NEWS AND NOTES

Waikato Argus, Volume VII, Issue 491, 23 September 1899, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES

Onk of the greatest novelties at the vVinkfield. (Windsor) annual flower show was a quantity of sweet peas in a pot, exhibited by Mr Wells. They were from seed taken from the tomb of an Egyptian mummy supposed to have been bnried over 2000 years ago. The plant was below the ordinary sweet pea in size, and the flower, pink and white, was of a delicate nature.

A new shell of terrible explosive power and wide range, intended to be used in the autumn campaign in the Philippines, is being tested at the Sandy Hook proving ground. The shell is said to produce a Bhock resembling a stroke of lightning", and to burst into fragments sufficient to annihilate a whole army. General Miles and other military experts favour the explosive, and believe it will strike terror in the Filipinos, and compel them to sue for peace. It is well known that the British army shortened the Omdurman champaign by using shells of this kind.

The gorgeous possibilities of New Zealand legislature are illimitable. A Napier man (according to the Telegraph) captured a live ferret roaming around with blood in its eye the other day and became puzzled as to what ho should do with it. If he killed it he became liable for a fine of £lO, and if he let it loose damage of a serious nature to his poultry and his was likely to result. In this quandary he appealed to the office of the Stock Department, where he was told that if he called next day he would bo informed whether he would be prosecuted or not!

According to a report from Peahawur, a general named Abdul Hakim Khan and two or three clerks of the Army Pay Department office at Cabul were recently blown from guns on the maidan facing the infantry barracks at Cabul, in the presence of a large concourse of army officers and soldiers. The charge against the executed men that they had for goine yeai a past been in the habit of cheating both officers and men of portions of iheir salaries. This particular form of punishment has very rarely been resorted to of late years at Cabul, and the execution of these men created something of a sensation.—"lndian Times,"

The great hat question arose at the International Congress of Women in London. It was at the suffrage meeting presided over by Mrs May Wright Sewell. Certain delegates wore mountainous hats, which the chairwoman requested should be roraoved incideutally remarking that she came from a Stato in which the men bad passed a law obliging women to take off their head-dresses in public gatherings, whore a clear view added to the comfort of each person present. Mrs Sewell expressed her approval of this piece of legislation carried out by poor blundering man, and the offending hats were at once removed.

Captain Becker, an official of the Congo Free State, has won the affection of many of the natives in a very carious way. He bought a good, loud-playing barrel organ, and allowed the natives to turn the handle. Tho captain was very anxious that the people should be married in accordance with the Christian religion, and when it was known the organ would be placed at all such marriages, the increas« in the number of Christain weddings was remarkable. Things were generally arranged so that one wedding took plaoe each day, in order that tho organ might be heard regularly. It turned out afterwards that several couples had been married twice, in order that the organ might be played at their nuptials.

The other day (says *a writer in the World) I happened to enter the shop of a firm of well known goldsmiths and silversmiths, and for the first time in my life had ocular demonstration of what brides and bridegroomi do with their superfluous wedding presents. Exposed for sale on a large tray was a miscellaneous collection of all the minor gifts which had been presented by affectionate friends to a certain happy couple on a recont smart and fashionable occasion. The whole lot wero going at a tremendous sacrifice, while among them, as fortune willed it, I discorered my own humble gift with my oirn card and "good wishes " fastened to it, and I hai the melancholy satisfaction of possessing myself of them once more at much reduced price.

The Prussian House of Lords has (says the London Daily Chronicle) been asked to declare that Prince Gebhard Lcbrecbt Blucher, of Wahlstatt, the great-grandson of old "Marshal Vorwarts," is no longer entitled to sit in that high assembly, and that his name shall bo struck off its rolls. The plea for this drastic stop is that the Prince having become naturalised in the United States—not England, as stated in a Berlin telegram—no longer possesses Prussian citizenship. The truth is that Prince Blucher, who once held a commission in a crack cavalry regiment of the Prussian Guards, got into such dreadful money difficulties through gambling that he fled to New York, where, according .to one account, he supported himself for some time as a waiter.

Mr Win. Pacey, formerly of Alexandra South, Otago, who went to the Klondike some fourteen months ago, has returnod to the colony, after having done very well It is understood that with the money obtained for his elaim and the gold won, that Mr Pacey's " nest egg" is some £7OOO. The fortunate Mew Zealander brought back with him a considerable quantity of Klondike gold, one bag being filled with handsome nuggets, from the size of a pigeon's egg to small alluvial slugs. Attached to a 190 dollar gold watch was a handsome chain, made solely of small nuggets linked together with gold rings, while for his wife and her companion Mr Pacey had a chain of nuggets and brooches (the gold beaten into miniature picks, buckets, and shovels), all being made from the precious metal won from his claim.

