The Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1896. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5688, 6 October 1896, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1896. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Those parliamentary chuckers-out, the members of the Legislative Council, added another item to their list of feats yesterday, by deliberately killing the Liquor Bill. They declined to amend it in any shape or way, obviously for the reason stated by Mr Shrimski, that "the other House" woiild decline to accept an emasculated measure. We do not suppose that the "happy despatch" qf this Bill will be productive of "lamentation, mourning and great woe " in any section of the people. All the members of clubs will rejoice that the danger of intrusion upon their privacy has been removedj and assuredly "the trade" will be jubilant. Nor will the Prohibitionist leaders bo sorry at v heart, protest they never so loudly to the contrary ; for they are archragitators, and to find their occupation in any degree gone would be a sore loss. In any case the Bill would not have satisfied them, their demand practically amounting to "the whole hog or none." If it were reasonable to hope for reasonableness on the part of these declamatory orators, ono might expect them to take to heart the leading lesson of the debate in the Council, that their methods are productive of repugnance. The report that was presented yesterday at the annual meeting of the Hospital Lady Visitors' Committee makes a pleasant record of "something attempted, somefacts should be productive of a large adthing done," and its array of cheering ditional measure of active support. Sick people in destitute circumstances are peculiarly iv need of well directed sympathy, and this is the why and wherefore of the committee's existence. We are particularly pleased with one section of the report, which states that a large proportion of the year's income was devoted to sending convalescents to Rhodes's Home, or to Sunnier or New Brighton, and "in providing shelter for destitute men who had no homes, thus giving them a chance of procuring employment." That is good work, and the ladies who undertake it eminently deserve the hearty co-operation of every section of the community. Mb Geeald Balfoue's belief that the more rampant anti-English feeling in Ireland was extinguished, must have received a shock when he received the address "To Irish Nationalists Throughout the World," issued in view of the approaching Convention, in which occurs the following paragraph: — "You know as well as we that in the immense imposture called the English Constitution there is no place for the restitution of national right, and that you might as well play a concertina to a tiger as prate of Liberty and Justice to the pirate caste which from Westminster and Whitehall suck th« blood and gnaw the marrow of four hundred millions of enslaved humanity." We are further told that "the most absurd and servile race in Europe is that English race which shares the name and works the bloody will of tho tyrants of the world," that Irishmen may as well extol "constitutional cholera" as constitutional agitation, and that— "The great betrayal has been followed by the great cowardice and the great corruption. What can express, who can describe, tho present degradation of the renegades? Pitiful John Dillon, the stilted peacock of judicial drawing-rooms, ridiculous and solemn, promenades the melancholy lmmbug of his puppet leadership before the contempt of London and Westminster." Other members of the Irish Party are spoken of as "reptiles" who "sprawl iv tho smoking-rooms of London Liberal clubs," and so on. According to a Wellington contemporary, about two years ago Mr Frank Long, of that city, discovered and patented a process of treating cow hair so that it might be manufactured into felt, horse blankets, rugs, &c. A sample of the material treated by his method was sent to London, and no difficulty was found in placing it at 4*d per lb, which was considered a most satisfactory price. Steps are now being taken to float a company to develop a new industry on the lines of the patent. Arrangements have been made to obtain supplies of the raw material from the chief centres of tho colony, and it is proposed to erect a factory at Ngahauranga. Tho same authority states that it is the intention of the Government to place a sum on the Supplementary Estimates for the purpose of assisting the projected undertaking.