MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 318, 23 July 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

We are familiar (says a London paper) with the idea of bringing water front he. Jordoa for baptisms. At Westminister Abbey at Sir Gladstone's funeral earth from the Garden of Gethsemrme was strewn on the coffin. It was the gift of an admirer, whose name, by his own desire, was not disclosed.

The life of a Taranaki Count}' foreman, like that of a policeman, is apparently not a happy one. Here is an extract from a report submitted to the Council last Monday :—" I made a drain bat Mr rilled it up. [ again put it in order, and he filled it up again, and if you don't help me he will kill me." The Council will communicate with the person mentioned by the foreman. They were brothers, bachelors—one in Scotland, the other in South New Zealand—both agriculturists. He in the old country died, leaving his property wonh some £IOO to his brother in Otago. When the legal firm through whom the money was to be paid made inquires they discovered that the legatee had also died two ar three weeks previously, leaving his property, valued at some £3OOO, to the brother since deseased in Scotland. —Southland News. Admiral Sampson's cruisers have been furnished with smokeless powder, the first lot delivered of a £50,000 contract given ',the Duponts three months ago. The terrible smoke made by the ordinary brown powder used iu heavy guns makes it impossible to see 20 yards after the second round. Admiral Sampson reports that the faces ot the men handling the gnus at San Juan, ftlatanzis and Cat dens " were covered with saltpetre at the second round from the eight inch and thirteen inch guns, while the thirst from the smoke and sas of this burnt powder, under the fiery heat of a tropical sun, is absolutely unendurable." The entire fleet, 13 inch guns and all, now have an abundant supply of this new powder. The question of bringing banks and mercantile houses under the provisions of the Shops and Shop Assistants Act was raised in tne House by the Hon. Major Steward, who wished to know if the Government intended co take any action iu the matter. The Premier stated that during the roeess there had been a conference of the inspectors under the Labour laws, and they, had made certain recommendations to the Government. He himself was satisfied iu respect to the hours these bank clerks had to work that the law as it now stood was defective. He did not think there would be time this session, however, to pass a Bill dealing with the matter. That the law required amendment was beyond doubt, and the Government would, if possible, deal with it. It i." 5 extremely unfortunate that the Minister of Railways should have found it necessary to dismiss a large number the men engaged at the Government workshops at a time when they stand most iu need of regular employment. Mr Cadman'o explanation that this is only a temporary expedient to bridge over the two or three weeks between the exhaustion of last year's vote and the preparation of the Estimates may bring some solace to the idle workers, but it wdl scarcely excuse the harsh manner in which they have been treated. If the Minister has made up his mind to ask for a large vote for the construction of rolling stock he might surely have ventured to anticipate the grant by the £6OO or £7OO that would have been required to keep the men iu employment. —Lyttelton Times. A drastic measure directed against the evils of juvenile smoking has been drafted by the Social Committee of the Norwegian Storthing, and, it is expected, will be passed into law. It absolutely prohibits the of tobacco in towns to persons under the age of sixteen. In country districts tobacco may only be sold to juniors provided with a written order for a certain limited quantity signed by some person actually known to the selltr. It will be open to any country authority, however, to enforce the more stringent regulations applicable to the towns. In town and country alike, grown-up persons will be strictly prohibited from furnishing juveniles with tobacco, either in return for payment or otherwise. No person under sixteen will be allowed to be employed in a tobacco factory. The police will be authorised to take pipes or tobacco from any juveniles found smoking in a public place. The penalty for contravening the law ranges from 2 to 100 kroner. How missionaries met their doom through West African natives hacking thorn to death in Sierra Leone is recorded in a cablegram from London to American pipers, which says :—A letter received in this city from Sierra Leone says that a Menina native who was with the American missionaries at Rotufunk when they were massacred by the insurgents, but who made his escape by resuming his native garb, furnishes the following account of the tragedy : "We started to walk to Sierra Leone, but had only gone half a mile when we met war boys, who blockaded the way. The Rev. Mr Cain tried to frighten them by firing a revolver over their heads, but, seeing they were determined to do mischief, he east his revolver away and said he would not have anybody's blood ou his hands. The war boys then seized the party, ineluding Misses Hatfield, Archer, and Kent, stripped them of their clothing, dragged them back to the mission house, iu front of which the war boys cut down the Rev. Mr Cain and hacked him to death, and then treated Miss Archer and Miss Kent in the same way. Miss Hatfield, who was very ill, was thrown ou a barbed wire netting, and finally her throat was cut. Mrs Cain escaped to a bush with a native girl, but the war boys went out seeking for them, and they were afterwards killed." We are being read some profitable lessons on the Continent just now. In Spain and Italy the price of bread is ruling the policies of Cabinets. We do not know how often we have pointed out, together with our contemporaries, what, is likely to occur iu this country if our food supply is not rendered absolutely Beoiue at the outbreak ot war and the Government do not take such measures as will prevent a ring of grain speculators forcing up the price of bread to a point that will seud a maddened mob of starving men racing down to Whitehall to decorate the lamp-posts with the bodies of short-sighted Ministers. It is all very well to call this " tall talk " and " rampaging;'"' but today we have an exhibition of what hungry human nature is capable of in Spain and Italy. Are our poorer classes likely to he any more uuder control when stung by the pangs of hunger than the wild mobs which have been destroying two kingdoms during the last few weeks? We trow not. If there are those who think a hungry iSritish citizen is more amenable to control than a Spanish or Italian, we believe there will be a rude awakening when the hour of trial come*. If the Government do not take this lesson to heart they will be guilty of criminal and culpable neglect.—United Service Gazette.

Writing in the " Post," a correspondent is severe on the jurymen of that city. He says—" Of cour.se I know that Wellington jurymen have a reputation throughout the colony for the clemency that they extend to prisoners. I have heard that in Sydney spielers and others of crimiuil tains openly boast that they can drive a coach and four through a Wellington jury. In one particular case tried the other day, where figures and accounts were in question, we had the spectale of it being adjudicated upon by a jury, some of which J am certain could not do a sum in compound addition." Christehurch papers have been passing strictures on the action of the Government in choosing the MartiniEnfield as the new rifle. In the opinion of many experts there is no reason for any change of rifle. The weapon which we have at present, viz., the MartiniHenri, is acknowledged as the best and most serviceable weapon which has ever been placed in the hands of the volunteers. It is accurate, has a range up to 1500 yards, and is rapid-firing enough for all practical purposes. The projectile is also powerful enough to allow of the weapon being fired in the roughest weather without any great deflection being needed. The people of New Zealand are tired of being treated as spoilt children. Sound administration anil pure Government are what they now want. They are sick of the policy of setting class against class, and of dealing witn social questions, not with a view of settling them iu the best interests of the community, but as a means of pirty aggrandisement or of gaining power for the present. The colony is surfeited with nostrums and catchpenny cries. While we do not by any means advocate that measures should be overlooked, we believe that the chief want of New Zealand iu her political life just now is men, and on this issue we hope and believe the next election will be largely fought.— Christehurch Press. The following is one of the many remarkable incidents of the recent riots in Italy : At Minervino, a little town in irouthern Italy, the image of a Madonna stauds on the market place, and is highly revered. By an incident some of the varnish had come off the face of the figure. Like wildfire the news spread that from anger at the enormous rise in the price of bread, the Madonna had changed colour. That was enough. Armed with axes, teythes and cudgels the mob fell upon the Custom Houses, the Municipio, the house? of the Sindaco and the magistrates and others- No quarter was shown. Those who did not escape through back doors or over the roofs were lost. The mob penetrated into Dr Brandi'a house, although his wife lay dying. The sick room was plundered, and the doctor himself escaped on to the roof, and from there into a garden. Then he was brought to bay and struck at with axes till he was a mass of blood. The same thing happeued to two other men. The few soldiers, only thirty men, fled into a house, where they barricaded themselves. The house was set on fire and the '• brothers iu the King's coat," had almost begun to stew when reinforcements arrived. The Sydney Morning Hearld says : " Our St Peterburg correspondent in his last letter, discussing ths reforms that have been mede in the Kussian capital with a view to the diminution of drunkenness, gives a fresh importance to that much-talked-of product of civilisation, the barmaid. Some folk would hive us regard the barmaid as a snare to the weak and simple, and an incentive to the evil courses of the vicious. But in St. Petersburg the authorities take quite a different view, for they regard her as a restraining force, and one tending towards moral and social improvement. The thousands of low taverns that are scattered about the streets are the cause of most of the scenes of drunkenness and disorder, and these, we are told, have been removed, giving place to orderly shops where spirits are sold in ' sealed bottles by neat barmaids.' The fair maidens of neat attire are chosen from the ranks of those with some pretension to cultivation, and they are placed in the dram shops ' in the hope that their ladylike appearance and deportment will* have a civilising influence over the dreadful St Petersburg!) roughs.' One hardly knows whether to regard the indulgence of .this hope as a piece of amiable simplicity on the part of those responsible, or whether it is based on a true understanding of human nature. At all events, it gives the barmaid a higher status, Rear-Admiral Duprmt's views upon the subject of war between this country and France, which were communicatedto the Gouloia, add nothing to our knowledge. The occasion of the interview was the strained feeliug which is assumed without any reason to exist between the two countries. Practically what the admiral says has been said over and over again by the exponents of the views entertained by the Jeune Eeole. France cau oppose to us only sixteen modern i battleships, eight good coist-defence vessels, about ten old battleships, and twenty-three modern cruisers ; or taking breakdowns into account, it is roughly estimated that the strength of the French navy is between a third acd a half of that of the British fleet. This crushing preponderance, however, docs iiot dismay Admiral Dupont. France is to bide her time and organise an implacable guerre de course against our commerce, and we are bidden to take the ruin of our maritime interests into our forecasts. But privateering could never be a finally effective measure against uso aud there are those in Franca who have to the conclusion that it must soon disappoint its advocates. Captures there would be at the outbreak of hostilities, but they would become fewer as our preparations were organised, and what would be the fate of cruisers with bunkers nearly empty conveying ocean tramps to French ports across seas commanded by our fleets?—Army und Naval Gazette.