Miscellaneous.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 299, 22 August 1908, Page 3

Miscellaneous.

An Act prohibiting the use of all motor-cars in the colony of Bermuda has passed both Houses of the Legislature and received the signature of the Governor.

It is estimated that the three million larch trees which have been planted at the Waiotapu prison camps will attain maturity in 18 years, when each tree will yield three railway sleepers of the value of 15s.

With a view to maintaining the physical condition of army officers, President Roosevelt (the <! Morning Post” says) has approved the order requiring all officers annually to undergo a riding test of ninety miles, or, in lieu thereof, a march of fifty miles, to be made in three days in consecutive hours. Officers who fail to qualify in either fest will be held physically unfit and retired from the service.

The best part of a modern house (says “ Good Health ”) is its windows. To keep these open day aud night, and to make the air inside approach as nearly as possible the air outside, should be the first business of the housekeeper. Everything else should be hold subservient to the need of fresh air.

Yarmouth’s last post-boy, Tom Codman, lately died in his eightyfifth year. He started his career for a local hotel proprietor who ran coaches and conveyed the mails between Ipswich and Yarmouth. Cod man had to be sworn in as a post-boy’ before the magistrates. He recollected the first train travelling to Yarmouth. In winter he had often, owing to deep snowdrifts, to leave his vehicle behind and ride forward on his horses with the mails to fetch assistance. When road posting’ ended, Codman took a licensed house at Yarmouth and afterwards became a cabdriver.

The struggle at the municipal elections in a little commune of the Vosges was so keen that the absence of a few voters on the one side meant the almost certain success of the other. On the eve of the polling’ day (the “Leader” says) three or four electors were called away by urgent telegrams announcing the sudden death of near relatives. They arrived to find the relatives Jn excellent health, but it was too late to return and vote. In a little village near Epinai two electors were seized on the polling day by their political adversaries and tied up in sacks until the evening.

The London “ Times ” reports that a treaty of friendship and commerce between Sweden and China extending and modifying the treaty of 1817 was signed at Pekin on 2nd July by M. Wallenberg, the Minister Plenipotentiary, actually Minister of Sweden in Tok.io,' anil by Lien-fang, one of the Ministers of the Wai-wu-pu. The treaty, which contains seventeen articles, is gratifying to the Chinese because it emphasises to a degree not hitherto observed in treaties with China the principles of reciprocity. The text will be printed in Swedish, Chinese and English, the authoritative text being the English one.

Dr Chavasse, the Bishop of Liverpool, filled the role of the good Samaritan on Saturday night (Juno 27). An electric tramway car and a wagonette collided near the bishop’s palace in Aberromby Square, Liverpool. Bareheaded, Dr Chavasse rushed out of his residence, rendered first aid to two of the injured, and picking up one of them, a four-teen-year-old boy named Francis Miller, who was unconscious, carried him into the palace. The collision resulted in the wao’P’onette being overturned, and Miller, the waggonette attendant, who was thrown on to the pavement, sustained concussion of the brain. The other injured person was a man named William Mclnnes, who was struck by the falling vehicle. He was severely injured about the head and left leg-, and was removed to the infirmary. While the bishop was attending to Miller a spectator asked,“ Who’s the little doctor P” “ That’s not a doctor,” remarked another ; ‘‘he’s our little bishop.” A cheer was raised as Dr Chavasse carried the boy into palace.