FROM OTHER PAPERS.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 165, 6 April 1908, Page 8

FROM OTHER PAPERS.

4 Many are the devices employed to break the tedium of the voyage • oil Homewardbound ships, but the one about to be related here is probably quite outside the run of the usual competitive events, says the Dunedin "Star." A passenger by a steamer which recently left these shores was struck by the workmanlike manner in which a baby on board disposed of the contents of its bottle, and the idea occurred to him to get up a match. Several grown-up male passengers entered the lists, and at the baby's appointed meal time were supplied with feeding-bottles filled with claret and water. The man who arranged the event went nap on the baby, and his confidence was not misplaced, for the little one liad its bottle finished by tko time the others were about halfway through.

A middle-aged woman named Mary Schofield, who was askod at the Auckland Police Court to show cause why a prohibition order should not be issued against her, indignantly challenged the right of the Court to take away the liberty of a freeborn American citizen. "If the order wore issued she would take no notion of it," she said; "in fact, she would put- it on the fire," adds the local "Herald."' Undeterred, however, Mr. Kettle, S.M., made an order against defendant for 12 months. On the order being made out and handed to the woman, she immediately toro it in pieces, and threw the pieces in the direction of the magistrate. Mr. Kettle severely admonished her, and ordered her to be detained for gross contempt of Court. Ho also ordered her to gather up the fragments that remained. This was reluctantly done, and defendant, after having the gravity of her position pointed out to her, was allowed to go, taking with her the order in its reduced state.

A peculiar case of somnambulism occurred at Geraldine last weok, says tho Christchurch "Press." A young man employed on a threshing-.mill was sleeping over night in an upstairs bedroom in' one of the local hotels, tho mill being stationed close to the township prepared to commence operations in tho early morning., About 4 a.m. the mill whistle was blown. The young man referred to, 011 hearing tho whistle in his sleep, sprang out of bed, threw un the bedroom window, and bundled out on to tho asphalt footpath, falling about 13 or 14 feet.. As ho fell, tho young man came to his senses, and was able afterwards to get on his feet and find his way back to his room by climbing the fire cscape, when his groans nt-< tracted tho attention of the proprietor, who immediately summoned medical aid. Strange to say, no bon<js were broken, and beyond, a bad shaking and sovere bruises, the somnambulist is none the worse for liis adventure.

The following throws an interesting though belated light on tho famous Dogger Bank in-cident-.—"W.P." writes from Lucknow, under date January 15, to the Aberdeen "Free Press" a series of articles entitled "Round the World." He says"Before closing I will give your readers a very interesting incjdent. On board the Macedonia I met with a Mr. Leslie, of the firm of King and Co., of Bombay ancl London. He told me'that some years ago lie, had given Hall, Russell, and Co.. of Aberdeon, an order for a powerful tug with powerful searchlights and two lunnels. When ready for sea a crew of soirio 20 .Japanese were got from London to take her- out to Bombay. Mr. Leslie said that in the bay at Aberdeen she experimented for a week and then left . for Bombay, the crew boinfi told to exercise themselves with tho searchlight on their way out. They did so. It was the time of the Russo-Japa-nese war. The boat went by the Dogger Bank, no doubt showing her searchlight out-' sido of it. It/is supposed that they, had been soon at night by some of tho Russian cruisers, who at once advised St. Peters-' burg that a Jananeso gunboat with a crew of some 60 Japanese had been seen off tho Dogger Bank. ' The incident came to bo magnified until tho admiral was .advised to look out for a whole fleet of- Japanese gun- j boats. Heneo came tho great Dogger Bank smash, which cost Russia some £70,000, also the cost of an expensive conference at Pans. So much for Aberdeen and tho Dogger Bank incident. I saw tho boat at Bombay. Sim is called the Rose, and is giving great satisfaction." . .

v The extermination of small birds, which aro tuo causo of much loss to farmers every year, says tho "Otago Daily Times," is likeVj- brou eut about in timo by little owls. Writing to tho Otago Acclimatisation Society, Mr. A. C. Iverson, of Earnsclougli, states that tho owls liborated in that district, after breeding, went away, but returned later, on. Ho'thought they must have gone to some place whore the small "birds wero moro plentiful. Whenever the, owls camo about tho birds disappeared. It mado little uitrerence, he thought, where they were liberated, as they would soon spread all over tlio country. Ho hoped tho Government and tlio Society would introduce each year as many more as could' be' obtained. They should bo netted for tho first month and fed until thoy , gamed the. strength of thoiwings. Ho had noticed that at, any place 'where, tlio owls ha J camped there wero the remains of wings and legs of small birds. J< urther, lie had seen tho owls trying to catch the birds m daylight. The Council of tho Society has dccided to take tho necessary steps to procure moro of the owls and to seek tho co-operation of tho Farmers' Union in tho matter.