News and Notes

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 23, 11 September 1897, Page 7

News and Notes

London has an army of 100,000 pickpockets. A pound of the finest spider web would reach round the world. The game of draughts has been played in Egypt since about 2,000b. c. The Rev. A. Poole has accepted the pastorship of the Baptist church, Invercargill. Four tourists in Switzerland were .overwhelmed by an avalanche, and perished. Divers have recovered £9OOO worth of silver from, a wreck off Cape Einisterre at a depth of 171 feet. A Napier 1 prohibit ’wasfined£l an costs for entering an hotel, and a friend who ordered drinks was mulct in £2. Mrs Michelson, wife pf the wellknown New Guinea missionary, is dead. The latest cake from the Morning Star claim at Preservation is the handsome one of 802oza, value £3295. Mr Trimnell, of Wellington, who had been chosen to judge the next Brass Bands contest, died on Monday last.

In England 511 boys to 489 girls is the normal proportion of births a year to every thousand of the population.

A Government inspector reports very unfavourably on crop prospects in Iroland, and expects the winter to be the worst since 1847. Three children named Kendall — the eldest five years —wandered into the bush near Wagga (H.S.W.) and perished from exposure. Five natives on a station in Western Australia ate honey mixed with arsenic, intended as bait for ants, and four of the aboriginals died. During 1896 there were 540 cases of typhoid fever treated •in Hew Zealand hospitals, the number of those ending fatally being 48. Harris, Roberts, and Calnan, three members of the K.Z. football team which recently toured Australia, have been suspended for two years for misbehaviour. The man who is able to travel extensively can generally learn enough in a year to make a bore of himself all the rest of his life. According to the Minister of Railways £50,000 is wanted tor trucks. The department is also short of engines and carriages. The longest underground thoroughfare in Great Britain is in Central Derbyshire, where you can walk seven miles upon a road connecting several coalmines.

Mr Cowan will not petition against the return of the Hon. J. G. Ward for Awarua. He will leave Parliament to decide the question. The Mayor of Ballarat declined to welcome Ben Tillett because the toast of the Queen was treated contemptuously at a dinner in South Melbourne at which Tillett was present. The Beadle (to new minister) : * A’ didna like the sermon for three rizzins—first, ye read it; secondly, ye didna read it weel; thirdly, it wasna worth readinV The gambling saloon of Monaco in 1896 declared a dividend of 48 per oent. According to The Clarion, some of the highest aristocracy of Europe are the owners of this place. In Austria the Government owns and operates the railways. You can ride from Vienna, the capital, 750 miles, in a luxurious corridor express for about 17s. Young Doggerel: ‘ The public is wild over my last poem.’ Cynicas : * Sorry to hear that, old man. If you wish to hide till the excitement is gone my rooms are at your service.’ The earliest fanning mill or winnowing machine was invented in China, and in use there for centuries, while Europeans were cleansing their grain by casting it into the air on a windy day.

‘ I trust your husband had something saved up for a rainy day,’said a sympathising friend. ‘ Indeed he had,’ replied the widow, with a fresh burst of tears. ‘He had seven umbrellas. John was the thriftiest man I ever knew.’ A mining manager in the Auckland district named Waters has been sentenced to 18 months’ imprisonment, He had falsified the share register of his company, creating thousands of bogus shares. In the case of Waterston v. the WeStport Coal Company heard at Invercargill last week, a claim for demurrage, the magistrate held that the defendants had not a right to give preference in loading to steamers as against sailing vessels, and gave judgment for plaintiff for £35. The hearing of the charge of libel preferred by G. Frarapton against J. H. Geddes was concluded on Saturday last. The case was dismissed on the ground of absence of publication of the letter which led to the action. The proprietor of the Auckland Star lately imported five type-setting machines, and was charged 20 per cent duty. He holds that at the most only five per cent can be charged, and he claims a refund from the Customs of £709. In the case in which J. Ramsay, Invercargill was charged with exposing unsound fish for sale the magistrate held that notice must first be given to the person exposing the article —failing withdrawal, and the article pro/ed to be unsound, he would be guilty. Case dismissed, but without costs.