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Taranaki Herald, Volume LX, Issue 143763, 11 April 1912, Page 2

Finding the only inhabitant of a Chicago house lying on a couch seriously ill, two burglars, instead of sacking the place, called a cab anddrove the sufferer to the nearest doctor. As they justly remarked, ‘‘This humane act may strike you as strange in Chicago, but you must remember that we are not ordinary Chicago citizens, but merely professional criminals.” In a speech in his electorate last week the Premier of Queensland (Mr. Denham), said: “The great and increasing need for mineral oil as a motive power warrants the Government thoroughly prospecting for oil in likely localities. An oil well-boring plant is now equipped, and, as indications are encouraging, it is our intention to follow up the quest, which, if successful, will add materially to the wealth of Queensland.”

Strikes occur in various places under different conditions and from varying causes. A novel strike occurred at a suburban boarding-house in Gisborne. The cook bad a misunderstanding with one of the boarders and went so far as to refuse to serve him with meals and ordered him out of the dining-room. Then a crisis arrived, every boarder rising from the table and leaving the room. At this stage the Arbitration Court, in the shape of the “boss” of the boardinghouse, adjudicated in the dispute and the cook had to descend from the rather peculiar position he had assumed and keep within the reasonable limits of his subordinate sphere of duty. The trial at Krakow of a Polish advocate named Steinfeld, who has come to grief through gambling, has been the occasion of some curious revelations about the hold which this vice has on business men in Austrian Poland (states a .London journal). Dr. Steinf.eld’s wife, in her endeavour to keep her husband out of temptation, tried the plan of never leaving him out of her sight, even when he went to his office. The lawyer then made a practice of going to hpd early and rising at 4 in the morning, before his wife was awake, in order to hurry off to the so-called “Monte Carlo” at Krakow, which he would find still in full swing at that hour. When staying at hotels during the summer he would arrange meetings with other card players lU the bath-room, and play there for hours, while he told his wife that he was taking a cold water cure. The lyre bird, one of the most beautiful ancl interesting of Australian birds, is approaching extinction. It is hunted for its plumes, despite the fact that it is on the list of protected birds, and hundreds of “tails” are sold annually. The Royal Australasian Ornithologists Union, realising that the lyre bird is practically doomed on the mainland* is endeavouring to have it acclimatised in Tasmania. The Government of the island State are.willing to help, if specimens arc sent across the strait, and Mr. Robert Hall, of the Hobart Museum, will soe that the birds are liberated in suitable localities. The difficulty is to secure live specimens, for the Ivre bird is as shy as a hare, and Mr. I). Lo Souef (director of the Melbourne Zoological Gardens) long been seeking to obtain some without success. The young birds are easilycaptured in the nests, but cannot be reared.

Napoleon has been described as possessing the natural “master-m»nd’ f in military affairs. The same may be said of Martell in the manufacture of brandy. “Where there’s a will there’s a way,” but there’s ordy one way to make good brandy and MABTELL’S have always adopted it.