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South Canterbury Times, Issue 5009, 17 May 1889, Page 4

It will be curious, says the Pall Mall Gazette , if French women, who are not supposed to be by any means so far advanced as those in this country in all that constitutes the defence of the rights of their sex, should set an example to our working women in the matter of trade organisation. Ten thousand Parisian washer-women have formed! a trades union, with a market of their own, a minimum wage, and a council of administration, which is to be formed of six washerwomen of irreproachable morals, who are to be pledged to exclude all politics from their discussions and to organise balls and concerts. Clearly our English women will have to look to their laurels, for we have nothing to approach such an enterprise on this side of the channel. An old Waterloo veteran named Grant, who would have attained the venerable age of 107 had he lived till the 25th June next, died at Platsburg, New South Wales, on April 10th. He joined the Duke of Argyle’s Militia when a young man, and after serving in Ireland, he with others volunteered when the Peninsular war broke out, serving for! some time in Spain. On his return to England he served in one of the first companies of volunteers formed. He again saw active service at the battle of Waterloo, receiving a medal. He arrived in Victoria about 40 years ago. He was twice married,. and was the father of 18 children seven by his first wife and 11 by his second.

The Chicago Tribune, in commenting cn the report that Mr Edison is working on an invention by which he hopes to convert coal into electrical energy without resorting to any intermediate process, says If he is able to convert into electrical energy the power that lies in the carbon and hydrogen of coal, he will have given to man the greatest gift that man can ask of Nature, unless it bo the control of the winds and rains. He will have multiplied by ten the present capacity for work of every ton of coal in the world. He will have revolutionised the -world of machinery. What the Corliss engine is to the primitive water-wheel of the Egyptian of the days of Pharoab, that will Edison’s device be to the present steam-engine. Steam-engines and gasengines will all go to the junk-shops, and new plants—what we cannot yet tell—will take their place. Should Edison make such a discovery, all we ask of him that ho will be moderate, and that ho will not charge Bo high a royalty as to heap up for himself a fortune of more than a thousand million dollars during the life of the patent.

The Chief Justice of Queensland has dealt with the contempt of court case against the printer and publisher of the Brisbane Telegraph for reprinting articles from the English papers commenting on an action brought by the Queensland Investment and Land Mortgage Company against Messrs Drury and others. The decision of the court wai that there should be an unqualified apology to the court by the respondent, and an undertaking by him not to publish any comments during the progress of the case, and the costs to be paid.