Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 15 December 1891, Page 2

Notes and Events.

«. A handsome loving cup is being made in Edinburgh to the order of the Marquis of Bute, intended for presentation to the Corporation of Cardiff upon his lordship's retirement from the mayoralty at the fend of the current month. This work of art will cost about £2,000. It was thus Mr Chamberlain presented the political problem at Sunderland : — " Is the country once more to be plunged into confusion, our foreign affairs to be disorganised and embarrassed, our possessions to be diminished or flitted away, and our home affaii'S to be inextricably entang'ed in the hopeless effort to satisfy Irish agitators and to conciliate the enemies' of England at home and abroad?" What shall we do with our boys ? The London County Council ia considering the advisability of employing female clerks. An episode of the battle of Trafalgar is recalled on each anniversary. At" sunset of October 20th, 1805, Nelson signalled to all the ships of the fleet to keep the white ensign hoisted all nigbt, so that no matter when he fell in with the enemy he would at once engage. On the 21st October the Victory, Nelson's flag' ship, alone of the ships in Portsmouth fUrbanf flaw th» enMfiftt.

I Mr W. H. Smith owned large estates in Devonshire. He bought Lord Ilchester's bilverton and Rewe properties in the Exe Vallty, the Blagdon Barton estate, near Paignton, and the late Lord Devon's Moreton Hampstead, which extends over 5,000 acres. He greatly improved all his landed property by erecting new farm buildings and cottages, and by extensive drainage operations, and he was most generous to his tenants. Indeed, the acquisition of an estate by Mr Smith was a matter of hearty congratulation to all connected with it. He also purchased a property in Suffolk, on which he maintained a large farm, which has long been notable for ita herds of red polls and shorthorns. Mr Smith's favourite residence was Greenlands, his well known place on the Thames, between Henley and Medmenham. A Sydney man tells the following characteristic story of American journalistic enterprise : — I was snowed-in once at Bristol, a little station on the Northern Pacific. It was in the winter of 1885. We were there for about five days. "We had plenty to eat, such as it was, but were all anxious .to ,get something to read. The large majority of passengers on the train were men, and we wanted a daily paper, but could not get one for love or money. There was a little weekly paper at Bristol, and it tried to fill the want. The first day of the snow blockade the weekly paper was issued, and nearly everyone on the train took one. I suppose the paper had a larger circulation than it has since or ever had before. The editor, proprietor, and reporter, all in one, was a wide-awake fellow. He saw that there was a demand for a daily paper, so he got one out every day during our stay. He came down and got our names and residences and published them. This of course made the paper sell. The next day he got something of our histories and wrote them up. The next day he wrote up how we passed the time. By this time he had exhausted all his white paper. He didn't give up. Not much ! You don't find a news-paper-man in the North-west that will give up for such trifles as that. He went out and got some brown paper, used in tying up Jj^ldles at the grocery store, and Printed his edition on that. He got all the brown paper and wrapping-paper in town and then he went for wallpaper, and printed his last edition on that. We bought them every day, more as little souvenirs of the snow blockade than anything else, although I think I read everything that was printed, from a recipe on cookies to the legal noticea.— Tjfpo. Slave-dealing is not yet extinct in the East, but the dealers are very wary. The following, taken from the Yorkshire Post, will give an idea of one ot their methods : — " By return of steamship Australia, for Pasha , send me two Soudanese lionesses. They must be young, between 14 and 17, teeth good, and if possible good manes , dark colour is the Pasha's favourite tint." So ran a telegram from Damascus to Bassorah; and the reply came thus: " Sorry no lionesses, but can send the Pasha two Persian gazelles of a delicate shape, also a young bear from the Caucasus, that can dance and play the cymbals " ; ajid immediately the answer went back : " Send the young bear out immediately. Pasha anxious to have it in menagerie." All innocent enough, but these telegrams are simply the wires of two slave dealers in the above two towns, who know how to get over the Turkish penalties against slave-dealing ; and who, should they obtain half-a dozen fair Circassians, wire in this way to the various Pashas and other Moslems who possess harems ; and the unfortunate prisoners, for they are literally naught else, are secretly despatched to their destination when the sale is effected.