averred with so much earnestness and evident sincerity to be the "most gifted animal" of his sort in all" Calarcras county ;" he is merely a circumstance in the way of intelligence as compared with a frog, whose wonderful fight with a snake one W. 'AMvers, of Osboneville, recounts in an American paper. ' ' It was a bull-frog. A black snake looking ■ for his dinner and caught the frog by the hind leg and attempted to swallow it ihe froir seized hold of a bamboo briar with its mouth and held on like grim death, while the snake tugsred at its extremities. Jne snake wrapped its tail around a convenient 'shrub to get more purchase, and leaned back to its work with a will, but it was no good. The frog held on to the bamboo briar, and as the snake could not pull him loose he finally gave it up as a bad job, and retired from the contest. The Osbomeville frog should have lived in Smiley*s day. The redoubtable Jim would have trained him as a champion " strong man!"

The English Musical Times recently issued an " extra" dealing entirely with the life and works of Handel, the composer of the oratorio " The Messiah." He was an intensely religious man. Referring to his feelings when he penned the famous " Hallelujah Chorus," he once remarked, *' 1 did think I could see all Heaven before me and the great God Himself." The Musical Times " extra " is condensed by the Review of Review*, and we extract a story entitled " Handel and the Librettist " : One of the legacies in Handel's will is that of £2OO to Dr Morell, of Turnham Green, the author of several of the libretti set by Handel. One day Dr Morell ventured to tell the composer that the music of a certain air did not exactly render the sense of the words, whereupon Handel flew into a passion, and cried out with the anger of insulted pride: " Vat, you teach me music ! De music, sir, ish good'music. It is your vords ish bad. Hear de passage again" (repeating vehemently on the harpsichord). "Dere; go you. make vords to dat music." Handel, we are further told, was irascible, but not vindictive — which, perhaps, accounts for the £2OO legacy.

The editor of the Monthly Record (Auckland Y.M.C.A. periodical) deals with the suicide mania in its last issue, and asserts it is an ominous sign of the times. The Record says:— Much of mystery hangs over the history of suicides, but it is obvious to the writer that one of the causes contributing most largely to such a deplorable result is a lack •of faith in God. " Some earthly hopo has~ vanished ; some earthly treasure has disappeared, and the mind has brooded so long on the sense of loss that it only too easily becomes a prey to the depression that leads to despair. The prevalence of such mental depression, as is evidenced by the number of suicides, is a loud call to us as Christians to proclaim vigorously the gospel of love." Dyspepsia, brought on by too much meat food and long-standing (tannic acid-de-veloping) tea has much to do with the suicide mania, so the Mail editor thinks.

Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, the eminent English sanitation authority, gives the readers of Longman's Magazine some hints as to the best training for athletes. He has four great specifics —" Abstinence from hurtful things (but what are hurtful things? —Ed. N.Z. Mail), regular and good habits, calmness of temper, and laudable ambition." The athlete must be a strict teetotaller, must not smoke, and must not gamble. " Gambling," says the worthy doctor, "is fatal to body and mind." As regards "tucker" and "exercise," he says:— Oatmeal porridge and eggs with toast make a good breakfast; a inutton-chop or a beef-steak, with a light quantity of vegetables and some fruit, make an efficient dinner; and, avoiding tea, or exchanging that for a cup of milk, a dish of whole wheatmeal porridge for supper suffices. These, in my experience, form as good a diet-role as can be devised for men in active athletic work. Three or four meals a day, four or three hours apart; seven hours' sleep ; " early to bed and early to rise " are among the other things commended.

The density of New York's population, crammed together in huge "tenement" houses, is the subject of some interestingremarks by a writer in the North Am erichn Review : Three-fourths of New York population live in tenements and one-half in overcrowded tenements. Six down-town wards form •' the most crowded spot on earth,', the average for the whole district being 252,834 to the square mile. The " tenth ward" has 357*888 to the square mile, affording less than a square yard to each person. If all these people were arrayed in marching order on a parade ground equal in area to the space they live in, their ranks would lack but little of being as tightly closed as those of an army in condition for battle. Nineteen languages and dialects arc among the accomplishments of a furniture firm's collector who does busir-eso wholly in these wards, and sometimes he is forced to call for an interpreter. New York, confronted in its tenements with the gravest danger of the sort that ever perilled a community, has taken no steps to eradicate it. . . Every great centre of population in" effete and backward Europe" hae done more. Ugly story concerning the Kanahooka disaster, which recently took place in the Gulf of Carpentaria, Says the Bulletin : A Kanahooka survivor says the Plimsollmark was buried on the cruise when the vessel foundered. The officers deny it —of course. [Since the above was clipped from the Bulletin, the enquiry has been held, and overloading was proved.—Ed. N.Z. Mail.] An Anak amongst the ranks of " Tommy Atkins." The tallest man in the active strength of the British Army is said to be Bombardier Henry Wheeler, B Battery of the Royal Horse Artillery, stationed at i Rawal Pindi, Bengal. Glasgow Weekly ■ Herald gives the following particulars : A native of Reading, this sort of Anak stands 6ft 7£in. He measures over 41 round the chest, and weighs lost 81b- He is 24 years of age. At IS he made an attempt to join the Life Guards, but was rejected on account of being too bulky for his was, besides, feared that eventually no horse would be fit to carry him. Then Wheeler entered the Royal Artillery. He comes of a family of grenadiers of a type that would have delighted the heart of Frederick the Great. His father and mother aro about 6ft, and his brothers and sisters that stature. Lately there was a height contest among the troops stationed in India. Wheeler won easily; the second bein? a man of the Ist Hampshire Regiment of 6ft siin, and the third a gunner of the Mountain Battery, R.A., an inch less in stature than the Infantryman,

