THROUGH OUR HOME FILES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIV, Issue 14044, 29 April 1920, Page 2

THROUGH OUR HOME FILES.

Mr Churchill's announcement that eight millions of war medals and six and -a half millions'.of Victory medals_ will be issued foreshadows a busy time for 1 the 3lint and a v'alst consumption of silver: It may be'assumed that the medals will be of- silver and not of new' coinage aliov. When the seamen of Nelson's fleet after Trafalgar were presented with pewter medals they indignantlv Hhre'w them overboard. For a hundred years the ' British* service medal has'been of silver, and has been bestowed upon all ranks alike. The Armv owes that to the Duke of Wellington, who, after Waterloo, wrote home suggesting that such a. medal should be issued. Before then Peninsula medals had been granted to the higher ranks of officers only and were of gold.

Tlie transformation of the Renown, in which/the Prince of AY ales is making his Australasian tour, into something closely '.resembling a first-class l 1 should serve as an indication to landsmen that a battleship is not the most comfortable kind of craft in which to make a long sea voyage. Space has vefv often to be sacrificed tor the 'grim nee'ds of a. fighting vessel, and the steel decks, which on the Renown have, been covered with teak, are apt to become uncomfortably hot in the tropics. Even so. there is a difference on the right side between our modern warships and those of Nelson's day. Hie famous admiral, in a letter to La<tv Hamilton, once complained bitterly ot the discomforts he was experiencing as the results of the draughty, cabins and leaky timbers on his flagship.

A Budapest message reported lately that influenza was raging there and that deaths averaged 100 daily. Among the recent victims was Dr Elkes, apromineni judge of the Hungarian Penal Courts. It was ascertained after Ins death that the judge had been unable to provide sufficient money to buy medicine. His monthly salai? was proved to be 1300 crowns, nominally £o4. but now equivalent to 30s. On this he bad to keep his wife and two children, bo depreciated is Austrian currency that his widow is left with a pension equivalent to 9s a month.

Tne most interesting and least known of the few hotels in the City of London | is shortly coming under the hammer. It is Williamson's, in Bow-lane. Cheapside Within it is full of good stuff oj the period of its building. For that reason alone it should be arranged that it should not be sold for demolition. But its external appearance should save it if only Londoners were awake to the fact that the few relics of the past it possesses in the City ought to be jealously guarded.: Williamson's v is an old 17th century house, standing at the end of a little alleyway leading out ot ±sow- e lane, behind the famous church. _l< or generations, until recently, it- has been in the possession of tlie same family of Williamson. They have catered for a private connection consisting tor tne most part of Manchester soft goods-mer-chants. The house is a perfect specimen of the brickwork of. the period, and is believed-at. one: time to nave been the residence; Lord Mayors of London. '",*_". _

Four hundred-ahd-ten German officers and men who were being .repatriated from Lvons passed through Geneva lately They were well equipped, and seemed to be in splendid health. They were also as arrogant as ever,, sang "Dentscnland, Deutschland über Alles," and torgot, to thank the Swiss Red Cross for the presents with which they were provided, proving that the old Prussian spirit is not yet dead. -Officers expressed the opinion that the Allied demand for the extradition of those guilty ot war crimes was mere bluff. • One captain, who. spoke excellent French, said to a correspondent, "It will take only five years, and then we shall seek our revenge against. England, ajid America will stand aside. Then we shall surely win, and make England and France our vassals." It is in this spirit that German officers are returning hornet * * - ' * .

Preaching at Farm Street, London,. Father Bernard Vaughan said that in a day> gone by ladies dressed for dinner: now thev undressed for it. To his thinking women's clothing ongin to serve the three pir/poses of decency, of warmth, and of ornament, 10-day, when there was a mad craze for wh.u some women . called the "emotional gown," dress sinned against -every canon of good taste. It was immodest, it was unhealthy, and it was ugly as it was expensive. • Girls of the up-to-date fashions were ruining their own and their neighbors' souls as well a> their own bodies. Designers oi lashions seemed to be devoid as much ot taste as principle. . - *

In these anxious days of sky-rocket- | ing costs of production publishers arc occasionally tlieered by the receipt ot , an unexpected letter of appreciation. ' The following recently reached a wellknown firm from West Africa :—"Dear Massrs. —Yours names and addresses having' been highly recommended to me by a certain friend of mine, that you are the best Christians in the City of London, E.G. 4, I therefore got most pleasure to keep a. good correspondence with you. So I wish you to send me Bible. Shakespeare, and Wesleyan Methodist Church Hymn and Service books. And also . I shall '.be. much obliged if'you will kindly send me some handkerchieves, and your own photoes. And if I receive the abovementioned things I will forward to you native girls' bags, panamas, walking sticks, monkey skins, and many other things, that J cannot be able to describe all. And anything you require from Africa indite me same. And I will let you have it immediately. Well then", I have to inform yr,u secondly that I will forward yoiua. new delicate Ashanti's . ring which 'will charm all your friends. My sister says she will send her photo to you next opportunity. I beg to draw my epistle to a close,' and ending with cordial and sincere thanks to selves—l remain yours sincerely .. . . —P.S,—I am herewith sending you ostrich feathers and a 1 tin of cocoa. These are my first donation, to you. And I hope you will be glad to receive them. More news at opportunity."

Lord Birkenhead's claim that his new Land Law.Reform Bill will prove mare revolutionary than any measure for 300 years may surprise- many of us who read- every day of swift and vast. transfers of landed estate '. Copyholders, for whose benefit the Bill is largely designed, belong to the same class who, in France, brought about tht: Revolution ; and they have had Royal Commissions sitting -upon them from time to time. The copyholder is a relic of feudalism, an adjunct of the manor, and even now hardly knows Whether he is a landowner or a tenant. Arbitrary fines haunt his dreams. A great authority assures us that every time anyone in'.V. series, of copyhold! tenants dies (father, , sou. or grandson), and every time a death occurs in a similar series of lords of the manor two'yenrs' value of the land must he paid. If the copyholder should die--- ' time has mitigated the terror —his most treasured piece of property may be seized under the name of n "Heriot." li was in this way that the Pitt Diamond and a famous picture of Rubens —the glory of the Peel collection —narrowly escaped seizure as Heriots. Moreover, we have Sir Henry Maine's warrant for the story that the most valuable racehorse of its time was actually taken as a '<Heribt" because its owner had some copyhold among his spacious acres.