Here and There

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXV, Issue 9730, 6 January 1908, Page 4

Here and There

The Cullman diamond, which was presented to the King, and was eventually to be conveyed to the Tower, was temporarily deposited at Scotland Yard. Elaborate piecautions were taken to guaid it. Inc. .amous jewel was locked in a safe in the room of one of the chief officials. lii.'he event of it being necessary for the olhciai in charge to leave his room for even live minutes bo called in two detectives, who were in an adjoining department. '1 hey were to remain in lus room till his return. At night two other detectives took up their positions in the room containing the sale, and did not leave it till they wcie relieved in the morning.

Sir George Sydenham Clarke, Governor of Bombay, wrote to the vernacular newspapers in the first week of November, pointing out that there were 7000 deaths uom plague in the Presidency in the first week in November, and that there was reason to fear an increase. He emphasised the heavy responsibility which rested upon the papers the prevent the spread of the scourge. He acknowledged that if the peopie were unwilling to destroy the rats, which are the vehicles of the disease, their feelim'S must be respected, and he therefore urged" in the strongest manner that recourse should be had to universal inoculation, which is the easiest and most certain method of prevention.

The E\ening Star of Xcwark, New Jersey, published the following story from its London correspondent:—"lt is Tumored here that the baby brought to England by the King and Queen of Spain was not the Royal infant, but a dummy. The real heir apparent came some days ahead of its parents, it having been decided that it would be taking too great a risk for the King and his heir to travel together, in view of the possibilities of an anarchist outrage, or even an accident, according to rumor. When this ruse was being decided upon the contingency of the identity of the Royal infant being contested if its parents "and the dummy were assassinated was.futlv considered, and a formal state paper was prepared, duly attested by high Ministerial and Court authorities at Madrid, setting forth the circumstances and the reasons why the expedient was adopted. The return of the Royal babe to Madrid will also be secretly arranged."

It has heen estimated that there aTe three million unmarried women in Great Britain and America, and it is also asserted that nature J6 not altogether to blame, for giving us the superfluous woman, for the same statistics 6how that in the birth rates the male sex more and more predominates. At the same time there seems to be no doubt that a baby boy is

far more delicate on the wholo than a baby girl,- and that if all babies could be reared there would be a very considerable excess of marriageable men available. So in that case the fact that among the primitive or savage races it is not the lute of women to remain single would also ob.tain.. in these, twentieths century days in more'cultivated circles. It "would secin, therefore, that the superfluous woman is a product not of pure nature, but of civilisation, for the authorities show in round iigures that there are bom in all places and times something like one hundred and three or four boys to every bundled giiis.

According to a leturn issued by the Homo Office on the subject of the frequenting of publichoiis.es by women and children, (says the London Daily Kxpress), 39,i41 women and 10,746 children were seen to enter twenty-three London publichoußes on which observation was kept tor tweive hours .1 day on four days. The return also contains repoits from chief constables on the subject. The Chief Constable of Birmingham says:—"l have seen women giving infants a portion of their beer to drink, and I am told that they <lo this as it makes the children sleepy and quiet. In the lower quarters of Birmingham women resort to the publichouses shortly after ten o'clock in the morning in largo numbers, when they are supposed to be doing their shopping, and on these occasions they take the younger children and infants. The same thing occurs late at night, especially on Saturday night." Sir K. H. Henry, Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan l'oiice. Rays: —"A practice which has been noticed, and which can only have 11 very prejudicial effect on the attfir lives of the children, is that of allowing or inducing them to sip the drink supplied to their parents. A.s regards the bad language which they may hear, it i.s generally only the youngest children who arc taken into the publichouses—loo young to understand what they hear. \Vhell they are old enough to inn about they ais generally left to play in the street's with other children."