INTERCOLONIAL NEWS

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 5 December 1901, Page 4

INTERCOLONIAL NEWS

■ 0:0 A Ballarat clergyman wis tho other day sued by the proprietor of a local waxworks for denouncing the show as low and degrading. The clergyman produced a copy of one of the songs sung and promptly won his case. A peculiar will case came to light in Melbourne the other day. The will was made in 1874 by a woman named Wallace, who died a few months ago, leaving property to the va'ue of £2864. After making a few bequests the will proceeds :—" Subject to all of the foregoing provisions I direct that tho annual net proceeds of my property may be expended by the Mayor of Melbourne in paying the passage money .to Victoria of immigrants of good character from my native town of Leighthton Buzzard, Bedfordshire, England.

The Japanese in tho pearl fisheries of Queensland have learned to strike. A Japanese crow at Thursday Island recently gave notice tp tho Pearl Fishing Company that unless a certain captain was removed, they would go on strike, It was found impossible to got men to replace the crew, and eventually the company had to give in and dismiss the captain The complaint against him was that ho made his men work too hard.

A Sydney M.L.A. complained that he was the other day subpeenaed >o act on a jury. He showed that the Eng'im practise is to relieve M.P's of that duty. A wise practice (says the Bulletin) : the political mind in timo comes to be incapable of dealing with fact-. An Australian paper has been calling attention to the abnormally high deathrato among illegitmate children compared with those born in wedlock. In 1900 the death-rate per thousand was—Legitmate, 8 ; illegitimate, 288. Some very stringent measures, it declares, are necessary to prevent ihe wholesale cruelty and neglect which is being dealt out to these unfortunate infants.

The father of the Melbourne City Council is Alderman William Bayles. He recently completed his 40th year as a member of the Council, and during 30 years of that period he has been Chairman of the Finance Committee. Alderman Baylss is still perfectly halo and hearty, and apparently has many years of municipal work before him.

Lieut Louis Bernaecbi, who was to start in the Discovery on a voyage of exploration to tha South Polar regions, was the subject of a writ nf cap-iis to restrain him from leaving Melbourne the other day. It was stated that ho owed a firm of sharebrckeri £IOO, balance duo on a promissory note, and tho Victorian Court accordingly made cut the order asked for, fixing bail at £IOO. In consequence of the extensive embezzlement of the Melbourne University funds, amounting to about £25,000, it is proposed to go in for a policy of retrenchment, and the first suggestion is to jut down the professor's salaries. Most of the professors arc receiving over £l,lOO per annum, and the intention is to roduc them to £750.

A rather exciting incident took place in a Melbourne suburb the other day, when a tall powerfully-built woman was found pacing up and down before the State school with a breech-loading gun over her shoulder. She sternly replied, when questioned, that she was looking for her lost children. A constable came along, and after s!ie discha"ged- the gun at him he seized hold of her and the two rolled over, the weman struggling like a maniac. It appeared that she had been peculiar in her habits for some time past, and on the previous day had assaulted a clergyman. She was commuted to the asylum.

An up-country Mayor in New South Wales was the 1 other day prdct'ede'd against by his Council for a breach of the bylaws, in using insulting language to some of the Aldermen. He was fined £5, with the option of seven days' imprisonment.

A young woman who was charged with inebriety at the Auckland Police Court recently, appeared in the dock in a somewhat dazed condition, and complained bitterly of maltreatment which she had received from several Chinamen. She stated that while in Wakefield street on Sunday last she in some unaccountable way got into the hands of Chinamen, who dragged her into a house and there drugged her with opium. The woman declared that ono of the Chinamen knocked her about with an opium pipe, and she further said that many bruises had been inflicted on her body from the numerous blows she had. received. The woman, who spoke in a stammering way. said that it was time that the Government interfered and put down the opium traffic.

Householders in Wellington have learned with mixed feelings that the award of the Arbitration Court in the wharf labourers' dispute will put a very considerable additional impost on coal supplies. It is estimated, on the basis of last year's figures, that the extra cost involved to tho Union Company alone under the ''coal handling" clause of the award will be over £2OOO. The other steamship cod:panie3 landing coal in Wellington will also have a proportionately increased charge levied upon them. The Harbour Board estimates that its annoal expenditure will be increased by ths award by about £BSO or £9OO.

Latter day legislation runs a good deal in the direction of interference with the liberty of the subject, remarks the Mel bourne correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, but every legislator is not prepared to go tho length to which a deputation urged the Victorian Ministry a few days ago. " One man business " was the proposal. A grocer shouk* sell nothing but groceries ; a draper nothing but dry goods ; a stationer should confine himself to pons, ink, and paper ; and so forth. The firms of universal providers were held up by lawful examples. Apparently the deputation, which came from a country to, was throughly in easnest; but the Minister promised its proposals no more than ' earnest consideration,' admitting that [they wore extraordinarily novel.

A very large insurance, says a London paper, has been effectedat Lloyd's on the life of the King by a syndicate of those people, tradesmen principally, who would lose large sums of money if the Coronation were not to take place next year ; and the insurance is only to cover a poriod of twelve months "from the present date. The rate of insurance is £lO 10s for each £IOO, which seems decidedly high; but then it must be remembered that Lloyd's, unlike an insurance office, has no means of arriving at the state of health of the personages it insures. Subsequently, in consequence of rumors as to the King's health, the rate of insurance rose to 15 or 20 per cent.