TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 8271, 23 November 1895, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

* Mb J. Henniker Heatosj, Post Office iI.P. for Canterbury in the Reform. House of Commons, it, ac everybody should be aware by this time, the wildest sort of enthusiast on the subject of Post Office reform, and especially on Imperial penny postage. Iα season and out of it he never wearies ot advocating this latter scheme, and his joy wheu he makes a fresh reoruifc or receives encouragement, no matter from what quarter it may come, is almost p&thetic. It may be imagined, therefore, with what delight he received a lefctei in which the writer eohoed Mr Heaton'* heartfelt wish for the establishment of an Imperial penny postage, and which also contained the folio wing passages :•—" It seems to mc extraordinary that with the enormous and continued reductions whyh have taken place in the CO3l of transit upon ordinary goods throughout the civilised world, the cost of conveyance of mails has not been reduced ia a like propertioo. I cannot understand why the British Post Office shows such a desire to make enormous profits out of their Postal and Telegraphic Departments. The change, however, cannot, in my opinion, be long deferred." Sucnaletter might be written by almost any sympathiser with Mr Heaton's views, and would attract no attention, bub it will be of considerable interest) to residents in this colony to learn thac the writer was none other than the Hon. J. G. Ward, Postmaster-General of New Zealand. The sentiments expressed in the letter are about as inconsistent with Mr, Ward's actions as they could well be. He professes tremen dous admiration for the penny postage proposal, yet, though he obtained Parliamentary sanction years ago to put such a scheme in force in this colony, no one has ever heard anything more of it since the Bill became law. Cheap postage, like charity, should begin at home. Yet Mr Ward makes no bones about maintaining the twopenny postage here, white at the same time he advocates penny postage between Great Britain and her dependencies. Knowing as we do, however, the straits in whioh the Government are placed for want of money, we could overlook Mr Ward's inconsistency in this respect) as due not so muoll to laok of purpose &s of revenue, but thia does not apply to the latter part of his letter. \The contrast between his professions and aotions wa*

never more clearly shown than by the facthat although he can deplore the moneygrubbing propensities of the British Post authorities, he pursues the game policy himself. His avowed and only reason for making the new regulations with regard to delayed telegrams is that the revenue of the Post and TelegrAph Office is suffering. It is true tho Department shows a handsome annual profit, but that apparently not matter. He seems to think tint if ho practically knocks the useful delayed telegram system iv the head, people will take to sending the more expensive ordinary telegrams, and that thereby the Department may make a little more money. Nobody else that we can hfcar of thinks so, for everyone recognises that in default of delayed telegrams people will revert to letter*, and the Post Olfa'se revenue will thue suffer. Perhaps when this fact becomes apparent to Air Ward he will see fit to restore the popuhr service which he has now rendered nearly useless. We should like to call Shipping the attention of tho Notifications. Lyltelton Harbour Board to a matter in which they can do a good service to the residents of Christchuruh and the suburbs. This is in the way of affording prompt intimation at their office in town, to all who may be interested, of the hour of arrival of steamers at Port. At present the only means of arriving at an approximate estimate of that time is to find out what time a steamer left Wellington or Dunedin, and then to reckon that it will take her so many hours from that time to reach the wharf at Lyttelton, This is a rough and ready method in which it is uusafe, as many peonle have found out, to place too much reliance. St*emer3 may be delayed for various causes on -the journey from one port to another, and when thia happens the unfortunate individual who has gone down to Port to meet the vessel bas to put in his time as best he may until she arrives, perhaps aeveral'houra after she was expected. Lyttelton is a very pleasant little place in which to spend an hour or two when one has nothing more pressing to do than to lounge about the wharves, for there ii almost always something of interest to engage one's attention in a shipping port. But when a man has business in Christchurch which has to be done, and has matched an hour or two from it to go and meet somebody coming in by steamer, he is apt to be annoyed on learning, when he has reached Lyltelton, that he has to waste an hour or two waiting for the bout. This is where the Harbour Board can come to the rescue. In ordinarily clear weather the steamers are observed from the signal station at such \ distance from the Heads that two hours •lapse before they reach the wharf. If the 'act of their having been signalled could be .mmediately telephoned from Port to the Harbour Board's office in Christchurch, and a notification displayed for the public benefit, anyone who wanted to meeb an incoming steamer could get at least an hour and a half's notice, and then would have ample time to catch a train to Port, or would know what train to meet at Christchurch. Such a system would be of particular benefit in the case of steamers arriving early in the morning. At present the announcement of a boat having been signalled is often displayed at the Board's office after the steamer has reached the wharf, and the information is then of little use. As is the case in Christ. The church just now, the ques. Analysis tion of the purity of the of Milk, city's milk supply is attract ing considerable attention in Sydney, and still more notice is likely to be paid to the matter after the remarks recently made there by a Mr Pratten, the manager of a Co-operative Dairy Company. This Company has dealings with a large dumber of dairymen, several of whom have lately been fined for selling watered milk. In speaking of this matter to an interviewer Mr Pratten said it was a fact that, in spite it the direst pains and penalties imposed by the Milk Companies of Sydney on the defaulting suppliers, and in spite of the most lolemn protestations of iunocence on the part of the men themselves, the same individuals were hauled before tho Police Court again and again and fined for watering their milk. He then gave what he considered to be the explanation of the case. He had been so convinced that one milk supplier, who had been fined twice for selling watered milk, had suffered in injustice, that he determined to make a persoual test. He went out to the man's plaoe one evening, saw all the cows milked »nd the milk run over the cooler and mixed. He then took two samples and repeated the performance in the morning, alao taking •ample* of the mixed evening and morning milk. On returning to town he gave the samples to the Inepector of Dairies and went with him to two well known analysts, giving to each of them three of the samples. •• Would you believe it," he ••id, "though I am able to swear that the milk had not been tampered with in any way, both analysts agreed in their reports that it contained from 3 per cent, to 5 per cent, of added water !" This, in his opinion, showed not only that some of the .convictions against dairymen were undeserved, but that there was an absolute necessity for a "oogniaed standard of analysis. Apart altogether from the case just mentioned Mr pratten did not seem to have a T «ry high opinion of the accuracy of the analyses that had been made, and he quoted w extraordinary case in support of his "eirs. On one occasion his Company sent *« & different analyst a sample to which % had added 20 per cent, of water, and •too a sample to which they had added 40 Wt cent, of water. These samples were returned in the course of time with a ' "port attached to the effect that they were f«»pectively samples of "rich" and "exWedingly rich milk." If milk containing 40 per cent, of water was " exceedingly "eh," we wonder what language t'ae analyst *ottfd have used to describe the same milk before it was adulterated.