TRADE TOPICS.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14854, 20 December 1913, Page 16

TRADE TOPICS.

UNDERSIZED LOBSTERS. (.raoax ocb own cobres-Oxdexi.) LONDON, November 7. Three fishermen were ordered, at the Mansion House, to pay small fines for having in their possession at Billingsgate market certain lobsters which ' measured less than eight inches from the tip of the beak to tho end of the tail. Prosecuting on behalf of the Fishmongers' Company, Mr Muskett ■ iiaid tho object of the proceedings was not to -ask the Lord Mayor to inflict any but the most- lenient penalty, but in order to direct public attention to tbe law on the subject. Tho object of the Lobsters Act of 1887 was to prevent tho depletion of the lobster indus'u*y, wiiich. had been goin<i on for a number of years past, by prohibiting the taking oi immature fish. Mr Douglas, taectiief clerk, said there had bwn no prosecution ot tlio kind in the city since ISSO. NO OIL MONOPOLY. XLo public services rendered by tho oil fuel and pioauciug and distributing companies, aud tne absurdity of tiio t_tau.*in__ts -oniotimes made as to monopolist operations by those companies, wero n.lerred to by Mr bamuel -..mud, .M.1., at a recent dinner. Remarking that there was ilo evidence at ail that the world's supply of oil fuel would fall off or be Licking, he said they believed that the supplies of fuel in the world were very laiije and could be maintained. There had been somo liad feeling or misgiving in the idea that tlio interests of the producing companies and tho distributing companies were inimical to the consuming public and the industry at large, but that was not tho fact. They did not 4 pretend that the industry was carried on for charity, but they wero in no way connected with any monopoly. Thero was no such thing as a monopoly in the oil industry. There was an enormously open field, but would it bo in the interests of this great industry to havo to rely upon a largo number of small companies, none of which could afford to have the enormous organisation to supply the public with their requirements of liquid fuel throughout the length and breadth of the world. WHAT IS A PHEASANT? Americans aro enjoying a quiet laugh at the discomfiture of the Customs olficials who tried to seize tho plumes in I_ady Cheylesmore- hat as she landed "in New York. Lady Cheylesmore had hardly set foot on the pier when she was approached by two Customs men, who demanded the lengthy feather she was wearing, on tho ground that it was excluded by tho now law. Instead of complying with the demand, Lady Cheylesmore quietly insisted on seeing a "copy of the "statute, which, after much protest, was to her. _ After reading tho clause prohibiting the ~ entry of aigrettes or "feathers of game birds," tho visitor smilingly informed tho officials that the feather she was wearing was that of an English pheasant, which is not a game bird, as they erroneously supposed, but a domesticated fowl, as she daimed. Not all the women who arrived oh. the same steamer were so successful ,as Lady Cheylesmore. Mrs Percival S. Hill, wife of the President or the American Tobacco Company, protested in vain -when requested to remove her aigrettes. She parted with £100 worth. About £60 worth of aigrettes wero left behind by other women who arrived by the same vessel. GREAT M-TORSHOWi'

The motor-cars •* and accessories at Olympia are valued at half a million sterling. The present show represents another chapter in the great romance of the British motoring industry. All tlie treasured secrets of the motor manufacturers•--are displayed on the stands. Secrets of construction and design which have been jealously guarded throughout tho year in the workshops of the Midlands now appear for the first time embodied in the new model motor-cars for -the coming sea-l-en. There are to be seen the most magnificent productions : of the British industry,, costing anything up to . £2000, standing side-by side with baby cars costing less than £200 complete. The advent of motoring has caused the arts of the upholsterer and the carriage builder to expand until they have l now reached : a higher point of excellence than ever before, and 'the sumptuous', body work of many of the raws, composed of the most delicate .panelling" in rare woods and Qostly silken upholstei7,.is alone well worth,a niofc; • ■•;..'::■■■».*;: •*. '•■.;:.* *.-.,"