AT HOME AND ABROAD.

New Zealand Times, Volume LVII, Issue 2403, 8 January 1895, Page 3

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

A GREAT POST OFFICE. There arc how on the permanent establishment of the United Kingdom Post . Offices 74,819 persons employed, of whom 10,008 are women, and in addition to these, 01,000 persons are more or lcss employed in Post Office work who are not on tho permanent establishment. During the year more than £19,000,000 was remitted by means of money orders, exclusive of orders for the colonies and foreign countries. Tho new telegraphic money orders are increasing as they become bettor known to tho public; last year the increase was 33 per cent. Tho savings bant business shows a steady growth, tho • deposits being 9,838,000 in number and £24,700,000 in value, while £21,764,000 was withdrawn. At tho present time o the total number of depositors is 5,748,289, or ono in seven of the population. The British telegraph service iB carried on at an annual loss—the deficit was £■473,000 last year j but tho total excess of Post Office receipts over expenditure is how nearly three millions. ‘ Mr Arnold Morley appends to his report a table which shows that the department; is spending h larger proportion thari'e vor in salaries and wages j ten years ago salaries and wages amounted to not quite 49 per’ cent, of-the whole expenditure; they now reach close upon 60 per cent. .■/ AN IDEAL COLONY. Tho overwhelming defeat of the people’s party in Kansas has decided Mrs Anna Diggs to abandon the political field, and she will henceforth. devote her entire time and energy to the establishment and up-build-ing of a co-operative colony on the Potomac River, about 40 miles below Washington. Mrs DiggS originated tho idea of a cooperative colony near Washington some lima ago, and interested a large number of leading co-operative workers bfthScouutry in herenterpriso. She'is not willing now to make public tho names of her associates, but says that among them are Hamlin Garland, of, Boston,, and Jndge Frank Doster, of Kansas. She says that a number of the best-known writers in Boston, have taken an active interest in the. scheme, and that enough has already been accomplished to ensure its success. An option has been obtained on an ideal location on the basks of the Potomac. It embraces between 600 and 700 acres of choice land, -well wooded, and supplied with -splendid water. power, to he utilised in manufacturing purposes. The colony will bo started early next spring with about 40 families. DOES ELECTROCUTION KILL? Governor.'Flower ris~willing- to allow exports to make a teat to ascertain whether a man killed in the electrical chair can be resuscitated. ■.■ Ever since' the adoption of the Electrical Execution .'Act by the State the Weatinghcnso people,” whoso dynamos are used, have declared-that electricity was net tho cause of death, but that death was assured by tho holding of .an autopsy directly after the, .body had been taken from the electrical chair. No less an authority than-Nicola Tesla, tho , famous electrician, ■ contended that ho conld bring back to life a man killed in an electrical chair, provided tho attempt was made immediately after execution. George Weatinghcuso has always asserted that electrical death was , a.shamo, and that a Now York commission, headed by Ethridge T. Gerry, had added the autopsy clause ‘to the.law to make it certain that the man was dead. Recently the agitation of thesnbject'basbGCome.proininont.andan appeal is to be made', to tho Governor to allow the next man .condemned to bo used as a'subject to be experimented on. The Governor says he will grant permission to do this, ItV successful, - the experimentwill bring to .Me a new > man who cannot be executed, having onep suitorod- the penalty of death. 'lt will also prove that thq,Stato executioners have boon the surgeons who have hold the autopsy rather than tho electricians...>. , ■; t - COPENHAGEN NOW 'A FREE POET. Copenhagen was/declared a free port on 9th November, andr; tonnage dues were abolished, ■ Port dnes have been reduced end-half and converted into imports upon merchandise j not-applicable to goods in transit. ,Tho;' opening of the, port of Copenhagen as a. pert of entry marks tho inauguration of an aggressive commercial , policy , i/for Denmark by which the Government is to greatly increase its Commercial importance. Count do 'Eeventlow, the Danish Minister, says that all tonnage/ dues/ upon ■ vessels entering tho harbour, which amounts to a con-’ sidetnble tax on them, are removed and a nominal percentage/charge imposed as a, substitute. Extensive warehouse accommodation's are provided, which enable shippers to store goods, at small.cost for reshipmont and;, distribution ■ among the other ports .of ■ tho -Baltic without paying duty. The system, is roliedupon ,to make Copenhagen tho commercial centre of the Baltic, and to increase its incidental business by making it i.the central dep6t for the commerce ,of Russia,, Germany, England, tho United States, and other Powers whose vessels passthrough tlia Baltic, and tho station for Transatlantic shippers to leave their cargoes, for distribution to other points.’ Improved;//machinery for . .unloading and loading 1 pargdes is provided!'"and the', worts of the-har-bour, which is one of the finest in the world ■ because of the absence of tides, have been greatly 'improved. The system is designed to offset' it a measure tho advantages that 1 Germany expects to realise from, the ship canal now‘building across.the peninsula!rom the Baltic to the North Sea, and to give to Denmark h share of the basinets " from .the . caniil. The United States Minister at Copenhagen has declared, in interviews given to the press of Denmark, that tho new arrangement will increase ‘the -commerce ‘ between that country and America, -