BREVITIES.

Colonist, Volume XLVIII, Issue 11737, 20 September 1906, Page 4

BREVITIES.

The Ashburton (Canterbury* County Council has purchased the tails of 16,272 hares and 26,645 birds' heads for the season up to August 31. The Trade Union Congress of England has decided to organise agricultural laborers. So far £850 per annum had been guaranteed by the dairy companies towards the salary of a representative in England. Another £150 would be required before the scheme could be carried into effect. The Berlin'fcorrespondent of the "London Times," write that Robert Louis Stevenson's house in Samoa, "Vailiraa House," is stated to have been offered for sale by its present German owner to the German Government as an official residence. Tea is being grown near Batoum, in South Russia, under Government auspices. We hear of liquor-selling beibg prohibited as early as the reign of the Saxon king Edgar, • who closed hundreds of alehouses. The Boyrout and Damascus railway crosses Mount JLebanon .on a gradient of one in 22^. This is one of the steepest lines injihe world." During the debate on the Gaming and Betting Bill in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly Mr. Eden George stated that he had lost £13,000 in racing in four years. Many of his fellow legislators seem ed to think he was a lucky man to be in a position to lose such a sum. A remarkable feat of endurance was accomplished by Miss Clarie Parlott, aged 17, who recently swam from Sunbury Lock to Richmond Railway Bridge (ISmUes) in 8^ hours, beating all previous records by ladies in the Thames above Richmond. The N. Z. Boxing Council intond to arrange for the visit next year of -several first class scientific professionals of the Hock Keys standard from Australia for the purpose of giving exhibitions in the various centres, Caldy Island, in the Bristol Channel, has jnsc been purchased by the Church of England Benedictine Community, who at present have their headquarters at Pain9thorpe Abbey, near York, on the estate of Lord Halifax. The island, which lies two and a half miles off Ten by, is about a mile aod threequarters long by threequarters of a mile broad.

King Edward's Hospital Fund has received a cheque for £6,700 from the executors of the late Mrs Hannah •tfinnig. George Bennett, a young man residing in Pyrmont, was the Victim of a dastardly "push" outrage dn Pyrmont Bridge (Sdyney) last Week. Bennett was stabbed with a kaife in several places, and was taken to the Sydney Hospital in a serious Condition. His injuries are likely to prove fatal. Last mail brought news of the marriage of Commissioner Booth-Tuoker of the Salvation Army, to Lieutenant colonel Mary Bead, the officer in charge of the Irish Province. . The wedding took place in the quietest manner at the Tottenham Citadel, General Booth conducting the cere-' mony. A Hindu College is to be started in Kashmir as a branch of the Benares Hindu College. The foundation stone of tbe college was laid recently by tbe Maharajah of Kashmir, Mrs Annie Busunt being present on the occasion. f jMr Cnandoa Elletson was motoring towards Lancaster, England, when the car ran into a swarm of bees. The chaffeur, being stung, took his hands from the steering-wheel in order to knock the bees from his face the result being that the car swerved upon the footpath and collided with a lamp post. The car Whs damaged, but the occupants escaped injury. Befoie an audience of slum children in a grimy street the Lord Mayor of Manchester sang two songs on a reoent evening at a "Court and Alley Concert." These entertain* roents are organised by a committee' interested in the podr,&nd have been carded on with great success 1 tor eight years. Said to be the largest shbt iiTKfrica in r.ecent years, a gigantio elephant, lift. 6in. in height and 23ft. 2in. in-iength — has been reoeived in the Natural History Museum, South Kensington. "Tickets, please," is a legend wrought in flowers to be seen in the border at a station on theJNorth-Eas-tern Railway between Thirsk and York.