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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10447, 28 August 1905, Page 4

Dunkirk, journals give details of the arrival of the Royal Adelaide, an old English man-of-war, in that port to be broken up. Slie is described as> having been built at Plymouth more than two centuries ago, and to have taken part m the battle of Trafalgar. For a long time past she is said to have served as a hulk, and she is now moored at one of the quays as a show before being taken possession of by the shipbreakers.

A proposal has been made by Messrs Siemens and Hal-ske, a well-known Berlin electrical company, to establish communication, between Iceland and the Continent by wireless telegraphy, and between four commercial towns of the island. A similar offer has been made by the Marconi Company. The latter has already conducted exjx-rimciits in wireless telegraphy from Cornwall to Iceland. These trials proved successful on certain daw, but were not attended with altogether satisfactory results on other occasions.

Men are better off (write*- the agricultural editor of the Otago Witness) with regular employment at a current weekly wage, wet and dry, than with casual labor at 7s or 8s a day, with broken time through wet weather and other causes. But regular employment with board and lodging is, as a rule, only available for single men. and married men with children have to pay rent for a home except in cases where a. cottage is provided for them on the farm or -station. This paying of rent for a home is* a heavy drain upon, thc earnings of a casual laborer; and 1 havo always maintained that it is good policy for a farmer who employs several regular liands to provide cottages with garden ground on the farm. Of course, I am writing in the interests of farmers, and feel confident that better rei-ults can be got 4 from a man settled on the fa.rm and having an interest in his garden plot than from single men, who, as a rule, are fond of frequent change and less settled in their habits. The teams and the harness suffer from a frequent change of drivers, and, moreover, single men- of unsteady liabits are not to be depended on when there arc any festrivities going on in the neighborhood.

The settlement arrived at between the United Free and "Wee Free" kirks in Scotland is beset with detail difficulties. Parliament has decided, for instance, that if a church building is claimed by both parties, it shall be handed over "to the "Wee Frees," provided they constitute one-third of the congregation. The result has been that the minority in many cases has been driven to desperate expedients to bring its numbers up to the required amount. A story comes from Saltcoats of a common lodging-house being invaded and adherents purchased at the price of a pot of beer. In another case a regiment of tinkers, who had never heard of the Free Church, were reported to have been enrolled. Dr. Ross Taylor, in mentioning several similar instance.?, recorded the case of a washerwoman in Rothesay, who had given up business under the idea that she would participate in the millions, and estimated lier share of the spoils at a modest £1000! Tlie Lord-Advocate, however, by fixing 1900 as the date from which Free Church adherents are to be reckoned, has» put a stop to these abuses. Another point that has been raised is a financial one also. Since the decision of the House of Lords on August 1, 1904. upwards of £300,000 in legacies has fallen in from people who made their wills before the Lords' decision. Who is to get the money? Principal Rainy thinks that these legacies should be included in the property to be disposed of by the Commission.