Here and There.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXXI, Issue VIII, 22 August 1903, Page 512

Here and There.

Twenty years ago it took 351 heurs of one man’s time to make a ton of hay and bale it. By the aid of modern machinery the work is done in Ultra. 34 mins.

While chopping wood near Augsburg, Germany, a boy named Wilhelm Behr caught his axe against a wire clothesline. At the same moment a flash of lightning struck the line, passed down the hat ehet, and killed him.

The Barr scheme of an all British colony in Canada has come to naught. The Government agent announces that Mr. Barr has renounced all connection with the colony, and has refunded all sums paid by the immigrants. Out of the whole number who went out to Saskatchewan only 300 are located on the lands originally selected. Several hundreds are returning to Saskatoon, c-n route to England.

During a recent case in the Paris courts between the partners of a corset firm, the defence revealed that one of the branches of their manufacture was men’s corsets. It was shown that more than 18,000 corsets were made yearly for Frenchmen, and 3000 were shipped to England, principally for army officers. German officers also created quite a demand till a rival Berlin firm offered a cheaper article.

A lady belonging to a community called the - “ Sisters of St. John the Baptist,” in New York City, was spending a month not long since in one of the backwoods districts. Going to the post office shortly after her arrival, she asked if any letter had come for Sister Bernardine. Tlic rural postmaster looked bewildered for a moment. “Sister who!” he asked. “Sister Bernardine,” replied the lady, “a Sister of St. John the Baptist,’ “Well, I should rather think.not,” replied the man, with an uproarious laugh. “I guess he’s been dead pretty near a hundred years now.”

“Truth"’ of London has the following to say concerning grand operas and their length: “Few now living have ever heard in England a complete performance of Rossini’s ‘William Tell.’ for the senior Frederick Gyc used to declare that after Tamberlik or Wachtel had sung ‘Suivez moi,’ the audience took the hint and followed the tenor out of the building. ‘Les Huguenots,’ which is probably longer even than ‘Gotterdammerung.’ has also never been performed in its entirety in this country, not even in the past, when the opera house almost habitually remained open until bet a ceil 1 and 2 in the morning.”

Tn these days of steam winches it is almost unique to hear the anchor weighed to the songs of the sailors. The other morning, however, in Auckland an old sea dog listened with delight to the solo and chorus work of the crew of the fourmasted ,barque, the Falls of Garry, as the anchor was weighed in the old style of years ago. Said he: “It takes me back to the days when I was on the Ida Zeigler, in 1805.”

"At the present moment,” says Dr. D. T. Lamb I’hipson, in “To-day,” “veiy strenuous efforts are taken -to make t he potato the prime agent of movement in our motor cars and agricultural machines. In fact, the spirit obtained from the potato seems likely to take the place of paraflin oil and electricity in this inspect, Out of sixty-five million acres of arable land in the German Empire, 125 per cent, of the whole is now planted with potatoes. These humble tubers are dost ined not only to supply the spirit by which to move motor cars, cycles, boats, reaping machines, and other similar constructions, but, as heretofore, will eonsource of starch, glucose, syrups, and as human food, as food for cattle, ns a Routrcc of starch, glucose, syrups, and biscuit flour.”

“Didn’t think I could speak, did you, eh!” said Bragg, exultantly, after his first attempt at post-prandial oratory. “Well, I confess I can’t imagine anything so marvellous that has happened for years.” “Nothing like it been heard for a century, eh!” “Oh, longer than that. Not since Balaam’s time.”

At a recent meeting of the Academy of Sciences in Paris, M. D’Arsonval gave a description of a new invention for type-setting by telegraph, the electric current being made to perforate the characters on a moving baud connected with a type-setting machine, it is claimed that, the contrivance, which is the work of M. Royal, will dispense with transscription altogether for Press purposes.

A few months ago a man, brought before the City Court, Melbourne, on a charge of vagrancy, was indignant with the police for saying that he had done no honest work within a specified time. “For.six weeks,”<he said, “1 was working for the unemployed.” He was eclipsed last week by a foreigner, who filed his schedule in Melbourne,-stating that he had “no occupation,” and giving as the reason of his insolvency, ‘’Falling off in business.”

