Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 26 March 1895, Page 3

Notes and Events.

■ ■ ■♦ Dipping here and clipping there in the current magazines one picks up many interesting notes. Space in Lonjon continually grows more valuable and proposals to purchase ancient buildings, even such as churches, chapels, and synagogues, are made, to find ground on which to- build storehouses. The first regular Synagogue which was built in England after the re admission of the^Jews under Cromwell has not escaped such proposals, though, fortunately such temptations have been withstood. This Synagogue stands in the City in Bevis Marks, and is the chief place of worship of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews. Writing on this ancient building it is pointed out that the lsraelitish nation, whose sacred ceremonials are the most ancient in the world, are* so united in religion and philanthropy, that the public are not generally aware that they are divided into . two communities, namely, Sephardim, or Spanish and Portuguese, and the Ashkenazim, or German congregations. And though they do not differ in any dogma, and though their Litany is, in most respects identical, yet they are entirely separate, being divided by those strong barriers, birth and tradition ; the Sephardim being the patricians, and the Ashkenazim the plebeians of the Jewish people. Itis also noted as a curious and interesting fact, that nearly all the greafi' money kings ' of the present daji .Hay© sprung from the Ashkenazim. Attention is also drawn to the fact 'ttet[ ever sjnoe. the destruction of the Temple of Jerusalem

instrumental music has been pro hibited in the ordinary services o: all orthodox synagogues, the singing of the choir being thus uttacCom panied by any organ or harmonium This Synagogue is said to be th< only otic in the United Kingdoa which is not lighted by lamps or gas Large wax candles, which an specially manufactured for this pur pose are tlaed* and are fitted intc very curious old brass chandelierd some of which orginally came frorr Holland; For a judicial utterance the fol lowing taken from the Wairaraps Star is hard to beat :—Mr Hut chison* S.M., stated in the MagisI trate's Court at Mastertofi that hi would not attach much importance to the statements of rabbit agents that rabbits were " numerous" on s property. The word il numerous might mean one or more rabbits.' Might it. We would like permissiot to peruse the dictionary from whicl such a deduction might even appeal possible. The Century dictionar) saya it means : —A great many; not a few. A paper in the Strand Magazine on " brides," informs us that In Tunis, no woman who is not fat is considered good-looking, and it is recorded that a lady who weighed twenty-five stone was regarded as having attained perfection. Ik order $6 reach the necessary standard of adiposity the maid will p'ui bangles round her arm, and feed herself up until they are tight to the flesh, fier husband does not sec I her till after the marriage ceremony, which is purely official} aod if the go-between were desirous oi giving the poor youflg man a great shock; or sending him into a serious rage, she could probably not take a better course than to arrange that the face he should look upon when his bride uncovers contains only the amount of flesh seen on that of a European girl. The Tunisian maiden, in a word, fattens herself up for the matrimonial market precisely in the same way as a farmer fattens his pigs and his poultry with a view to fair day. Marriage ceremonies are very quaint, but the method adopted in Greenland are short if not sweet. There a man having made up his mind to take to himself a wife, goes to the tent of a family one of whose girl members m^ets his views, catches her by the hair or in some other equally rude way, and drags her forth to his home. He there presents her with a bucket or some useful domestic utensil, and the ceremony is complete ! It has been noticed even in Green* land that wives have a fondness for visiting and talking even as we suffer from here, but there effective measures, which is yet open to a colonial to find an equivalent for, are taken to put a stop to it. It is nothing more or less than branding the feet so that they are too painful to walk upon. The Tariff Commission in Victoria is discovering some curious results from protection. Sugar refining has a bonus of £1 a ton, and one.com pany, though having nearly half a million of accumulated profits, draws £35,000 a year from the State In fact the bonus practically pays all wages. One pound a ton is paid as a bonus on dressing rice, and the payment by the State of £8000 is £2000 more than the whole cost of dressing. Again, the bonus of five shillings a gallon allowed on locally distilled spirits is practically an endowment to every man and boy employed of £500 per annum. Of course the boys and men do not get it, but the distillers do. An idea is arising in Victoria that some serious modifications are required. So it would seem.