News Items.

Colonist, Volume XXXIV, Issue 7062, 13 July 1891, Page 4

News Items.

The dress circle seats, and part of the stalls tor Sara Bernhardt's season in Adelaide realised £1400 at auction. While the collection was being taken up in a Wanganui church the other night, the congregation was fairly convulsed at the action of a man who stood up and gravely informed the churchwarden that he had no money in his pockets, but would give him a cheque in the morning. The • New Zealand Tablet ' of July 3rd, speaking of the Hon. Mr Reeves, says that he is, like all other extreme and unyielding secularists, "little, if anything, better than a heathen." Says a writer in a London paper : — The bishops abroad — l;ke some of their brethren— preach liberally but give stingily* In a Servian newspaper published at Rish not many days since the editor informs his readers that " His Greatness Jeronye," Bishop of Nish, animated by piety and. holy faith, has condescended to send us the sura of two groschen for the building of the church at Blaco." Hereafter, I fancy, " His Greatness" will be known as • " Old Two : pence-ha'penny," for that is the value of his subscription.

In the forests of Salicia an electrical tree-feller has been introduced with success. The saw is actuated by an electric motor, to which the current is conveyed by conducting wires from the nearest generating station. It is said that the first man who ever wore spectacles was an Italian named Salvino Armati, who died in 1317. On his tomb in Florence is the following inscription : " Here lies Salvino Degli Armati, inventor of spectacles. May God pardon his sins." — « Catholic Times.' OADBURI'S UOOOA. "A perfect Food. '—Health, Having wasted all their money, thinking that the years of plenty were to last for ever, the West Coast (South Island) people, we are told, are very angry! They cry out now that the break down of the local bodies is attributable to the taking away of the sources of revenue year by year by the Legislature. Not a word about their own extravagance ; oh, dear no ! The best thing our West Coast friends can do is to try and put their house in order, economise, and try to pay their way ; not cry out like a lot ot children for their parents, the Government, to come and help them. — ' Napier News.' A novel feature was introduced at a ball given three weeks ago in Paris by M. and Mmc, Georges Haohette. On one of the upper floors tf the spacious hotel a photographic studio was installed, and there each of the fair guests who felt bo disposed was taken by electric light, and received her portrait as a souvenir of the occasion. We have been snown a hina-quarter of a sheep from Mr T. Harris' farm, Kaituna, which weighs something over 36 pounds, the whole sheep weighing about 100 pounds. If this is a sample of the grazing capabilities of this district, we should say that with the establishment of freezing works sheep-farming should be a very profitable speculation, and should encourage settlers to clear more land. — ♦ Pelorus Guardian.' Nothing half bo picturesque or strange is to be found in fiction as the life of Laurence Oliphant, journalist, diplomat, man of the world, religious seer — in fact, one can scarcely say what Oliphant had not been in the course of ;his varied and adventurous career. As ' The Times ' remarks : — " One month he was selling strawberries at American railway stations t the next he was being consulted at Windsor or Sandringham, in Domain street, or on the Quai d'Orsay on some intricate question of international politics." His biography has just been completed by his relative Mr 3 Oliphant, and it is hardly necessary to say that in her experienced hands the story has lost none of its attractions. GOOD MOKNINti Have yon need PEAKS' SOAP