BREVITIES.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11675, 10 July 1906, Page 4

BREVITIES.

A girl, twelve years of age, set fire to some bedding in a house in Auckland last week because she wanted to prevent her mistress f torn going jio The theatre. She wa§ brought .Before.the Court and discharged after receiving, a severe reprihiand. Colonel Mayhew is co-operating with jSir Arthur Conan Doyle iij his scheme for raising an army of niptor owners to ba ready to take a carload of picked riflemen to a given spot in the event of invasion. It is a mistake to suppose, as has been stated, that MrSeddon, held the office of Prime Minister for a longer period than has previously been recorded in British possessions. Sir Oliver Mowatt, who was Premier of Ontario for twenty-four years, from 1872 to 1896, appears to hold the record. A man named Rene Hayer has been sentenced by a Paris tribunal to 15 years' penal servitude for an extraordinary series of frauds. Hayei could change his identity with the greatest ease, and victimised a great unniber of insurance companies Hi which he had insured himself unde'i different haniesi ivef Lawson and I?rank Kramer two of the best cyclists in the worl( have been matched to race for i purse of £500 at Salt Lake City. Thi winner is. to, receive £;JOO, and fch loser the balance. The cultivation; in Fiance of a ne\ potato; brought from Uruguay; ha (the British Consul-general fo Havre and district writes) been ob served for seme time with great in teresfe. A variety distinguished b; its resistence to frost, as also t; disease, and its one great advantflff is that it prosper.4 most in ,a dap 6i swampy soil, where no other kin< of potato would grew. Mrs Sims Reeves has obtained verdict of £50 from the Weekl Courier, published at Launoeaton, fo reprinting a libel contained in ai article that appeared in the Critic She admitted having received . £34 in all from papers for the publicatio of the libel, but her net proeed had been £9"), the balance going t the lawyer. tibrd Le'ighton [[has left a diar; whltth refers to a period of half century. Tbis with his letters ha been placed at the disposal of Mi Russell Barrington, who is prepai ing the official biography.