HERE AND THERE.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVII, Issue X, 7 September 1901, Page 465

HERE AND THERE.

A striking evidence of the way in which the Americans are cutting into British trade was furnished the other day, when the shareholders of Bryant and May,the well-known match manufacturers, met to consider the amalgamation proposals of the Diamond Match Company. The representative of the latter concern said that his Company had first determined to fight Bryant and May, but to save time proposed to amalgamate with them. To show that the latter alternative was not adopted through any fear of defeat he told the shareholders —“Your machinery was invented by our man, and discarded by our Company fifteen years ago. Every year we spend £lO,OOO in improving it.” A German American export who was examined informed the shareholders that it would take Bryant and May two and a half years to remodel their machinery, and make competition with the Diamond Company possible, and it would cost £150.000.

The difficulty the Auckland City Council has found in deciding which material would be the best for paving Queen-street recalls Sydney Smith’s remark regarding a vestry, that found themselves in a somewhat similar trouble over a wooden pavement. “Why,” said the wit, “if they would only put their heads together the thing would be done at once.” The recomendation of the British Admiralty Committee on the victualling* of the navy is rather at variance with the ordinary dietary rules as prescribed by the faculty. The Committee recommend that Jack shall have five meals a day, as against the three which is supposed to content the stomach of most people. But then it all depends on the quality of the meals, and the investigations on the subject reveal that the fare lias been none too plentiful aboard His Majesty’s ships. Tlie Westialian Legislative Assembly have appointed a committee to consider the supplying of cheaper meat, fresh or frozen, It will soon be necessary for. our Parliament to consider the question also. Mr Willard, a relative of Miss Francis E. Willard, the distinguished temperance advocate has started a private agency in London for facilitating marriages between American women of money and Britons of title and good family, lie has told a press representative that there is a splendid opening in the business, there being hundreds of rich American girls eager to exchange their money for a high social position. He proposes charging a- percentage on the income brought to the husband and a fixed rate for the title delivered to the wife.

The Premier would do well not to fall out with the Auckland branch of the Cycle Roads League, a body exceptionally possessed of the audacity and irrepressibility of youth. It must have been somewhat of a surprise to the autocrat to receive after he had dispatched his telegram to the league a lengthy wire lecturing him severely and explaining in conclusion that the message had been made “collect” as “immense amount of telegraphing caused by Government’s inattention to cyclists’ wishes had been a heavy burden on the league’s funds!”

“Choose ye,” said the Premier to the Gisborne folks when they demanded a representative in the Legislative Council, but instead of accepting his invitation, which was probably thrown as an apple of discord among them the Gisborne people have administered a palpable snub to Mr Seddon, reminding him that the Government should not shirk their responsibility or delegate it to others, and adding that if districts were to be consulted there would be an elective Upper House. The Federal Flag Committee appointed to select a ftng for the Australian Commonwealth must have had their work cut out. There appears to have been 30,000 designs sent in. Considering the very limited scope for originality which the work can have presented there must have been a tedious monotony in overhauling 30,000 designs. Judging prize poems, itself a very wearing work, would hardly be so severe on the judges’ nerves.

“They are very much like ourselves," said a returned trooper, speaking of the Boers the other day. “Why. I remember one time our receiving a New Zealand illustrated, iu which «as a picture of an up country cattle sale. ’Aren’t they the dead spit of the Boers.' was the simultaneous criticism of the colonials in the picture which issued from the mouths of a dozen troopers.”

Highway robbery, like suicide. is infectious. No doubt the recent daring case of sticking up a train ear in the suburbs of Melbourne may have had a good deal to do with the occurrence Inst week in Xew South Wales, when, a masked n an bailed up the mail coach, detained it for an hour while he secured all the available valuables, and then made off on a bicycle. The absolute defencelessness of the community against the man with the revolverlAnothcr horrible railway catastrophe has just occurred in the United States. In connection with these American disasters there is always the suggestion of carelessness, and to judge by what Kipling says in “From Sea to Sea” gross carelessness and casualness distinguishes the building and running of the average American railway. Britain wants more commercial travellers. The most noteworthy feature of the latest consular report on Norway is the section whieh tells us that only 118 British commercial travellers visited the country during 1909 as against 879 German trade pushers, is it a marvel that trade is leaving us? Professor Seager. of Auckland University, endeavours to reassure us with regard to the statistics dealing with insanity, cancer, and phthisis in the colony. The figures recently published seemed to indicate an increase in these maladies, but the Professor points out that the increase is not real, and is due to the larger proportion of old people to the whole population, it being the older people who are especially liable to the diseases mentioned. One of the most up to date tea warehouses iu Auckland is that of Messrs Agnew and Sons at the corner of Albert and Wellesley-streets. Mr Agnew, senior, who was for eighteen years with Messrs Brifliths Bros., of Melbourne, has an extensive connection iu the tea trade, and is in the position of being able to supply the very best teas at the lowest prices. From tea plant to tea cup is the motto of the firm, who offer their foods to consumers at wholesale rates.