A story which the Washington correspondent of the London Chronicle rightly —if mildly characterises as curious comes from Binghampton, New York. Gustavo Bertram!, of !St Made, Quebec, says that while on a fishing smack in Baffin Bay, and being in a small boat alono, a storm drove him out of his course. After being without food for some time he met some Esquimaux, and lived with the natives, always getting nearer the North Pole. In the course of a year ho reached the Pole. This country he describes as being an island surrounded by ico. There were two ranges of small mountains, and a small tribe of wellbuilt peoolo, not Esquimaux, lire there. There aro two- seasons, mild and cold. In the milder weather lichens grow. The people, b. 6 says, are savage, but not unkind. He suffered many hardships, and returned by working him way down to Kllesmere Land, He was then helped to Northern Alaska, and went proseeting in Klondyke, He got into some trouble with the Canadian authorities and was sent to prison at Toronto. After his release ho worked his way to New York Stato, whero he is now, penniless. Bertrand is a totally uneducated man, and has no knowledge of seamanship or geography.

In any legislation that is to follow, reformers must keep in mind the needs and wishes of the great body of moderate drinkers, as well as the betterment of the minority whose excesses all parties desire to curb and suppress. Putting a ban upon the drunkard by rendering him liable to arrest and long and close confinement, to be divorced, and in other ways placed beyond the pale of decent society will no doubt act as a deterrent by making men careful. Wo must, however, not go too fast, the reforms must be gradual, and thoso responsible for them must never lose sight of tho fact that they are dealing with habits and customs that aro the growth of centuries. —Lloyd's Wockly. When a man applying for a prohibition order against his wife admitted that he himself drank, but only in moderation, Mr Haselden, S.M. (says the Wellington Post) spoke as follows •.—' I will not grant a prohibition order on the application of a husband against the wife it I find that the husband is in the habit of taking any liquor himself, even in strict moderation. If the wife is prohibited, temptation should be removed from her as much a? possible, and it is a constant temptation to a wife to know even that her husband has just had a glass, or perhaps even has it in the house. Tho same remarks apply with equal force to the converse case of wife against husband. If you now say that you will yourself abstain I will grant the order. After some demur the man gave the required assurance, and the order was made. News has been received of a daring case of piracy on the West River. China. It appears that on the 20th ulfc, the steamer Taiping, registered under the Portuguese flag, was bound from Macao to Samshui, via Kongmoon, and was about five miles below the latter place, when she was attacked by pirates. The pirates ran alongside in a steam launch, and at once commenced tiring their rifles and a heavy charge -or two from a cannon. They sprang up the side.s of the Portuguese steamer and, boarding the vessel, drove the crew below from the upper deck. They then made the puser, Mr Ozorio, who had resisted by firing ou the pirates, come up on deck, and there promptly shot him in the side. The crew being powerless, tho ruffians robbed the passengers, of whom there were 40 on board, and, having generally plundered the steamer, they left with their booty. Ju3t before tak> ing their departure they went below, and, as they thought, disabled the vessel's engines. By patching up the machinery the vessel got back to Macao, but the life of the plucky purser was despaired of when she reached port. Some interesting experiments were-tried at Newbury on the 26th July with a set of instruments for wireless telegraphy by the Rev. J. M. Bacon, Mr J. N. Maskelyne and Mr Nevil Maskelyne. The first experiment made was that of firing a powder magazine electrically from a distant point without contact. The object of this experiment waa to give practical demonstration of the possibility of utilising the principle of atheric communication in the time of war to explode mines and similar destructive c.utrivances, the only connection necessary being through the medium of the all-pervading aether. The advantages of this system are claimed to be that there would be no connecting wires to be cut by an enemy, nothiug which could fall into their hands, while no earthly power could prevent ommunicatiou from beiDg established at the right moment. The initial experiment proved a perfect success. Mrs Mackarness, wife of Mr F. Coleridge Mackarness, Recorder of Newbury, touched a button attached to the powerful instrument in tho electric station, with the result that at a distance of four hundred yards from the magazine the structure was instantly blown into atoms. Mr Maskelyne explained that the same result could have been obtained with the same instruments at a distance of ten miles. Messages were afterwards transmitted from the electric station to the receiving station with entire success.