ITEMS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume X, Issue 4281, 1 December 1888, Page 4

ITEMS.

With refereecs to the statement that . Mr Rider Haggard's story "Mr Meeson'a , "Will," Is largely borrowed from Charles Anbert, a French noveliaf, I hare it on the best authority thit Mr Haggard in- i dignantly repudiates any such suggestion. Mr Haggard is prepared, I understand, not only to provo that the fancied resemblance between the two books is—save the tatooing incident—pnre fancy, bui to show precisely where he got the idea of the tatooed will from. It is possible that he may do so in the preface to a new edition of the story.—Truth. This is an instance of "English as she is wrote" in Germany sometimes: — " Gentlemen ! Tour respected latter of 22nd Juny have received, and necesary thereout noted ; also thit the c fTee s?.nd over to yon is been exactly farthered. My desire does now go, all,letters for M. E.— addressed to you, to give course as rash as possible, and all letters addressed to me to let further pr directly Lloyd steam. Beciuie I say to yon, my be3t thanks for the advancement, what has been hitherto, be assured sirs, of my great esteem. P. K.P.S. BecaU3e I famish my letters with running numbers, I beg to attend thereof, if it should do a miss anyone." The following interaatjpg story is told by the correspondent of a Victorian country newspaper : —" A C.P.S. in a country township, who had two stations some distance apart, was passing under the paw of the Commissioner of Audit. Lunch time was approaching, aud a sum of L6O was obviously mißaing. Asked for an explanation, he said he couldn't recollect, but he expected he paid it into the account; at a township some fifteen miles away. The Auditor, drawing on his gloves, remarked that he would look into the matter after lunch. Scarcely had he gone when the C P.S. rushed to a friend, borrowed the sum required, and sped to the only livery stable. ' Your best horse and buggy, quick !' he said. ' Sorry we haven'e got one in, eir. The la3t wa had has just been hired by the Commissioner of Andit to drive to .' C A siddle horse then, quick !' cried the desperate man, and soon he was mounted and away. By a short cut through the bush he reached the bank where the second account was kept, deposited the LGO, and was just walking out of the manager's parlor when he confronted the Commissioner entering. The two bowed coldly, and the Commissioner interviewed the banker requesting to know the amount at credit of the account. He was at ooco informed. ' And will you pleasa tell me,' he said, 'when the last deposit waatmde.' ' Excuse me,' said the banker, ' I have given yon all the iofcrmation I am able to afford.' The Commissioner had nosed his rat, but he was a good-hearted fellow, and pursued the inquiry no farther. ** A peculiar riot occurred at S". Dannis near Paris on September 15; h. The Mayor told the bakers of the district that the tax on bread was to be increased, and the bakers thereupon told their workmen that in order to pay the increased tax thsy would be compelled to rednca their wages two francs a day. Thi3 the workmen refused to accept, and they struck work. Consequently all the bakers ahop3 were closed, and upon leaving the factories and workshops at night (Saturday) workmen found themselves unable to procure bread for their evening meal. Crowds of excited men and women paraded the streets and attacked several bakers' shops with Biones. The polica interfered to disperse the rioters, but at midnight the excitement had barely subsided. Next mornirg the people were provided with bread by the Mayor. A few bakers also opened their shops, and supplied bread at the former prices. The bread waggons coming from Paris and the surrounding districts were taken by storm en route to St. Dennis.

A former resident of Wellington, who not long ago decided to try his fjrtnne iu Melbourne, has writttn an interesting letter to a friend in Wellington, which is published in tho Weliiogton Evening Post. Touching the land fever, he ssys : "I know that you would like to know how long this land boom is going to last. Well, in the opinion of moat people it will go on until the whole of the 10 mile radius has been subdivided, with slight lulls, on<» of which we are now having. Whether it be the excitement of the racss that is the occasion thereof I know not, bus certainly there i 3 a stagnation at present. X have it on good authority that 60 per cent, of the bills th*t have become due have not been met, and in the majority of cases the deposits have been forfeited. Of course, this meets the views of the auctioneer to a nicety, as he will have to sell over again and thereby reap a second commission. But the syndicates suffer thereby. My brother i 3 in one—liability L2OOO each, with I*soo paid np. They are paying 7 per cent, for their" overdraft. They tried to sell a fortnight ago; went to about L4OO preliminary expenses, and Bold cbout L6OO worth. Certainly, auctioneers have bad, and are still having, a wonderful tim« of it. Fancy, Munro and BaUlien p*y L3OOO a month for advertising. They are credited with having commission this year. Two men 1 know well—one an acc untant and the other a bank clerk—started in basinesi about two and a half yp»rs aeo, and are now wor'h about LIOO.OOO. Mining is very depressed. The gamblers in that line seem mostly to have given it np for the more legitimate gamble In land." In a recent divorce case, tried in the North, the plaintiff was asked by the judge how it was that he and his wife had lived so unhappily together. His reply was naive, but decidedly to the point—" I don't desire to say mnch against the woman, my lord; but if yon will live with her a ccuple of months, I'm sure yon'll grant me a decree." Strange to SBy, the judge declined the test. Madame Patti, while in Philadelphia, was attracted by the voice of a little sweet street Binger, and the father reluctantly allowed the prima donna to take away the girl for the purpose of giving her a musical education. When on the way to Eogland it transpired that the charming girl was not a girl at all, but a boy dressed in female attire. Madame Patti lo3t no time in sending the youth back to his father.

Lord Kuuisford will (says Truth) have a fine run of pitronsge during the next year, as no fewer than seven colonial Governments will be vacant during that period—New South Wale 3, South Australia, Queenslaod, New Zealand, Ceylon, Jamaica, and Cape Colony. An exchange narrates how in a church not'a hundred miles from New Plymouth on a receDt Sunday when a local preacher occupied (he pulpir, one of the congregation missed the number of the hymn that was given out, and naturally leaned forward to a neighbour, who sat in the next seat, and queried, ''What is it 1" The questioned one, whose family circle had that day or the day before been increased by the advent of another child, and upon which his thoughts must have been running at the time, replied, " It's a boy," From an exhaustive study of tho very large collection of meteorites at Harvard College, the conclusion has been arrived at that many of the masses of meteoric iron now known are cleavage crys-als, broken off, probably, by the impact of the mass against tho atmosphere. It i 3 found that these masses show cleavings parallel to the planes of all three fundamental forma of isometric or regular system. From all that appears, the theory has come to be entertained, in respect to the origin of meteorites, that the masses were thrown off from a sun amoDg the fixed ■tars, that they were slowly cooled while revolving in a zone of intense heat.

Insist upon Imisg Schkapps, Wolfe's.