News and Notes

Southern Cross, Volume 2, Issue 37, 8 December 1894, Page 5

News and Notes

The City Guards band give a sacred concert in the Theatre Royal on Sunday evening in aid of the family of the late Mr E. Cockroft. They will he assisted in their laudable undertaking by several vocalists.

Dunedin is to have a new gaol at a cost of £IO,OOO. Mr H. Carswell has been appointed one of the valuers for the South Island under the Advances to Settlers’ Act.

Earthquake shocks were experienced at Christchurch on Monday afternoon, and at Invercargill at 6.40 a.m. on Tuesday.

If you want knowledge, you must toil for it; if you want food you must, or should, toil for it; if pleasure, you must toil for it. Toil is the law. Real pleasure comes through toil, and not by self-indulgence or ignorance. "When one gets to love work his life is a happy one. —Ruskin.

The Princess of Wales and the Princesses Maud and Victoria have taken to tricycle riding, which is a favourite amusement with the Royal family at Denmark, and during their recent stay at BernstorfE Castle they were out every day on their machines, which were arranged tandem fashion. Only one out of every fifteen persons has both eyes in good conditionThe question of the wages to be paid for labour has been discussed at what one of the local papers terms a semi-private meeting of the Gore Farmers’ Club. It is also stated that a reduction of wages will probably be suggested. Ml J. W. Mitchell is to be no minuted for the Forth Ward to fill the vacancy caused by Mr Scandrett’s •election as mayor. At the quarterly meeting of the Invercargill licensing committee on Monday last applications were made to have the licenses of a number of hotels extended to eleven o’clock. A ■decision was deferred.

One inch of rain falling upon a square mile is equivalent to nearly 17,500,000 gallons. The largest Bible in the world is in -the Vatican. It is written in Hebrew and weighs 320 pounds. Stammering is far more common among men than among women, the proportion being almost four to one.

The Minister of Lands reached In--vercargill on Monday evening, and received several deputations on Tuesday. In one case want of work was the trouble, and the Minister promised to do what he could, adding that he thought the depression would soon pass away.

To keep the 30,000 odd miles of telegraph line in order in Great Britain and provide for the proper despatch and delivery of the millions of messages that pass over them every month entails an expenditure of about £2,250,000 sterling a year, and of this total more than £1,500,000 goes in paying the salaries and wages of the immense staff of engineers, skilled operators, and messengers, and of those who direct their operations and keep the accounts straight.

The little town of Mosgiel appears to be a veritable hot-bed of larrikinism. The local paper reports that “ some wretched specimens of boys ” stretched a rope across a road and tripped up women and girls, and a correspondent says that “no respectable person, however lowly born or wherever situated, can fail to observe, upon visiting Mosgiel, the degrading specimens of humankind who throng the public thoroughfares, monopolise tha street corners, and hang round the doors of places where amusement is being served up for public gratification in the hope of sneaking in without money or without price.”

Sir Vernon Harcourt, Chancellor -of the Exchequer, has sent a delegate to Sweden, to report on the Gothenburg system, by which alcoholic drinks are dispensed by persons -deriving no profit from the sale.

Already ! A Nihilist plot, against the new Czar has been discovered. There is an agreeable frankness abeut Sir William Harcourt which some consider rather brutal on occasions. Bat he does not spare himself, and to this, of course, there can be no objection. An intimate friend asked him some time ago whether he really liked his position as a colleague of Mr Gladstone. “Do you think that the kettle can possibly like being tied to the tail of the dog ?” was his reply. Mrs Luxon, who celebrated her hundred and third birthday last New Year’s Day, died at Bodmin on Oct. 15. She had been medically treated for only two or three weeks, and she retained her faculties almost to the last. She recently said she believed her days would be lengthened if she “ could only see more life.” Prince Bismarck, who owns big paper mills and employs hundreds of hands, is very popular with his men, notwithstanding that he changed their pay day from the end of the week to Tuesdays to prevent them wasting money on drink on Sundays.