OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIV, Issue 184, 4 August 1913, Page 6

OUR AMERICAN LETTER.

U'roni Our Special Correspondent.) NEW" YORK. July 3. CREATING HARD TIMES. A dull summer, with poor business and slow collections, and something a.pprouchinp. a tinaueial panic about October, is the prediction of New York bankers and capitalist*. It so transpires that the majority of these are Republjeaas, and not in "sympathy with the present (iovernment at, Washing-ton and its reduced tariff proposition, hut it also happens that these jreutlement who are "agin" the Wovemmeut" have it in t-heir power lo a great degree to bring to pass their pessimistic predictions for the people, because they control the capital Well we shall see." Cut with bumper crops, which look, to be the case in all respects now. and no other reason for stagnation but the opposition of capital! perhaps the results "ill not be nuke so serious as some seem to fear. It is certainly strange, however, that the election of a demortutic Present ahnl . hn* !;een followed by hard times, and 'the only reason *<■'**»* <■<> be that the Covermneul hs# created many millionaire caprtaJiets through the longcontinue<l polirv of protection, that they .spend money to oppoee a Government thai will not us.srressive.ly continue to "protect" them. The old rttory of -infant industries" has resulted in the tail having almost power enough to wag the dog. CELEBRATING THE FOURTH. A "ood. hot, old Fourth of July is promised for to-morrow by the weabher bureau but the temperature har, been gradually »oamnfr all thia week, until it struck midejl. Kah. yesterday, and has been not far from it to-day. Fortunately, the heat has not been accompanied hv many pro-trations. a<> it has not been' oppressively humid. The city authorities stopped the display of fireworks, public or private, within the city; limits, this year as last, for the celebration, hut there will be many illumina— tione and all kinds of sports and excursions. One of the features of Boston% 4th of .Inly celebration will be the free distribution of over 1.0(10 jnUTons of i<-e cream to children, and there will be festivities for the kids on 20 playgrounds.

A GREAT STRA\STBERKT CROP. The etrawberrj , spaeon for New York is over, and raspberries, cherries, cantaloupes- and water-melons, to say nothing of peachers and ice cream, arc the order of the day. From one section in Delaware durinp the se-aeon jur* eloscd ►there were shipped 425 cars <»f strawberriec, p verngin'j -40 t<i the ear. which so-H Tor over 300.000 dollars at the depot here. This is the larjrei-t ,-eaeon ever known, and the prices were much better than ever before. For the pa-st two years Selbyville has held the record of being the largest nhippinp point of strawberries in the world. The Cisuwl.v berry, which couetiluted by far the larger part of the shipments, brought from 2.50 dollars to 4.50 dollars a crate. ■It is claimed th-at this variety of berries is not successfully grown anywhere eke than in thw locality. Om> man picked 400 crater of thew be.rriea from twii acres, which sold 'for over L.u'OO dollar*.

ALL-NIGHT FARMING. At UuU-hin.-oii. Ka,npaj3. during May. with a powerful searchlight on the head of hin gasoline tractor, O. Q. Kllis wae ploughing and sowing corn with day anrl night shifts on his Mortem county ranch. He has nearly IJ.OOO acres, of , which 400 acres already ha<s been broken. Ho was using n 30-hotwe-power engine tractor outlit. which does the ploughing, disc-injr, harrowing and planting all in one operation an<l pliinto 3,3 acreo. a <j<<v. Mr. KHis is running the outfit day and niplit. anrl the, big searchlight make* the work as practicable at night :ik by day. This fall he will put in 1.500 ai-rw i.f'nheal. ROCHESTER'S SURGEONS. What do ymi think of h town made by the reputation of two surgpons? A friend in the hotel business, but temporarily out of a position, was attracted by v -rood offer in Rochester, Minnesota, but wrote I)!,, the other day that he couldn't stand it any longer, because he discovered that all tlie travel to the place was of people who went there to be operated on. some who had to be carried in and out of tht; house on stretebe-rs, some to recover, some not. with many cripples for life to say the least. The sanatorium was always full, and the hotels overrun with "eases." After a while it pot on his nerves so that he lost his appetite, and had to pet away from the place. Are there any such "industries'" to build up a town in New Zealand ' STAMPS AND NOTES. The Postmaster-General has ordered, through the Secretary of the Treasury, 12.071.480,000 postage stamps, the number estimated to be needed for the li»cal year beginning July 1. The order calls for 11 i 150.000.000 ordinary stamps of various denominations. 20,000,000 special delivery stamps. 70.f180.000 "postage due" stamps, 31.400.000 stamp books, and 1."201.000 coils of stamps to be used in vending machines. JOTTINGS. Mayor Ciuynor continue* to "talk to the gallery for votes" in cultivating the friendcihip of the raJoble by letting them overrun and destroy the parks and in censuring the police for the arrest o-f bovri for rowdyitan. It will be a. relief to down-town New York to see a new building that is not a sky-scraper. The one for which the foundation is now bcung built for .1. P. Morgan and Co.. u< the corner of Wall and Broad Streets, where their old building was lorn down, will be only about 80ft in height, comprising three storeys below the main entrance and five above. It is ■to be ready in September of next year. Talk about dentists, physicians, etc., in the down-town section, doing business among men and women who go home at five o'clock, what do you think of a shoe shop on the seventh floor of an office building? The proprietor makes specialties in shoes and also keeps some hats, and seems to do a thriving business. It is expected that within a month or two the people of the United States -will witness a great revolution in the size and appearance of their paper money. Kach one of the two billion notes of that kind now in circulation will be superseded by uniform pieces of currency about a quarter size smaller than now used. The [ i-hnnge in size is not the. only one. Any J note with Washington's portrait on it will be Idol, .Jefferson's 2dol, Lincoln's sdol, Grover Cleveland's lOdol, Alexander Hamilton's 20dol, and so on. This plan will lender the Tai6ing olTrißeUjy crooke