It is calculated by the British Consul at Philadelphia that the great coat strike in America last year resulted in a. loss of about £20,180,000. The total decrease in production is estimated at 46,100,000 dollars (about £9,220,000); the total loss in wages $25,000,000 (about £5,000,000). There was expended in relief funds 1,800,000 dollars (about £360,000). The total decrease in freight receipts is placed at 28,000,000 dollars (about £ 5,600,000).

The next to consult the magi was a man with an invalid wife. “She isn’t really ill,” said the man. “She only imagines she is ill. I begin to doubt, if drugs will help her.” ‘"Have faith,” said the magi. “Give her calomel, phosphorus, ipecac and strychnine.” “But will not that make her ill!” the man objected. “Certainly. It will make her so ill that she will never again mistake health for sickness,” replied the magi, holding out his thin, meagre hand in token that he conducted his business on a cash basis.

A man, while serving a sentence in New Jersey prison, thought out a means of “blind-stitching” by a machine. Blindstitching is the hidden stitching of hems in garments, which had hitherto been done by hand. The prison authorities gave him every facility for working out .his ideas, and when the invention was completed and perfected he was pardoned and set at liberty. He is now well on the way to become a rich man. On his release a company with a capital of a million dollars was formed, and it was not long before a sum of £lO,OOO was paid to the inventor on account of royalties

A great flood deluged the settlement of Tryphena, on the Great Barrier Island, on the night of Wednesday, July 29th, caused by a heavy rain which fell for six hours during the night. Intense darkness prevailed during the storm, and when daylight appeared it revealed a scene of unparalleled disorder. The roads were badly washed, several small landslips had occurred, and much property was carried away. The total damage is estimated at £lOO, one settler’s loss being put at £4O. Stone walls were washed to the ground, fruit trees were swept away, and cultivated gardens stripped of the surface soil. Large numbers of bee hives in this honey - producing district floated away on the flood, in company with drowning hens and other wreckage, and after being carried out to sea were brought back and deposited on the beach. It is said that the sea was discoloured for a week afterwards. 'a

The Columbia University recently purchased in Loudon for £25 the extensive library of a French Anarchist Cho had just died there. European collectors are now offering more than £25 ior single specimens of the collection, which is a remarkably complete one. It contains the death warrant forecasting the assassination of President Carnot, and many other curiosities.

A very interesting fete has just taken place at the village of Ecaussines, where the girls, finding that husbands were ‘‘backward in coming forward,” determined to give an international luncheon, to which all marriageable men were invited. Numerous addresses against celibacy were given outside the Town Hall. The loverless girls took their places, each having an empty seat beside her. In lime most of the chairs were filled. Many of the men were over forty. After dessert the girls who had found sweethearts danced in the village streets.

I-t is proposed that the forwarding of two copies of a book to the General Assembly Library under the Copyright Act now before the House of Representatives shall have the same value that the depositing of books in the National Library of the British Museum, and University Libraries, has in regard to books published at Home. But’ the publisher will get off more lightly here than in England, since there copies of a book must be sent to -three libraries, while two or three others have (and avail themselves of) the right of claim.

At the St. Louis World’s Fair, there will be exhibited by Mr C. A. Burt a rare and unique specimen of a pearl cluster from Shark’s Bay,’ West Australia. This valuable natural specimen consists of about. 150 pearls in a solid cluster, and measures Ilin in length, by Jin in breadth, and is about half an inch in thickness, and is undoubtedly the most famous pearl discovery existing. The cluster known as the Southern Cross, found some years ago at the Lacepede Islands, changed hands a short time ago for £lO,OOO. Experts, in estimating the value of the cluster owned by Mr C. A. Burt, taking the Southern Cross as a criterion, value this cluster from £ 15,000 to £20,000. The only other known cluster of value is in the possession of the British Government. This exhibit from the Commonwealth Pearl Fisheries will, no doubt, be a centre of attraction for many visitors.

