NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2136, 26 January 1880, Page 2

NEWS BY THE ENGLISH MAIL.

A MODEL BOOKMAKEE. Says the London “ Truth ” : —A story has often been told of the late Mr Davies, which unluckily, would not apply to any bookmaker of the present day. At the close of the Derby settling an item of £SOO on the losing side of his book remained unclaimed. On making enquiry he found that this particular creditor had died. “ What am Ito do with this money, then ” he asked of the person who gave him the news. “ Keep it to be sure.” Has he no relatives ?” “ Yes, he has left a widow and children.” “ You must be a blackguard to suggest such a thing,” he answered, and he did not rest until he had paid the widow the money. It would be well for the turf if we heard now-a-days of such sentiments and such actions. There was no pettifogging about Davies, He at once offered a fair price when approached by a backer, and neither haggled himself nor permitted it in others. No one ever before laid such bets, and most certainly no one ever will again. Ho laid D’Orsay Clark £IOO,OOO to £I,OOO against Yandermulin for the Derby the horse starting at 6 to 1. He was always ready to meet his liabilities at the earliest moment, and at the same time expected and insisted on prompt and full payment from his debtors. Ho never permitted the disgraceful compromises which now take place almost weekly, and better still he suffered man to bet in the ring who owed him money. It would be well if this excellent rule were revived and enforced in these days of plunging lying and thieving. THE COMING! WOMAN. A correspondent writes to the London "Standard” on the “Coming woman.” He assumes to be writing solely on behalf of the British husband, and pleading that he may be regarded as a possible factor in a girl’s life when her parents or friends set about her education. In nine cases out of ten, the growler contends, he is not so regarded, and a girl learns everything under the sun save those very things which would teach her to govern a household with wisdom and discretion. It was not so, he says, in old days, though then the system of education, if, indeed, it deserves the name, went too far in a precisely opposite direction. The education of the English woman of the present day may bo said to consist of a scries of crazes. If she be not jesthetie, she runs after ritualism, or she takes up science and thinks herself a terrible materialist; while any wholesome preparation for her destiny as head of a household is the very last thing thought of by those who are responsible for her education. ICELAND MAKES A STAET.

Iceland is jn'ogressing famously under the liberal constitution granted by King Christian five years ago, and elects its new Parliament, the second, next year. Though taxation is light, there is a growing surplus in the treasury, compulsory education has been introduced and receives popular support, and convenient roads are building throughout the Island. PROTECTION TO PROTESTANTS. The decree of the King of Portugal providing for the civil registration of Protestants, and granting to such as shall register all civil rights and freedom from all disabilities, has been in force since January last. Since then Protestant Missionaries have suffered occasionally from attacks, but the police have never failed, it is said, to give them help when called upon. AN ITALIAN HEROINE. A soldier, named Mariotti, of the 11th Battalion of the Italian Bersaglieri, though long confined to tlie room by illness, refused to bo carried to the hospital. Ultimately, on being forcibly removed thither, the soldier was discovered to be a woman. She joined the army during the war of IH(>(5 to enable her brother to remain with his wife, and six children. She had previously, being very strong, worked in the mines. At Cnstozza she won a medal for bravery. The King has now conferred on her a decoration, and sent her home with a pension of 300 lire. RAPACIOUS CIVILISATION. The London “ Daily News’ ” African correspondent records a rather amusing interview between Sir Garnet Wolleslcy and a Dutch Boor, who came to see him at Conference Hill about the Bth Nov. The man explained how well he had thrived himself, and how satisfied he was with the general condition of tilings. “ But,” said lie, “ the thing we want is land, I want each of my sons to be able to say, ‘ There, all this groat piece of land is mine,’ and I don’t care for any other possessions without that.’ Now, look at that beautiful country over there in Znznland—just divided from Conference Hill by the Blood River—that’s where we ought to be, and you will never have Znlnland properly civilised till you have it settled by white men.” Ah,” said Sir Garnet, quietly watching him with a peculiar twinkle of the eye that must bo familiar to many people in London, but speaking in the blandest possible tone, “ Ah, but would you explain to me why you are so deeply interested in the civilization of Znlnland ?” The man looked a little taken aback, but after a moment’s pause said, “ Oh, because then the Zulus would work.” “Work for yon, yon mean.” “AVell, yes, of course, that is what I should myself individually care about.” “ So then your proposition is,” concluded Sir Garnet, “ that first of all the Zulus’ hind shall be given to yon, and then, as a groat benefit to them to make up for that, yon propose to make servants, practically slaves, of them, in order that they may cultivate what is now their own land for your benefit ? I am sorry to disappoint yon, but that will certainly not be, for it has boon definitely decided that no white man shall bo allowed to have land in Zulu country, and that decision has been come to precisely in order to prevent the result which you think so desirable.” PRECAUTIONARY. A prominent San Francisco citizen, before leaving town for a trip with his family, affixed inside his hall door a placard couched as follows: —“ To burglars or those intended to burgle : All my plated jewellery and other valuables are in the Safe Deposit Company’s vaults. The trunks and cupboards contain nothing but second-hand clothing and similar matters too bulky to remove, on which you would realise

comparatively little. The keys are in the left hand top drawer of the'sideboard if you doubt my word. You will also find there a certified cheque to bearer for $lO, which will remunerate you for your loss of time and disappointment. Please wipe your feet on the mat, and dont spill any candlegrease on the carpet.”

