News Items.

Colonist, Volume XXXV, Issue 7265, 9 March 1892, Page 4

News Items.

The Wairarapa * Standard ' remarks : — The agitation.for having the Bible. read in schools comes with bad graoe from those who make the moßt noise about it. Take the great majority of Church members and ask them some of the simplest questions of Biblical history and they are cornered. The ignorance among Churoh-gomg people of the Soriptures they profess to be guided by is lamentable, and what is more they do not teach a syllable of it at home to their children. If they did their own ignorance would not be bo great. This ory about having the Bible read in Sohools has a deal of hypocrisy about it, and we doubt if, in the hearts of the parents who sign petitions and profess such interest in the snbjeot, they are the least exercised in mind as to whether their children get an acquaintance with the Soriptures or not. A coastguardsman, named Mainvieille, has met with his death in a remarkable manner on the Mediterranean coast, near the mouth of the Ande. He was going his rounds with a comrade, whon the latter, who was a few steps behind, saw Maiovieille sink suddenly into some quicksands. He went down so rapidly that he was unable to seize a stick held out to him and in a few minutes he had disappeared completely from sight. Tha other man ran for assistance; but it was impossible to find even the man's body. An amusiDg incident occurred on the Auckland wharf at the departure of the Governor, Lord Onslow. A frisky dame, who seemed to be " under the influence," waltzed up to little Huia, and said, "Be a good boy, grow up tot be a man, and come back and rule ns as your father aid." Lord Onslow, who overheard the remark, was greatly tickled, ana Jhe lady gave him a parting shot as he went over the Mararoa'e gangway ; "Yon know that we have treated you well, and don't you forget it !" At the Old Bailey on January 22ad, in the case of Albert Edward Smithers, late manager oi the English Bank of the Eiver Plate, who was oonviote3 of fraudulently misappropriating the money and falsifying the books of the Bank,, but who was recommended to mercy on account of his high character Mr Justice Gave said the prisoner had debauched the accountant of the Bank, Wright, and made him his accomplice in these frauds. He had demoralised the other olerkß* ruined Wright ana caused loss to the shareholders ; and he should not be doing his duty if he passed a less sentence than four years' penal servitude. A London paper of January 15th says of Cardinal Manning's death :— -A more touching, because so simple, death-bad soene could noV be imagined. On his sick-bed the Cardinal received intelligence of the severity of the illness of the Duke of Clarence ana Avondale. With absolute eelf-lorget-fulness he expressed his deep Borrow for the young Prince, and latter in the day, when a slight improvement in the condition of his Boyal Highness was repotted, his Eminence ejaculated,, with such fervour and strength as he could command, "Thank God !" A little latter " Til go down to the chapel to say mass," said Dr Vanghan. " Do, thank -you," said the Cardinal ; and these>were hisi last wdrtfs, and almost before Dr Vanghan had finished his .celebration of mass, the great prelate was with his fathers. Iwanswer to "a correspondent who wanted {o know which was the oldest established business in England, « Titbits .'■ stated that the firm of Mears and Stainbaok had carried on business of bell-founders in Whitecitapel toad, l^onSon^ since 1570, or upwards of 320 years^ Second' in point of age is Child's bank, which has done business since 1663. There is, however, an inn at Manchester, jwith : the sign of the :." Seven ir tars," wnich* has been opened since 1360, or upwards of 530 year 3. It is said to Be the i. oldest inn in England. .... . ; "CADBUBY,9 COCOA, - A perfect tood.^- RwiUh,:

