Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 5 December 1891, Page 2

Notes and Events.

The last Congo mail brills many interesting particulars iegarding the extension of European influence in the countries to the south of lW ke Tchad. Letters which have arrived by it state that the British Eoyal Niger Company has confirmed and extended the provisions of the treaty with the Sultan of Sokoto, whosf> empire has been considerably reduced! in size. It has also concluded treaties of all friendship with the chefs of Adamawa, to the north-east, of the Cameroons, by which the passage of foreigners through their territories is forbidden. |

Evidence given before various Indian Factory Commissions shows that bullying, driving and beating wornout and ailing children, working in the cotton factories of Khandish, where their hours of labour are from dawn to dusk, is by no means uncommon. " -

Boulanger was undeniably a brave man. Coming to a courtyard in which a number of Communards had taken refuge, Colonel Boulanger (as he was then) opened the wicket, and steppiug in, received a volto^ one of the balls striking his righ JF^'st and passing out at the elbow. * Jbv some time it was feared that this wound might permantly impair the usefulnes of the right hand.

Boulanger was five times wounded —at Turbigo, where a ball entered his chest just below his heart; at Salferino, where he was shot completely through the body ; at Champigny, during the Franco-German war; in Paris, during the Commune; and in his duel with M. Floquet.

The Rev. Theodore Wood maintains that the sparrow is the enemy of injurious grubs, and that daring the breeding season each pair destroys on an average 33,600 insects of one kind or another as food for their callow brood 1 More aiistocratic traders. There is said to be at t. Malo a count engaged in making mousetraps; a marquis who *>;ets bis living on an omnibus " knife board ;" and a bathing machine attendant who is both a count and a marquis. Stated in the broadest possible way, the United States possesses 100,000 miles of railway more than the mileagft throughout the entire empire of Great Britian. A firm of leading merchants in Napier having a large landed property to dispose of, communicated with their Melbourne correspondents with a view to finding purchasers in Australia. In reply the manager of one of the principal land agency oora. panics wrote as follows : —" We are afraid that there is not much chance of our securing you a buyer. We have many New Zealand properties in our hands ourselves for sale here, and before the present Parliament took the reins of Government there was, consequent on the splendid improveraent under the Atkinson administration, a growing enquiry here, which promised fair to carry considerable money over for investment in New Zealand land. This is now, however, completely oheoked by the vagaries of the present New Zealand administrators." Another correspondent writes as follows: —" I would be very glad to assist you in finding buyers, but the outrageous legislation of Mr Ballance and his Government has effectually barred the gate ojflfew Zealand as a field for investment to all Australians. I very nearly succeeded in working up a syndicate to treat for a large property in Canterbury some time ago, \>ut Mr Ballance's proposals upset the applecart effectually. Several of my clients who are interested in JSew Zealand securities are now determined to realise, whatever the cost." These letters from Melbourne confirm the judgment of 'New Zealand property owners—that the policy of the Government is driving property away. ' —Napier Tthgraph