CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14682, 13 May 1908, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

REJECTED AMBASSADORS.

The unusual feature of Germany's refusal to receive Dr If ill as

American Ambassadorwas not so much tho fact of tho refusal as the publication of the fact. As a rule such incidents are not talked about. In putting forward a nominee for the head of a vacant embassy it is tho unvarying, if unwritten law, that tho name should bo first furnished privately to the Ambassador of tho country to which it is prepared to send him. The Ambassador communicates the name unofficially to his own Foreign Minister and his Sovereign, and in the normal course of things no name roaches tho outer world until it has passed through the stage of satisfactory discussion and is ready to be gazetted. Dr Hill was described as a "peicoaa

non grata," that is, a person not acceptable at the court to which lie wat? accredited. Tho objection came from the Kaiser himself and was based, itis understood, on an unpleasant incident that occurred during the visit of Prince Henry to America. An Ambassador, from his peculiar rights and status, must bo a "persona grata" to the Sovereign, in whose country he dwells, though a small personal dislike is not enough to justify an objection. There is a story which tells how Lord Sackvillo, British Ambassador to tho United S.tates, became a " persona non grata "in a very simple fashion. It was near the end of a Presidential term, and the ambassador, with no wfeii whatever to meddle in foreigners' affairs, was drawn into a trap. Some British fruit-farmers in California who had become naturalised Americans, wrote to the Ambassador at Washington to tell him that they had always felt kindly and well to tho Old Country, and they were not enthusiasts on either side of American party politics, and that they would gladly be guided by the Ambassador to vote for the side that would be best friends with Britain. Lord Sackville suggested that they should vote for Air Cleveland himself ; and President Cleveland had to give him his papers of credit and inform him that he had become a " persona non grata." The letter had been a campaign ruse of tho enemy, and the reply was used to discredit Mr Cleveland as the political favourite of foreign interferers. The rejection of nominees for vacant Embassies was formerly not uncommon, and apparently instances aro not rare even now. Dr Hill's was the second to occur in this year, because a few weeks previously the British Government had declined to receive a diplomatist whom the Porte proposed to send to London.

A THREATENED IKDirSTRY.

The English hop-grow-ers find themselves in a difficult position. The

Americans have started to "dump" hops into English ports at prices that cannot bo met by the Home growers, and apparently nothing short-of the imposition 6f a heavy import duty will save the industry. The Americans are brutally frank about the matter.' They say that the best thing the English hop-grower can do is to shut down his business and learn another trade. They can produce hops more cheaply' than can their English competitors. On the Pacific Coast they do not have to spend any money on fertilising j and. except in one or two districts, there is no spraying to be done. These are both important items with tho English growers. The American crop costs very little up to the time of harvesting, and against these savings in production, the growers have to pay only .about "ten shillings a hundredweight to have their hops carried from Oregon to the -warehouse in London. While an English grower requires to sell at 7os a hundredweight to make a profit, the Americans can sell at anything over 55s a hundredweight. "The English grower," said an American merchant iu London, " has no excuse for continuing his industry a 6 long as his competitor on the Pacific coast can produce an equally desirable hop from the brewers' point of view, and put it on the English market with profit at a price which would yield no profit in this country. The English grower ought to realise the position. The present position is due to the fact that the old prejudice against American hops is dying out. Formerly brewers used American hops as a substitute for English in certain processes of brewing. They now uso them directly—on their merits, wo say." The English growers are naturally grieved at the situation that bus arisen, but it seems that a free-trade country can offer them no assistance. An import duty would mean prosperity to an important industry, and employment for thousands of Englishmen, without raising the price of hops to any considerable extent, but the Imperial Government is committed to a policy of free trade.

" Engineering," in the course of a very interesting nrticle on the herring fisheries, says that the hulk of the British catch is shipped out of the country to America and the Continent. Yarmouth, where the bloaters com© from, is the chief centre of the industry. Fifty-two thousand " lasts " of fish were landed at Yarmouth last year, representing the catches of 940 boats and the work of 10,340 British j fishermen. Double that number of ! peaple are engaged in gutting, curing, : and ' packing, and amongst them from 5000 to 0000 women. Tho bloater consists of a herring ■ which has been kept in brine, then thoroughly washed in clean water and placed on a spit through'the gill. The spits of herrings are hung up in rows within a building over hardwood fires, so that, being thoroughly dried, they may be tightly packed in barrels and sent inland or abroad as required. Tho Scotch method of handling varies materially from the English method, owing to the different system of counting and selling the fish The Scotch buyer purchases a catch by sample, whereas tho English buyer, with caution that would seem mcro characteristic of the Northoountryman, prefers to have his prospective puichase laid cut on the quay beforehand. All herrings are sold by tho "eran," which in England roughly signifies 1000 fish, and in Scotland 1320, the Scotsman counting two fi h in each hand as r.gahi-t the Englishman's three in hoth hands; so that a "swill," equivalent to two quurter-cran Scotch baskets official measure, and peculiar to Yarmouth, holds half-a-cran, that is, about (360 or 500 fish, according to the reckoning adopted. There are many curious terms in the trade. A "last" is equal to eighteen barrels or 13.200 cured fish, and there are two "swill- " in a " era." and ten "crane" in a "last." Smoked fish go 1000 to the barrel and thirteen and a half barrels to the " last," and the value of a " last " to the fisherman is about £8 or £io. Thus the catch at Yarmouth alone last year must have been worth over £500,000.

CALLER HERB IN'