Notes.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXIX, Issue 13, 28 March 1901, Page 18

Notes.

The Amerioan principle is to ' vote early and rote often.' But what shall we say of the enterprise of the aged foreigner who inter* viewed the Benevolent Trustees the other day in Wellington? ' Are you naturalised ?' said the Trustees to the aged stranger. • I am not naturalised,' was the reply, • but I hare voted for a member of Parliament,'

'It is worthy of note,' says the Aye Maria, * that the number of Popes in the first half of the nineteenth century was twice as large as in the second half. And Leo XIII. is still " gloriously reigning." His predeoessor, Pius IX., was elected in 1846. The occupant of the Chair of Peter at the beginning of the oentury was Pius VII., who was suooeeded by Leo XII., Pius VIII., and Gregory XVI.'

Hearing that the Harmsworth Brothers had offered to purchase the London Times for something like £7,000,000, the proprietor of the Taieri Advocate expresses his willingness to transfer his interest in that paper to the owner of the Daily Mail for ' a little less than the £7,000,000' refused by the owners of the ' Thunderer* of Printing House Square.

The difficulties of Mieoting a good wife led to Punoh's peremptory advice to those about to marry : ' Don't.' The advioe of Pew Maurice, in La Mare au Diable, is to get one that is neither pretty nor ugly. Bat such a one (he despairingly added) should be faite exprh— the subject of a special aot of creation. The late Chicago millionaire, Philip D. Armour, has left a muoh more homely and practical advice upon the subject — advice which is a better legacy to the world than the acres of stock -yards and the millions of dollars which he bequeathed to his heirs. ' The young man who wants to marry happily,' said this hard-headed and practical batinese man, 4 should piok out a good mother and marry one of her daughters' any of them.' Our young men in New Zealand would do well to paste this bit of friendly and wholesome advioe in their hats.

' Oh ! willow, willow, woe is me t Alack t and well-a-day I* So sang ' Bab ' in the depths of his comical despair. And such, in effect, is the burden of the black threnody sang by Mr. Atkinson, M.H.R., before the members of the Women's Christian Temperanoe Union in Wellington. A few weeks ago we were congratulating ourselves on the high standard of civilisation that we had reaohed, and on the marked progress that had been made in reoent years in the arts and sciences. Bat Mr. Atkinson has, all alone and unaided, discovered that our Colony has lagged behind, and that even our legislature is composed in the main of men whom he describes aa ' half -civilised ' and ' savage.' ' Using the phrase,' said he to the W.C.T.U., ' not with scientific acouraoy, but in a general way, the present House of Representatives is a drinking lot. Of civilised members there are not many. Of half-civilised there is a consider* able number. Of savages there is a considerable number. The atmosphere of the House is a very curious one. Merit is the last consideration to enter the heads of members.'

Most of our readers can recall the conscious drolleries of Artemua Ward's mode of taking the census. But a modicum of unconscious humor enters into the returns furnished at practically every census. A few of those which were developed during last year's enumeration in the United States hare been chronicled 1 by the Washington Evening Star. Some of these arose out of a misunderstanding by enumerators of questions which they were required to answer. ' One of these questions was indicated by the remark, " length of residence," whioh was expected to show how long the people living in the various localities at the time of the census had been there. When the reports came in it was found that many iof these queries were answered in figures in this way 20x40, 15x30, eto. The enumerators had gone around with a foot rule and had measured the length of the residences of the people they counted. This is what is oalled a " consistent error," that is, it ocoure from the beginning to the end of the reports of certain enumerators.'

In our leading article of last week referenoe was made to the liberality of the present King's views on questions affecting the welfare of the Irish nation. Speculation is already rife as to his probable influence on British politics. ' One thing (says the Adelaide Southern Crott) is certain : the Prinoe of Wales's personal admiration for Mr. Gladstone was unquestionable. He was present in his usual seat over the clock in the Peers' Gallery in the Home of Commons on Mr. Gladstone's introduction of his second Home Rule Bill in 1893. " The Prinoe," writes a correspondent, " followed the Prime Minister with an absorbed attention, and frequently

craned his neck over the ledge of the gallery to oatoh every word. If the expression of the oountenanoe oan give any indication of the feelings, the Prince was not only a delighted but an approving auditor of the Prime Minister's plea for an Irish Parliament. The olose of one of Mr. Gladstone's Home Rule speeches was marked) several yean ago, by an extraordinary incident. The cheers in the House were emphasised by a loud clapping of hands in the Peers' Gallery. The " offender "—of whom the gallery attendants, with an admirable discretion, took no notice — was the late Duke of Clarence, who sat beside the Prince of Wales, and whose enthusiastic outburst was not restrained by his father." '

