CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6325, 27 September 1907, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

YESTERDAY'S CELEBRATIONS. 'T think the day has been a wonderful success/' said Sir Joseph Ward with enthusiasm when interviewed at a late hour last night. 'There has not been a hitch of any kind in connection with the arrangements, and there have been no delays. Punctuality has been the characteristic of the day. Every function came off to time. I have never seen anything better done, considering the admittedly considerable organisation that was necessary on the part of those who have so kindly devoted themselves to perfecting the arrangements during the last fortnight.” How was he satisfied with the spirit shown by the public? ‘'The public, I think, have taken the matter very enthusiastically. The attendance at all the functions to-day was very large. On the whole, the programme was successful from every standpoint, and nothing of any kind occurred to mar the success of the first Dominion Day in New Zealand/*

TRADESMEN'S BOOKS. At a meeting of creditors at Christchurch on Wednesday the Official Assignee emphasised the necessity of small traders keeping at least a cash-book showing receipts and payments day by day. The bankrupt under examination stated that ho had kept a cash account, such account being the roll taken on the cash register. The Official Assignee pointed out , that many people kept a ledger, but did not keep a book showing the money received and paid out day by day. Such a book was really the foundation for ascertaining a business man's financial position. He expressed the opinion that a short Act should be passed and printed,, in letters an inch long, briefly setting forth the class of books small tradesmen should keep. If such an Act were passed and widely circulated it would save Official Assignees much trouble.

TEACHERS' SUPERANNUATION. The Education Committee of the House of Representatives recommends that the interpretation clause of the Teachers' Superannuation Act, 1906, be so amended aa to provide that the words "original member” shall include, teachers who, through no fault of their own, happened to have been temporarily unemployed at the time of the coming into operation of the Act, but who can prove themselves to have been—-from the time of their non-employment until January Ist, 1906 —desirous of obtaining and were actual applicants for permanent employ•memt. ‘ ■ '

WHICH NATION' WRITES MOSTLETTERS? The letters which are written annually in all parts of the world are as numerous as stones on the sea-shore, and one would hare thought as' unaccountable. A contributor to a Trench contemporary, however, has managed to arrive at the average number of communications sent through the post in a year by each inhabitant in various countries of Europe, as well as America and New Zealand. According to this calculation each- person in the United Kingdom writes no fewer than seventy-eight letters in the year, a fact which ought to please the post office authorities. America comes a good second with an average of sixtyseven for every inhabitant. But it is not so easy to understand-that the people of New Zealand write more letters than those of Germany. New Zealanders write sixty-six letters each every, year, and the Germans fifty-five. Again, Denmark is ahead of Austria, the number given for the former being fortyone, and for the latter thirty-eight. France, too, with twenty-six for each inhabitant, comes after both Belgium (twenty-nine) and Holland (thirty-one). The people of Sweden write twenty-six letters and those of Norway twenty during the year.

POST OFFICE SAVINGS BANK. . The Postmaster-General was asked in the House of Representatives on Wednesday by .Mr E. 'G. Alien whether\h© will alter the Post-Office Savings-Bank regulations so that pounds, shillings and pence could be deposited, but not necessarily that interest on pence should be calculated or paid? Sir Joseph Ward replied that tho-rule limiting acceptance of deposits containing fractional parts of one shilling is framed'in the interests of economy. With considerably over half a million deposits in a year the limitation is essential, except in the case of friendly and charitable societies, trades-unions, etc., which are exempt. Provision is made for saving pence by rfteans of cards, upon which stamps may be affixed until one shilling is accumulated, that being the minimum fixed for deposits.

