STRAY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6467, 22 April 1899, Page 7

STRAY NOTES.

The cable agent brings under notice a fow trifles that have occurred in different parts of the world. It seems that the English Chancellor of the Exchequer is in difficulties with his revenue, and wants a little money, a couple of millions or so, to make ends meet. The sum is not great, but it is just such a small worry as this that is often most annoying. Anyone who has been in need of a trifling accommodation himself can understand the position in which Sir Michael Hicks-Beach. findß himself. Now, if anyone who reads these lines would mind forwarding the amouut, he would have the double consolation of getting the Bank rate of interest and of helping a very deserving person. Moreovor, he would ' stop all this talk about an increase in the wine duties. Another matter that has been mentioned during the pnst few days is that someone has been shooting at the Ameer of Afghanistan. There are some very, bad shots in that country, and the Ameer is still alive. After this thrilling event in the land of tlio Afghan vo were prepared for a great deal, and can now read quite calmly the announcement that tho second daughter of Lord Rosebery has married someone. As a matter of fact, tfe were not surprised. She was always a very determined girl, and her mother prophesied long ago that she would do something of the kind.

It is inoro than a week or two since the steamer Stella was wrecked in the English Channel and about fifty people were drowned. It was a tragic affair, attended with certain terrible and dramatic episodes, and by this time the English writers have considered its possibilities as a subject for descriptive treatment. Those people who throw ink about, and who make a reputation for themselves by doing so, will bo getting ready to sny something graphic, picturesque, laconic, forcible- whatever the mood or temperament may suggest. So far the colonial public have only heard the cable agent's version. The agent is au intensely practical person, and always con^ fines himself to bare details. His account runs something like this: Tho excursion steamer Stellalef b Southampton on the evening- of March 30,andwaswreckedonasunkeu rock in the early morning of March 31. There was a dense fog at the time, and tho captain was unable to calculate its extent. The women and children were placed in the boats, while the other passengers and crow rendered them every assistance. There was some excitement ..but no disorder. Many instances of bravery were witnessed. The vessol sank soon after striking, and those who remained on board,. to the number of about fifty, were drowned. It is understood that the Stella wa3 insured to her full value.

This is how Rudyard Kipling intends to do it .- Handkerchiefs were waving as the steamer left the pier, and a number of women stayedW board till the last minute. Some woinenhavea way like that. A fine night, but it might have been finer. To the left there are long lines of sunset, line 3 that for half an hour or more throw streaming, bloodred reflections across the channel find paint the fleet as Azrael would have painted it if he had stepped out from the bottomless pit. Nature is imitating one of Turner's pictures— not a good imitation, but not altogether bad, as imitations go. But it is dark now, and, for the matter of that, worse than d'ark.^ The Stella has the fog at her throat and in her eyes, and all around her; but she shakes it off, and goes full steam ahead. Crash ! It has come at last. In the sea rushes, in over the broken bulwarks, in till the grpen monsters set her down, hard down on the rock there and laugh and chase each other over her deck. But what matter ? Is anyone afraid ? No one yet. There are boats somewhere, and they can be brought out. Here they are. It is, " Make way, make way there," and the women pass along the lines and into the tossing tub, while the crew look on calmly enough. A man can go to his God, or to sheol, here as well as he can anywhere else.

Marie Corelli puts it this way : The night fell with appalling suddenness, and the curtain of the Heavens seemed to be obliterated by a veil, that iv its terrible density, bespoke a malignant purpose that boded no good to the men and women on the steamer's deck. But while the Captain's tall figure stood by the binnacle lamp, and the vessel rushed through the darkness there were sounds of men's voices and rippling peals of laughter from many a fair girl who listened to the deeper tones of her lover as they talked on, unheeding. From the saloon came the note 3 of music, and the sound floated out into the night air, then gathered strength, and in a deepening strain of harmony, rose up, and ever upward as thongh a spirit's lamp were illuminating and breaking through tho misty veil around. The picture was too bright to last. With terrible intensity and tragic force the vessel rushed onward to destruction, until, with a shock that made the brave3t turn pale, it came to its last halting place on a sunken reef of the Channel Islands. It was a terrible, an awful, moment. But even then the courage of more than one brave girl did not fail her. The stewerdess, with a devotion that should make the other sex feel ashamed for ever, gave up her lifebelt to a child who was standing by its mother's side. Even the men followed thi9 example. They assisted to launch the boats, and, with the calmness of their sisters, watched the living freight descend into the billowy waste of waters below.

The young man reporter writes in this wise: An unexpected and painful accident, unfortunately attended with serious loss of life, occurred to the steamer Stella at an early hour this morning. From the particulars furnished to our representative, it appears that the vessel was an excursion steamer, and that there were a number of passengero on board at the time the disastrous event took place. Many of these came down from London by the evening express, and joined the Stella just previous to her departure, which took place precisely at 4.37 p.m. On the following day, at an early hour, she ran on to a reef off the coast of Alderney. It is not known exactly when this took place, as the hour is variously stated at from 2.20 to 2.28 a.m. The besG authorities favour the latter. A painful sensation was created among those on board, most of whom were indulging in harmony in the state-room when the catastrophe happened. Others, who were pacing up and down the deck, were rudely awakened from love's young dream. The atmospheric conditions were very unfavourable, as a dense fog had driven old Sol to rest long before. The fury of the elements soon began to work havoc, and the ill-fated vessel speedily found a watery grave. A number of the passengers — how many, our 1 representative has been unable to discover — were unfortunately drowned. This sad event has cast quit's a gloom over the town, where many of those missing were well known and highly respected.

Those people who read the papers, and those who do not, are probably aware by. this time that the Pollard Opera Company is due in Chris fcchurch next week. The news is welcome foe several reasons, none of them very difficult of comprehension. The amateur may be exceptionally good of his kind, but ho cannot help being amateurish. He may disguise the quality, and almost persuade the audience that he has lost it altogether, bub aooner or later, in some particular or another, he discloses it. Jf it is not in his manner, it is in his voice ; and if it is not in his voice, it is in his by-play ; or his painful smile, or his backwardness or forwardness, or his makeup, or his wig, or tho daub of paint under his left eyebrow. There havo been two amateur operas staged in Chris tchurch lately, and both havo been well done, but ! those who go to hear the Pollards on Mon- ; day will notice, and probably appreciate, the difference. These remarks are en- : tirely without prejudice, and are quite consistent with a high rogard for the un- . professional performer.

To cure that soreness of tlio limbs which attacks cyclists and other athlotoa when in "{"Ding, apply Loa3by'B Koolibah, a Jinimcnt which is used exclusively by Uco. Sutherland, I Harold Lyons, and other cyclittta. Vnwt 2a, ■ nil chemists.