GENERAL NEWS.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 27 April 1901, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

One of the principle subjects discussed at the annual general meeting of the Southern Counties' Amateur Swimming Association in London, had reference to tho Ladies' 100 Yards Championship, a heated argument taking place as to whether the event should be decided in the presence \>f male spectators. Over

twenty speakers were heard on the matter, and after various opinions had been voiced, it was decided to expungo the words :—"And the attendendence be restricted to ladies."

Tho latest W.C.T.U. development in tho United States, says an Australian weekly, is a Mrs. Nation, who heads a band of women (already hundreds in number) who carry axes and other chopping implements under their cloaks and make sudden organised attacks on grogsaloons, the fittings of which they utterly wreck. Mrs Nation, who claims that her arm is "the right arm of God", has already been arrested several times, but at latest was still in full blast, with a fast increasing gang at her back. N.B.W. Minister for Public Works, O'Sullivan proposes that in futuro 2s a day shall be stopped from the pay of the men working on Government railway construction jobs, and saved up for them so that they will have a lump sum with which to face tho world when tho work gives out. He has been moved to this resolution, he says, by finding that a large proportion of the men drink their money as they go along ; and the resolution is certainly a good one. The Bulletin suggests that when the job gives out, the discharged navy will either have an unI usually large sum of money or an unusually fine sample of horrors to take home with him, and either way the dull monotony of life will be stirred up a little.

It is rumoured on the Continent that tho Crown Prince of Germany, whose soldierly bearing called forth much favourable comment during his short stay in England, has actually fallen in love with one of the youngest granddaughters of tho late Queen Victoria. Tho girl in question is only fourteen years old, so that no wedding festivities are anticipated for some time to come, but the story goes that the young couple have been formally betrothed to one another with tho consent and approval of both the King and tho German Emperor. The princess is an attractive little maid, and is the daughter of one of tho most popular ladies in England.