EMANCIPATED SLAVES. The Raleigh (N. C.) “ Observer gives the following testimony in regard to the industry and thrift of the south ern negroes : fourteen years that have elapsed since the termination of the war a half generation has passed. The little boys of fourteen years ago are the stalwart workers of to-day ; men who have grown up accustomed to free labour, are learning gradually to respect those contracts. They have learned too, the value of industry and steadiness as affecting wages. Large numbers of negroes own|small farms and cultivate small crops of cotton, and many of these mickles make a muckle.” VICTIMS OF IMMIGRATION. The following telegram from Montreal, dated Nov. 10, shews that the immigrants who are arriving in Canada arc in just as deplorable a fix as those who have lately made their way to New Zealand : —Twenty-one emigrants who arrived here lafjl Friday, per the Do- , minion Line steamer Brooklyn, were seeking assistance to-day, hanging about the Bonaventurc Railway dep6t, and enlisting much sympathy from everyone. Nineteen of them are pensioners from the British army, and all are destitute of means to convey them further west. They were sent here, they say, by an emigrant agent named O’Dell, of 12, Eden quay, London, who represented himself as an agent of the Dominion Government, and referred them to Beaconsfield’s description of the Canadian El Dorado, and told them that a brilliant future awaited them. Mr Daly, the Government agent here, gave them bread and cheese enough for the day, and a bed for the night. What they are to do no one can tell. They bitterly berate the sharp individual who induced them to come here. A CORPORATION CENSURED. It appears that Grand Juries in British America do not confine themselves to criminal cases and judicial edifices. In November last the Grand Jury of Quebec, in their presentment, discuss the municipal situation as follows : —The attention of the Grand Jury was called to the affairs of the Corporation of the city. The Grand Jury wish to state that the fact of there being any need for investigation into the conduct of members of the City Council is anything but creditable to them, and does not improve the reputation of the city, or add to its credit abroad. The Grand Jury submit that many of the streets and sidewalks of the city are in a disgraceful condition, apparently going from bad to worse, and would enter into particulars were it not that they consider it would only be an idle mockery and waste of time to do so. No redress for this shameful neglect seems at all probable until some new method or form of government is adopted, or until some decided steps are taken by citizens to prevent the city from drifting into bankruptcy, with all its accompanying evils. PERSECUTED BACHELORS. The Paraguayan Government has imposed a tax of $5 a year upon all single men between the age of 25 and 50. Women are not taxed’ on the assumption, no doubt, that many of them would get married if they could, and are, therefore, not to blame for not becoming wives. The object is to make up for the loss of population caused by the long and terrible struggle between little Paraguay on one side Brazil and the Argentine Confederation on the other. “NIGGERS” AND CHINAMEN. A coloured man named Henderson started a barber shop in Merritton, Canada, lately. Two days after he had opened for business he received a letter warning him to clear out, as “ we the young men of Merritton, will not allow any nigger to live in Mcrriton.” Nothing however, transpired until this morning, when Henderson visited his shop and found it completely stripped of its contents of razors, towels, barber’s chair, &c. The chair was subsequently found floating in the canal. Where the other goods arc is not known. It is reported from San Francisco that at a meeting of Kearncvites it was resolved to adopt a policy of hanging any merchant who should employ or in any way encourage Chinese labor. DIPHTHERIA AND DRAINAGE. Dunedin, Christchurch and Wellington should take warning, from the following incident related, in an American paper:— A few weeks ago a little child whose father a widower, lived at the time on Ontario-st,, was taken ill with diphtheria of such a virulent type that it died in a very short time. Three other children of the same family were almost immediately seized b}' the same disorder, and on the advice of their friends, the father removed them to the Hospital. The housekeeper who had also become slightly affected, was sent to the same institution. Under the care of the officers there the woman soon recovered and went back to the house to clean it up for the reception of the children, who were also regaining their health. She, however, had not been in the house long before she was again attacked by the disease in a most malignant form, and had to be again removed to the Hospital, where she remained for some time before she was cured. An investigation made subsequently revealed the fact that the drain under the house in which the family had been living was broken, thus allowing the poisonous gases to permeate the atmosphere of every room. It was a clear case of sewage poisoning. HANDICAPPING. “A cunning appreciation of the niceties of handicapping,” says the London “ Illustrated Sporting Gazette,” Oct. 11, “ was shown in the advice of a boy to a youngster who had been robbing the late Mr John Ward’s orchard. On a level road the very stout and very irate owner of the apples might have caught the interloper, and the young robber’s friend saw this. ‘ Turn up the hill, Jack !’ he shouted to the youth pursued ; up hill weight began to tell on the pursuer, and he gave up the chase. MISCELLANEOUS. There are between eight and nine

millions of men under arms in Continental Europe. “To Garibaldi, the European Washington,” is the beginning of an inscription on a monument which is being erected on the island of Elba, in the Mediterranean. The fact of Cetewayo’s coming out in civilized costume is thus “ poeticall ” alluded to by the London “ Referee” ; Flash the news from pole to pole, Strange among all sudden changes; Tell how in a savage soul ■ Culture now its nest arranges.. , Gone the naked heathen king,. ' In his place a dandy proper, Loud let all creation sing—“Cetewayo wears a topper!”An eccentric old gentleman named Adam Land, aged 72, is doing a tour of the Western States of America, earning his living as he travels with a flail: