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Manawatu Herald, 9 April 1898, Page 2

In the selection of a Town Clerk there is one indispensable qualification to be ascertained that tbe applicant has, and that is a clean record in past transactions. This caution is necessary owing to its having been stated that by the office-holder being obliged to give a bond, the Borough is therefore always secured. So they- are up to the amount of the bond, but any defalcations beyond that is a loss to the public body. A near local body suffered loss from this very action. Besides the want of extreme caution in appointing an officer is particularly unfair to those who may b«come Mayor or Councillor.

Russia has closed tbe ports of Sebasto pol (in the Black Sea) and Cronstadt (in the Baltic) to merchant shipping.

The Government of Natal has offered to provide annually, free of cost, 12,000 tons of coal for warships calling at Durban. The Right Hon. J. Chamberlain, Secretary of State for tbe Colonies), has expressed his gratification at the offer, which the Admiralty would gladly accept.

Mrs and Miss Sprott, the wife and daughter of the Rev. T. H. Sprott. of Weilington, were passengers on board the Bteamghip China which wa3 recently wrecked in the Bed Sea. Both were caved.

During a discussion on cremation in Wellington the other day Mr H. D. Bell said that he had been told that bodies were not infrequently buried without certificates — that it was quite common for undertakers to get certificates as to the cause of death after bodies had been buried. His experience is but small to what ours has been here, when a medical man was willing to certify to the death from a fit of a man who had cut his throat ! It appears necessary to make it imperative that a medical man in his certificate should declare that he had seen the body after death and had examined it.

Foe Coughs and Colds Take Wood's Great Peppekmimt Cure. 1/6 and 2/6

At a public dinner some years ago, Mark Twain had just finished a piquant address, when Mr Evarts, the well known American lawyer and statesman, arose, put both hands down into his trousers pockets, as was his habit, and laughingly remarked : " Doesn't it strike this company as a little unusual that a professional humorist should be funny ?" Mark Twain waited until the laughter excited by this sally had subsided, and then drawled out — " Doesn't it Btrike this company as being a little unusual that a lawyer should have his hands in his own pookets."