Except on very rare occasions, such as visits of state to a neighbouring monarch, European Royal personages seldom travel under their names and titles, but adopt an unpretentious incognito. The King as Prince of Wales used to call himself Lord Renfrew, and will probably do so during his approaching visit to Homburg. The adoption of this title, of course, permits of much less formality in the ordinary social intercourse between His Majesty and those whom he meets. The late Queen travelled as Countess of Balmoral, though curiously enough her heavy luggage was generally labelled “The Queen.’’ The Duke and Duchess of Connaught adopt the incognito of Earl and Countess of Sussex when they make their Continental journeys, and the Duke and Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Argyll travel as Lord and Lady Sundridge. Some of the foreign Royalties adopt the same plan, among them the Empress Eugenie and the King of Sweden, who styles himself the Count of Haga.

The cablegrams inform us that in consequence of the alleged killing of the British wounded by the Boers at \ lakfontein and Graspan it is proposed to deal summarily with those guilty of such outrages, executing the leaders of offending commandos. The “Petit Bleu’’ recently published a statement, evidently inspired from the Transvaal agency, to the effect that all the war statistics during the last few months “point to the suspicion that iu reality ii i- Kitchener < men who shoot the wounded llocrs."

Of course sucb * dilate men t from such a source will gain little credit. But it would be to say that there may not have been atrocities of a similar character on the British side. The story is told of a party of Australians "ho had a comrade shot dead when advancing towards a farmhouse, from which a white flag was flying, and took an oath never to respect that flag again. They kept their word according to the tale. Certainly the small number of prisoners the bushmen bring in has been a subject erf comment, and you may hear more than one returned trooper hint, and even declare that there is not much quarter given in Australian warfare.

"The Vengeance of Mrs Van Sittart,” a new comedy recently produced at Home, was written on the South African veldt during odd moments of active service by Mr Arthur Hare, of Paget’s Horse, and a comrade. Mr Hare was a member of Mr Wyndham's Company, and threw up his part in “Cyrano de Bergerac,” then in rehearsal, in order to join the troop of horse commanded by his uncle. Major I’aget. Often when firing began the soldier playwrights had to leave their ms. and burry off to their posts, and once the uncompleted comedy narrowly escaped being captured bv the Boers.

A singular case of a lost husband was related last week, in the Auckland Supreme Court, when a married woman sought divorce from her first husband, who left her some thirteen years ago. going to Sydney in search of work, which it is presumed he had b?en unable to keep in this colony, owing to his intemperate habits. After a period of seven years, during which time the absent one sent no sign of his existence, the lady concluding he was dead, married again, and had no doubt forgotten all about her former spouse, when some six months ago he turned up in Auckland, and sued his eldest son for support. She got the divorce.

It is sinful to report sermons. Some clergymen appear to think so. At two of the "highest” churches in London recently—St. Mary Magdalene, Paddington, and St. Mary Magdalene. Munster Square—-the preachers vehemently denounced the habit of the Press in criticising sermons, thus sinning against what they call "holy reserve.” These divines held that neither the sermon nor the music in a church should be talked about —much less published and criticised.

Mr Lawson, the owner of the American yacht Independence, who has offered to bet a hundred thousand dollars at two to one that either the Columbia or the Constitution will beat Shamrock 11., has evidently "money <o burn.” -as the Americans phrase it. His lavish fancy reminds one of the story told of the late Mr Pierre Lorillard, who once made a bet with some English friends, one of whom was the late Lord Randolph Churchill, that he would spend on his personal amusements the sum of £200,000 in the course of one year. Me tried by the wildest extravagance to keep his word, but failed to get through more than £150,000.

A novel convention met last month at Sharon, Pennsylvania. It was attended by a hundred American old maids, who rebel against the tendency of bachelors to avoid the marriage state. Resolutions were passed ealling upon all men to marry who can: and a matrimonial agency was started in the interests of spinsters impatient of single blessedness.