FROM HOME PAPERS.

Timaru Herald, Volume LX, Issue 2646, 8 March 1898, Page 3

FROM HOME PAPERS.

An entertainment was given at Loughton, England, recently, as a benefit to John William Squires, who has been postman m thf» village for thirty-Bix years. In the performance of his duties this veteran has walked upwards of 210,000 miles. This is calculated on a basis of 18 miles per day week days and '* 4£ miles on Sundays. j The widow of James C. Ayer, the patent medicine manufacturer, died recently m Paris, where she was nearly as i well known as Sarah Bernhardt. Left with a fortune of 15,000,000 dollars on the death of her husband m 1878, and with an annual income of 2,000,000 dollars, she expended every dollar of the income on the magnificent establishment she maintained m the French capital. She never appeared m public twice m the same dress, and she bought from 200 to 300 costly dresses every year. It is related of her that she never gave away a dress, but when it once had been worn it was placed on a wire dummy, and set up m her house for her own delectation. Some idea of the eccentricity of the woman can be formed from this fact, the rooms of her house having been filled with these lay figures. Mrs Ayer was more than seventy-one years old at the time of her death, and was m " society " almost to the end. Some curious instances of the inflexibility of the ways of English manufacturers are given m the Board of Trade Journal :— An arsenal, m Japan, required a crane with the lifting machinery of a certain description not now considered as the most serviceable. Application was made to an English maker, who refused to supply the out-of-date article. A German house accepted the order, and thus obtained an opening which it will probably turn to good advantage. The sewing-machines of a well known English maker were m possession of the field, and might have remained there had the makers thought it worth their while to humour the fancy of their Japanese customers. For some reason of their own the Japanese wished to have a machine with the arm somewlmt higher than it is usually made. The English makers thought that the change would be a disadvantage m working the machine, or tnat at any rate it was unnecessary. Some German makers did not mind that ; they saw that m consulting the Japanese preference there would be an advantage to themselves ; and now the German-made sewing machine is seen everywhere. J. W. Hobbs, one of Jabez Balfour's confederates, who was sentenced m 1893 to twelve years' penal servitude for frauds cf great magnitude, has been released from gaol on the ground of illhealth. The results of the English ! prieon ayetem on Hobbs were rheuma--1 tism and spasm, loss of the sight of one eye, coliCj total breakdown. It is said that this is the kind of bulletin which is issued of nearly every prisoner who, not being of iron frame or accustomed to the rudest form of life, finds himself within her Majesty's gaols. Long sentences are not possible m these cases ; the law cannot be carried out save at the price of death. Persistent reports continue to be circulated of the discovery of placer gold m various rivers of Labrador, and a number of prospecting parties are preparing to start m the spring. The geological formation of Labrador is said to be the same as that of Klondike. The Newfoundland Government, which has control of Eastern Labrador, has received numerous applications for timber limits m the supposed gold-bearing region. According to a report contained m letters from Dawson City .dated December 10th, the mother-lode of the Klondike goldfields haa been discovered. The quartz is said to be immensely rich. A despatch from Hchenectady (New York) says a contract has been placed with the Central Electric Company of that city by the Central Underground Railway of London for thirty-two electric locomotives of 800 horse-power each. When the General Electric Company received the order for electrical apparatus on the underground railway it was generally understood that the locomotives would be built m. England. The placing of the order m America creates general surprise, and great gratification to builders of electrical machinery. A marriage around which clusters all the elements of romance was celebrated at Liverpool m January, when a dashing young Irish sailor led to the altar a blushing young bride belonging to one of the highest families m the land. Lady Ernestine Brudenell-Bruce, the eldest daughter of the Marquiß and Marchioness of Ailesbury, whose love of the sea is well known, and whose ability m handling a yacht is said to be almost equal to that of the most experienced old salt, applied to the Board of Trade at Liverpool to be allowed to go up and undergo the customary examination for a yacht master's certificate, which she desired m order that she might hold the proper qualification to take command of her own yacht. The Board of Trade, however, declined to accede to the lady's request. She, however, pursued her nautical studies under one of the best teachers m Liverpool, and at this school she met a young man named Harry Brady Hunt, of Limerick, who, having spent come years at sea, first as an apprentice and afterwards as a mate, determined to go up for a master's certificate. Friendship and then affection sprung up between them, and one fine morning they were quietly but not secretly married. None of the lady's friends were aware of it. Mr Hunt has been appointed master of a sailing vessel, and it is stated that his aristocratic wife intends to accompany him and to spend the first part of her married life at any rate at sea.