ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXIII, Issue 219, 25 September 1901, Page 4

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Halt a million a century ia the eoit .of Lord Nelsan to posterity, unless some grateful peer or Borne daring Per lament should bring the pension to an end. 1h) Welliot.toa balancesbeit, as things stand at now, is heavier, bat the present Duke of Wellington is the last of his line who will grow rich on the pluck of the Iron Duke. England hu already paid, either to the first) T>uke or bis de•ceodante, over £750,000. The Duke was granted two annuities of £2OOO for himself and his next two heirs, and the pension will run until the death < f the present Dake. The first grant was for Talavera, a battle which has thas cist something like £IBO,OOO, nod the seond grant, wbich came only two years let;r, has brought the anno&l payments np to cow to ajbont £360,000. A sensational e'e tion scandtl connected with the polling for tte Oonseil General is reported frvm Rjquemaure, near Nirtei, in the Department of Oard, Fiaace. The ballot box was found to have a diuble bottom conwith a tr»p door snd shaft, through which all the voting papers fell in'o the priva e offic; of the cbief of police. A voter was suspioion* something was wioog with the box, and smashed it with a savage kick, thereby revealing the contrivance. A fresh box wjas procured and placed in the centre of a marble table. Samuel IfCaughey, now the C >tb'e King of Auatra'is, went to that nourisbiae colony in 1856 with practically ncthing. He filled at first, bnt soon started again with a email flock. and from yeae-to year has added to 1 is bolding-i, until now he has more she ■ p than any other maa in the wo*ld. He has more aces of land th»n ale p, and his r.o3iesti m sire in the best parts of Australia Oceof his farms,on the Darling Downs is thirty-six miles long and forty miles wide. Altogether he owns more than a million sores. '