No day 6i date has c been so fatal to the English Boyal Family as Saturday. For upwards of 198 years more deaths have occurred on that day than on any other. William -111 died Saturday, March 12,-1702 ; Queten Anne died Saturday* March 14, : 1?14 ; ; George I died Saturday, ; June 10, ,1727 ; George II died .Saturday, October 25, 1760 j George 111 - died Saturday, -January 29, 1820 ; George IV; died Saturday, Jirna 26, .1880, . : : The Duchess of Kent died Saturday, March 16, 1861 ; the Prince Consort died Saturday, December 14, 1861 ; Princess Alice died on Saturday,. December 14 1878 . Thursday was a fatal day to our Tudor BovereignsA--Henry VIII, Edward VI, Queen Mary, and Queen Elizabeth all jdying on that day of the week. In her new novel "the History of David Greve" Mrs Hu mphr y *Ward thus vigorously depicts the strange mixture of extreme cleverness and soullessness, of animalism and artistic perception to be found among the literary arid a*t society of < Parit). "Pah ! this Paris chokes me," exclaims Begoault, glad of the open air. "Bo vile, so'sniallj sofoul! . And there are snob great things in the wprlcti Beasts 1 Pigs 1 and yet so generous, so struggling, auch a hard fight for it. So gifted— many of them I " David remarks, that he had never' seen co many clever people together in his life. : " No, we don't lack brains, we French. All the same I tell you, in the whole of that room there- are about bilf a dozen .people — oh, not so many I— not nearly bo many.!— who will ever make a mark, even for their own generation, who ever strike anything out of nature that is worth having—wrestle with her to any purpose. Why? Because they have every sort of capacity — «very sort of cleverness— and ] ho character 1 " . . ; " One learns { that the secret of life lies in feeling— in the heart not in the head." The British Consul at Brest gives an extraordinary aooount of the wreck 1 of the Solykoff, whioh went down off Brest in the late storm with the loss of all hands but one.- The vessel waß caught in a veritable whirlpool caused by some oircular sweep of the raging waters, bj which the vessel shipped vast seas on all sides at the same time.. They sucked her down in a moment, and in another moment the sea became perfectly calm, and the three men who had escaped were teen standing up in two almost motionless small boats. The sufferings of these poor fellows were by no means at an end. Two of them subsequently died of exposure, leaving Kelk — who has jast been sent to England from St. Mal'o — as the sole survivor. His final rescue was little short of miraculous. Mb Barnett in his new book, "Man east and Wet," says: — "A Chinese merchant will keep to the terms of an unwritten contract, even though it be to his own lobs — a thing rarely met among European merchants in the east." of the Japanese, 11 everyone knows," he says, " their quiet pretty ways, their sweetness of disposition, their politeneps, their fans aud their cu.ioa," but their versatility and energy surprise him- Japan with its manufactures, skilled workmen and mea of soienoe, now seems "like the most western of the American States." The position of the workers on the Pacific slope of the United States calls for strong animadversion. " Never have I been conscious of tyranny or felt such sympathy with the men who kill tyrants as I felt in California.' 1 There out of respect for an individual liberty notorious abases are ondured, and the weak are crushed by the strong. The writer concludes that everywhere more principle is wanted, I and that " a v l need the lesson taught by Puritans, from Moses down to Gordon." i Mr Isaiah Birt, a bachelor of ] independent means, and living at | Noland House, South Brent, Devon- j shire, committed suicide the other morning by cutting his throat with a razor. The tragedy was brought to light under peculiar oiroumstances. Two servants of the deoeased had their attention drawn to a cat which ran to and from anunocoupiedroom, making an unusual noise, and, following the animal, they found Mr Birt sitting on a carpet, which he had evidently taken to the room. He ha 3 nearly severed his head from his body with a razor, whioh he still held in the right hand, A party engaged in grass sowing the other day found a human skeleton at Tokomaru, Palmerston North. It is believed to be that of a European lost in the bush a few years ago. Ex-Inspector -Henry Alford, of South Australia, who has just died there at the age of 76, was the first police constable appointed in that colony. He and Inspector Tolmer in three years arrested 54 outlaws and bushrangers. Mr B. W. Humphreys, formerly M.HTR. for Ghristchurch, has undergone a successful operation for cancer in the jaw in London. Mr Goschen was (the c Daily Telegraph' says) the other night confronted with a novel and startling argument against his £1 note proposal. At a dinner party a financier said, " You can toss with a sovereign, but you can't with a&1 note." Mr Goschen looked at the gentleman reproachfully. Four hundred firemen are expected to take part in the Fire Brigades' demonstration at Cb.rißtcb.urch on the 16th and 17.th of the present month. Victoria is expected next season to export three thousand tons of butter to London. The Fisk Jubilee Singers are likely to be round this way again before long. They have been re-organised in Africa, and have introduced one or two novelties in the vocal line. They are at present in, Tasmania. A commercial traveller claims for himself : and his fraternity that they should be styled " Ambassadors of commerce.' The Timaru ' Herald ' hears that some threshing plants are stuck in paddocks -where they weiit before the rains to- thresh out of. the etook, and since the rains have .not been abe to move. The' mummy •of a highborn lady, named Ta-Ta-Amen, who lived under the Pharoahs 2400 years ago, was sold by auction in London, and ■ fetched £33. A ; scarab, with /which an Egyptian king killed 102 lions, sold for d 612. .A pair , of gold- bracelets tak«a from a mummy realised £11,