GENERAL CABLES

Gisborne Times, Volume VIII, Issue 68, 4 December 1902, Page 4

GENERAL CABLES

the strike at Marseilles

2000 TRAVELLERS STRANDED

By telegraph—Press Association— Copyright,

Two thousand travellers, mostly proceeding to Algiers and Tunis, are now stranded at Marseilles. Much distress exists in that city. RULES OF PROCEDURE. LONDON, December 2. The House of Commons, by a majority of !U, converted the new rules of procedure into standing orders. CORONATION MEDALS. LONDON, December 2. JJis Majesty Hie King has conferred Coronation medals on the Ageuts-Ueu-eral. .STICKING TO .SHANGHAI, LONDON. December 2. The Standard slates that the commanders of the German and French contingents decline to evacuate Shanghai before February. *• IiRAWL AN!) CRAWL." J.ONDON, December 2. Tally, Nationalist memebr for Leitrim, describes the policy of Redmond and O’Urien as alternately “ brawl and crawl. 1 '

COLONIAL IIATTALIO.V. LONDON, December 2. General Parsons, of Halifax, suggests the formation of an Imperial Colonial battalion, with headipiurlcrx in England, the various colonies sup-ply-ing companies. REFORMS IN MACEDONIA. LONDON. December 2. The Daily Telegraph's Vienna correspondent asserts that Russia and Austria have undertaken a joint .supervision of the Sultan's promised reforms in Macedonia. SNOW IN NEW JERSEY. NEW YORK, December 2. One foot of snow has fallen in New Jersey. Wolves in New Mexico arc preying upon the valley sheep. OFFICIAL BLA CK M AIL ER S. •ST. PETERSBURG. Dec. 2. Half the Customs officers stationed at Nikolaiev, on the Black Sea, have been dismissed for blackmailing foreign ship brokers, who paid in secure the prompt loading and despatch of vessels. PLAGUE RESTRICTIONK. SYDNEY. December 2. The Hoard of Health has reimposed the original plague restrictions. Vessels coming from plague ports must bring a certificate of fumigation and discharge fodder and grain in the stream ~

FIND OF GYPSUM. MELBOURNE, Dec. 3. A vaist. deposit of gypsum lias been discovered in Jeparit district. MURDERERS KENNIFF, BRISBANE, Dec. 3. Argument on the points reserved in the Kennifls’ case was warm, passages at arms occurring between the occupants of the Bench. .Justice Real took exception to the action of,the jury on certain points, while the Chief Justice defended it

The next session of the New Zealand Parliament promises developments which will engross more than the usual amount of attention from the public. The question of reconstruction of the Ministry is the first problem which Mr Seddon will have to face, and ha will find it far from easy to solve. —Christchurch Press. “ If you have not got pluck,” remarked Mr ii. H. licid, the well-known Australian politician, to a gathering of young men, “ clear out and play ping-pong. There is no pluck wanted for that. Ali you want is the eye of a ferret.” Ten years ago we were content to live at about half the rate of our present existence. We were satislied to dine at each other’s houses ; were content with a horse or two, and a wardrobe modest, though beautiful, nut-to-day our own kitchen is never good enough for us-, save for luncheon, arid not often for that ; we must, perforce, have a garage full of automobiles as well as a stable stuffed wieli horses ; ami our addresses must be almost as many in number as the Kaiser Wilhelm's accomplishments^—Vanity Fair. If the last Blue Book is a guide, England wiil soon only be mistress of the seas by deputy as far as the merchant service is concerned. Lascars and foreigners in the British mercantile marine have increased by 21,018, and 7109 Jack Tars have become longshoremen, or landsmen altogether, who previously used to plough the main. The British sa ! lor threatens to become a thing of the past. The modern Englishman hasn’t got time to go to sea ; the life is not attractive enough for him. He can’t take his girl to the theatre at nights, and the cuisine of the galley disgusts his fastidious stomach. So 7159 of him have given up going to sea, and foreigners and unsavory Lascars fill their places. We don't regard tbp fact with | any cheerfulness. A Lascar is not a satisfactory substitute for a Britisher under ! any circumstances that wc can conceive | of; as a sailor he is cheaper probably, j nastier undoubtedly. Wo begin to under- j stand, in the light of these figures, why 1 there is a difficulty in recruiting for the J British navy. Is the time coining when the Lascar and the foreigner will man our I ships of war ?—Christchurch Truth.

Wc are degenerating. An item in our issue of yesterday recorded the holding of a solemn enquiry into the heinous oilenee of a schoolmaster who punished a refractory pupil with a stick, iu defiance of the edict, aceordiog to which the gentle strap alone must bo used. We know nothing of the merits of the case, beyond what is clearly suggested by the verdict of the Board's Committee of Enquiry, the conclusion arrived at being that the pupil in question was a very refractory one, and j that the master was justified in his action, j At all events, the report stated that “ The j master should have enforced obedience even by the extreme step of expulsion if it were necessary, but some latitude must be allowed to a'headmaster in dealing with a refractory boy.” This appears to mean that the strap as an instrument of correction is not as severe as it ought to be in some cases. Wo remember our own school days, when the strap was undreamt ! of, or treated with scorn. The sentimental j leniency that is a growing sore in our national life has, however, ordered that the form of correction in vogue at the great British public schools, and upon which most of the Empire's leaders, engineers, and builders were brought up, is a barbarous thing. The stick, cane, and birch are as fine a legacy as any that our ancestors have left us, and it is not altogether surprising that New Zealand is the first of the colonies to adopt the kid-glove Wthofo—Truth,