' MILK INSPECTION. Some angry dairymen met in a Christchurch hotel to abuse the inspector, says Christchurch “Truth," and to find reasons why they should be allowed to go on Celling disease germs in solution at so much a quart to a long-suffering public. They were not particularly successful, and, after talking a great deal about their grievances, and very little about their duty to their customers, they appointed a sub-committee to draw up a petition, and then adjourned. In the first place, this paper wants to congratulate the inspector on his firmness. It has had differences with him in the past, but it realises that ho is trying to do bis duty under rather difficult circumstances, and it hopes that he will not be discouraged by the adverse criticism of those who have -something to gain by opposing the reforms he is demanding under the Dairy Industry Act. The smajl dairy farmer, in many oases, has a rooted objection to interference, of any kind. He considers that if he chooses to milk hhi cows in a pool of manure that is his business, and that a little dirt, or a tuberculous cow, don’t matter very much one way or the other. But it does matter a great deal, because a little dirt and a few germs may propagate a great deal of disease. We know, as a matter of fact, that they are the cause of infant mortality, and the spread of consumption, and if we can lessen these two scourges by simply compelling the dairy farmer to keep 'a clean cowshed, and to be clean himself, then the proper course is obvious. Some few daily farmers have already realised their responsibilities, and their dairies are all that could be desired. The rest must fall into line, and they might as well do it with a good grace.

ON THE VEEGE OP PANIC. An incident occurred at the Town Hall last evening, which, through failure to properly regulate the admieeioa of the huge crowd, might easily have resulted disastrously. In the aheiwee of any oon-.

trol at the doors upstairs a crowd gained admittance far beyond the seating capacity of the gallery.; All the passages were choked, and the stream of new arrivals, surging into the eastern entrance, created a congestion. One woman appeared to faint and another at a different part of the gallery became hysterical. A panic was imminent, and the organist commenced playing to distract attention. Mr James Moore, of the Missions to Seamen, persuaded the crowd to rearrange itself so as to relieve the crush, and by-and-bye there was calm. A very serious risk was run by allowing the gallery to be overpacked in defiance of the by-law which requires the passage-ways to bo kept clear.

SUICIDE IN RUSSIAN SCHOOLS. At the recent Congress on School Hygiene heldin London, Dr G. W. Schlopin, Professor of Hygiene at the W omen’s Medical Institute of St. Petersburg. drew attention to the numerous cases of suicide and attempted suicide in Russian middle schools. He made the extraordinary statement that 337 cases of actual suicide and 95 oases of attempted suicide among children had been examined. Among school children three times as many suicides took place as among the rest of the population. The chief methods adopted were shooting, hanging, and poisoning, and the main causes were mental and nervous derangement. As a school disease. Dr Schiopin said, suicide might be compared with short-sightedness.

DONATIONS TO CHARITIES. The generous gift of Mr Carnegie*to the King’s Hospital Fund, which was announced a few weeks ago, makes a substantial addition to the enormons sum which has been devoted to charity during the last few years by the possessors of groat fortunes, in the form either of gifts or of, beqnests. The j£l,goo,ooo which. Mr Alfred Bert left for educational and "Umpire-building” purposes is ‘ the largest amount from a single source; the bequest of Mr Daniel Osiris, of Paris, of over a million pounds for charities, and Mr George Herring’s halfmillion for the Hospital Sunday fun 4. Mrs Lewis Hill’s *£390,000 for various charities, and Lord Inverclyde’s .£300,000 for the Seamen’s Home, rank very high. It has been calculated in America, by the way, that Mr Carnegie’s donations to charity there in the course of last year alone amounted to nearly two mil-, lions and, a quarter—pounds, not dollars —and that Mr J. D. Rockefeller gave away, in the same time, nearly a million and a naif sterling.

NEWS NOTES This morning we publish on page 2 the firot chapter of on interesting story by Clive Phillipps, Woolley, author. of “Gold, Gold in Cariboo." The story, "A Tenderfoot’s Wooing," is interesting and well written. An instalment will be published daily.