Some of the enemies of progressive legislation have no worse— or better — taunt to fling at the New Zealand Government than this: that it is a ' grandmotherly ' one. Well, it is at least a wise old grandmother, and, for all her age, fully abreast of the times — in some respects the lively old dame is a little ahead of them. Our Government's functions are as varied as ithose of the elephant's trunk, whioh oan shift half a ton of lumber or piok up a number 6 sewing needle. Mr. Seddon's Cabinet oan with apparently equal ease solve the knottiest questions of land and labor legislation, and teach settlers how to raise poultry and ' dress ' duoks and feed goslings. A few days ago our representative visited the poultry-farm lately established at Milton. He found it an object- lesson of enormous possible commercial value to that rich and favored district. He has now quite recovered from the shook of blank surprise with which he learned that fowls not only habitually swallowed their teeth, but that the molars most in request by them are jagged pieces of orushei glass— -as large as dried peas— which, in their passage down the oesophagus towards the gizzard must feel like a procession of red-hot barbed wire. But Government is not stopping at merely teaching settlers how to raise poultry. It is giving a trial to the experiment of shipping the dead birds to the London market. Few people are aware of the enormous source of wealth that iB possible to scientific poultry raising. The ' old stockings ' of France are to a great extent filled by the domestic fowl. According to Mulhall Great Britain in 1896 imported from France alone 6000 tons of poultry and 394 000,000 eggs— the whole valued at £1,600,000. We learn that there are about 45,000,000 hens in the Republic. These are valued at over £5,000,000. One-fifth of the stock is annually consumed for food, and is sold for about £1,000,000. Two million roosters are also ■old, and these bring in close on £250,000. The laying hens are numbered at 35,000,000, and the annual value of their eggs is set down at £9,000,000. Here we have an annual return of over £10,000,000 — a sum very nearly equal to New Zealand's total exports a few years back — from the poultry of France. New Zealand Bettlera would do well to look into this matter. There's money in it.

A second short sharp shock of controversy ended the dispute at Westport as to the exclusion of one of Marie Corelli'a screaming and anti -Christian romances from the local public library. The objectionable volume, TJu Matter Chrittian — which is Bimply a noPopery pamphlet on an extended seale — is to remain without disinfectants upon the Bhelvee of a library which derives its chief support from the publio purse. We hope the matter of turning public institutes of this kind into propagandas of no-Popery will not be allowed to rest where it stands at present in Westport. In the meantime the local Catholic body owe a debt of thanks to the able writer who, over the pen-name of ' Catholic,' did such good Bervioe in directing attention to a grave abuse. During the last brief convulsion of controversy * Catholio ' got in the following lefthanders on the Athenaeum Committee : — ' Opinions as to whether Tlie Matter Chrittian is blasphemous will, of course, depend on the relative degrees of respect entertained for the Saviour of the world. Our chief objection, studiously disregarded in the oommittee's diooussion, is that the book is, on the beet testimony, a mere libel on the Vatican. A dominant note in the criticism of leading Englieh reviewers was the ignorance of Rome and Roman life displayed by Marie Corelli ; yet, in the faoe of this, we have Mr. Marshall's sapient opinion that there is nothing bad in the book. It would seem that Mr. Marshall believes a libel on the Catholio Church is probably a form of virtue. Mr. Straohan opined that, because the book was by a well-known writer, it should be restored to the shelves. Surely Mr. Straohan does not think that even a wellknown writer is free from the restrictions ordinarily placed on the false witness. Marie Corelli and some of her admirers apparently have no regard for the maxim that " fiction is not falsehood." Mr. Atkinson considers the work an unjustifiable attack on the Catholio Ohuroh, but, in that case, could he explain how its patronage and circulation by the Athenaeum is justifiable T On the whole it would be difficult to conoeive a more wretched defence of their official affront than the remarks of these pro-Corelli apologists,'