Here and There.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue XI, 14 March 1903, Page 709

Here and There.

Three >arge steamers will shortly wake their appearance in Southern waters, to load oat’ for South Africa.

Miss Adeline Sergeant headed the list of novelists in the way of litcraiy output last year. No fewer than eight new works came front her pen. Next turns Mrs. Meade, with six book’.

Because he cante with black face and hands a farrier was not allowed to serve as a juror at St Paneras Coroners's Court recently. He was also told that he would be summoned again, and that if he came in the same condition he would be fined £3.

An Australian paper in an extremely laudatory and absolutely touching paragraph about the Couutess of Ranfurly, remarks that her ladyship's devotion to the people is so great that she. actually personally took a trip to the Kermadees to search for the Elingaaaaite’s missing people.

There is considerable soreness in the. ranks of the carpenters employed by the Public Works Department owing to the Minister for Works refusing to grant their request for a half holiday last week on the occasion of the cricket match. The carpenters claimed to be put on an equal footing with other members of the Government service and talk of appealing to the Premier.

The Waldorf-Astoria Hotel has 1395 bedrooms and 800 bathrooms. Each floor has its own clerk, bellboy and porter's. Each floor also has its own telephone, sitting-rooms, assembly halls, ete. In the dining-rooms 2500 people may be seated at one time. On an average 6000 people dine daily at the hotel. The edifice is so vast and its life, so tumultuous that guides are employed bv the hotel to show visitors about.

At the meeting of the City Council last week, just immediately prior to the introduction of Cr. Parrs motion for the immediate abolition of the ward system in the city, five councillors left the chamber, and the Mayor stated that he was without a quorum, there being only seven members left. Mr. Parr protested against this attempt to burke, discussion upon a most important subject, and expressed the opinion that the bodji of the constituents who left the chamber believed that an alteration should be effected in the manner of the election of councillors. Cr. Masefield’s motion for the rescinding of the resolution authorising the purchase of HeHabv’s abattoirs site at Otahuhu had also to be adjourned through there being no quorum.

Elaborate investigation and speculative theory have alike so far failed to suggest any definite cause for cancer, the dread disease which is unfortunately on the increase in New Zealand, according to the Official Year Book. Haviland tried to connect it with the soil, and appeared to shew that it was at least wore common in low-lying, damp city soils than elevated sites. Diet has been accused in various ways, but without much reason. Excessive meat eating was assigned as a causative factor, but thellindoossuffer much from cancer, and eat practically no meat at all. Various single articles of diet, such as salt and tomatoes, have been assigned a fanciful importance on most slender grounds. The occupation of sufferers has been examined without yielding any information, except the well-known faet that chimney sweeps are liable to fall victims in more than double the proportion of any other calling. Alcohol seeins to cause at least a predisposition- to cancer, just as it certainly does to tuberculosis. Alarm luis been created of late years l»y the statement that cancer was increasing in frequency, but it is extremely doubtful if the apparent increase is a real one. Diagnosis is nowadays much more exaet than it was half a century ago, and the fact of

our improved sanitation and higher standard of living gives us a larger population at age- in which cancer is liable to arise. It is obvious that where so much uncertainty exists, and where the disease is frequently inoperable from the first <>r recurs soon after operation. that sufferers have gone from surgeon to surgeon, and from these to all sorts of unqualified practitioners, in the hope of finding relief. Hopes are still held in Gisborne that some day the hull of the wrecked steamer Tasmania and cargo will be raised. A local syndicate claim to be the owners, and to have legal documents showing the sale to them, but they acknowledge Mr Rothschild's right to the jewellery. Originally Mr Porter set out from Auckland to see what eeuld be done with the wreck. His little vessel was wrecked on the way down. The local syndicate then lock the matter up, and in conjunction with Porter they fitted out a vessel and appliances, and spent a considerable sum in an unsuccessful attempt to obtain salvage. They claim to have purchased the wreck from Mr Rothschild. Hoping that Belle's patent would prove effective they parted with a certain interest provisionally for paid-up shares. The wrecked vessel is believed to be lying upright cm a hard bottom, and embedded in about 6ft of sand.