That there are some very smart people at work in Auckland at present the following instance would show: A few days ago a man dressed like a Tramway Company’s inspector, went round the Mount Roskill district. His story, told with the utmost assurance, was: “As Mr. Hansen fears the opposition of the motor ’buses, and wishes to popularise the tram service, he has determined to send us round to sell tickets for the Tram Company.” One man bought a parcel of fifty tickets. On presentation the tickets proved to be valueless. It behoves people to be on their guard against such smart gentry.

You wander into the dairy with visions of buxom wenches with their dimple.! elbows and pink fingers immersed in snowy curds or golden butter. But you see prosaic men grinding away at patent “Diaphragms” and “End-over-ends” and “Separators” and the like, and the butter which is turned out with such amazing rapidity is never once touched by, hand, even in the wrapping-up process. The patent wooden beehives that look like miniature Swiss cottages, and the slabs of ready-made honeycomb, may give you a shock. But the demonstrations of scientific bee-keeping and honeyprodueing that are given by a man who lectures in a big wire eage, like Seeth’s cage at the Hippodrome, and who handles bees as fearlessly as Seeth handles lions, will undoubtedly interest you vastly. You eau sec sheep sheared by machinery as quickly as ordinary country bumpkins are fleeced by “confidence” sharpers. And almost before, the poor meek beast knows the operator farmhand has hold of it, its fleece is off all in one piece, and it gets up amazed, with the completes! sort of a clean shave. You can sec every sort of farmer’s work done, but! by means and in ways that are more interesting than a conjuring performance, remarks the London “Express” concerning the Royal Show. - - ■

At M. Loubet’s birthplace, Montelimar, the name is pronounced “Loubett,” but in Paris and other parts of France the President is called Loubay. The word Loubet actually means “poodle dog.”

The Jervois Road extension of the Auckland Electric Tramway Company’s line will be proceeded with this weekMr Hansen, the general manager, informed our representative that the next extension to be put in hand would lie from Newmarket to -the corner of Victoria Avenue, Remuera. No doubt, Mr Hansen added, the line would be continued along the Remuera Road to Greenlanc.

Tom Collins, whose novel, “Such is Life,” the “Bulletin” has just published, is a homey-handed hard grafter, an ironworker employed in a small Victorian town. His real name is Furfy, and, like most of the “Bulletin’s” literary specialists, he has lived the life he writes about. The material in “Such is Life” was gathered while Furfy travelled the Riverina with a portable harvester.

The annual examination for the admission of Fellows, Associates, and Students of the Incorporated Institute of Accountants of New Zealand takes place in October next in the four centres only, viz., Auckland, Wellington. Christchurch and DuneJin, commening on the third Monday in October the 19tli. Copies of syllabus may be obtained from Mr R. 8. H. Biss, lion, local secretary, e/o Messrs L. D. Nathan and Co-

There are over 200 members in the London Vegetarian Cycling Club. Here is the menu of a recent club dinner, ths “steak” being made of nuts and the “galantine” of beans: Consomme Julienne. Puree of Green Peas. Mushroom Pasty. Pommes Chateau, Spinach. Nuttose Steak, Reform Sauce. New Potatoes. Green Peas. Galantine. Salad, Mayonnaise Sauce. Madeira Pudding. F.R. Cherry Cake. Apricot Eclairs. Plasmon Apricot Ice. Strawberries, Bananas, etc.

A few days ago residents of Ponsonby were cautioned against individuals who had been hawking goods and acting peculiarly. The latest story is a sample of the depths of meanness some men will stoop to in order to make a few shillings. It is stated that two men called at a house with a piece of music to sell. After a while the man asked to be allowed to play over the piece on the piano. This was allowed by the lady, who finally agreed to buy the music and handed the man the two shillings. One of the men asked for a drink of water, which the lady kindly went to get, and upon returning found that the men had decamped, taking both the music and the money with them.

