The Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6089, 28 January 1898, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, JANUARY 28, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

There are at least two ways of looking at a year's death roll, and tho point of view from which the Undertakers' Review regards it is not the point of view that the mass of humanity would take. In its December number the Review discussed the past year from the mortuary standpoint. It was a bad year. Business has gone " on the even tenor of its disappointing way." There was "but occasional demand for most of us, and that demand chiefly of an unremunerative order." The mortality tables, indeed, " responded generously in August to the heat wave," but the last return to hand comes a few short of the average of the past ten yeara. The result on the fortunes of the trade is just what might have been expected — "no new features," and, a "tendency in funerals, as in politics, to reaction." The florists, as usual, get the lion's share of the profits of funeral pomp. Flowers are of no use to undertakers. "Nor have we yet heard/ says the Review, severely, "of the benefit which they- confer either upon the departed or the bereaved." The same thing might, perhaps, be said of plumes and- velvet trappings, but, in the circumstances, it would be ungenerous to say it. " Plumett.es have shown a slight tendency to revival," but " that little has never been much." We aro not surprised (the Daily News says) to hear it, as there are no miracles in mathematics. Graves are about the same price, and coffins "are still of elm or of oak, mostly polished and -trimmed, with brass furniture, too often simulated by the wretched German dipped-brass plate stuff." In short, it is not so much the review as the funeral sermon of the year. One would gladly echo, the wisli^ of a merry* Christmas to all," but for a disquieting uncertainty as to the significance attached to the words.

Lone St Kilda/' the storm-beaten, island out in the Atlantic, whatever disadvantages it may possess, is in the happy position of being free from the attentions of the tax-gatherer. p rom correspondence between the Undersecretary for Scotland llaX * * as + agCt * d that the poor and W t?a • iT$? Should not be exacted S^i *v,«,^ bltants of «»e island, in Jttespeot that ther« waa neither rent nor

profit got out of the place. This appears to be the outcome of an arrangement made many years ago, that so long as the parish of Harris, in which St Kilda in situated, made no claim for the relief of poor, no rates would be enforced. The same arrangement was made with regard to schools subsequent to the Education Act of 1872. Poverty-stricken as the island is ' —the^ exports do not pay for the imports-^ -St Kilda continues to provide education for its children and to provide for its own poor. It is the old,-old story. At Nachod, near Prague, there is a hospital at which the nurses are nuns. At the beginning of November a young 1 man named Horina was taken there suffering from several sabre wounds he had received ill a quarrel. He was given over to the charge of a young and pretty nun, Sister Huberta. In a few days he was discharged cured, but by this time severe symptoms of love had developed. He proceeded to the nun's parents with the intention of gaining her hand in marriage, but his offer was f ejected, and he returned to the hospital, where the authorities refused him all admission, in spite of his threats to shoot himself if thwarted. The police took a revolver away from the love-sick Borneo and ordered him to quit Nachod. He obeyed their instructions implicitly, but .not before he had succeeded in abducting the object' of his passion, the young worldly-inclined nun taking advantage of the evening meal to climb over the fence and thence into a carriage in which sat her lover. That Irish donkeys are very much *Jn demand will be news to a good many people. In the Queen's Bench Division Mr Justice Bighani gave judgment in the case Schenker, Walford and Co. v. the Nederlandsche Bank, &c, and S. G. . CQanville. The case aroseout of the insurance of Irish donkeys. The Transvaal Government were anxious to secure a large number of these animate for transport purposes and Messrs Vorster and Maltzan agreed to supply 4000 at Pretoria at .£l2 each. On the voyage out 208 donkeys were lost, and on the arrival of the remainder some difficulty' arose with the Transvaal Government. Defendants now claimed that they were entitled to hold the whole of the money paid by the underwriters under the policies as security for a sum of .£27,500, the total amount of their advance with commission. His Lordship decided in favour of the defendants with costs. How easily charitable gifts and endow ments may go astray is amply illustrated in a recent inquiry conducted in Carnarvonshire by Mr T. E. Morris, the Assistant Charity Commissioner. William Ellis, a retired Custom House officer, residing at Conway, in 1814 left by his will, subject to two successive life interests, a sum of .£IOOO for the benefit of the poor of Llanystumdwy. The Charity Commission report of 1834 shows one annuitant. The fund then disappeared. The present Assistant Commissioner started fresh inquiries, as the result of which the original sum of Consols, together with a further sum of .£2OO, given by the same donor for the same purpose, have been discovered among the unclaimed capital remaining in the hands of the Commissioners for the Eedemption of the National Debt. No dividend has been paid on these sums sinoe 1850, and the accumulated interest now amounts to about £1800, so that the poor of Llanystumdwjfind themselves possessed of a capital sum of .£3OOO, equivalent to an annual income of from .£7O to £80. There was a bitter. Tory opposition to thiß inquiry.