COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9704, 17 April 1897, Page 7

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL ITEMS.

THE BRITISH REVENUE. The revenue of the United Kingdom for the financial year* 1896-7, which closed on March 31st, amounts to £112,198,547, agadnst £109,33&;946c-or the previous year, an increase of £2,858,601 being shown. Reducing the present total by £7,500,000 to allow for the portion paid to local taxation, the net revenue available for the Imperial Government is about £104,700,000, against the estimate of £101,755,000 made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer last April. The excess of the revenue actually received over the estimated revenue is therefore about three millions sterling.

STERILISED AIR PROCESS.

A good deal has been heard lately about ; the "-sterilised air *' process of shipping and "■-preserving fruit. From a pamphlet just /received from-the United States Department "•oi Agriculture, .tceating-on tbe-" temperatures finjuri-us to food products in storage and during tr_i_?ipor__t-on, the sterilised air : is passed over*with-o_te:_>rk_!*Temark,. Fv_t-: —" __-e-_e___tß ' _»wev_r,-dov_<-t-see__jt*_ have been suoh as 4»-lead**-*s 'in-anry <*o___deraWe number of in-tanee-.*' Soir-rh- tfids couutry, says _he Aa&BS>Aaaxe\ been e_j>e_e__g great things warn the* : stexi-tsedprocess of sfa-gpi-tg fruit, but un-fort-__at_ry the American e_perien_e. d_os.-notappear^to-^»ahi-fiethef-favourable -to-its i adoption.

SH-PI-ENG ON TH&GRE_rT LAKES.

! part of A-oems-a- _hip_-__d-' " ijig _o___sts of tonnage- -o_*t_e_3r_atd_icesw IWo do- -tot- always realise t-t^esteat>_-tdf <rf lie __nrjgatioa- of inland! : se_s r w-th>o_r European notion of a lake.. As to~_ta__**t__e, a remark in a technicait article __ Gassier** Magazine to- the __feet> tha****_br , Superior, - .a P. _~u_ O. steamer wotdd not be too strong,J-or-toow_ll protected,** enabtesius I to v f___- «n» idea of it, *_____ _u_b. lake j steamers- as -the North Weafcor ihoMadShi

'Land, 388 ft keg. 44ft beam, vabh TO-Or horse power engines wod-ktg their _m_^ i-screws,.reca_l ocean diners ot the largest* -C&-8. ' ' ' ' ■ I

POPULATION OF AUS_33_-I_--____

___& pop-tation retur-ts- lor Australasia, -shows that aa compared with the .oe__fl_B<of-: £891 (that -is in 6J jj____)ahe

population of the seven colonies has grown by 513,_?3> of which 165,406 have been added to New South Wales, 88,184 to West Australia, 87,504 to New Zealand, 78,461 to Quee__land,'»,of74toSouthAu_tr_lia(leßs2Bs decreasein the Northern Territory), 34,485 to Victoria, and 19,446 to Tasmania. Each colony is responsible for its own estimate, and some of them are not too reliable. Melbourne was estimated, on the 31st December last to contain 448,410 people, a decrease on the year of 3848. Since the census it is estimated that the population of Melbourne has decreased 42,486, and whereas in 1891 Melbourne contained 43 per cent, of the population of "Victoria it now contains 38.2 per cent. The contraction of Melbourne is shown by the revenue of the Harbour Trust, which was £231,948 in 1888 and £141,007 last year, & decrease of £90,94_.

NEW ZEAJjAND EXPORTS.

ThefoHowing figures, furnished by the Department of Trade and Customs, show the quantity and value of certain exports from New Zealand during the month of March:—

COLONIAL TRADE.

Tho British colonial expansion of ex. tcrnal trade presents some striking results. The combined trade of Queensland, New South Wales, and Victoria amounts to over eighty-two millions. Canada's is over fifty millions, the Capo has risen Co twentyfive millions, and New Zealand to more than sixteen millions. At the beginning of the century the Colonial Empire, as Aye know it now, did not exist. At that time there was not a single self-governing.colony.

SUSPENDED BANKS IN THE UNITED STATES.