The London “Pal! Mail Gazette,’’ in an amusing article entitled “Old Signboards,” reproduces some inscriptions which still make their plea for patronin Falmouth the writer of the article saw the following inscription on a sign: TEM PERANT E HOTEL. Ellen Tone sells, here. Lemonade and Gingur beer. Cow hels and tripe every fritlay. Sekond hand docs to make ee tidy; CTox and kittles, pans, an all, And Godly Bnkes to save yer soul: Man-traps, gins, and pattens likewise, And on Saturday nights Hot Mutton Pies. At the same place another, equally comprehensive and gratuitously libellous, and ran thus: JEREMIAH NLTE, Dealer in Cod Liver Oil and Treacle, Turkey Rhubarb, Tarts and Mustard, Saws. Hammels, Winnowing Machines, Clogs. Wheel-barrows, Frying-pans and other Moosical Hinstruments. Men they have many faults; But woman has but two; Nothing’s right that they say. And nothing’s right they do. From a village in Gloucestershire he unearths another of the same nature: Johnny Overy lives here, teaches music by steam: egg merchant, and parish clerk, pig killer and liellman. J. O. sells red herrings and raisins, parasols and pistols, barm and sand, fiddlestrings and flour, tripe, dubbing, and all kinds of hardware but treacle.

Mr Wyllie, a Councillor of the city of Capetown, now visiting New Zealand, says on the subject of reconciliation that the Afrikander Bond practically constitutes the whole of the opposition. The reconciliation comprises the Dutch population, who are the owners of the land and the yeomen of the country. They seem to keep together in polities, and their aspirations are quite different from those of the European population. Hofmeyer is a very fine old gentleman, thoroughly sincere in his assurances as to the action of the Bond, and what he has said will have very great weight with the Dutch community, and of necessity with members of the Bond, which has a slight majority in the Cape Parliament. The objection to Sir Gordon Sprigg is that he is getting along in years, that he is a man who sits on the fence a good deal, and finds he cannot carry on government with the progressive party alone, so he must cater to some extent to the Dutch ele-

ment, in order to have a majority, (bunting heads in Cape Colony the British would be in a majority, but the present distribution of seats gives the Dutch a majority. Mr Wyllie thinks the antipathy which exists between the Dutch and British races in (Jape Colony has been very mueh exaggerated in the minds of outsiders. It has never appeared to him. who lives amongst the Dutch, that the feeling is so bitter as it appears to people in these colonies. The language question militates against an understanding more than anything else. It will take many- decades before the Dutch and English think alike on important political questions, but the time is surely coming when there will l>e one homogeneous people. Mr Chantl>erlain’s visit will have a very good effect, because it has brought finality to many questions which were open. Mr Wyllie left last week for the Hot Lakes district. A contributor to the "Gaulois" has made a remarkable discovery with reference to the name “Napoleon.'’ In the first place, he says, it is composed of IWo Greek words, meaning “lion of the desert.” Now. take away the first letter of the name and that o’ each of the ensuing words as follows:—N A P O L EO N (1) A P O LE O N (6) P O LE O N (7) O LE O N (3) 1. EO N (4) EO N (5) O X (2) Thus there are formed six Greek works, which, placed in the order indicated by the numbers, compose the following sentence: —"Napoleon, on oleon. Icon con, apoleon, poleon.” This translated, means:- —“Napoleon, the lion of the people, went about destroying cities,” a phrase which seem- singularly appropriate to the character of the great Frem-li general, who immortalised the name.