The Council of the League ,of New Zealand. Wheelmen has decided to ofler the championship events for this season to the Otago Cycling Club., ■ •The annual meeting of the Newtown Cricket Club was held in’ St. Thomas’s Schoolroom, Riddiford street, last evening. Twelve members attended. It was decided to exclude the press from the meeting. ' The Whakatone, which arrived at Port Chalmers on Wednesday, brought from England a consignmenv of three young pedigree boars .for the Seaclifi Mental Hospital, and forty-four little grey owls for the Otago Acclimatisation Society. In respect to the petition of Eliza Stenersen, of Wellington, who asked Parliament for further compensation for the death of her husband, the Petitions Committee has recommended the Government to grant the petitioner a sum of; .£SO.

The Department of Agriculture has been giving attention to the testing of native grasses for some years, and has now experimental plots at several of its farms. It is proposed, says the Minister of Agriculture, to extend the operations at an early date. Twenty-ono young women from Leicester were passengers by the Whakatane, which arrived at Port Chalmers from London on Wednesday. They are boot operators for a manufacturing firm in Christchurch, and left tor their destination by the Manuka the same afternoon. The Independent Political Labour League at Dunedin has decided to urge on the Government the necessity of establishing a State legal bureau, with branches in all towns* with a population of: not less than 5000, to enable legal assistance to be obtained on payment of a nominal fee.

It is reported that the steam lines trading between New Zealand and Home are now quoting increased freights as follows:—Greasy wool (dumped) 9-lGd per lb, slipe and wasted wool (dumped) 11-16 d per lb, rabbiiskius Id, tallow and pelts 40s per ton weight. The increase is ;said to bo in sympathy with the increase of freights Upmeuard from Australia.

The member for Maeterton, Mr Hogg, has been, informed by the Minister "of Railways, that the use of footwarmers in carriages on the Wellington-Napier-New Plymouth section was discontinued from the '3lst 'ultimo, as it was found that, owing to the advent of warm weather, passengers were not availing themselves to any extent of the footwarmers provided. They were withdrawn from use until next winter.' The Public Petitions Committee, reporting on the petition of J. E. Pmjean, of Denlair, Wanganui, who asked for an investigation into the circumstances of his being placed under forcible restraint in a lunatic asylum," yesterday reported that, having given the fullest consideration to the case, and to the departmental repqrts thereupon, it is unable to find any special features to warrant a recommendation that an inquiry fhould be held. 1

A Dunedin exchange says, in reference to the absence of a steamer from Sydney this week: —"A break in the shipping trade with Sydney seriously affects the Dunedin fruit market. There will be no shipment of fruit from Sydney this week, and as a consequence the prices have already increased. At the auction sales on Tuesday oranges, mandarins, lemons, and cucumbers realised almost double the prices of the previous week."

The danger of attempting to alight from a. moving tramcar was shown inCourtenay place last evening. The con-ductor,-,of a Newtown car noticed an elderly woman, laden with parcels, preparing to alight, and thrice he warnea her- not to do so until the car had stopped. However, she jumped from the moving car, turned a somersault, and fell on her back. She was at once assisted to arise, but declared that she was all right, and slowly walked away. Notice has been given in the House hv Mr Hogg to ask the Native Minister w'hether it is proposed without further delay to introduce legislation that will have the efiect of - preventing private dealings with native landowners, and insure that no further leases of native reserves, hy which valuable tracts of country are being locked up against proper settlement, will be authorised; also, it it is intended to devise some method by which local bodies, now baffled in their efforts to collect rates from native lands owing to the difficulty of discovering the owners whose names, appear on the rate rolls, may be enabled to reoovar the amounts owin£f

The recent dry weather on the West Coast has now broken, heavy rain being reported yesterday.

The Tourist Department is shipping by the Turakina, leaving Auckland today for London, a number of native birds for his Grace the Duke. of Bedford. The collection comprises four kiwis, four paradise ducks, two kens, and two wekas. All the birds, with the exception of the wekas, have been forwarded to Auckland from Rotorua.