In 1896 as many as 197 Banks suspended in the United States, with £11,335,874 liabilities and £9,505,746 of indicated assets, the average liabilities being about £60,000 per Bank. This showed a considerable increase over 1895, when 135; Banks suspended with £4,552,927 liabilities, and over 1894, when 89 suspended with £2,793,990 liabilities. But, of course, the 1896 total is a long way short of that of 1893, for during the panic of that year 598 Banks stopped payment with £34,059,135 liabilities. During January, this year,., afurther 21 Banks suspended in the United States, part of which were at St, PauL

CHINESE PROGRESS:

China appears totbe*moving-sKg_.tly inthc direction of Western ideas. Messrs CaveThomas and Co. write from Foochow as follows i-f-The subjoined paragraph from local press is of interest-—" In the Hingwha Prefecture, about seventy miles south of us, foreign methods and foreign machinery are being welcomed. A steam rice flour mill is-now being erected at market 'town of Antau, and American sugar cane mills are being tried at other places. . An attempt is also to be made to erect an American windmill. There is a great deal, of land in Hingwha which could be made valuable by proper irrigation, and a civil and mining engineer is now on his way from India to offer his services for jnst such work to* any who may want them. He is also going to make a careful examination of the bearing regions there. .'* This indicates a decided progressive moveWww to?wd| adoptioct of __sxx*eo_De-_-__ -__-*-M_-rt-_.T_ic-__l appHca--_rporta—t. ' ■r*-^'+*r—n^*— M "_^ , r*t m TV-t-.T.-ri facturers will .lend their co-operation and , ' ' ' -'i ■ , •"'-■•■ J*.' take nieasares -to place their commodities within the reach of potential buyers.

A BIG DEAL.

According to a Boston newspaper : (as Quoted'by the New York correspondent of the Yorkshire Post of Feb. 24), the formation of one biggest "-ornei." of wool-ever attempted ;in theiUnited States is reported. A..syndii oate which has been xormecl in anticipation of the ——__t d.aties -wrhioh are looked for under the impending Tariff Bill intends to sweep into its warehouses all the wool ! of-fer-i_>__ Europe. This syndicate haa, it is , said, already bought 45,000 bales, and has just cabled to London th_ ; sum of 3,000,000d0_s in payment of pure—__ies. •' It is calcalated that a million bales of Australian and South American wool will immediately come into j the possession of the syndicate.

UNWHOLESOME COCOA.

The Lancet has recently directed the labours of its laboratory in detecting adulterants in cocoa, with results which cannot fail to assist the comparatively few manufacturers who supply **absolutely pure" j cocoa in competition with less scrupulous vendors of goods put up to please the..eye rather than to contribute* to hnman health. Referring-to the use of alkali in cocoa, the Lancet says:—"The practice of, treating ' cocoa with alkali is largely on the increase. It is done, ostensibly, we believe, to ; render the cocoa more ' soluble ;' in reality [ the cocoa fat is in part by this treatment saponified, so that the infusion made with. it presents the appeairahce, and conveys to the palate the impression, of a richer and more "full ibodied beverage. In addition, the powder is considerably deep- ; ened in colour, which is probably and wrongly judged by an ignorant-public to inj dicate richness of quality. If it were neces- | sary to treat cocoa in this way in order to. ! make it palatable and digestible, we should have nothing to say, but it is not so, and -"that being- the case, it constitutes a mild We goiurther, and.; tenter-a- protest against this treatment of: t-oooa with-alkali because we are-confident, that in _iany»c___s_.t may be prodnctive-ofi «harm. It _*p**i*_lltaown-that the long-oon-' :-_-ued use. of alkalies lead to dig-S-tye. vdiso-der, and. co__-que_±ryimpa_red naferi--ration. Yet we have e_-__inea -ta_n_ag:fnm-._>:i_>v«to as- orach aa>3 _>er cent-? *t_- al___i as potash. Cocoa thet 'indigest-ble fat of wJricbr has?_.en pzopectp -j*eduoed to 30 per cent. by-pre*u«n-fr.m'bot', of talkali We have e__-_in_d sach cocoas, -whichJeave nothing to regards equality __td flavour, w_-l^fi--t-^-te-ts^h-_--«

* also- shown-*-**abseDce of .g-oonthe form o£aaimo__a. This sw& believe tiiat the- trea-faent re-ex-e^-to i wholly umiecessßxy*

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