The extension of the electric tramway, system to Onehunga appears to be more ami more remote, for while the Ono hunga Borough Council, on the one hand, persists in withholding its consent to the erection of wooden poles, the Tramway Company on its part appears equally determined not to erect iron poles. The company relies on the wording of the Order-in-Council, which stipulates in regard to iron or wooden poles that the Council’s approval shall not be unreasonably withheld, if the thing done is substantially in accordance with custom. The company supports its position by the contention that in Sydney, Brisbane ami the proposed Adelaide service wooden poles are freely used, and Mr Hansen states that the company has definitely decided not to give way. The line is practically completed as far as the Onehunga wharf, and it is only the wire and poles system that arc lacking, The wires are almost in working order as far as the Epsom depot, and in a short time the cars will be running to that point. The completion of the line to the Royal Oak is to follow soon afterwards, and as this is the boundary of the Onehunga borough, the service will stop there until the tension with the Council is relaxed. It is net yet decided whether in the meantime the horse cars will be run to Onehunga to connect with the electric service. If this should not be done the last state of Onehunga will evidently be worse than the first.

A M ellington pressman, reporting the agricultural show at Master recently, shared a bedroom in one of tho hotels with half a dozen others. One of the number, apparently hailing from way back, and tho last to turn in, blew out the gas! In the night the brain-tired pressman awoke in a horrid fright, under the impression that Old Nick was sitting on his chest. Not quite sure what was the matter, he contented himself wkh opening the door and window, and then went back to bed again. The source of the trouble was not discovered until the next, morning. Fortunately it was the "pilot” light that was extinguished, otherwise the city press would have been a man short to-day, and several homes would have gone into mourning.— “Truth.”

2t has been definitely decided by the Government to bring Into operation in thia colony the Bertillon, or finger-print system, of identification of criminals. Mr. R. Lascelles Ward, formerly a district superintendent of police in India, and now a member of the clerical staff of the Defence Department has been appointed instructor, and will shortly start on his new duties at the Terrace gaol, but the bureau for the system will be established. Detective Fitzgerald, who has just returned from six months’ leave of absence in England, also has a practical knowledge of the finger-print system, and his services will probably be acceptable in that connection. — (Wellington Correspondent.)

The dream incident which atenlel the sad suicide of a young man named Andrew at Te Kopuru last week—when a woman dreamed that her brother had committed suicide, and upon a.LU.g anl going to the place wnere she dreamed she saw his body, found that the vision had been all too true —would to the spiritualise excite little or no wonder. He would tell you that he could aid a score to that instance of peep e being warned of events -« this psychic manner. There have been some remarkable instances of dreams coming true where crime is concerned. The cashier of a bank at Glasgow went home one evening at his usual hour, ate his dinner, an l, feeling rather tired, lay down on the sofa and dropped off to sleep. Suddenly he awoke with a start, and said to ids wife, “I’ve had such an odd dream. 1 was back at the bank and two men came in. They paid no attention ta tue, but set to work to open the safe, they seemed to have a difficulty in co.ug it, and one of them then said they must move it before they could do any good. I went up to try to stop them, but they did not seem to see me. Just then 1 woke up.” Instead of laughing at him, his wife said seriously that it might be a warning. The husband to k a cab and went back as fast as he Could tc the bank. He found the door forced! Hurriedly calling a couple of police, the three entered and found two men exactly resembling those the cashier had seen in his dream. They had pulled the safe out of its corner, and were drilling it in order to insert an explosive. At least as extraordinary is the case of a woman named Drew who dreamed that her husband, a retired sailor, had been murdered by a pedlar in a tavern at Gravesend. In the morning came the news that her husband’s dead body had been discovered in the identical place where she had in her dream seen the murder committed. lit hen tne poor wife had calmed down a little she wrote out an exact description of the pedlar whom she had seen in her dream, and, saying nothing about her vision to the officers of the law, merely told them tliat this was the person she suspected. Two days later a man answering the description was arrested at an inn six s-iii s from Gravesend, and, on being t xed w th the crime, confessed that he was the murderer. In 1894 a wealthy publisher of Boston, U.S.A., suddenly found himself to be the victim of a series of forgeries so large in amount that they threatened his credit. He set detectives to work at once, but all in vain. But one morning his little daughter, Ethel, aged seven, came trotting into her father’s siudy, saving, “Oh, papa, 1 had such a funny dream! I dreamt that I saw Mr —mentioning a young man of twentyseven, a great friend of her father s “sitting in a room at No. —, Siainestreet, and trying to write your name.” The child’s dream was communicated to the police, who were at first inclined to ridicule it, but a watch was put on the proceedings of the young man in question. Evidence accumulated against him, and it was found that he had hired a room in another name at the address the child had given. The room was raided, and copies of the fonjed signature and blank cheques found there. Here is another instance which will always be remembered in lancolnshire, where it took place. A certain farmer conceived a desperate attachment for a young girl who lived in a town eight miles from his house. But the girl mistrusted him from the first, and. after a short courtship, wrote a note to him on which were the words: “I shall never see you again.” The farmer, roused to fury, waylaid and murdered her in a lonely part of the beath one night and took away her body in his cart. A few days later he visited her house to see her, and feigned great surprise when informed that she had

disappeared. While there lie managed to secure an opp rtviii'y to slip the note in a vase on the mantelpiece. But the next night the woman dreamt that her daughter lay murdered beneath the farmer’s barn, and on the strength of this the police searched the building to find that the woman's dream had been true.

Everybody who has travellei much must have, at one time or another, had to endure that embarrassing infliction the ship’s paper, where tyros in touring indulge their homely wits at the expense of the other passengers. A terror far more serious than any such feeble facetiae will shortly confront all those who travel for pleasure. It is nothing else than a daily newspaper regularly supplied with the most important news of the world bv special ethergraphic service. Signor Marconi has arrange that during this month “a British mail steamer will sail from Liverpool equipped with a complete staff for the publication on board of a newspaper every day during the voyage to New York.” It goes without saying that if this trial prove successful other steamers will follow suit, and the “barren fields of ocean” will in the near future echo to the rush and turmoil of business life. The future passenger will not be able to lie late in his bunk lulled with the idle fancies of shipboard life. The morning paper, which his bedroom-steward will bring him wet from the press, will magically transport him into the madding crowd on ’Change, disturb him with the sadden intelligence of a colossal bankruptcy, scandalise him with detailed accounts of a divorce in high life, or harrow his nerves with a realistic description of some monstrous crime or terrible catastrophe. The last refuge of the jaded city man or chronic neurasthene has been invaded by the merciless savant; and no more can the long sea voyage be regarded as an opportunity to "knit up the ravelled sleeves of care.”

There are indications that the negotiations by the Government for the acquisition of the Matamata Estate in Auckland district 'will shortly lead to successful results. It is stated from an apparently inspired source that the Government has given notice of its intention to take another large estate in Canterbury under the Land for Settlements Act. This may or may not refer to the Highfield Estate in North Canterbury on the Annandale Estate, the latter I understand. having already been advertised for sale by public auction shortly. Neither of these can bo said to be of large dimensions. Mr Barron has already traversed a greater part of the Middle Island, going as far south as Edendale Plains in Southland, with instructions. I believe, to pick on a few good plums for consideration by the Land Purchase Board- Mr Barron is now in the Oamaru district, Longbush, and the tablelands settlement in the airamp?, district will be on the market in t*. e course of a few wee* s : writes our Wellington correspondent).

The Socialist party in Wellington has resolved to -run” Messrs. W. H. Hamp, ton and D. McLaren for seats on the City Council. These candidates are pledged to work for the following measures: (1) The erection by the City Council of houses to meet the requirements of the citizens, such houses to be let at a rent just sufficient to cover interest, sinking fund, and maintenance. (2) The establishment by the city of municipal coal depots to distribute coal to the people at cost. (3) The erection by the city of retail and wholesale markets for maat, fish, fruit and provisions of all kinds. (4) The establishment of municipal institutes and refreshment rooms, as the first step towards municipalising the food and drink supplies of the citizens. (5) The acquisition or erection by the city of a plant or plants to light the streets and furnish light to stores, houses, etc. (6) The erection of municipal abattoirs. (7) The abolition of the contract system on public works. Direct employment of labour by the city, at union wages, and under union conditions.

