The Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6132, 19 March 1898, Page 4

The Star. SATURDAY, MARCH 19, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

" A Cardinal in pawn " has been one of tho minor topics of conversation in social London. A handsome pastel portrait of Cardinal Vaiighan appeared on view in the window of a leading pawnbroking establishment. It was by a Milan artist, and was priced at ten guineas. Commenting thereon, a morning journal wrote : — "One cannot help speculating as to the fate of the original possessor, a staunch adherent, doubtless, of his faith, and devoted admirer of the cardinal, reduced to put, as it were, his faith in pawn for a paltry •fiver,' and sinking still* lower (how might he hope to do otherwiso after such an act), unable to redeem the pledge, and growing by slow degrees to think so lightly of his outrage that he caves not to retain a lien on it by paying the interest. To find a parallel case, one is forced to imagine a British officer pawning the sword wherewith ho has reaped fresh laurels on the field of battle." Thereupon some witty chessplayer sent in the following rhymes : — Tho chequered game of life, alas ! Is hard to think upou, Since one, who ewe a JBishop was, By fate became a Pawn. But harder still it is to th-«i2r, More friul I ban first it- siOig>»d, Thi-.t on.^ so lugh in Chiisii&u rank bhouUl stili be unredeemed. >

Mr S. 11. Moeeton, the well-known artist, lias shown us a remarkable example of tho progress that has been made in " process " printing. The example in question is a facsimile of one of his oavu watercolour paintings, ah early morning study in the Lake Te Anau district, full of tender colouring, and presenting a very considerablea'nountof technical difficulty in the work of reproduction. Yet this has been so faithfully done, here in Christchurch, that at the first glance one might well imagine that the artist had painstakingly painted a miniature replica. The modus opcrandi, which has only been evolved after two years' experimenting, is to take three photographs" of the picture. One of these is so contrived that only the red tones will be picked up, the next dealing with the blues, and the third Avith the yellows. From these photographs, threo " half-tone plates " are produced, and these are printed from with red, yellow and blue inks respectively. Tho superposing of the primary colours results in the presentment of the varying tints that the artist, has used, and in the evolution of what is quite a work of art m colour printing. We heartily congratulate the experimenters upon tbo marked measure of success that they have achieved. By yesterdays train ' samples of the petroleum found on the Cheviot Estate were forwarded to this office. The oil was obtained by digging a hole about three feet deep on the Seaward Range afr a height of about 250 ft above sea lev'dii The two samples are contaiiretl?is-quarf bottles and the bulk of tha liquid in each is of a muddy description, with about two inches of oil floating on the top. The oil is very clear in: appearance, and smells vary strongly of kerosene. Accompanying the oil is a sample of the blue papa clay irom which the oii is obtained, and it appears to* l:o strongly impregnated with kerosene, judging by the smell. The saniples have been placed ou view at the omce of this journal, and it is intended dunng next week to givo a public test of the oil by burning it i v an ordinary kerosene lamp without purification

Arbangements are in progress to get the Minister otMxnea to' proclaim Cheviot a mining district, asuntil this is done theprospeoto™ who have made the discovery cau?W- T ! •» r light3 ' A P oti^ on t0 rln^ "I • ■ Panted to the Premier vhnVf, I 3 VlSlt Christchurch. From ward SL- ga - tllered ' the whole of the SeaI iang e w imprecated with petroleum

for a distance of over twenty miles from the mouth of the Waiau to the Hurunui River, as it has been found in several places. The report of Professor Skey, the Government analyst, upon samples sent up to him, is as follows :—" These are almost absolutely colourless, and appear to be of light character. They are undoubtedly first-class quality; in fact, almost too good to be named 'petroleum. One distillation of this oil should, by taking off the very lightest oils, adapt it for ordinary use in kerosene lamps as a good llluminaut."

In asking the question, " Was cancer increasing?" Dr Pell said, during his adw ore the M edical Congress, that what the members of the profession wanted to study in this connection was nottho statistics of fifteen years but of one thousand five hundred years, or, better still, of the last three thousand, when they would see that cancer as a common cause of death was of comparatively recent development. What the President had read of the seventy-two books written by the seven doctors of the family of Hippocrates had proved to him "that cancer, if it existed at all in ancient Greece, was a rare and unimportant disease. In the Bible they had leprosy, epilepsy, insanity, blindness, all singled out for special mention, but cancer, a disease just as terrible and appealing as strongly to the imagination, was nowhere alluded to. It was impossible to believo that cancer was two thousand years ago the common and formidable complaint which now had to be dealt with. Even in the middle ages he believed cancer was a rare and unimportant disease. Comparing the mortality now with that of one, two or three hundred years ago, they wo aid arrive at the startling conclusion that cancer was a new disease.

ENGLiSH-speaking people all the world over have regretted the death of " Lewis Carroll" (the Rev C. L. Dodgson), who produced for the edification of children— of all ages— such boots as "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland " and " Through the Looking-gl&ss." The sbories told about him would make a goodly volume. His " Euclid and the Game of Logic" contains two of the neatest parodies on Euclid's definitions : " A discussion may be raised on any point at any distance from that point," " A plain superficial speaker is one who, any two points being given, will lie evenly between those points." The following jeux d'esprit have become classic : — His monograph on the etymological significance of the new belfry: "The word ' Belfry' is derived frcm the French 'bel' — beautiful, becoming, mcct — and from the German 'frei' — free, unfettered, secure, safe. Thus the word is striccly equivalent to ' meat-safe/ to which the new belfry bears a resemblance so perfect as almost to amount to coincidence." And his reply to an undergraduate driving a tandem whom he met on one of his daily constitutionals. This undergraduate had a day or two before been driving one of the Egyptian Piinees tlien at Oxford, and had spilled his Highness. " May I give you a lift ?" asked the undergradute as he passed Mr Dodgson. " Wilt'thou kill me," was the answer, "as thou didst the Egyptian yesterday ?"