Notes

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 52, 26 December 1901, Page 18

Notes

Progress in Divorce. We are evidently getting on in this Colony. Dissolution of the marriage tie (says the Wellington Times) is now condnoted with promptitude and despatoh. In the space of one hour in one afternoon reoontly five undefended applications were granted. Three oases were also considered in camera. A. recent issue of the Denver Daily JYewt vouches for the statement that in one year there were 1302 divorces in that city. We are apparently moving towards the free and easy ways by which, in some of the American States, divorces are granted — as boots are Boled — ' while you wait.' And perhaps in the not distant future some wag may chalk up on ■ome of our railway stations — as one is said to have done in Denver : * Train stops twenty minutes for divorce.' The ' quick despatch ' of business by our divorce courts will no doubt, tend to greatly popuUriie ' tandem polygamy ' in New Zealand.

The Pope. Pope Leo XIII. — whom the cable-demon reported a few weeks ago as pretty nearly at bis last gasp — seem remarkably lively for a dying man. The latest files of our European exchanges represent him a" being marvellously active for a man of his years and in each relatively good health that the office of the physician, Dr. Lapponi, i a almost a sinecure. On last Friday the Holy Father completed, twenty-three years and ten months of his pontificate. ' His reign,' says the London Tablet, ' has risen very high in the scale of duration, being now the sixth in order, and if he is spared till the octave of the Epiphany it will be the fifth longest of papal reigns. The Popes who have reigned longer than Leo XIII. are : St. Peter (S3-67), with a reign of 34 years 6 months ; Pius IX. (1848-78), 31 years, 7 months, and 22 days ; Pius VI. (1775-98), 24 years, 6 months, and 14 days ; Adrian I. (771-95), 23 years, 10 months, and 27 days ; and Sylvester I. (314-37), 23 year?, 10 months, and 24 days.'

They Brought Conviction. Many members of the legal fraternity take no pains (when not pleading) to conceal their contempt for the average jury. It ia recorded of one noted London barrister that, once, when on circuit ( he swilled sundry ' long-sleevers ' of cheap and nasty beer, in order to bring himself down to the level of the twelve ' good men and true.' Among those who least loved juries is Mr. JußticeJelf. An amusing story, told by him at their expense, appears in a recent issue of M.A.P. " A friend of his, who was once on a jury, formed one of a majority of eleven in favor of a certain verdict ; but unhappily the twelfth man was obdurate in taking the opposite view, and no amount of argument would make him budge an inch from the attitude of opposition. Despairing of convincing him, Mr. Jelf's friend lit a cigarette and began to smoke. " I object to your smoking, sir," the obdurate juryman remarked. "I cannot breathe in an atmosphere of smoke." "I am sorry for that," the smoker blandly answered, and he handed round his cigarette case to the other ten. A minute later eleven cigarettes were pouring forth volumes of smoke. " A quarter of an hour later," Mr. Jelf used to say, with a twinkle in his eye, " a unanimous verdict was returned ( but the man was nearly asphyxiated before he gave in 1 "

Length of Days, A correspondent, enclosing the death-notice of a grandame of 103 years old, asks : ' What is the secret of such great length of days 1 ' We • giv« it up.' Even the ' doctors ' differ hopelessly here. Porridge, Bays one. Regularity of diet and exercise, say others. Still others place attention to personal and domestic hygiene in the forefront of causes of longevity. And from a thoupand mouths comes the cry : Temperance. But (sayß a writer on the subject) ' one of the most interesting and trustworthy statements in repect to old age is the report on the habits of centenarians, made some yean ago by a commission apppointed by the British Medical Association. Without going into particulars of the different cases it is raluable to note, generally, the result of this investigation. It seems that moßt of these old people were small or medium of stature and a spare habit of body ; the voice was rarely feeble ; most of them had lost their teeth, but nearly all enjoyed good digestion, one old man of 98 yearn, a clergyman, placing his hand on the organ in question, and saying that he never kuew what it was to have a stomach. Nearly all of them had enjoyed uninterrupted good health, and many had never known what ib was to be sick. They were all very moderate in eating, most of them using little animal food. Few indulged at all in intozioating drinks, and those only in notable moderation. They took considerable outdoor exercise, and nearly all possessed the good-natured, placid disposition.' Bat

good living it, we ween, of more account than long living. And it is well for both young and old tret to remember that no man livtth to himself alone.