Like Patteson and Selwyn, the new Bishop of Melanesia is a first-class athlete, being an exceptionally clever cricketer and swimmer. An English cricket journal, referring to the new Bishop, snya : Cricketers will be glad to hear of the elfcvation of the Rev. Cecil Wilson to the Bishopric of Melanesia at the early ago of 33. Though unable to play for the Cambridge eleven in ISS3, Wilson has performed some' notable feats, of which may be instanced his scores of 57 and 50 against the Australians for Kent in ISS2. One of his curates at Bournemouth is the Rev. Hugh Le Fleming, the late president of tht» Cambridge Athletic Club. Wilson's play ul 18S2 was so consistent that, with a highest ■ score of 02 not out. lie had the fine average of 33 for the county. The best innings he over played for Kent was his 127 against Yorkshire in the Canterbury Week of ISSG. when he was batting for four hours and aquarter against Bates, Emmett and Peate. His subsequent appearances for the county were only intermittent, and after 1890 ho dropped out of first-class cricket. Touching instance of maternal love and devotion recorded recently by Auckland Star : At Whanjraroa last week, Mrs F. W. Sanderson's little son Eric, while playing on the Totara Wharf, by some mischance tumbled into the water and was in imminent danger of being drowned. He was carried away by the tide and had sunk once, when his agonised mother, who could not swim, courageously plunged ints the water, and by some miracle succeeded in grasping her boy. She got him to the piles and there clum?, untfThcr cries attracted the attention " of Miss Hagger, who rendered assistance. Both were soon rescued in a boat, and were found to be none the worse for their immersion. How Mrs Sanderson was enabled to get her child to the wharf is still a profound mystery. Brave woman! Surely this is a case for the Humane Society's medal.

Considering the vast amount of powder and ball expended during the recent naval " fights " at Rio de Janeiro, the loss of life was exceedingly small. That capital American comic paper, Pucfc.jhits this truth off very happily as follows : " Can I change my occupation under this insurance policy':" asks a young man at one of the chief assurance offices. " What do you wish to be ?" " A football player." " No," is the prompt reply. " Can I become a Brazilian insurgent:-" "Yes," says the clerk, and shuts down the window. There may be a lot of humbug in physiognomy, but on the contrary, some people believe firmly in it. Miss Humphreys (the clever "Madge" of Truth) gives the following "hints as to reading charac" ter " -. — How many upright lines have you between your eyes ? If two, you arc a lover of justice : if three or four, you are benevolent and wise; if one only, you are strict in small matters. Is the bridge of your nose thin ? „ Then you arc quick to part with your money. If it is thick you are greedy and avaricious. However, you may have a thick bridge to your uose, and yet, if your lower lip be full and ruddy, be only avaricious in order to have plenty to give away .to/those you love. Does your upper lip rise and show your teeth ? Tfrstn you are erratic and. easily 'tired. If you know anybody • whose eyebrows are shaggy and stick out in different directions, you may conclude that that person has a bad temper. This is all very well, but to study the above peculiarities of physiognomy, the observer would have to stare most abominably at the person inspected, and pei-mission to " diagnose " the face is not always asked by the " face reader."

Mr William Leys, editor of the Auckland Star, is the new chairman of the re-organ-ised Auckland Liberal Association. In accepting such a position, Mr Leys has made a grave mistake. A journalist sacrifices his independence of critical attitude when he accepts the chairmanship of a political association. Either the Star leaders or the association must suffer. Surely there is nothing new under the sun. We read in Temple Bar that Theophraste Renaudot, a seventeenth century social reformer, " projected a Labour Bureau to relieve Paris from the odium of being a veritable criminal factory" (which was not exactly the reason for the New Zealand Bureau). Temple Bar says : The Bureau d'Adresse which he established at the Sign of the Cock, Rue de la Calandre, was a colossal institution, one which in many respects has to this day never had a rival, "it was at once an office for the relief of the poor, a labour bureau, a pawn- » broker's shop, and exchange, a public auction, and a free dispensary. Its organisation, although necessarily somewhat complex, was in its way perfect. Each department had its own special staff of officials, while the whole institution was under the personal direction of Renaudot. On him rested all responsibility, and in his hands was all power. And well he used it. If, as his enemies declare, he was a despot, he must at least have been a kindly one ; for those with whom, and for whom, he worked all regarded him as a personal friend. . . . There is an oddly modern ring about Renaudot's schemes* The Charity Organisation Society itself is not more bitterly opposed to indiscriminate almsgiving than was this seventeenth century reformer. Indeed, the relief system he established was worked on exactly the same lines as that which was tried last winter in connection with the Polytechnic in London.