THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 76, 4 August 1913, Page 6

THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

According to a San Francisco paper, the largest killing, freezing, and packing plant in the world will soon be in course of construction at one of the seaports of Northern Australia, in which sheep, hogs, and cattle will bo handled for the markets of the world.

Lord Kitchener’s report on the progress of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan is encouraging. The Sudan is now very nearly self-supporting; in four years its external trade has increased from under two to over three millions sterling, and the great Gezira triangle between the White and Blue Niles should soon be producing large quantities of excellent cotton.

In Ireland the peasants used to keep Whitsun like the Hebrews, with milk cakes and bread, the latter being made with hot water and wheaten bran. In Irish fishing villages there is .still a popular belief that on- a certain day at Whitsuntide the bodies of people drowned at sea rise to the surface to ride over the waves on white horses and hold strange revels.

A railway guard, named Brookman, of Didcot, while travelling on a light engine over a bridge crossing the river Biss, between Holt and TroWbridgo (Wiltshire), saw a boy struggling in the water below. The engine was “slowed up,” and Brookman plunged from the footplate into the river and rescued tho child just in, time to save his life.

Lady Arthur Grosvenor, aunt of the Duke of Westminster, is touring in a caravan in Surrey and is spending this week at Epsom (says a Home exchange of 2nd -Tilt.). Her ladyship, in company with Lord Arthur Grosvenor, started her caravan tour at Reading, the vehicle bearing a shining brass plate, inscribed, “Sycria Lee, licensed hawker, Brixton.” She is accompanied by John Lowther, a gipsy, who drives another caravan. In fine weather, Lady Grosvenor is to bo seen riding hatless on the vehicle deriving evident enjoyment from the simple life. In spite of official efforts to minimise the gravity of the espionage .Scandal, there appears to -have been a widespread system of treachery in operation (says a Vienna telegram). The Zeit says that searches have been made at the houses of. several high officers, of the general staff. The Tagespost declares that the conduct of no fewer than 20 officers has been the , subject of, judicial investigation. It also says that the police have cretly arrested 2$ spies, alleged to be . Hussians, in , several Austrian towns. The Zeit also says, contrary to the official denial, that Colonel Redl, who committed suicide, did sell information concerning the German Hffy I*

A party of twelve Swedish editors, three of whom are members of Par- ■ liament,; arrived in, London on 2nd '■ June on|a shoyt .[visit as the guests of the Swedish colony in tho metropolis. They were driven to the Hotel Metr.opole, w’here they were to stay till 14th June. A round of entertainments and sight-seeing had been arranged for the party, including a day in tho city (where they were to have tea with the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress), a drive to the Derby, and visits to Henley, Windsor, Hampton Court, and Richmond.

As showing the remarkable virility of disease germs when buried in the soil, Mr C. J. Reakes instanced recently a case where anthrax had been contracted by contagion after a lapse of 40 years. On a farm a cow was destroyed, suffering, from the complaint; and as she was a great favourite with the farmer’s family, a fence was erected around the grave. Forty years later, other beasts broke through the fencing and feasted on the succulent grass growing there. Within a short time they developed symptoms of anthrax, and when they were slaughtered the true disease was discovered. The durability of totara as a building timber was exemplified the other day in Wairarapa, when the owners pulled down an old wharo that has been a half-way house for years between Brancepeth and Tapnrupurn. The whare was erected about thirty years ago, and on taking up the piles it was found that they were absolutely sound, there being about half an inch of decay only near the surface. The whare stood on heavy damp land. Among the relics unearthed was a lady’s silk stocking and a sugar-bag apron. The carvings on the table would have adorned a museum, being names of the! travelling fraternity from all over tho globe. Archbishop Carr, of Melbourne, has been attacking the proposed introduction of tho Bible into the State schools of Victoria. “One thing is certain,” he said, “if ever this useless and dangerous system of Bible lessons is introduced here we shall never cease to agitate till it meets the fate of its Irish prototype. The worse enemies of religious instruction are those who are now seeking to perpetuate this emasculated caricature of tho Bible. If they really loved the Bible, if they had the true interests of the children at heart, if they were willing to do the duty of Christian ministers of the Gospel they would formulate a scheme whereby the dignity and sacredness of the Bible would he preserved, a scheme which would he profitable to all, and a scheme under which such instruction would not he foisted on the school programme and on teachers already overloaded arid overworked.”

The English War Cry is publishing a series of articles under the heading “Can a bad man be born again igood?” The first tells the story of I “Bill, the Burglar,” who at four years of ago stole his mother’s stock of farthings and spent it on sweets; became a confirmed thief at twelve; at eighteen he spent nine months in the army, during six of which he was in prison for military offences and robbery; at 20 he belonged to a gang of robbers. Of the 20 subsequent years, fully ten were spent in prison, j When 40 years of age, he was converted, and had started for Canada, iwhen he was informed that he could not get admission there because the 'authorities had been told he ivas “a clever and dangerous criminal.” Since then he has lived an honest life, apparently completely separated ij’om his old ways.

Any man with a little ingenuity ■may have a wireless installation in his bedroom, according to Mr A. A. I Campbell Swinton, the English consulting engineer. “I was told in jPaJris recently,” said Mr Campbell iSwinton, “that by connecting suitable instruments to the iron balustrade j round a house it was possible to ‘tap’ the time signals from the Eiffel tower, ft occurred to me by a somewhat simiIlar expedient it would be possible to hear the Admiralty signals in London. I connected a wire to an iron bedstead with a wire mattress at the top of the house, and then brought the wire downstairs to a wireless receiving apparatus, the other end of which was connected with a waterpipc. I found I could hear the

Admiralty quite plainly speaking in code to ships at sea, and could make out the time signals from the Eiffel Tower.”

One day last week an enterprising female, carrying a baby, entered an Invercargill store, and after gazing ; furtively round, sidled up alongside a I child’s go-cart. She suddenly dumped the infant into the vehicle, and without any moro ado disappeared round the corner. The manager of the establishment, noticing later on that the go-cart was missing, questioned one 'of tho lady assistants as to when tho purchase was made, but nobody in the place could be found who had sold tho vehicle. Then one of tho assistants called to mind tho circumstances of the woman entering the store with the baby and placing the youngster in the car. The correspondent of the Dunedin Star says the manager, who is something of a humorist, has given up all hope of seeing the go-cart or the female again, but he is taking things philosophically, and was even heard to'say that il tho lady would call again ho would present her with the hood of the ,gocart, which 5 she'had' evidently overlooked when paying her visit, Tht? manager ‘tells the ’jbtfh' with "gusto, and probably he considers tho. incident only a more episode in a business lifetime.

As originally introduced, the Mental Deficiency Bill, recently read a third; time by. the . British, 1 House of Commons, provides ..thathcontrol ore: mentally defective persons?-shall lie .exercised by a single board, consisting primarily of paid Commissioners Feeble-minded persons, who are not now certificated, cannot be dealt with' compulsorily under the Bill unless they are neglected, abandoned, ok cruelly .treated, or have committed criminal offences or are proved to In habitual drunkards. Children may he dealt with compulsorily, if they arc shown to he incapable mentally or morally of benefiting by education in special schools, or if notified by the local authorities as requiring protection after leaving school. Another class coming under the Bill are feebleminded women who gave birth to illegetimate children while in receipt of poor relief. Half the cost of the duties imposed upon local authorities by the Bill will bo borne by the State, hut they are given an optional power to spend money independently. Several amendments to the measure have been made in committee, hut they, have not materially altered it.