A well-known resident in the Masterton district says that the green crops in that district have made splendid progress during the later part of the season, and the harvest, now all but completed, is on» of the heaviest experienced tor years. Ou the average the returns are about

double those of last year. The cat crop on the river flats and also on the plains where the soil is of good quality, has yielded from 70 to 95 bushels per acre, and wheat from 30 to <9O bushels. The quantity of hay will be enormous. The crops of rape and turnips for dairy cattle are exceedingly promising. In fact, the farmers as a whole have never been in better spirits on account of the prospects.

The February number of the "New Idea,” the seven-months-old Australian paper, just to hand, shows an increase in size to 88 pages. Nearly the whole of the magazine is devoted to Australian subjects, and is contributed by Australian wrfbers. Thus. Miss Helen Davis, after working in a jam factory for several weeks, writes, and illustrates with photographs, her impressions of the Australian factory girl; Mrs Seddon and her daughter give to an interviewer an account of their trip to England, and are photographed in their Coronation dresses; Mr Carew-Smyth explains at length the system of brushwork that is being introduced into Australian schools, and Mrs Foote, a well-known Australian journalist, writes a chatty article on some notable Australasian women.

An Australian visitor thus records his opinion of the New Zealand Government Tourist Department in the Sydney “Mail”:—"The wisest, and certainly from every point of view the best, step that the Seddon Government took was due to Sir Joseph Ward’s establishment of the Tourist Information Department. The tourist has only to step inside one of these offices, and he can get any information he desires, from trains or steamers, to shooting or fishing, in any part of the colony, the use of the office telephone, a desk to read or write at, and an intelligent man to chat to, and all for nothing—not one penny to pay for anything. The department is the best ever set up in any colony, and it pays, because through it hundreds of of men with money and brains are attracted. The casual globe-trotter finds the department very useful. He speaks of it on his return, and when relating his adventures in Maoriland he probably brings it in, after or before, as an introduction to eome gigantic fairy tale of his own. If the Seddon Government should make the Local Option vote to

be taken once every nine year- from the date of the next election, in-tead of every three years, as at present, it would give a feeling of security to decent hotelkeepers. If the prohibitionists had their way, and made prohibition universal in New Zealand, they would undo at once the greater part of the good done by the Tourist Department. Tourists arrive from all parts of the world, and if they eannot (through prohibition) obtain their accustomed luxuries, they will never return, and will also be loud in their abuse of the country where such conditions exist.”

Five-and-twenty enterprising ladies of Washington claim to have demonstrated to their satisfaction that they can live a perfect life without the aid of men. Most of them, it should be skated, have had husbands who gave them cause to come to the conclusion that marriage was a failure. Whose fault it was is not stated. Inasmuch as the Woman’s Commonwealth Society is a quarter of a century old, it can hardly be regarded as a mere experiment. Tt was started in the town nf Belton 25 years ego. and moved in 1893 to Washington, where the members occupy a dwelling as large as a fair-sized hotel, on the outskirts of the city, in a pretty suburb called Mount Pleasant. All the property of the society is held by its -members in common. At the head of the community is Mrs Martha McWhirter, a lady 75 years of age, who is revered by her flock not only on account of her piety and superior mental endowments, but also because she is believed to be a medium of Divine revelation. (It wouldn’t be Yankee without this spice of humbug!) To such' revelations, made through her, the organisation has throughout its existence looked for guidance on all matters of importance. The ladies are, it need hardly be said at their mature age, of irreproachable character, and live -together in one house, sharing all things alike, and make a particular point of minding their own business strictly. One of the chief tenets of the members is celibacy; but no vows are exacted, and anybody who chooses to do so is at liberty to leave the community and get married. The society possesses considerable property, the bulk of it having been acquired by its members in the common interest.

Formerly the organisation was “in business,” but now it has retired, and is living on its property.

An American journal with a wealth pf imagery thus chronicles the passing of a prominent local racing man, who died in the odour of sanctity:— “Shortly before midnight the Pale Horse came with the saddle and bridle of Righteousness. He straddled it, and rode it Home.*’

An Australian clergyman, highly esteemed for his many excellent qualities, among which oratory is not included, has just had placed in hie ehurch by his kind-hearted congregation a new pulpit. It is a tine piece ci work, ornate ■with earring and artistic emfceliishnient. But the text inscribed upon it might, with regard to the effect induced by the good rector's sermons, have been more happily chosen. "He giveth his beloved sleep,” it runs.

A punter who seldom stakes more than a fiver on a raee. and who had been having a bad time at the V.A.T.C. meeting up to the Futurity Stakes, went for a recovery, laying JESO to £4O on Wakeful. It was (says the amusing writer of “Fupper and Salt” in the “Leader ) a ease of the frying-pan into the fire, and he hardly slept a wink all night, thinking of Monday’s settling. A friend who called to see him on Sunday commented on his drowsy appearance, and he re,pued with doleful earnestness and truth:— “Yes, I slept badly—had a very Wakeful njght!”

Mr Ritchie, Secretary for Agriculture, who accompanied the Boer delegates through the Middle Island and a part of the Northern districts, has returned to Wellington. Mr Ritchie states that the visitors have been much impressed with the agricultural and pastoral resources of New Zealand. They have taken a keen interest in the methods adopted by the farming community, and will return to South Africa with a mass of information which cannot fail to prove valuable to their fellow-countrymen. As a result of their visit, a considerable quantity of New Zealand grass seed will probably be sent to South Africa, and it is also pretty certain that extensive purchases of our stock for breeding purposes in that part of the world will be made.

Many things are forgiven the polite foreigner, who is always able to fall back on the Chinese excuse of “No savev.” During his recent stay in Melbourne, the German cyclist, Robl, was drivirm a motor-car down Collins-street at a rate which impelled the stern constable at the intersection of Swanstonstreet to step forward with his hand raised. Robl drove his car to the side of the policeman, stopped it dead, and, seeing the uplifted hand shook it warmly. Before the astonished constable could collect his thoughts sufficiently to take Robl’s name, the owner cried a cheery “Goot-tay,” and sent his automobile whirling round the corner.

Tn opposition to the prohibition ticket it is the intention of the “trade” to nominate influential candidates for the comings licensing committee election. Your reporter hears that the gentlemen already decided on are Rev. I an Staveren, Messrs P. Coffey, W. Cable, and P. Hutson, while Mr W- McLean will probablv complete the list- The Rev. \an Staveren and Mr P- Coffey are members of the present committee. Mr Cable is a well-known ironfounder and member of the Harbour Board. Mr Hutson is a brick manufacturer, and a leading light in the Employers’ Association, and Mr McLean represented Wellington in Par linment for a brief term -a low years ago. Comment is made on the action of the prohibitionists in declaring that their ticket is composed of men holding moderate views, when as .a matter of fact the whole five are strongly imbued with no license principles. The prohibitionists* avowed object is to secure a majority on the committee in order to fix the elosir • hours of hotels at 10 p.m. inste d of II p.m. as now. The fight for seats on the licensing committee promises to ba a stiff one, and, in view of the last local option polls results, the prohibitionsts should about win the day, though the votes cast in favour of their particular candidates will most likely be less than they expeet (says our Wellington correspondent.)

Harvey Logan, a Montana trainrobber. has been given ten sentences, aggregating 130 years. Eight sentences are for fifteen years each, to be served concurrently, and two are for five years, also concurrent, making twenty yeara* imprisonment in aIL

Queen Alexandra's beautiful Coronation crown is, it is stated, to be broken up. The jewels are to be removed from the settings, and the far-famed Koh-i-Noor, which was the principal gem of the crown, is to be used by Her Majesty as a neck ornament.

There is talk in San Francisco of establishing a newspaper especially for nervous persons. Accounts of catastrophes will be treated in a soothirg style. The “dull, sickening thud” with which a workman reaches ground from the top storey will become the ‘‘light, flying fall taken by an operator from an unreasonable height.”

Spelling was a weak point in the Victorian Railway Department before the days of Mr Bent’s first reign, when scouts were unknown and late trains a rarity. The railway men Used to pass jokes about the spelling of two high officers along the line from Eehuca to Warrnambool. Gn one occasion, the subordinate of these two officers sent a requisition to the other for “50 tons of koaL” This was the opportunity for the Senior —for there was no love lest between them—and he sent back the required trucks with the sarcastic message, “Herewith what you wont. I suppose you mean cole.”

Official statistics compiled up to the 31st December showed that on that date Victoria contained a greater proportion of lunatics than did Queensland, New Zealand, South Australia, Tasmania, or ■Western Australia! Is there, I wonder (says “Javelin”), any significance in the collateral fact that of the colonies named Victoria was the only one that had not legalised the totaiisator! Victoria also showed in cases of lunacy the smallest percentage of “recoveries,” which mav possibly bear upon the fact that in this State the totaiisator is still unlegalised.

In 1596 Earl Spencer, when renewing the lease of his house in St. James’plaee, had to pay £260 per annum in place of £9O under the original lease, while Lord Salisbury, who up to 1895 paid only £lO for the garden of his house in Alington-street, had his ground rent raised to £44, which is still far from exorbitant as ground rents go. In recent years judicious investments in ground rents on behalf of the Crown have been made, and when all existing old leases fall in and come to be renewed it is expected that more than £ 1.009,090 per annum will be realised.

Among the great ground landlords in London the Crown is one of the greatest, owning properties in various parts of the capital yielding in ground rents £460,000 per annum. Fifteen years ago the estates produced £250.009 only; but many leases have fallen in within that time, and the increased rents have been exacted for renewal fines or for new leases. The Carlton Hotel is a striking instance of the increased value of ground in London. Formerly the site on which the hotel stands was held from the Crown for a ground rent of £763 per annum; now £4200 yearly has to be paid.

Apropos of the recent labour disturbances in Russia, the “Arbeiter Zeitung” says that Rostoff was the scene of bloody encounters between the strikers and the Russian troops, who were summoned to keep order. A pitched battle is reported to have taken place between Cossacks and 30,000 people, who had assembled to demonstrate against a railway director who had declared that he will drive the dogs of workmen back to employment with knouts rather than concede one demand. The Cossacks literally rode over the people, slashing wildly right and left. After the first surprise, the strikers rallied and pulled the Cossacks from their horses, broke their lances, and stoned and beat them until they begged for mercy. On reinforcements being summoned, the strikers uprooted trees to construct barricades, and col-

Iseted stones, huge lumps of coal, and heavy iron missiles on the housetops. The troops made six furious onslaughts, but were repulsed each time. Over 2000 women fought ferociously for the strikers, and many of these proletarian amazons fell victims to the Cossaek lances. The state of carnage was fearful on both sides. One account gives the number at over 300 killed and 1000 wounded.

A Pretoria writer does not share the optimism of the Repatriation Department as to the rapid resettling of South Africa. A miracle must happen, he says, if prophecies are to be fulfilled as to the time in which ambitious programmes are to be completed. If you ask at the Repatriation Office for news (he continues) it is against the rules to furnish information. Men outside the office are not so reticent. They tell you all sorts of tales, some reeking with scandal, others full of bitterness. If I were to accept all I hear, the Repatriation Department would stand out as a ghastly failure, unable to grapple with this huge task of resettling a nation, manned bv people who don’t know' the Dutch language, and don’t care to employ other people who do; it would appear as a preserve for officers who have quitted active service but wish to stay in the country, and have only to ask to be appointed to a nice billet.

