NEWS AND NOTES.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 17 April 1901, Page 4

NEWS AND NOTES.

As the Anchor Lino Steamship Scotia was being unloaded in Tilbury Dock';, London, on Tuesday morning oth February, the dead body of a Lascar was found packed among the cargo in ~N'o. 2 hold. He had evidently been there all the voyage, and it is thought he was among the men loading the ship at Calcutta, had fallen asleep, was packed in among the cargo, and died from starvation on the voyage.

The TV'anganui Herald alleges that there is a general complaint that sheep stealing is on the increase on the Coast. A settler near "Wanganui not long since placed a number of ewes in a paddock ■ for a few days, and on counting them soon afterwards was chagrined to find that nearly one hundred of them had disappeared. Every effort to trace them has, so far, proved abortive, and their owner has come to the natural conclusion that the missing sheep have been stolen and disposed of. A new Japanese Admiralty port is to be opened at the Maizuru", in the province of Tango, during the next fiscal year. The new Admiralty port will be provided, as are the other ports, with a marine corps and a shipbuilding yard. It is hoped that it will be formally opened simultaneously with the arrival in Japan of (he battleship Mikassa, tinlast; of the ships on the extensive shipbuilding programme drawn up after the conclusion of the Japan-China war. The coronation of George IV. cost C 210,000, the royal robes alone counting for £21,000, and the crown for £54,000. The ceremony tool; place with great pomp, but the expense was so enormous and the exclusion of the public so jealous that it produced only discontent. William IV., on his accession, expressed a wish that the expense of the old-fashioned coronation ceremony might be retrenched, and the outlay was cut down to £30,000.

The King of Siam having successfully inaugurated his State's first railway, writes the Bangkok correspondent of the London Daily Express, tin Government is now turning its attention to large projects in the direction of water supply and drainage. So far as the latter scheme is concerned, reform has not been begun before it was needed, for our present drains are simply open ditches running along the sides of the Bangkok streets just'as they do in the interior towns of China. These open drains arc put to strange uses by the Siamese. Quite a number of them dam them up with clay, and covering them in this fashion into cesspools, breed mosquitoes in them. This surprising method of earning a living is not adopted out of any love of the mosquito, but for the sake of the trade in mosquito larva', which are in great request for the feeding of the famous " lighting fish" of the country, and command a good price in the market. Arrangements have, it is said, been made by Messrs Veeht and Stokvis with Mr Cecil Rhodes for the establishment of a bacon-curing factory in South Africa. It is understood that the supply of the raw material is to bo obtained from Anstralia, the moat being partly currcd there then frozen, and shipped, and finally prepared in the factory in South Africa, and it is believed that when the trade is bttilc up a large quantity, probably 1000 carcases per week, could bo taken if the supply was obtainable. Bishop Welldon, explaining at Trichinopoly his recent suggestion of Bible-read-inir in all Government schools and colleges, said ho conscientiously and consistently opposed any action on tho part of tho Government tending to interfere with the cause of religious freedom in India; but, he continued, Christian education should occupy not only a prominent but, indeed, a dominant position in missionary colleges, wherein the teacher should not subordinate Christian teaching to secular objects, however attractive. A native paper, commenting on this, remarks that tho effect of such a step would be to empty the mission colleges and schools.

A correspondent of the Melbourne Age,referring to an article, "The Romance of the British Throne," published in that paper, writes: —"It may interest some of your readers to know that the original document signed by Richard Cromwell, and witnessed by six Earls and Lords, under which he agreed to resign the Crown of England for ever for himself and his heirs, is in the possession of the Auckland Public Library. This important document was presented to the library, with other manuscripts, by the late Sir George Grey some years ago, with the history of how it came into his possession, and was given only on the understanding that the history was not to bo published until after his death." A recent cable reported a big jewel robbery at the Hotel Australia, Sydney. Tt transpires that during the absence of two guests—Mrs E. P. J3cvan, T of Melbourne, and Mrs Wood of Newcastle, (better known as Miss Essie Jennings the actress) —their rooms on tltc second top floor were entered by means of duplicate keys. The property stolen from Airs Bevan's rooms, and valued at £3OO consisted principally of gold and diamond rings, brooches, pendants, and bracelet, ami had been contained in a portmanteau which was securely fastened. Airs Wood's property, valued at £IOOO, was of a similar kind, ehielly necklets, bracelets, rings, and various valuable" ti'inklets. The thieves are undiscovered.

WADE'S WOEM FIGS arc most effc'eetive and not unpleasant; children thrive after taking them. Price 1/W. M'Kay and Son, having opened up their autumn and winter goods, are now showing an unrivalled assortment of drapery and clothing. Navy and black scrgea from Is Gd per yard. Heavy British dross stuff lOd, Is, Is 6d per jd. Splendid goods for winter wear—a lovely range of black fancy dress stuffs and coatumo lengths—at undeniably low prices. Furs and tippets, a big range, from 2s 6d each. Kid gloves, lined and unlined, and fur tops, ribbons, laces and velvet in endloss variety. —Advt.