25 YEARS AGO

CANADIAN police armed with sweeping wartime powers pressed a massive manhunt today for kidnappers of a British diplomat and a provincial minister. More than 1,000 troops took over guard duty at key buildings in Quebec to give 12,000 police a free hand in their search for British Trade Commissioner James Cross and Quebec Labour Minister Pierre Laporte. The police were reported to have detained more than 300 sympathisers of the Quebec Liberation Front which have seized the two men.

50 YEARS AGO

AN East Anglian village housewife, complaining to the authorities about the poor sewage arrangements, said that her hard working husband when he came home tired in the evening had to take the waste pail and carry it 600 yards to empty it.

An official told her that the Council's scheme for proper sewage disposal would mean only a halfpenny a week more on her rent.

"Do you mean that I have got to pay that halfpenny?" she asked, and when the official replied "Yes", she told him "Then my husband can go on carrying that pail for the rest of his life." THERE is a hoistman at James Marsden and Sons. Ltd's Albion Mills, in Fletcher-st. called Benjamin Berry. For one thing he is 75 years old. For another, he has worked at that mill continuously for 66 years.

125 YEARS AGO

THE marriage, which is announced on authority as about to take place between the Marquis of Lorne, eldest son of the Duke of Argyll, and the Princess Louise, fourth daughter of Her Majesty the Queen, will awaken the surprise of most people; but will, outside certain circles in which jealousy prevails, meet with the warm approval of the nation. It has been usual for many years to prohibit marriages with any but the fortunate members of the royal households; and the strange anomaly has been seen of beggarly German princes marrying into our royal family, while the wealthy and influential members of our own aristocracy have been entirely set aside, even when, as there is reason to believe, their affections and desires would have led to unions which had every prospect of happiness.

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