GENERAL NEWS.

Wanganui Chronicle, 3 February 1902, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS.

As the result of two audiences recently granted by the King to Lord Roberts, Mr Brodrick, Lieutenanfc-General Kelly-Kenny, and Major-General Vetch, it nas been, definitely decided, it is understood, to dispense -with khaki wearing apparel in the Army, on the termination of the campaign in South Africa. Instead of Khaki the intention is to adopt a drab mixture for the working costume of the soldier. The new colour, it is argued, is of a more neutral character than the khaki serge now in use, besides being more suitable in other respects., ■ The President of the United States is to have a new executive building to live in at Washington, which will cost over £200,----000. The Washington correspondent of the London "Express" states that/ a Bill appropriating this amount has just been introduced in Congress, and will be passed.' The necessity, for the new building, arises from the over-crowded condition of the j White House whenever the Presidential occupant happens to have a large family. The plans for the building are to be selected by President Roosevelt* It is to comprise a' magnificant dining-room and reception : rooms on the first floor, and Cabinet rooms i and offices for the President and. Executive clerks on the second floor. :j The grounds of the objection to the appointment of Canon Gore as Bishop of Worcester, as stated in a "Petition of Right," j recently presented by•the Church Associa-! tion and the National Protestant League to the King, are as follows —They allege that in speech and writing he has ''deliberately ; made use of language calculated to cause pain and distress to, as well as to shake the faith of, many earnest' believers, thereby causing scandal and creating division and strife in our Church." In support of this statement they quote a number'of extracts from Lux Mundi. Secondly, they urge that, utj to the time of his nomination to a bishopric, Canon Gore had been for 20 years a member of the English Church Union and of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament, and has made at the meetings of the former society certain statements, which the petitioners quote. Thirdly, he is the founder of "a monastic celibate society known as the Community' of the Resurrection." Fourthly, he has recently, written a warm coninlendation of the "monastic" Society of the Sacred Mission at Mildenhall, whose members "pledge themselves to. poverty, obedience, and celibacy," and where^ among other things, "silence is required up till noon, except on festivals.". In view of these allegations, and because, though- withdrawing from his membership of the above-men-tioned societies. Canon Gore has not "so far as your petitioners are aware, retracted anvof his said statements as to doctrine or ritual," they represent to the King that I Canon Gore is not a fit and proper person ' "to impartially conduct the affaire of a diocese in our Protestant Church." "This ought to be good _enough for your column," says.a Lawrence correspondent, who sends "Ciiv.is". in .the Otago' "Times" the letter giyenjijelow-^-a letter'received, as it would seeni, in aijswer to a "Wanted" advertisement in the local paper:— • Lawrence Jan. 4, 1902. Dear madam or sir,—l now put in my appcation for house maid. .1 have never been at a place before only at home, and with a lady, in dunedin, I did all the work there I told her I was not going to wear cap on 6 shilling a week she could hot give me any more her husband was getting the old age pension. I. can do any kind of work, cook, scrub, wash, from any house work in a private house. I would take 10s a week if you would give me a try, or if you no of any 'one wanting a girl for house work tell them to give me a try, if you liave any children about 2 years old or younger 'than that you do not need to send for me, and you will oblige. "Civis," in commenting, says:—Name and address are best omiued; i have no wish to promote an unseenuy 'rush of mistresses in competition for- tins paragon. 1 print her letter as a revelation ot the servantgirl mind, its aspirations, ideals, resentments, repugnances; as such the document is not oniy good enough for this column, but an important contribution. to social science. Thus we leura , that the housemaid's cap, being a humiliation, must be considered in her wages. The Lawrence girl is resolute not to wear «v cap on 6s a. week; apparently, however, she would accepb 10s, cap or no cap; therefore the wages equivalent of this badge of servitude would seem to be 4s a week. Mrs Civis, ' bent on economy, after the holidays, declares wo can't afford it. Let the housemaid's cap, she says, be resigned to families in which the husband is dependent on the old age pension, or has lost his money in dredges. Respectable people,-swho mean to piiy their debts, muki beprepared to surrender useless vanities. ■Very good, so far; but she is rather aghast when I aslv lieu whether she is prepared to go the Avhole hog and surrender the baby. "If you have any children about two years old or younger, you do not need to send for me"—says the "Lawrence girl. I infer-that the only type of civilisation consistent with a perfected democracy is one in which there will' be no babies—either that, or no domestic I servants. . ■ ■ < I

A few weeks ago we. were furnished with alarming reports concerning the state of the Pope's health. One imaginative journalist drew a harrowing picture of an almost imbecile nonageranian confined to a padded room, lost to all interest in the world about him, forbidden to hear news or to receive visitors, and whining that he had lived too long. "Such a caricature," says Mr T. P. O'Connor, in "M.A.P.," "is ludicrous indeed to those who have the privileged entree to the Vatican, and daily opportunities of witnessing the marvellous vitality of the venerable Pontiff, his bodily energy and intellectual alertness, and above .all his extraordinary memory and power of throwing himself, so to speak, into the interests and concerns of those whom he receives in daily audience." The truth, according to Mr O'Connor, is that the Pope is wonderfully strong and hearty. The newspaper man, he tells us, finds himself brought up with a. round turn at the Vatican gates, and is.driven to seek information in. the streets or to invent news for himself. One great London daily was wise enough, a year or two ago, to try to secure the services of an English prelate living in curia as its Vatican correspondent. The arrangement fell through, and it is now not too much to say that "nine-tenths of the Vatican news transmitted to the London press by. "Our Own Correspondent' in Rome might just as well be manufactured in Fleet Street, or, for the matter of that, in Fiji, as far as the sources of information are concerned on which the news ig based." A correspondent of "M.A.P." expands the editor's comments Iby furnishing some chatty notes about pressmen in Rome in the "old days." The correspondent of the "Standard" at that time was a brother of Anthony Trollope. One of his most famous achievements was a message declaring that Leo XIII. was simply dying to abdicate, and was only prevented from doing so by the threats of the Jesuits to have him killed if he did. The task of the pressmen in Rome is not easier now ■ than it was twenty years ago, but stories like those we have quoted show that the manufacture of news is neither a very modern, nor on exclusively American industry. The Special Correspondent of the Lyttelton Times, telegraphing from Hokitaka, says :—l6 appears /to be an open secret that calls "will be made to the Legislative Council at no distant date. On the West Coast, rumour is busy with the names of Messrs Keech (merchant), Kunraravand Mr Han-

nan (solicitor) and J. Petrie (journalist), Greymouth. Vacancies have been created in these parts by the death of the Hons. 'J. KeiT and J. A. Bonar.