News and Notes.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XXII, Issue 4054, 19 May 1900, Page 4

News and Notes.

The House of Commons read a soconcl time on 21st March a Bill to extend the benefits of the Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1897 to agricultural labourers.

The Xondon County Council has resolved, at a cost estimated at £10,120 per annum, to establish a GO hours’ working week for the employees in connection with the Council’s tramways.

Speaking at Thurles, Mr John Dlllion, M.P., said he believed the Queen’s object in coming to Ireland was to persuade Europe that Ireland sympathised with England in the war, and to recruit Irish soldiers.

The president of one of the sections of the French Court of Appeal was fired upon thrice the other clay in the Courtroom by a druggist, who had just lost his case. Fortunately the aim was bad, and the judge was not hit.

A Royal Sailors’ Home is to be established at Chatham. The site has been given by the military authorities, and the institution has the approval of the Admiralty, which subscribes £2OOO towards the cost of the building. There are to be 500 beds, dining, billiard, and bath rooms, and a bar where alcoholic liquors are not to be prohibited. Elias and Sarah Noyce, living at the village of Dosvnton, near Salisbury, have four sons all serving in the Army, except the eldest, who was invalided Home in December, and five daughters, all of whom are married to soldiers. The fact having been brought to the notice of the Queen, Her Majesty sent to the parents a sum of £5 “as a mark of her interest and appreciation.

The efforts of the German Government to “ dragoon ” the press and the public life of the country continue. Public indignation and Parliamentary obstruction have been roused by a Bill introduced by the Government with a view to regulating the exposure and sale of books, pictures, etc., of an objectionable character, and placing public entertainments under stricter supervision. Canon Knox Little, preaching at St Paul’s Cathedral to a congregation of 5000 men, observed that whatever sickly sentimentalists might say, the beauty, nobility and dignity of war were calling forth in young Englishmen the spirit of self-sacrifice, patriotism, bravery and unselfishness. Charles Denison Heaps, for many years one of the most prosperous merchants of Leeds, pleaded guilty at the local assizes the other day to obtaining £l 1,000 by false pretences. The accused had occupied a prominent, position in the Methodist New Connexion body. He was sentenced to 12 months’ hard labour. An Ordor-in-Council, recently laid on the table of the House of Commons, brought into operation a, remarkable extradition treaty. The high contracting parties wore Her Majesty Queen Victoria, and “ the'Captain’s Regent, of I lie Most Serene Republic of San Marino.” This little republic,

which lies on a ridge of the Apennines, has only about 33 square miles of territory, and - some 8,000 inhabitants. In the House of Commons, on consideration of the Finance Bill, the Chancellor of the Exchequer moved the insertion of a clause to remit the death-duties up to £l5O in the case of soldiers and sailors killed in the execution of duty, with retrospective action till 11th October last, and after minor amendments had been in sorted the clause was agreed to and added to the Bill.

The Mayor of Dijon, in inviting Signor Riciotti Garibaldi to the unveiling of his father’s statue, asked him, in order to avoid any discordant element, to contradict a statement that he had volunteered to join the British army in the Transvaal. Signor Garibaldi, while declining the invitation, justified his offer to England, which was inspired by gratitude for her refusal in 1860 to join Napoleon 111. in preventing the liberation of Naples. The Queen (says M.A.P.) has feK the attacks in the French newspapers more deeply than people wou'd believe, and has resented the insulting caricatures, some of which she has seen, very keenly. In consequence of this she seldom speaks about France or the French, and will not allow the Paris Exhibition to be mentioned in her hearing. Nothing that belongs to her will be in the exhibition, nor will any of her possessions be reproduced and so exhibited,- Her Majesty has also refused permission to any firm which is exhibiting to refer to her in any way, or to her patronage in making their exhibits.

The Duke of Devonshire is stated in all newspapers to have upon a recent occasion stood up in the House of- Lords to speak in the debate, and, to the amazement of the House sat down after a couple of minutes without having opened his lips. With reference to this a correspondent writes to a London journal that on one occasion the famous Masillon, having to preach at Sept Fonds, mounted into the pulpit, reflected a moment, and came down without having uttered a word, thinking, as he afterwards stated, that he had finished his sermon.

The King of the Belgians is, according to the Memorial Diplomatique seriously threatened with blindness. There is a sort of growth stretching over his eye which makes it impossible for the King to read or write. His Majesty also finds it ditficuß to walk, as he can, only move about by feeling his way. Reporting on “ Sabbath Obser-

vance ” at the annual meeting of Kintyre Free Presbytery in Campbell - town, the Rev. John Stewart, of Kal

learn, condemned the commencement of engagements with the Boers by the British Army on the Sabbath, and the playing of football and kindred sports on Sunday by the soldiers of the beleaguered garrisons, to the disgust of the enemy, who were so scandalised that they fired into the midst of the holiday makers to show their utter disapproval of such ungodly practices. He predicted the speedy downfall of Britain to a sec-ond-rate Power if such unseemly ob servances were persevered in. The Queen’s recent trip to Ireland reminds the Westminster Gazette of a visit paid by her uncle, Wilburn IV. in 1790. He was then the Duke of Clarence, and serving in the Navy. His ship touched at Cove, now Queenstown, and the Duke spent several weeks in the house of a Quaker gentleman named Penrose. The Duke was of course lavishly entertained ; his host used a 1 ways to sit up to receive him on his return from t.iere hospitalities, and used thus to address him: “Friend William, thou art late again to-night, and not too sober. If thou dost not amend I will write to thy father, friend George, at Windsor.” An interesting trial has just reached a conclusion at Vienna. The accused, according to a despatch in the Daily Telegrajih, was a printer named Stellbogen, who was charged with publishing a pamphlet reflecting on the conduct of the medical officers at St. Joseph’s Children’s Hospital. In the course of the trial it became apparent that the state of the hospital was of the most shocking character. For example, it was part of the hospital porter’s duties to do a good deal of surgical work which required professional skill. Many of the children, again, died in the hospital unknown to their parents. Often the little inmates went days together without food. One girl was found by her mother covered only by a rag. The parent complained to a sister, who said, “ It didn’t matter, as the child was sure to die.” Against one of the doctors the accusations were equa lJ y serious.