HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19816, 6 December 1919, Page 8

HERE AND THERE.

The Orkney Islands do not really bo. long to Great Britain in the sense that they wore over ceded by treaty or acquired by conquest. They were simply transferred by Denmark to Scotland in 1468 in pledge for the payment of oho dowry of tho Princess of Denmark, who was married to James 111., King of Scotland, In the deed of transfer, which is still in existence, it is specially mentioned that Denmark shall havo tho right to redeem them at any future time by paying tho original amount of the dowry with interest to date. There is no likelihood, however, that > Denmark will over attempt to exercise her right of redemption, because 60,000 florins, the original amount paid, are worth perhaps a trillion sterling, and 1 that is a bit more than the islands aro worth. i Colonel Hall Walker, who has just been raised to tho peerage, is to takethe title of Lord Osmaston. This is , after Osmaston Manor, tho family place of tho Walkers, near Ashbourne, in Derbyshire. A fine house, built ou an eminence, and giving delightful views of the picturesque country around, Osmuston was the residence of the late Bui Andrew Walker, then of his brother, Sir Peter Walker, and it is now tho home of tho latter’s widow and her young son, Sir lan Walker, who is now, in his seventeenth year. Lady Osmaston was Miss Sophie Sheridan, youngest daughter of Mr Algernon Sheridan, of Franu>ton Court, Dorchester, and a descendant of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, the statesman, dramatist and wit. She has inherited the beauty of the members bf her family, one of whom was Lady Somerset, the Queen of Beauty at the Eglinton tournament. With the next few month’s there is likely to be a " glut ” of girl clerks all over Australia (says the Melbourne “ Argus ”). During tho war the hanks and many large business houses trained girls in considerable numlieru to take the places of employees who had gone to the war; but in the banks and in the great majority of other firais this process was undertaken on tho distinct understanding that tho places of soldier 1 employees should be made available for them ou their return, and, as men clerks who joined the A.I.F. are now returning to their former positions, the girls who “ carried on ” in their absence are being retired. Fortunately, the displacing of the girls is proceeding gradually, and there aro not likely to ho ■wholesale dismissals resulting in the placing of hundreds of girl clerks in the i labour market at one time-