We have received from Messrs Thos. Cook and Son a small leaflet giving particulars, as a preliminary announcement, of a unique tour from London, in connection with the World’s Sunday-school Convention, to be held at Jerusalem in .April of next year. The magnificent twin-screw steamer Furst Bismarck, of 8500 tons, has been specially chartered, and will leave London 31st March, 1904, for a 32 days’ tour, the cost of which will be from thirty- guineas, including expenses for an eight days’ stay in the Holy Land and for visiting’ the principal sights in these surroundings. Although 500 passengers will be taken, there is already a demand for accommodation. For intending travellers from this colony who will bo in England in March of next year, this trip will afford a special opportunity- of seeing the old Biblical land.

Arrangements have been made by the Paparoa Coal Company, Coromandel, with the Northern Steamship Company to ship five tons to the Auckland gas works as a trial parcel, to ascertain if it is suited to the requirements for the manufacture of gas. At the sitting of the Warden’s Court on August . 12 Mr R. S. Bush, S.M., granted a lease of 900 acres of land at Paparoa for coal-mining purposes. The company have already 100 acres, and their holding is now 1000 acres. For some time past work has been

going on, a large amount of development and prospecting having been done. At the present time the company are operating on a seam five feet thick at the outcrop, and which has proved to attain greater dimensions at depth. Preparations are being made to open up on this seam some distance from where it outcrops. It is the intention of the company to construct a tramway from the mine to the Paparoa Beach.

One hears of many strange and queer epitaphs appearing on tombstones, but the following, which has recently been discovered on a stone, in the cemetery of a remote country- village, in Germany, ought to bear off the palm: “Here lies the body of Joseph Moritz, senior, who was murdered by- his daughter in his sixty-second year. Here lies the body- of Elizabeth Moritz, wife of Joseph Moritz, who was murdered by- her son. Here lies the body'of Marie Moritz, who committed suicide after shooting her father. Here lies the body of Joseph Moritz, junior, who was hanged for murdering his own mother.”

The following are a few Egyptian proverbs:— If the moon lie with thee thou needest not to earc about the stars. The dirt of labour rather than the saffron of indolence. Work, though thy gain be merely the oil (for the lamp), rather than sit idle at home. They came to shoe the horses of the Pasha' the beetle then stretched out its leg to be shod (vain pretensions) . If a worthless fellow be with thee, do not let him go, or a worse will come to thee. (This is a favourite proverb regarding servants.) The danger of sudden elevation is expressed in the saying; If God proposes the destruction of the ant lie allows wings to grow on her. Concerning those who judge of the world merely by their own sensations: A splinter entered the sound eye of a one-eyed person. “I wish you goodnight,” said he. He fancied that night had arrived.

An amusing story —-which shows the value of the passport system—comes from Russia. Prince Metchersky, who is a journalist by profession, was commissioned by- the Czar to investigate certain agrarian troubles. The Prince went to Roumania and there obtained one of the permits necessary- for taking live stock across the frontier. Then he went to a Russian frontier post and presented the document to the official as his warrant to pass. The official could read but little in Russian, and knew no Roumanian, but the big document, with ooat of arms and seal, greatly impressed him, and he cheerfully put the Russian official stamp on it. His investigations ended, the Prince went back to Moscow, and at the first opportunity presented the passport to the governor, saying: “With this document 1 entered Russia, and travelled about for five months, yet you must admit that the description of mo is scarcely correct or flattering.” The amazed governor read that the Prince was “one black sow, full grown, with one ear partly torn away.”

A further alleviation of the sum of human suffering and another triumph of scientific research has io be recorded. Ever since the introduction of wax matches their manufacture has been a source of danger to those employed in making them, due to the fact, that no substitute for the phosphorous employed was known, and the workmen suffered from the ravages of a disease set up by contact with it, and known as phossy jaw. Latterly the condition of affairs in the factories lias been much improved, due to the faet that the workers have to wear gloves and masks, and ample facilities for cleansing the skin are provided; but despite all precautions eases are still all too frequent. Messrs Bryant and May, after years of patient experiment and the expenditure of large sums of money, have discovered a substitute for phosphorous of a perfectly harmless nature, yet possessing all its other attributes. This will ba good news indeed not only- to the matchmakers, but to all classes of the community. Mothers will Ifail with delight the fact that the danger of some little toddler picking up and eating . wax matches with fatal results no longer exists, nor will adults be the victims of a childish prank, such as that re-

corded recently, where the thoughtless action of a little boy in putting a box of matches in the tea-pot was attended with well nigh fatal results for the unfortunate people who partook of the deadly brew-

There seems every likelihood that the purchase of Kaawu Island by a syndicate will result in the active development of the copper mines there. The increased demXnd for copper resulting from the enormous quantities now required in connection with electrical works, has resulted in much belter prices being paid for this metal, which faet, added to improved methods of treating the ore, enabling the copper to be extracted at much less cost than formerly-, practically enables mines to be worked at a profit, which at one time would not have paid. The successful establishment of a copper mining industry at Kawau would mean the employment of a large number of men, and be a good thing for Auckland. Mr Dunning, of the Coastal Steamship Company, has renewed the previous arrangement under which that company secures the carrying rights to anil from Kawau Island for another 20 years, so that there will be regular steamer communication as before. The syndicate has arranged for an expert io visit Kawau and report upon the copper deposits there. Should the report prove satisfactory it is understood that capital will be forthcoming to develop the mine.

The Prussian officer who held it his duty to kill a mere soldier who had offered to shake hands with him, had, from the. official Prussian point of view, a complete case (says “Harper's Weekly”). Handshaking implies a certain degree of equality, and it is not possible for a Prussian officer to imagine any- equal except another Prussian officer. Clearly, any act suggesting sueh a thing could not be expiated by any punishment short of the immediate death of the offender. The custom of handshaking dates back to prehistoric times, a relic of those savage days when strangers could not meet without suspicion of murderous purpose. Then all men went abroad with weapons and shields, and when they met, would stand in pleasant converse, each with his shield upon his left arm, and with right hands clasped so that there would be no chance for a sudden swing of the knife or bludgeon. The right hand was invariably used for the weapon, with the result that we are a right-handed race. The reason for this lay undoubtedly- in the fact that the left arm was always employed in the important work of shielding the heart. Among the common people of the Aryan ia.ee the old pledge of amity in yielding the right hand to be grasped and held has since remained the chief token oi open friendship. In the Iliad, returning chiefs were “greeted with extended hands.” Even at that remote day the early significance of the handclasp had been lost in the nobler meaning of civilised life. But it remains a salutation in which it greater or less degree of equality is claimed or conceded. It is, therefore, possible for a humble person to shake hands with the President of the Lmilcd States, but not with an officer of the Prussian Armv.

Of all the pets owned by the London Metropolitan Fire Brigade the one with the most distinguished history is Polly, the Camden Town parrot. Polly is au Indian by birth, and, although her exact age is not known, her years arc not few. In 18S9 she had the honour of sailing with the Prince of Wales when he was acting as midshipman on the Alexandra, then under the command of the late Duke of Saxe Coburg. Both of these officers, says the “Golden Penny,” were particularly fond of Polly, and

many a time she was graciously permitted to perch upon their shoulders. Nowadays Polly’s great delight is to muse upon the social glories of the past and to be “played on” by a garden nozzle hose, crying out the while “More water, more water!”