In the annual labouy report appears tho evidence that one hundred and twenty-four fingers and twenty-four thumbs have, in tho factories of tho colony, parted company with their owners. If this is anything like on average yearly return, of the Ices of fingers and thumbs, the experiences of tho past must have placed lifelong marks on a large percentage of New Zealand colonists, similar to those distinguishing Canadian lumber men. The list of persons injured in the manner stated or otherwise inarmed by burns, cuts, bruises, etc., is. including . fifty-eight accidents on railways, no fewer than 663 persons. Sixteen Occidents proved fatal. Probably numerous minor mishaps escaped notification

After a lapse of eight weeks, wry annoying waste of time, tho Kaikoura whalers had a stiff chase on Saturday, but it proved resuttless (says tho “Sun"). Two largo right whales came close in shore, near tho whaling station, and tho whalers were in high glee. Just as the leader rose to spent, a heavy roll on a sunken rock alarmed him. Ho took a quick turn, and sped backward, making a very, long sounding, the other whale following suit. They were not noticed again until well down towards Riley’s Look-out Chase was given and continued for a couple of hours or more, the crew getting near Amuri Bluff, when pursuit was reluctantly abandoned.* It is a, rare thing for whales to retrace their course:

The secretary of the Education Department has advised the Petone Technical School Board that it is not apparent to the department that the requirements of Petone call for an immediate expenditure of so large an amount as *£4135 in tho erection of buildings on the lines of the plans forwarded ,by the Board. The department suggests that tile plans be amended. It is estimated that suitable buildings can be erected at ■ a cost of about *£3ooo. An application for a grant in tho neighbourhood of that amount, if the accompanying plana are approved by the Minister, will receive consideration. The Board has directed that the department’s sketch plans be forwarded to Mr F. de J. Clere. the architect, with a' request that he should modify his plans to meet the requirements of the department. It has been decided, at the request of the Borough Council, to establish a cookery class if a sufficient number of intending pupils offer. ,

The "Hawke’s Bay Herald" has just celebrated its fiftieth birthday, readers being presented with a reprint of the first issue of the paper. The Herald was started hv, Mr Jtamos Wood, an Auckland pressman, at first being only a small sheet issued weekly. The first issue as a 1 daily appeared on January 24th, XS7L Mr Dinwiddle first joined the staff of the “Herald" some years prior to that date under Mr Wood’s management, and has been connected with it ever since. Subsequently Messrs Grigg, Carlilo, and Morrison retired, and in 1878 the late Mr R. T. Walker joined the firm, which then assumed its present style, and in 1886 it was turned into a company. The first numbers of tao paper were issued from Port Ahuriri, the offices being close to the bonded store. Within the first year of its existence, however. ;it found ita present local habitation, and remained there ever since. The "Herald" is to bo converted into an eight-page paper shortly. • During a recent visit to Ma-nohline (writes a correspondent to the “Glasgow Weekly Herald”) I had an opportunity of examining a Bnrusiana relic of a singularly beautiful and interesting kind—namely, the sideboard • that stood in Gavin Hamilton’s parlour. That was probably, the very room in which Burns was married, for I do not believe the old story that the formal marriage took place in • a publichouse in Mauchline, and that appears also to bo the opinion of Dr Wallace (“Lite and Works of Robert Bums,” vol. 2. p 35, 1896). There can he no doubt, about the genuineness of the relic. It was purchased at the sale of Gavin Hamilton’s furniture, eto, at Mauchline many years ago, by the lady in whose possession it still remains, and is much treasured. It is a singularly i handsome and substantial article, in- perfect^condition. ' It stands about 4ft high (I did not take exact measurements) by XOft long; is of solid, polished mahogany of d_ beautiful grain; is of the “heavy Chippendale” design, with the legs artistically carved. A liberal price for, it by an Australian admirer of Burns has been refused, the owner determining to hand if <jown to her family.