News, Notes and Notions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 12, 16 September 1908, Page 44

News, Notes and Notions.

Is the Dominion in danger of drifting towards the Continental Sunday? The question came up in Auckland last week, when the Garrison Hand asked leave to give a concert in the Albert Park, and to make a collection thereat in aid of the band funds. Several councillors objected, this being characterised as the thin end of the wedge in introducing Continental observance of the Sabbath, and a motion refusing permission was carried by five votes to four. At the first glance the attitude thus adopted by the Council seems somewhat puritanical, for as one councillor pointed out —what harm can be done by the playing of, or listening to good music on a Sunday. But this is not the point. Bands already play in Auckland and elsewhere on Sunday, and only the most intolerant raise objections: but once you allow the taking-up of a collection, you introduce a new element. and one which most persons in the Dominion will agree is objectionable and mischievous. " C’est le premier pas que conti ” is a wise and true saying, and had permission been granted! in this case it would have set up a. precedent, quotable in other parts of the Dominion, and similar privileges being granted elsewhere. Abuses would, sooner or later, have crept in. The fear of introducing the Continental Sunday is by no means confined to those who have religious convictions on the matter. Onee open restaurants and theatres, and shops would soon follow. After that newspapers and offices, as a matter of course. Reflection on this point will always lead to a strong opposition from all classes of the community. $> <t> An agony eohunn appeal to the Royalists of the world from "the Royalists of the United States of America, organised for the purpose of securing real liberty and to crown Helen of New York Queen,” eaught the eye of watehful London Press interviewers. We learn accordingly that Mr. Louis A. tiourdain, the advertiser, is one of a seeret council of seven representing the supreme council of Chicago, which resolved five years ago that America needed an enlightened monarch. The seven are now in St. Petersburg, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Tokyo, and London ( only six places ? but perhaps the seventh is with that enlightened father of his people. Abdul Hamid), trying to get at sympathetic crowned heads, The conspirators claim to control three million American votes, and their programme is a sanguinary war, followed by the coronation within three years of the "handsome, intellectual, young, single woman, of queenly bearing,” at present known only as Helen, and carefully concealed. She was chosen because, it was sagaciously reckoned, a woman would excite less jealousy than a man. On the whole, it is pretty safe to predict that Helen I. of the United States and Jacques I of the Sahara will begin their reigns simultaneously. Enterprise takes various forms, even in Poland. A young oculist, finding that patients were few and far between, hit upon an original means of advertising his healing powers. He engaged a blind woman, who sits and begs by the Church of the Holy Cross, to hold a light board, whereon are written his name, address, qualifications, and consultation hours. As the church is in the busiest thoroughfare of the town, the notice attracts a g*sxl deal of attention. The beggar herself says she is quite satisfied with the result*, as many people notice her who woidd otherwise pass by, and as the doctor ha- added his assurance that she hopele—ly blind, benevolent old ladies throw coppers into her tin mug. sure that their money is not wasted on an impostor. It i- not yet known whether the number cf the occlist's patients has increased. < «>' < It is estimated (says “Harper's Weekly”) that the annual aggregation cf the eir< ulatiou of the newspapers of the world is aoiue 12.000,000,000 copies. To grasp an idea of wlvat these figures mean one should be told that these papers would cover no fewer than 10,450 square miles of surface; that they are printed on 781,250 tons of paper; and, further, that if the number tl2/XX>>XX)JXK)j rapre-

sented, instead-of copies, seconds of time, it would take more'than 333 years for them to elapse. In lieu of this arrangement, we might press and pile them vertically upward to reach our highest mountains. Topping all these and even the highest Alps, the pile would reach the magnificent altitude of, in round numbers, 500 miles. Calculating that the average man spends five minutes in the day reading his paper (a very low estimate), we find that the people of the world altogether annually consume in the reading of their papers an amount of time equivalent to 100,01X1 years. ❖ "There is considerable truth,” writes a correspondent of the “Westminster Gazette,” "in Judge Edge's statement that there are many well-qualified English barristers who arc not earning as much as bricklayers. Roughly speaking, there are about 9000 counsel whose names are to be found in the Law List; and of these probably 1500 are actually engaged in the practice of the law. Of the 1500 it is doubtful whether more than 10 per cent make an income exceeding £lOOO a year ; 20 per eent may see from £O5O to £lOOO as the net result of 12 months’ work; while the remaining 70 per eent either fail to clear expenses or to have the scantiest margin for their livelihood. 1 know personally several barristers of more than 20 years’ standing whose net income io smaller than that of many an artisan; and more than one who would gladly change incomes with a bricklayer. And matters are getting worse. During the last two years legal incomes have shrunk at least 30 per cent, a fact which scores of tee-books painfully demonstrate.” ■£<£<s> Not a few people sympathise instinctively with the surgeon in “The Doctor’s Dilemma,” whose universal programme was the removal of the patient’s “unciform sac.” The policy of “ Thorough ” is not without its attractions. Why not have all the teeth extracted as soon as they arrive, so that toothache may never trouble the person? Why not remove everybody’s appendix, so that appendicitis may become impossible? Mr. RyeSmith, Professor of Surgery in the University of Sheffield, rejected this heroic measure in his address to the British Medical Association the other day, largely on the ground that the expense and general inconvenience of the operation are not so well worth while in relation to the likelihood of any given person's contracting the disease as they are in the case of vaccination against small-pox. But he went almost so far as to say to the surgeon. "Whenever you see an appendix, cut it out.” If the surgeon is anywhere near the spot, that is to say, in the course of other operations, and the patient's appendix seems unusually susceptible. it may as well be removed. Meanwhile, no doubt, the best thing an ordinary person can do about his appendix is to forget it altogether. <?> ■s• In making his will, the late Duke of Devonshire left little to chance, and the lawyers. Some men of equal or greater fame have shrunk from the gloomy business of deciding how they should “cut up,” and have directed the disposal of their wealth on half- a sheet of notepaper, as Mr Balfour on one occasion impatiently disposed of his fiscal opinions. But the old Duke was nothing if not methodical. His will turns out to be a formidable affair of more than 17.700 words; that is to say, it would fill fourteen or fifteen newspaper columns of ordinary length. The relatively modest provision made for his widow is noteworthy, i» view of the recurrent gossip of the last few years which attributed to her an embarrassing tendency’ towards extravagant personal expenditure. Under the will she receives a cash gift of £5OOO, an annuity of £BOOO, certain domestic necessaries, and an option to lease one of the smaller Devonshire estates, Compton Place, at a rental of £ 100 per annum, “subject to a covenant on her part not to assign or sublet these premises, and to keep them in order and repair.” It cannot be said that these arrangements exhibit excessive generosity to a lady who was one of

the acknowledged leaders af English society, who frequently entertained rsyulty, and whose husband controlled properties of a total value of absut £3,000.000. An article publislied in “Novae Vremya,” in July, entitled "Shall We Fight Germany?” is causing a sensation in diplomatic and political cireies. The famous Russian journalist, M. Memdiikoff, predicts two coming gigantic national duels, namely, England versus Germany. and Japan versus the United states. The article is characterised by a sudden and remarkable friendship for Germany. Tire writer counsels against Russian •Miterferenee, and insists on the maintenance of peaceful relations with Germany under all circumstances. For Russia a "va banqtee” game might mean political suicide. <£<s><& In Sydney the aides of the four American Admirals were assigned a cottage detached from Government House, while the high quartet stayed at the mansion itself. On taking possession rather late at night the aides found every comfort and convenience except something to mix with the large quantity of hot and cold water that had been provided. They looked vainly’ on shelves and in sideboards for the missing link. Finally, word was sent to Government House that there was a live snake in a wash-basin, and they wanted something to poison it with. Down came a couple of varlets with clubs and an arsenal of knives and revolvers. When the Truth was discovered there was a swift hurrying of distilled grain and of things that popped and fizzed' to the snake-infested area. 4> <s> <®> Here is another specimen to be added to the album of English as she is wrote. It concerns the shore adventures of a paarty of British sailors in an Australian port. Their captain received it from a Uhinese storekeeper: “Misser Captain,— What for you send him sala man. along my fellow countlynaau shop, smash em window, steal em. hat, blake em door. What for your sala. man. -blake em window, window no lun away. My eountlyman want blake em sala man. Sala mam lun away. Window more better sala man. I get your countlyman makem bdl longa you. Suppose you no pay him. me telle your Misser King. He no pa.y„ me tell em my Emperor. You look out, suppose he no pay him bill God! Save em King no more. No more Chinaman eallem King good fellow. Good bye, Misser Captain, hope you no eatehee seasick.” <*><s<?> Penny dreadfuls” have been exemplifying their educative influence again. Possibly they- were not directly responsible for the domestic unpleasantness which drove a Derbyshire boy in July out in his shirt and stockings to drown himself. But, when he had arrived at tire place where he ought to have done this and thought better of it, they did suggest the wonderful story that he told to account for his condition. Two men, he said, had stripped him of his clothes, and carried him in a sack to the spot where he was found. It was a crude story, reflecting little credit on the penny dreadful from which it was derived. Tom Sawyer could have worked np the corroborative detail a great deal more efficiently. The police soon got to the bottom of the tale. But, so far as it goes, the affair does illustrate once more the blessings of the first of the three R’s. «><»<?> From a place called Olrns-Monsteraes, near Stockholm, there comes, via Berlin and the “ Daily Express,” the story of a woman wno leit asleep in 1876, and has just woken up. She is no relation, apparently of the Turkish Constitution, though their respective slumbers have lasted just about as long. Karoline Karlsdatter, it seems, was a girl of thirteen when she went to sleep over her books in school —trying to spell the name of her native place, perhaps—and she has opened her eyes again, feeling just as if she had had rather a good night, but. astonished to find herself a middle-aged woman. She announces her intention of making up for lost time by going back to school after the summer holidays to complete her education. Probably Ohrns-Montse-raes is very much as it was in 1876, but if her school course includes the modern history oi the world at large she will

have to era* a goed deal. Ft it an fateresting question, to be answered according to temperament, whether ona would sleep far thirty-two years if one could.