Auckland has got all sorts of ideas into its head since Kipling called it “Last, loneliest, loveliest, exquisite, apart.” For a long time it has considered that the rest of Maoriland was constructed solely in order that it might have something to sit on the end of. Just now. when the rest of the State is taking a more or less intelligent interest in the doings of the world, Auckland is watching the earth solemnly revolving around a dock that it built at great expense (says the Sydney “Bulletin’'). It is :>.t present trying to get a handful of the £20,000, that is to be spent on patching up some of the rotten bulwarks that the Motherland has left in these seas, expended at its dock in order to rub some of the desperate loneliness off it. Auckland is like the absurd person who bought a fine gold watch and then invested in a suit of fine clothes in order io let the watch feel at home. Then this man wont and stayed at a swell hotel, and bought a motor car so as not to have any incongruous spots on the premises. Then he found that he would have to let the motor car on hire in order to avoid insolvency. Similarly Auckland first, built a dock that it didn’t want, in order to prove its superiority, and then it went and spent a whole lot of money on an Admiralty House that no one will live in, so that the Admiral who didn’t come might stay there while his ship which didn’t arrive was being repaired in the dock that wasn't wanted. If hard times hadn't loomed up round the corner Auckland was quite prepared to add a few Pyramids and things, and cherish them as ornaments. But hard times have loomed up with a great loom, nnd at. present Auckland is concentrating its intellect on the necessity- of gelling bent, warships to come and get mended, and in advertising for lodgers for its Admiralty House.

Boston, like Paris, lias her Quartier Latin, where the most interesting things happen. There is a semi-Boheinian region, says Lilian Whiting, the author of a book entitled “Boston Days.” in which are located several studio buildings and other artistic or semi-literary headquarters, which is a part of the city that is very much alive. On the new land, the buildings all new, it is yet adjacent io and adjoining the old part of the city-. This artistic Latin-like quarter abounds in students who pour out of its club rooms or restaurants in great numbers with artists, men and women, who perhaps live in their studios, make then

matutinal coilce over a gas stove, and

dine at restaurant; it abounds in lectures; in the followers and practitioners of occult science and mental healing, in spiritual mediums —what you will, ion will perhaps be accosted on the sidewalk by a neatly dressed woman with refined courtesy of manner, who offers you a card bearing the legend, “Divine Science Home.” You may ba favoured with a gratuitous copv of “The Prophetic Star - Gazer”; you may be gently entreated to attend a lecture on the “Science of Creation from the Standpoint of Vibration”, or invited to a course on “Psycho-Physics”; you may he asked if you understand “mental chemistry”; you may be invited to the home of “Rest, Recuperation, and Regeneration”; you may be informed of the private lectures given by Siddi Mohammed Tabier; you may be privileged to enter into the mystic atmosphere of the “Oriental Circle,” where you listen to discourses on the “Gods of Egypt and the Book of the Dead,” “The Mahabharata and the Ramayana” or the “Reincarnation of the Vedas.” Lectures in this region discuss such topics as “Primal Force,” “The Bondage of Mortal Sense,” and “The Elimination of Death.” A daintily gowned young woman sitting in a club parlour in this region was asked if she believed in thought, transference, “Oh, I am far beyond -that,” she replied airily; “I am in the sphere of intense vibration.”

Since the King’s illness appendicitis has been flippantly termed a “fashionable disease.” Its prevalence in Great Britain, however, has now become alarming, and medical men are casting about for solutions of the mystery of its remarkable increase. Dr. S. Kellett Smith, in the “Lancet,” seeks for the solution iu the present conditions of food supply am distribution. Probably four-fifths of the chief perishable comestibles, he says, are frozen or chilled for transmission or collection before reaching the consumer. Chilled or frozen meat, fish, poultry, rabbits, game, etc., are notoriously prone to rapid decomposition when removed from a cold store. Also, they degenerate more rapidly after cooking than the unfrozen article. Following up the argument, Dr. Smith says:—lt may be that eating chilled or frozen food, especially liable to rapid decomposition, may result in a more septic state of the intestines than in the pre-eold storage days, and thus greater septicity may in its turn account for the greater virulence of those irritants to which the caecum and appendix have always been prone.

