The Old Country.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7330, 3 October 1898, Page 4

The Old Country.

(FROM OUR ENGLISH CORRESPONDENT). London, An»aat 26. A very handsome electric phaeton was ranninar on Friday afternoon from the Hotel Victoria, in Northumberland nue, o'i short trips round Parliament street, Whitehall and back again. The passengers were representatives of the Press. The phseton cornea from America, and is one of the latest motor carriages manufactured under the patents of the Biker system, of Brooklyn. Resides the driver, there is room for two on the front seat and two behind. Unlike most of the motor carriages, the phseton is so constructed that it does pot presenb the familar forlorn look of a vehicle made to b9 drawn by horse but whose shafts have buen amputated, The distinctive feature is the complete electric storage. The batteries occupy the whole floor of the carriage beneath the seats. They can be fully charged afc a cost of 3a 2d 3 and when thus charged the storage suffices for a journey of 50 miles. In other words, four people can be taken to Brighton at a cost of 9id each for the electricity. The regulations of the Local Government Board limit the speed to 10 miles an hour, but the phaeton could put on a soeed of 14 miles an hour. The speed is regulated to four rates, from a mile an hour, or thereabouts, to fourteen miles, by a series of switches. On Friday the exceeding smoothness of the motion, even at a high speed, the absence of vibration, and the deftness with which the driver negotiated the sharpest curves, very favorably impressed the critical passengers. 'A hamming sound, like that of a humble bee, is generated as the speed increases, but it is not at all disagreeable. We understand that a company is to be formed to build vehicles on the Riker storage system in England. Co-operators have converted the Crystal Palace into a Garden of Eden and a Cave

of Harmony. In other words they have been holding their National Agricnlcnral and Horticultural Festival, with 5000 exhibits of fralt, flowers and vegetables, while a choir of 10,000 tuneful cooperators almost rivalled the fabled feats of Orpheus, who

With his lute made trees And the mountain-tops that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing. Well they might sing, for List year cooperators divided the nice little profit of L 6,617,000. Earl Grey, who was president of the Festival, delivered an address that lifted co-operation on to the loftiest ethical plane, and appealed to the English Wholesale Society, which has shown a tendency to " degenerate :oo much into a hunt after dividends, to " return to the spirit of its founders, and show that it has a soul above a shopkeeper's. He held up Kettering as the model co-opera-five town. