MAIL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume IX, Issue 823, 11 February 1903, Page 4

MAIL NEWS.

METRIC SYSTEM. GAINS FAVOR WITH ANGLOSAXONS. Paris, Dec. 20. The Action of the American Chamber of Commerce in Paris in recommending the adoption of the metric system lias led to an agitation among the Anglo-Saxon business men in favor of the change. It is believed here that England is only waiting on the United States Government to signify an intention of adopting the metric system to join in the movement. The only opposition encountered is among those engineers or manufacturers whoso establishments are run on conservative principles and whom the introducing of tire metric system would compel to overhaul their measures and machines, entailing considerable labor and expense. MAD WOMAN. BROKE DP HOFFMAN’S CONCERT. St. Petersburg, Dec. 20. While Joseph it oilman tho pianist was in the midst of a Mozart composition at a concert ho was giving here before the nobility, a young woman, who is liis fervid admirer, rose from her seat, rushed to the platform, threw her arms around him, insisted that he should take a bouquet she carried, and turning to the astonished audience shrieked : “ You should not applaud. Human applause is not what this divinely gifted man wants.” A groat commotion followod, and Hoffman, pale as death, could play no more. His mad votary was led away by force and placed in an asylum. DR JOSEPH PARKER. ACCUSED OE MONEY-GETTING BEN I’. London, Doc. 20. The Times lias excited great indignation among the Rev. Dr Joseph Parker’s admirers by alleging that he made a large fortune out of the City Temple and that money-making was an ever-present rnotivo with him. Dr Parker’s will provides for a personal estate of £35,000. This, it is asserted, disproves the Timos accusation. but the Times declines to withdraw it. The money is left not to the City Temple, but to Dr Parker’s wife’s relations. WOMEN’S CLUBS. London, Doc. 20. The growth of women’s clubs is becoming an important social question in London, for club women notoriously are careless in the management of thoir own homes. The latest feminine eccentricity in the club line is “ The Ladies’ Sports Club,” an institution where facilities will be given for women to cultivate all manner of sports and pastimes. Men will be admitted occasionally as onlookers at the displays.

The committee includes womon representing different pastimes—Lady Helen Vincent, skating; Lady Bathurst, driving; Lady Scott, Montagu, motoring ; Lady Edith Villiers, dogs ; Miss Lottie Dodd, tennis, and Lady Decies, cats. All members can bring their canine, feline or other, except masculine, pets, which privilege is expected to make the club “very cheery,” as the current jargon has it. STARTING PEASANTS. St. Petersburg, Dec. 20. Harrowing accounts of the condition of the starving peasants come from the central province of Russia. The state of affairs in the Government (or Province) of Kovroff is almost incredible. Regular auction sales of women and children are held there, the wives, daughters and little ones of men who are too poor to buy food for them being knocked down to the highest bidder in order that they may not perish. Speculators are said to do a thriving business by fattening their emaciated purchases and selling them again. Whole families are subsisting on a little meal mixed with the ground bark of trees, while roots and herbs are boiled with the tiesli of diseased animals to make soup.

The Hon. J. Carroll is a nice speaker. His periods ere rounded, his language fine, and his matter shows he has a largo knowledge of things. Talking about that large knowledge, ho lot some Woodville people know, the other day, that “ New Zealand was the envy of other worlds.” Mr Carroll, if he has the welfare of the people at large, certainly ought to tell his scientific secret to the world at large. His discovery of a means of communication with other worlds is one of the most %’aluable of modern times.— Free Lance. Whatever reward may be in store for Mr Seddon, it may be taken for granted he will never be Governor of the colony, in the oificial sense at any rate. Practically he is our Governor already, and he would be a rash man indeed who would endeavor to place limitations on the influence of “ King Dick.”—lnangahua Times. The speeches of Mr Chamberlain dur' ing his South African tour tell the world that he has perfectly gauged the feelings of the King's new subjects. He finds that among the subjects, new and old, the old ones are the only ones who desire to give further trouble ! He handled them, not delicately, but effectively. Perhaps, evtn the Afrikander Bond head-quartered in Capetown, can be lashed into line by the Chamberlain tongue. Certainly, the voice of the Empire’s emissary has been a weapon that has dealt as effectually with the enemy of accord as the iron hand of the physical conqueror, Kitchener, dealt with the enemy of the Empire. — Free Lance,