The Amateur Players’ Club in Sydney is always ready to act in aid of charity, but once they were “taken in” very badly. They had arranged to help an ap?arently deserving suburban ease. Inviations were sent out, and a collection was to be made during the evening for the distressed family, but on the day of the performance it was found out that “the invalid mother” and the “starving children” were frauds. As any and everybody had been invited, when the club turned up at the place, the hall was full of “larrikins,” so the club made up their minds not to play. There was no means, however, for the actors to get away without being seen, and the mob commenced thumping on the dressing-room doors, “inviting the company to come out and bo smashed.” Then one member of the club put his head through a hole in the curtain, and told them that the leading lady was very ill, and the show was put off till the next night. Luckily the caretakers just then appeared, and let the “players” creep out by a friendly back door. Next night the crowd of “hoodlums” came to the hall, and, finding another entertainment going on, wreaked vengeance on it. But the players are still trembling in their shoes, as the enemy have vowed that they will "be even” with them.

Probably the greatest man in the British Navy to-day is “Jacky Fisher,” or, to give him his proper title, Admiral Sir John Arbuthnot Fisher, K.C.B. The strangest thing about the man who bears upon his shoulders the weight of the British Empire is that he is not an Englishman at all, in the strict sense of the word. His father was a captain in the 78th Highlanders, who settled in Ceylon, and his mother was a Singhalese woman of high rank. In countenance Admiral Fisher shows the characteristics of a bull-dog, and he has that sim-

ple, bluff, hearty manner which is associated with the typical John Bull. Sometimes his subordinates ami foreign diplomatists with whom he lias to do are deceived by this manner into thinking him an innocent, guileless sailorman with plenty of pluck, but no brains. They discover too late that a touch of Scotch pnwkiness is grafted on Anglo - Saxon directness and iron will, and that Fisher has been playing them. Admiral Fisher’s subordinates respect him, but do not love him. He works them too hard for that, and is too quick to detect their faults. He toils from five o’clock in the morning till nine at night, and expects everybody else to do the same. Men who have served under him are apt to curse whenever his name is mentioned. Fisher knows this, and takes a sardonic pleasure in it. He is fond of telling the story of an old boatswain who served under him in several ships. The boatswain eventually retired on pension, and Fisher paid him a visit at this country cottage in Devonshire. He noticed a man-servant about the place, who seemed to have nothing to do, and asked his host, “What on earth do you want him for?” “Well, sir,” said the boatswain, “he has to call me every morning at five o’clock and say, ‘Admiral wants to see you sir.’ I roll over to the other side of the bed and reply, ‘Tell the Admiral to go to the devil.’ Then Igo to sleep again, feeling good. This happens half a dozen times a day, and I feel better every time. I have been waiting for it for 20 years.”

In a speech recently before the House of Commons, dealing with the education of naval officers, Mr. Arnold Foster quoted a distinguished naval officer in the lines below, which admirably present the naval engineer’s claim to appreciation: “Everything in the modern fleet,” so he said, “is done by machinery, be it steam, hydraulic, compressed air, electricity, to which will probably be added in the near future explosive oil and liquid air. Not only are the ships propelled solely by machinery, but they are steered by machinery. Their principal arms—gun and torpedo—are worked by machinery. They are lit by machinery; the water used by those on board for drinking, cooking, washing is produced by machinery; messages which were formerly transmitted by voice pipe now go by telephone. The orders which the admiral wishes to give to the fleet could formerly only be made by flags in the day and lamps at night; they are now made by electricity—that is, wireless telegraphy and electric flashing lamps. Orders which were formerly written out by hand are now produced by the typewriter or by the printing machine. Formerly the admiral visited another ship in his pulling barge; now he goes in a steam boat; the anchor, formerly hove up by hand, is now worked by an engine. The live bullocks which were formerly taken to sea are now replaced by frozen carcases, maintained in that condition by machinery. If a fire breaks out in the ship, the steam pumps drown it; if the ship springs a leak, steam pumps keep down the water. The very air that those on board between decks breathe is provided by a fan driven by machinery.