Which is the “sterner sex?” asks a dramatic critic. The up to date drama lias knocked man silly, so to speak; to talk of him as stern is’fatuous- Man is plainly the weaker vessel. He can’t take care of himself. Any woman can marry hrm out of hand, generally, for his money. He is at the mercy of Paula Tanquerays and Irises who appeal to his pity. When it is coneeded also that any woman nay refuse him if he offers marriage on Iris own account, it may be asked, where does he come in at all?

A malignant destiny seems to have pursued the family of the Parnells,writes T. P. O’Connor-’ In the days when Charles Stewart Parnell was the powerful political leader who was shaking an old society to its foundations some of his more ill-natured opponents used to recall the fact that there had been more than one tragedy in his family history, and used charitably to ascribe his own apparently reckless acts to hereditary influences of that kind. And in Pcrnell s own face there was always something of the tragic- I remember hearing an IrishAmerican poet once say—years before Parnell’s death—that he had the face of a man who eould not die a natural and ordinary death; that it was the face of one who was bound to die on the scaffold- The tall, spare form, the long, thin, classic nose, the beautifully shaped forehead, but, above all, the eyes—red flint in colour and a little wild, and later on a little hunted in expression—these were the things in the face that made it different from that of the ordinary man, and surrounded it with a halo of mys-

tery, sorrow, and presage of an unusual and tragic ending. My Iri-h - America! friend who foretold the scaffold for Parnell was more accurate in his forecast than he thought, perhaps, for, though Parnell died in his bed as a matter of fact, his ending had all the misery, and. perhaps, even all the suffering of death by the executioner. And, though some members of his family survive, many have either preceded or followed him to an early and painful death.

Mr Arthur Balfour’s recent illness has recalled an incident concerning the father of the past Prime Minister and the mother of the present Premier (remarks a Home paper). In old days the father of Lord Salisbury of to-day kept high state in Arlington-street. As everyone knows, he was twice married, and during the time he was a widower be used to give balls for the benefit of his unmarried daughter. Lady Blanche Cecil, who afterwards became the wife of Mr James Balfour, of Whittinghame, and mother of the present Prime Minister. Manners were more forma! in those days, but earlier hours were kept by the more stately, steadygoing members of society. The former Lord Salisbury greatly disapproved of balls being kept up too late, and when the magic hour of midnight had struck he used to bow gravely to his daughter, Lady Blanche Cecil, and. giving her his arm, lead her away from the room! This was the signal for his guests to take their departure with all decorous speed!

A very curious case was recently heard at the Leinster Assizes, England. Mr Nicholas Keating, a prosperous tradesman at Athy, who had a prejudice against banks, concealed £l2OO in gold in a blacking-box, which lay in a passage near his bedroom. His niece. Mary Watts, who resided with him, got engaged to be married last summer, and her manner towards her uncle, which had hitherto been affectionate, grew increasingly hostile until one day she disappeared, a’nd so did the £l2OO in gold. Mary was arrested on the following day in a Dublin hotel, and same of the money was found in her possession. Of the remainder, with the exception of £470, which is still missing, the girl disposed in the following manner:— £2OO in a parcel in the hotel smokeroom. £3O under a fender in the smokeroom fireplace. £2OO under a hassock in the adjacent Roman Catholic Church. £5O in the rocks by the East Pier at Kingstown. £6l 10/ beside a wall at Howth. £ll in a churchyard at Dalkey. £9 on the top < f a wall on the high road between Dalkey and Dublin in full sight of passeagers on the top of the trains. Mary pleaded guilty, and was sent to prison for twelve months.