NEWS AND NOTES.

Southern Cross, Volume 17, Issue 16, 31 July 1909, Page 10

NEWS AND NOTES.

LIFE-SAVING "WIRELESS." Counting the lives saved frozn the liners Slavonia and Republic and two smaller vessels, nearly 3000 sea y°y _ agers can now directly attribute their rescue to the work of wireless telegraphy. ' BRIDES FOR CANADA.

When the Allan liner Corsican made her last voyage from Liverpool for Canada she had on board na fewer than sixteen brides for the Dominion. Although they were strangers to each other the object of their trip leaked out shortly after sailing, and during the voyage they arranged to exchange visits after their respective weddings. DOG AS NEWSPAPER CARRIER. A dog belonging to a farmer near Bishop’s Stortford travels two miles across country every morning to fetch its master’s newspaper. After traversing several fields he comes to the railway line, where he sits waiting for the train. The guard throws the paper to him and he picks it up and trots off home with it. It has taken the farmer’s son two years to train him. OLD CUSTOM ABOLISHED. The Army Council has decided to abolish the old custom of "Crying Down Credit.” Under the King’s regulations, commanding officers, on arriving at a new station, are required to make proclamation warning tradespeople and others that a soldier’s pay cannot be stopped for a private debt, and that those who allow soldiers to contract debts do so at their own risk. WHITE LABOUR ON THE RAND. The announcement by the Transvaal Treasurer that nearly £1,500,000 from the Government surpluses will be speht on public works has caused satisfaction.. That the current financial year will be one of unusual activity and prosperity is regarded as certain. The Rand Daily Mail urges that public works be carried out with white labour, so that all the unemployed may be absorbed. AMERICAN RUSH TO CANADA.

Seventy-five thousand Americans will settle in the Canadian West this summer, according to the latest estimates of the Immigration Department. It is estimated that their total capital will amount to about twenty millions sterling. One wholesale implement firm in Winnepeg has received orders for 600 steam ploughs and it is expected that the output of wheat will he increased by about 15,000,000 bushels. RETRENCHED. Mr Fischer, the Orange Colony Premier, lately stated that the Civil Servants retrenched since responsible government are thirty in number twenty being English and nine South Africans. There have been ninety-six new officials appointed since November, 1907, of whom forty-two are English and fifty-two South Africans, twenty-one of the latter bearing English names. A LANDOWNER FORCED TO SELL. In an interview, Lord Onslow, a former Governor of New Zealand, gives the reasons which have decided him to sell a portion of the Guildford estate, and shows that the rates and taxes on a gross income of £9,090 and a net income of £6,790 are £3,118 under the New Budget, so that the landowner’s only course is to “get out.” THE NATIONAL EISTEDDFOD. Within a double ring of unhewn stones, “in the face of the Sun, the Eye of Light,” the mystic circle of the Gorsedd, of which the tradition has come down from the immemorial past, the National Eisteddfod was inaugurated in Kensington Gardens, London, on June 15th. The principal event of the afternoon was the choral competition for seven choirs of 169 to 200 voices. The result was : 1, £l5O, Carnarvaon Choral Society, conductor .Mr John Williams ; 2, £SO Llanelly Choral Society, conductor, Mr John Thomas. A sympathetic chord was struck in the hearts of the audience in the folk song competition. David Roberts, the well-known blind harpist, of Aberystwyth, was led to the front of the platform, and there was quite a hush as his small but pretty tenor voice echoed round the hall. He did not get the prize, however. This was awarded by'[Dr. J. Lloyd Williams, of Bangor, to Miss Cordelia Rhys, of London, who sang in the old Welsh costume., ,

■ "SPIRIT" PHOTOGRAPHY. Mr T. Thorne Baker, who acted as chairman of the commission appointed by the London Mail to inquire into the genuineness or otherwise of what are called spirit photographs, ■ handed in two reports—one from ■ three members who believed in the possibility of spirit photography, and I another from three expert photaj graphei’S who were sceptical on the (point. The fii’st three claim that the (proper conditions were not observed, | while the expert, but non-believing group, report : —We ate of opinion i that no evidence whatever —experi- ' mental or otherwise —has been placed ; before the committee in support of the contentions to investigate which ithe committee was formed. ; Unbiased men, after this, will conI elude (says the Mail) that spirit phojtographs are really due, when any i image or writings appears on the !plates, to double exposures, or to adroit manipulation, and are not the result of some mysterious psychic j foi’ce..

A CITY OF WARSHIPS. While in Britain the Imperial Press representatives saw the British Fleet equipped z'eady for battle. The big' ships, to the number of 144, were anchored in three lines, each line close on six miles long —a muster of giants, marshalled with absolute perfection.

The following has been received by Mr Kyffin-Thomas, chairman of the delegates, in reply to a message of thanks from them for their reception; From Sir John Fisher : “Very greatly appreciate kind commendation of over-sea delegates conveyed in your telegram. May I venture to hope that I have not seen the last of them ? Motto, last verse of Chapter 18, of Proverbs.” The verse reads : “A man that hath friends must show himself friendly, and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”

HOW LIEUTENANT SHACKLETON CAME ASHORE AT DOVER. Shortly after five o’clocv on 12th June, Lieut. Shackleton, who has been nearer the South Polo tha’n any other man, set foot on the Admiralty Pier at Dover. There were no cheers, no formal greeting, but a tall, slender woman in blue, whose eyes danced with pleasure and whose cheeks were pink, was there to meet this broadshouldered young man in the plain serge suit and light cap. “Some of the experiences' of our journey,” said Lieutenant Shackleton, in an interview, “can .never be effaced from my memory. It was during these periods that we learnt that some great Power besides our own guided our footsteps. If we acknowledged this—as we did —down among the ice, it is only fitting that we should remember it now when the same Power has brought us safely home.