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Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12410, 27 November 1908, Page 1

An old campaigner, who bas seen much active service, "and Ja « crack shot, remarked upon the difficulty of hitting a human target as compared' with an inanimate ODe. "Even a 'dead shot,'" said he, "a man who can easily bring down a bird on tbe wing' or scorn bulls'eyes at the longosi range, finds himself at a loss when for tbe first time he has to fire at a human being, however easy the 'mark' may be. Even in war, where it is a case of shooting or being shot, one feels this sense of embarrassment at fir3t, and this I think, accounts as much as anything for the hundreds of bullets fired harmlessly in an average battle." A peculiar case was beard in the Armidale (N.S.W. ) Police Court on 'tbe 13th iDSt. , when Alexander Simpson and John Hudson. . . earpeni tftra, were charged with pursuing I their ordinary vocation on the Lord's '. Day. Tbe delinquents each pleaded. guilty, and were fined ss, in default ' one hour id tbe stocks. -There are 'no stocks in Armidale, and the /Court was in a quandary, so tbe two men, on the advice of Mr Claire, th pi r solicitor, left the Ccurt with. out paying the fines, as the alterna- ' tivfi could not be enforced. A horribl*. phase of the war against opium in China is that morphia pills are talking the place of the prohibited narcotic, though originally intended as a cure. Intestigation into opium smoking in China -. bas revealed an .traffic .in morphia pills, the use of which has been officially recognised as a cpre foi tbesmolcing habit.