HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19815, 5 December 1919, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

The French Government is making a first issue of £160,000 in lottery bonds in order to reconstruct the derusted areas- Tho bonds are 600 francs each, redeemable in sixty years, and boar 6 i>or emit interest, free of all Frenchl taxation- There aro prizes of ' £4()'ooo'’ l )rize being Tu continuation of their action' against profiteers, the French Government. lias confiscated goods belonging to boot shops in the Centre of Fans, shoetv were being sold at prices ranging from £1 to £(1, Most of the merchants in question had also disregarded the luxury tax, and they will bo prosecuted by tlip profiteering tribunals and by the fiscal authorities. John Godfrey, who in his. childhood (so to sneak) was a, railway worker, and is now a well-grown young man of ninety, lias just been married, at SB Lawrence’s Church, Reading, to Sarah Parsons, a, girl of sweet seventy-six. The wedding was conducted hy Canon the Rev R. R, Newhouso, aged sixtyfour, the baby of the party. Mr| George Foxell, a sprightly church verger of ninety-three years, was best man. man. The Prince of Wales made a litho joke at a dinner tendered, to kirn by English societies in New York, and the cable man has sent it forth as a serious pronouncement. Speaking of England's recovery from the strain of war, tne Prince remarked . humorously that ‘“ England is very much herself/ and is ( r'llr" lor rival the greatness of W ales and Scotland 1“ This was evidently a mere after-dinner pleasantry, and. why it should have been thought of sufficient importanco to be cabled all over .he world is hard to understand. “ No one knows bow man first learned to keep fire alive and how ages later he oanied to make a, fire,” says John Mills in Iho Realities of Modern Science. “Many students of tho ii .. lc ? man ' n e:ir ker geologic ages Wumk that ho first saw fire in the dry seasons when lightning started it. At the remains of n fire given by lightning from tho heavens he may have' cooked meats and noticed that the fire flared up under the breeze. As vet no wav was known of kindling a fire. To-dav we little realise the situation of manland when it s scientific knowledge was only sufficient to maintain a fire and not to start one. Tt is no wonder that religious rites grew up about the tribal fire, and that special caretakers woro dedicated to ifc.” An advertiser in an English house and property paper goes one better than the milkman, who, in addition to ms rout, has offered to supply milk free of charge every day to the ‘amllord who lets him a house (remarks A Man About Town ” in the London Evening News”). The advertiser, who is a builder, offers to do repairs! up to £SO for the possession offive; or seven-roomed house within fifteen miles of London. We may expect, offers soon, I suppose, from a tailor who wall clothe ono free of charge for the rest of one’s life, or from an undertaker who will bury one gratis at tins end of it. The bonuses offered by desperate house and flat seekers on one page alone of this house and apartment paper amount to £275 and range from £1 to £3O. The French Minister of Marine has decided not to continue tho construction of the five Dreadnoughts—Flnndre, Bearn, Gascogne. Languedoc and Normandie. Planned before the war, the work on these vessels has been suspended since 1915; and now shipbuilding experts consider that it is impracticable to modernise vessels without completely altering the plana. It is therefore necessary to sacrifice the work already done. Franco now has seven battleships which, though not of the latest pattern, are useful ships. The prevailing opinion at tho Ministry of Marino seems to bo against building* any more Dreadnoughts. It is thought that R would bo better to /utilisfc the country’s comparatively' limited resources in men and money for fast cruisers and underwater craft on the lines suggested by Lord Fisher. A woman who wants to adopt a baby from every nation called at the Baby Exchange opened by the National Cbilden Adoption Association in Londofi. She has found an. English child, amA she has seen a little black boy she likes. She wants an Italian child and a Russian next. An. order for “a longclothes baby every roar ” has also been left with the association fry a “ father ” and “ mother ” who adopted an infant last year. They moan to have a family of six. An official of the association stated that she spends nearly all her time apologising to intendbur adopters becausci the stock of fail- girls is (low, and in trying to induce them to take a fair bov instead. But sb© lias neverbeen able to induce the adopter to change her mind. A woman’s susceptibility to a prefty pair of shoes is indicated in the report of the Profiteering Commission, presented to the Victorian Parliament ( says the Melbourne “ Ago ”). The report states that there is profiteering in the manufacture and sale of boots and shoos, and it gives figures to prove that retailers nr© alive to tho weakness of women where elegant but not necessarily sound footwear is concerned. Some retailers, it is pointed out, make a im : - fonn addition to the prices at which their goods are invoiced to them. bur. tho majority increase the added percentage according to the qnalitv of the boot or shoo. The commission ©xno sympathy for tbos© who ar© mad© the victims of profiteering in high-priced and fancy goods. Whilst on a tour over tho battlefields of Trance, m July last, Mr M’Pberson th© i State Treasurer of Victoria, met again tho veteran General Pau, who led tho French Mission to Australia last year. The meeting took place at Saint Mihiel, and Air M’Pherson took the opportunity of publicly reiterating in Trance the assurances which had been already given to General Pau in Australia, of the warm friendly feeling in which France is held hy Australians. General Pau, in responding, showed that lie had not forgotten the reception tendered to him on his visit. He asked that an expression of everlasting gratitude ho conveyed to Australia. I he Anzacs who had made the Australian flag known to tho people of Franco and who had mixed wiih them, would never lie forgotten. Ho made a plea for better commercial relations between tho two countries, and added fhivi though ho was too old io say he would return to pay another visit'‘to Australia. younger representatives ©f his country would do it, and so renew the friendships between tho two peoples. “-Major Spaggi,” the Bully Beef King, io dead. After a, lifetime of preparing rare dishes for famous people, he, has become the victim of a rabbit bone. Wounded at Guliijioli and never in good health since, this monarch of tho kitchen swallowed a.' rabbit bone, and the cough that ensued brought about his death at his Battersea Park home. Aurelia Spacciatrosi. u> give him his proper name, mad© a. siicciality of cooking for tho Army. ll© went through the youth African War as chef, preparing meals- for Lord Kitchener, Loixl .Roberts and Sir Redvers Bullcr. In the. recent war lie. served in Franco, Gallipoli. Egypt, and SaJonica, when he earned a famous reputation a,s a wizard with bully beef. The Tommies called, him “Major Spaggi,’’ and tho officers of tho staff blcssod lurr* for tho appetising dishes that he never tailed 1 to produce. One day in the summer of 1916 Aurelia was called to prepare a dinner at the Lancaster Gate house of Lord French. To his surprise he found that the guest of tho evening was hia old chief. Lora Kitchener. That meal was the last Lord Kitchener had in Hindon. He sailed <m tho Hampshire the next day. “ Major Spaggicooked for every on© wonii cooking for. including Kina Edward and King Gr'urg.-,. 1.1,0 Awswli,. «1 tor Um ex-iluisea ,