HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 19864, 5 February 1920, Page 4

HERE AND THERE.

Mors than TOCOIb of pure gold ar« required every, year to supply wedding ungs for English brides. . Wi ' ilc trawling for flounders in the nver at Gisborne recently a fisherman landed a stingray, 6ft from head to tail, sft across, while the fleshy part ol tho body was about Ift thick. The sting in its tail was about 9in long, and ridged like a saw. The weight was estimated at between • two and tnree hundredweight.

Since the last rise In the pneo of tobacco took place many men have been threatening to cease smoking as a protest, but it has been left ±o°tho Auckland waterside workers to fo'rmaly ban tobacco. Several hundred of bite men who were sheltering from tho ram m their waiting shed on Saturday unanimously passed a resolution pledgmg themselves to refrain from smoking, and to urge others to do tho same, until a substantial reduction was made m tho price of tobacco. •

A Hamilton man just returned from f lo i .Hnitcd States tolls a. good story of his stay there. At the time of the peace celebrations he was in Los Angeles, and tho peace celebrations in that town were of tho most elaborate description. Amongst other items in a, procession was a number of Yankee soldiers bearing a banner on which was inscribed “Wo won tho war!”--immense cheering by the onlookers. At the tail-end of the procession was a small party of British bluejackets carrying a simple banner with Ihc laconic inscription, “ We helped.” Great changes arc taking place in the newspaper world in London. One of the latest developments is the acquisition of the "Financial Times” by Messrs William E. Berry and J. Corner Berry, who already control the “Financial Bullionist.” Thcv ai'o thus in possession of two out of tho three London daily financial papers. In addition, they control the “ Sunday Times.” Tho Messrs Berry aro connected with a vorv

active group of financiers hailing from South Wales, who are now engaged in all sorts of promotions and undertakings.

Provision for the payment of an annual sum as a prize for the “ worthiest girl” in the City of Providence, -Rhode Island, is included in the will of Count Paul Rainotti, a millionaire of Turin, who, while in the Italian diplomatic service, met and married Miss' Carrie Brown, a, member of a wealthy family which founded the Brown University iii Providence. The testator set aside a sura of £2OOO, tho interest from which is to be given annually, 11 about July 17 to the young lady in Providence, who, being twenty years old, marriageable, and a daughter of the common people, will best deserve it by her conduct and family virtues.’' The £200,000 diamond necklace presented by Napoleon to the Empress ’Marie Louise, forming part of tho crown jewels of Austria, is .now tho object of judicial investigation in Paris. In 1912 the court of Austria was desirous of helping the royalist party in Portugal and being short of funds decided to sell certain crown jewels, among which was -the famous necklace. A special envoy was sent to Franco and tho jewels were entrusted to the lady for her to arrange a sale. No receipts were given or asked for.. The war began while this sale was not yet complete and now the lady is bringing an action against the diamond merchant, and the latter in his counter-claim asks for £I2OO commission.

Daylight baking has been the subject of agitation in the bread industry for some time past, and tho question was discussed fully at the conference of the New Zealand Master Bakers’ ’Association at Wellington last week. It was the unanimous opinion of the conference that if daylight baking were adopted it must be done through legislation, and that two years should be allowed .the master bakers in which to make necessary arrangements. Further, it was contended that small % men employing no labour must be brought under the Act. and provision made that bread should not be sold less than twelve hours old. Monday’s brena would have to he baked on Saturday, to avoid Sunday work. It was decided to communicate these opinions to Parliament and tho Board of Trade. The manner in which motorists are catered for in the large American cities was commented upon by the Auckland city engineer, Mr W. E. Bush, on his return from bis jen months’ tour abroad. In many of the cities referred to, he said, large gasoline depots were provided, where motorists could procure supplies of gasoline, and lubricating oil, water for their radiators, and air for their tyres. These - depots often occupied fine corner sites. They were well set back from the street alignment, and paved concrete tracks led up to them from tho thoroughfares, so that while a car was being filled there was no <■»)- struction to the ordinary traffic. These depots were chiefly owned by the largo oil trusts, and many of them wore of a very artistic appearance, the plots on which they stood being tastefully laid out with grass and, in some cases with flower beds. 1 3

Tire appointment of the Right Her Michael R. Fur so, Bishop of Pretoria, to tho Seo of St Albans, takes back into Church life in England an extraordinarily vivid and picturesque personality. An athlete of Oft bin height, and broad to'inatch, with his commanding presence and jolly, open manner, “Mike” Furso was the ideal colonial bishop. His diocese of “Pretoria” covers the whole of the Transvaal, at country larger than England, and comprising mining towns, Dutch villages, vast plains, and wild forest#; with 0 a, varied population of British, Boers and native tribes, many of the last primitive heathen. Pretoria, tho capital, and the “ palace,” a simple .cottage with a tiny front garden, saw very little of their bishop. Hig chief work lay in Johannesburg, thirty miles away.* ll© made the Church a real force ‘in the surging life of the goldfields. “No humbug about Furso,” the miners used to say. Early iu 1915 Bishop Furso visited the British front, and in a letter to “The Times” made the real issue—more guns and more shells—perkily clear. His rigorous recruiting eiforts in South Africa were driven homo by the fact that ho had called cm all the clerj/ of military age in his diocese to take up active duties at the frqnt.

The House of Peers in Japan (according to the “Japan Week?£ Chronicle”) is disturbing itself seriously on the much and widely discussed question, ot prices. AH parties have agreed to warn the Government regarding tho necessity for taking prompt and effective measures for tho regulation of the exorbitant prices now ruling. The peers take tho line “ that the abnormal rise in prices has brought about a sense of great insecurity of living i n tho popular mind, and this state of affairs cannot fail to hove a demoralising effect upon the ideas of tho nation. •• • • is a ver y serious question, affecting the capitalists, labourers and salaried people alike. If the prosent situation is not ameliorated by the Government, the State will soon be besot by'grave difficulties.” Another article in the same paper deals with “ the pure artificiality of the present rise in the Japanese rice market.” It speaks with intense indignation of the action of some big wholesale merchants who are not only combining to get an extortionate price, with huge profits in its train, but are adulterating the wood rice with inferior stuff, so that “the public is forced to cat rice disgustingly deteriorated in quality.” After % word of sympathy for smaller merchants and sellers, who are being ruined, tho Chronicle” quotes as follows:—“ It is to he fervently desired that an iron hammer will fall upon the head* ot these unscrupulously wiakaA men.”