A man named Fowler, who last month stood his trial in London for bigamy, was discovered by Iris original wife in a strange manner. It seems that Mrs Fowler No. 1, who found her long-lost husband while she was singing for money in the streets with one or two companions in straitened circumstances, had so charmed Mrs Fowler No. 2 that the latter gave her twopence and asked her to sing another song. The singer noticed the name Fowler on the shop fascia, but did not suspect that the shop belonged to her husband. Later, however, singing in front of another shop, also in New Southgate, and seeing the name W. T. Fowler, she entered the shop and asked to see>Mr Fowler. She was referred to the other shop in Stationroad. where she met and recognised William Thomas Fowler, to whom she was married at St. Stephen’s Church, Canonbury, in May, 1893, when he was twenty years old. Her husband admitting that she is the Annie Kate Doris Oberdais whom he married ten years ago, says that when they parted company later she took all the furniture. After failing in business, going abroad, returning and starting again as a master baker in Clapham, he heard that his wife had misconducted herself, and had gone

through a form of marriage at St. Thomas’ Church, Islington. He spent £4B 15/ in trying to find her so that he could get a divorce, and, failing to find her, he went through a form of marriage with Eliza Ann Macdonald in September, 1599, at Holy Trinity Church, Roehampton.

The dioce«e o* Melanesia is en irregular triangle, and cove- s an area of 200,000 square miles. There are five principal groups of islands —the New Hebrides, Banks, Torres, Santa Cruz, and Solomons—of which 20 islands are being worked by the mission. The duties in which the new mission yacht Southern Cross is intended to play a useful part are exceptionally arduous, consisting as they do of three complete voyages every year from Norfolk Island, the headquarters of the mission, 800 miles to the southward of the southernmost angle of the diocese, through the various groups of islands, and back to headquarters. On these voyages missionaries and scholars are taken to their various districts or homes, with stores for missionaries and teachers, while scholars are conveyed from one point in the diocese to another, all th : s in addition to the religious instruction which is carried on on board the vessel herself. The logs of the annual cruises show a total distance of 9000 miles, during which the 170 stations aTe visited, and all the work has to be done in eight and a-half months, as, owing to hurricanes, these waters are very dangerous for navigation between December and March. The annual expenditure is more than £lO,OOO, and an annual income of £15,000 is needed if the mission is to cope with this increased work. The Southern Crosses which preceded the present bearer of the name show the progress of the work of the mission. The first was a schooner of 70 tons; the second (that from which Bishop Pattison landed on the morning of his death at Nakpu), a brigantine of 90 tons; the third a schooner of 180 tons, with auxiliary steam power. In this vessel Bishop J. R. Selwyn carried on for 18 years his work for the mission. The fourth was

again a schooner, but 240 tons, and with auxiliary power; and now comes the new Southern Cross, a senooner again, but of more than 400 tons and 500-000 horse-power. — “Sydney Daily Telegraph.”

One of the institutions of Melbourne is the “confidence boy.” He is to be found near the corner of Collins and Swanston streets, just about the time that the theatres come out, and, having reduced his profession to an exact science, he makes no overtures to the public, but simply stands on the kerbstone sobbing bitterly to himself. Kindly theatregoers pause at the pitiful spectacle. “What’s the matter, sonny?” they ask. “800-hoo, I’ve lost my threepem 3, and I—boo-hoo—haven't any money to pay my tram-fare home,” blubbers the youngster. The threepence is always forthcoming, and breathing a fervent “Thank you, sir,” the confidence boy darts off to watch his benefactor safely out of view and resume his vigil for a new victim.

The “Cincinnati Commercial Tribune” prints a curious little poem. It will interest gentlemen in the suburbs who take their exercise on the lawn: The thrifty man looks at his lawn, “That grass,” he says, “I’ll cut at dawn.” 1!!!I!! t ! I ! ! I I And this is how it looks, when o’er The lawn he runs his dull lawn-mower: ////////////// “I see,” says he, “it’s merely bent,” And back he goes, though well-nigh spent: )))))))))))))) “Well, I’ll be switched! Confound such hay!” He cries, “I’ll go the other way.” (({((((((((((( Grown desperate now, the shears he snatches And cuts the grass—in gobs and patches: !!! ((( >!| ))) !!! Only to find next day, at dawn, A dandelion-spangled lawn: ** * !! I * 1111 ** * !!! I* !! I** * *