TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8205, 8 August 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Before his address at Holy Trinity Church at Kumara on a recent Saturday, the Rev. A. Hore referred (says the Kumara Times) to complaints that had been made oonoerning the playing of footba'.l matches in the Recreation Ground on Sundays. He said he had no objection to the game, as he liked it, and had played it, and he was no bigot or held no Puritanical views regarding the Sabbath, but the game being played in the middle of the town was a nuisance to the susceptibilities of a number of Christian residents of the district. If the teams could find no other day to play their matches, they could play en the racecourse, where the noise would not be a souroe ot nuisance, and some of the language used would cot contaminate the children on their way home from Sunday School. He appealed to the members of the congregation as citizens to protest against the matches being played in the town on Sundays.

An interesting discussion took olaoe at Rahotu recently, says the Taranaki Herald, on the question whether turnips as feed would taint the milk of the dairy herds. Opinion seemed divided, but Captain Young favoured this fodder, especially the swede. With ordinary care in feeding, turnips could bo given as fodder without any fear of the milk becoming tainted. Other speakers did not go quite so far as Captain Young in saying that turnips could be fed in proper quantities at any time during the day, but agreed that snob feeding for an hour or two after milking was not deleterious. Mr Wright declared that the effects varied. In some seasons the turnip developed a taint, but none in other years.

Mr H. G. fill, M.H.R., has been making some inquiries regarding the quantities of dried fruits imported into the colony during the last financial year, and has ascertained that the total quantity imported was 2,045,4601b5, the value being £26,701, and the duty paid £16,322. The details of three lines were as follow: Figs—s3l,47Blbs; value, £6,611; duty at 2d per lb, £4,428 19s 8d; proportion of duty to value,?67-!per oenr. Dates—4o3,l7B ins; value, £3,320; duty at 2d per lb, £3,359 16s 4d; proportion of duty, to value, 101 per cent. Prunes—--427,9061b5; value, £5,103; duty at 2d per lb, £3,565 17s 8d; proportion of duty to value, 70 per cent. The late Premier had suggested that these very heavy duties should be removed.

Herr Emil von Hoffmannsthal, of Vienna, has refused to fight a duel on the ground that he belongs to the Universal Anti-Duelling League, He submitted the case to a jury of honour composed of ofHcers of the reserve and well known swordsmen, who have declared that Herr von Hoffmannsthal, as a member of the league, is bound to refuse satisfaction by arms, and that his refusal does not Imply any reflection on his honour. This decision marks a great advance in the anti-dueliing crusade (says a Vienna correspondent) and, it is believed, will go far to stamp out a practice which owes its continuance only to fear of being branded a coward by pubiio opinion.

it is surprising how, even in the old unenlightened days, the lives of consumptives were prolonged through care and diet. Two of the moat famous of physicians (says "T.P.'s Weekly 1 "), Sir Edward Wilmot and Sir Hans Sloane, though cousump tires, lived each to the age of ninetyHires. Sir Edward Wilmot was so far anne in consumption in his youth that Dr Rntcliffe gave his friends no hope whatever of his reoovery; yet ho lived to that extreme age. Sir Hans Sloane, whose collections formed the nucleus of the British Museum, and whose other bonefaotions to the nation and to soienoe were numberless and munificent, lay for three years iu his boyhood between life and death. His spitting of blood during those years waß so serious that be was forbidden all work and nearly all exeroise. He husbanded his lifo out, nevertheless, to the lenmth of niuety-three years, chiefly through abstemiousness and total abstinence. Sir Hans was noted for his hospitality, but he was so hospitably oareful of the health of bis guests that he would never allow three things to be served at bis table—salmon, burgundy, and champagne.