HOME NEWS.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 502, 8 May 1909, Page 12

HOME NEWS.

INTERESTING ITEMS BY MAIL. London, March 20. A fine tribute was paid to the discharged soldier by tho Lord Mayor of Birmingham, As a worker, said Alderman ICenrick, ho is superior to tho ordinary civilian by reason of tho virtues of orderliness, neatness, punctuality, and cleanliness—tho fruits of his army training. Tho soldier of tho future will, according to Lieutenant-General Phelps, u ho also spoko at tho Birmingham meeting, be evon more officient as a worker. Instead of producing merely casual general labourers, the technical training which; is going on in the army will probamy lead to a large increase in tho men who come out of it with a trade at their fingers' ends. A West Bromwich soldier, now serving in Hong Kong, is anxious to lose no time in getting married on his return to England next year. Recently ho addressed the followmg letter 'to tho West Bromwich Board of .Guardians:—"Gentlemen.—l am writing > y° u to ask.if you could help mo to get a wife. The reason I write to you is, I thought perhaps you might bavo somo persons in tho workhouse that would bo glad of a cbanco to got married. - I am coming homo to England next year, 1910.; . . . Hero is a guido as to the sort of person I require: A woman aged from twenty-five to forty-five, widow or single, religion of England, and dark. Please send mo her name or givo her mine, so-that I can write her,. A : widow with cliildren. not objected to.—l remain, ——. P.S.—Hoping to havo an answer, EE you sond me the names of a dozen persons I will pick one out, and chanoe my arm as to whothor she will make a good wife." ' ' , . With , a. banli balance of £3000 at Barclays, and £200 to . his credit , in the 'post office, John V. Hoare—locally known as the miser of Spinhy Hill—was found lying on 8 bed of straw at Addlestono, in Surrey, dying from tho effects of exposure. Apparently tho old man had habitually denied himself even tho necessities of life, and shortly after being admitted to the infirmary he died of exhaustion. A search was made of his apartments, and £220 in gold , was discovered in a basket, hidden beneath a fow sausages. Moro sovereigns and a few bank notes were found concealed in an old lantern,'and-it subsequently transpired that tho miser was the owner of considerable property in the neighbourhood. That the city corporation is not always 'averse to consider,reforms, even of its own constitution, was shown the other day by the readiness with which it referred for discussion a proposal of Mr. Carl Hentschel's, according'to'which tho method of electing aldermen for life will bo> considerably modified.- '• Mr. Hentschel's main point is ■ that tho city fathers remain in office to discharge their aldermanic functions even after thoy have reached an excessive age. This, ho oontend3, bars the way. to younger and moro ehergotio mon, for tho seats at tho; table are, of course, limited. - " ■ i , A demonstration'has just been', 'given, in London of o now automatic repeating shot gun, known os tho Sjogren, the name of its inventor! The breech of the rifle is fitted with : a now automatic, 'contrivance, which makes use of tho forco of tihe recoil for-the extraction of carfcridgos and reloading, ; and it is claimed .that this; gives greater rapidity of fire and increased acouracy of shooting. Tho total weight of the rifle, without'bayonet, is B}lb,, and it'has magazine capacity for five'cartridges, the .whole of ; Which can bo discharged in si'seconds. The tests proved suooessful, and oonfirmod tho results of the trials held by. various exports on the Continent. , '■ .. ; The number, of now British subjects by naturalisation during 1908' was ■ 676; ■ According to the details' given in a Parlia- . montaryipaper,'RuSsii'obntributed tho.greatest' nunjber'of now' citizons, with 174,' Ger'ihany M follo;viifg ,ifiwl6B;'-'lAni'dKca was represented by 13, while Chili, Japan, Persia, and Morocco gavo one each.. Fourteen''people who' became naturalised were-"subjects of no foreign Stato," which means that tlioy had stayed away without sanction from the land of their birth a' sufficiently long period to involve the,loss of their nationality. Ten cases of readmissionto English citizenship occurred during' tho' year. '; ' Authors aro popularly supposed to bo an unbusinoss-liko race of peoplo, and an astute world is not slow to take advantage of their failing. But, as was pointed out, at tie. annual meeting, of the Incorporated Society of Authors, held;in London, printers as.woll as authors suffer from the inequalities of the copyright law. America is tho worst offender, because it requires that for a book to secure copyright in the; United States it' must be printed there. England, on her part, imposes no such obligation on the American author. /Another authors' grievance mentioned at the conference was tie early ; publication ■ of sevonponny editions of novels, in which conneotion Mr. Eider Haggard declared that unless Buch books wero-stopped the six shil-. ling novel would, soon pass out of cxistenco. The. good results attending -the open-air cure'for consumption aro attested by the annual report,.of the' Manchester Hospital for Consumption and Disoasos of the Throat and Chest. . It' states: "The patients spend the I whole of . tJio day out of doors, with tho exception of meal times, and at usually sleep with their' windows' wide open. A gratifying feature of lifo at the sanatorium is tho remarkable spirit of Cheerfulness which prevails, and' no sign of despondency is anywhere in evidence. Tho pity is.that, owing to, the, demands. for accommodation the patients aro only allowed to Btay for three months. ' -' .. . It is understood that a section of tlho Royal Commission on Coast Erosion , will visit Scotland during the summer. Although the woariug away of the land is not nearly so serious in Scotland as it is in certain districts of tho; East Coast of England, there are in Scotland certain, questions: connected with foreshores, reclamation of land from the sea, the taking of shingle, and publio rights, which are considered by the commission to bo of sufficient importance to require personal investigation on the spot. - Although an important commission has reported favourably on afforestation as a means of. remedying unemployment, the Government does not seem to be in any'great hurry to move in this direction.; "We are considering the matter," said Mr. Lloyd-Georgo to a Scottish deputation, "but wo havo not arrived at any decision.": The success of tho wholo experiment, ho pointed out, depends largely upon ablo to: secure land at a reasonable price, becauso if thoy paid twice as much as tho land was worth it could not possibly bo a commercial succoss'. Amongst othor things, tho deputation urged that Government assistance is necessary, because few landholders aro prepared to lock up the necessary capital during the uon-produotivo poriod. ; ■ ; ■ Ono of the most remarkable votes of thanks over passed was that endorsed by tho London Spiritualist Alliance whon the spirits who. had helped the , work of tho sooioty during the past year wore thanked for their cordial co-operation. The report does not stato whether there was any response to the votol Tho incident will not come i.s'a sur priso to those who know tho spiritual':)!' for thoy aro continually referring to their incorporeal coadjutors in term's of oho merest intimacy. The London Spiritualist .Viliapc-e by tho way, is. now. in tho twentv-lilt'i war of its existenco. _ Curious are tho ways of matrimony. At Hull a woman named Hcbden summoned a man whom alio described as her husband for desertion. Her statement was that sho was married twenty years ago, but her husband left her tho dav following, and had lived ever smco in Manchester. Now comes ! the wonderful part of tlio story. When she. stepped into tho box, tho defendant said lie lmd novor soen her before, whereupon the complainant said sho preferred a maintenance order to living with the defendant. The Magistrate, evidently nonplussed, said the case was hopeless, and so dismissed. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Jokyll and Hydo" romanoo is frequently finding its counterpart in real life. Thus, at Bristol, a man has just been rim to cartli who by day followed the harmless, useful calling of an electrician, and earned for himself an excellent character aliko from friends and employers. But at night ho was a veritable Bill Sikes, and his liouso, when searched.

revealed largo quantities of stolon goods— tho result ot four years of robbery. Further sittings of tho -Royal Commission. on lotable Spirits have been hold this week, Jho bulk .of the witnesses havo agreed in recognising tho vast difforenoa wniph separates brandy from .whisky. Whisky may, according to tho commtiwu s interim report, be equally wholesome vaethor.made from barley malt or from an'admixture of,-other cereals,'' But experts aro unanimous in declaring that brandy, to deserve tho name, can-only bo derivable from tho juioo of the grape. Consequently,'they are not prepared to tolerate any departure" from tho strict dictionary definition of tho term, considering that such a departure would open tho door to wholesale sophistication. ' - >■ Ono by ono wo are losing every living tio that binds tho present ago with tho literary giants of tho Victorian enqch.' Tonnyson's youngest Bister, Mrs. Lusliington; has just passed away at tho ripo ago of ninety-ono. She married' Edmund LuEhmgton, Professor of Greek at Glasgow University.. Only nine years separated tho poet from his youngest sister, and sha. was thuß able to share as a girl in his intellectual pursuits, for which she had a fino endowment.: Various interesting references; to this lady occur in .tho biography of the poet by tho present- Lord Tennyson, who was,Governor-General of Australia from 1902 to 1904. After many years of loyal service, Lord Charles Berostord has formally, relinquished command of tho Channel Fleot.' On March 22 tho flagship King Edward 1 VII got under way oil Portland, and steamed vory elo\Vly down tho line of battleships and oruisow on the way to Portsmouth. As each ironclad was passed, the bluejackets lining tho sides roared out their farewblls in cheers that could be heard at Portland, two miles away. At Portsmouth Lord Charles met .an enthusiastio reception. ; . .. Every building was ! gay with bunting, while a long line of motor cars carried .Union Jacks. : Never in the history of Portsmouth, has so groat o crowd gathered, save on ono equally historical occasion: when Nelson.left England for tho last time. Multitudes of people thronged the streets,. in-; eluding many men. who had served ! under him —some, indood, in tho Marlborough, nearly fifty years ago. At Waterloo Station the enthusiasm in-side the station was only/ surpassed by that with which Lord Chajrles was received whwi ho roachod the yard. The polio© triod in vain to keep tho , people back. Thoy burst through the unea and hemmed tho admiral in so tightly that for 6omo moments ho could not enter lus car. After a soono of extraordinary enthusiasm tho police mado a way for tho motor car, wbioh left for Wilton Crescent, A serious accidont, by which one life -was lost and many others were put ■ in • jeopardy, has occurred at the naval construction works of Messrs. .Viokors, Sons, and Maxim at Barrow, where work is,being carried out on tho new Dreadnought typo of battleship Vanguard. There are now' about 1200 men working on tho Vanguard. 'At noon, as' soon as tho twelve o'olock siron sounded,: there was, a rush from the ship by these men for tho pay office, Thoy were running down the' gangway loading from tlio ship to tho wharf whon tho gangway, suddenly collapsed, flinging tho mon, somo into tho dock, soino on. the wooden pon- . toons which keep the"ship from the wharf- > side, and some upon the wharf. Many wore injured, and.'ono man, named Tom Brown, a driller, had his back broken. ■ j A: happy termination concluded a surprising story when John Whitnear, the little son of an ironworker,-who had boon kidnapped and taken to the United States, was restored to his parents. :. Four years ago tho boy, had gono out fishing with a man who was-known to the family, and both had disappeared. Tho kidnapper was finally traced to Now Jereoy, :and John's older brother, who wont l to tho United States a few weeks ago in search of him, haa now returned sucoossful from his quest, i Tho mother, impatjont to meet her long-lost son, travelled to Liverpool, and the scene when tho two lads landed from the Maurotania was most affecting. It appears that. John was :well' treated by-his abductor, and wm,even ; raacM'attaolied-to him. ; 'iThe man's, explanation was that ho had stolen tie lad because ho was fond of him and had no ,'childrori'iof'his own. , i Olympia presented a bewildering spectacle when, for. tho first ti_mo in'the history, of tho country, an exhibition* devoted almost' entirely to aeroplanes was 1 opened. ' Every yard- of -the extensive floor. Bpaoo available was. utilised by weird, skeleton-like frames, more than one of so the visitor is assured,, have flown through tho* air with the grace of.a bird. There axe others which havo as yet dono nothing to justify thb'inventor's hopes. ~ Those; aro invariably, tho most interesting of tho exhibits,; Tho wonders of tho human, mind aro strangely roilocted in this collection. 'At a complimentary luncheon in 'connection with the exhibition, Prince Francis of Tcck, who was oho of,tho speakers, pictured the tinio when a Channel-crossing would bo robbed of its terrors, and when seasickness would bo only a memory.—"Standard of Empire.",- ■■