NEWS ITEMS.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12500, 29 March 1909, Page 4

NEWS ITEMS.

[file Chinese preserve vegetables by coating them with salt and drying them in the sun. On a main thoroughfare about five miles from Manchester the following notice is to be seen on the window of a shoe door: — "We are compelled by Act of Parliament to close this shop at fixed hours each day. When this shop is closed you can be served at our branch shop, opposite, No, — " This shop is in a borougli where a closing order is in force. The other side of the road is under a district council without a closing order. Thus the shops on one side close at fixed hours, and the shops on the opposite side close .when they chose. A great dish of Egyptian harem feasts is that of a lamb roasted whole. After the manner of a- nest of Chinese boxes, each smaller than the other, the lamb is stuffed with a whole ttirkeyi the turkey with a chicken, the chicken with a pigeon f the pigeon With a quail, and the quail , with a becafico, the smallest bird known except the hummingbird. The lamb is roasted over a slow fire, until it is- almost ready to fall to piece's; . The report that the destroyer -Tartar has attained the magnificent speed (over the ground) of 40 knots an hour, if only 'approximately true, is a great piece of good ne.ws (says an English journal), as it shows that our. shipbuilders can still keep us ahead of all other nations in this ilass of fighting ships, as well as in battleships and cruisers. . The Tartar is a fine upstanding craft that will be well able to meet the. -buff etings of the bad weather to be met. with in the North Se&, whSre she will be stationed, together with her big sister of that ilk. Half the Government supporters in our Parliament might be Oppositionists, half the Oppositionists might sit beside Mr T. Mackenzie, while nothing the Government can do and no concession that any Parliament can make ever reconciles the revolutionary extremists whose aim is the forrcationof a "Socialist Labour" party Mr George Edwardes told a good story at; the "Merry Widow" dinner in London, illustrative of the difficulties With which managers have to contend. "1 Was Once negotiating with a lady to go to India as prima donna, and I thought I would approach the question artfully. We were ntarly agreed— the difference beiweeii lis was a paltry £100 a week, I dffergd her £100, and she asked me £200 a week. I began to tell of the glories of India; how the lady would win the hearts of all. the Princes, of Jams, and Rams, and Dams : — (laughter) — ■■ and Nabobs,. I said, "As is their custom,. they'll send, you ropes of pearls to tie up your dresses, elephants with" trunks full of emeralds — (laughter) — and diamonds enough for a skirt"- — and skirts were skirts ia those days; I, said, "What is a miserable hundred a week by the side of that?" Well, I thought I had impressed the Jady. She promised to think it over. She did. Next day I got a note:— "Dear Mr Edwardes, — Give me my terms, and you cankeep the presents."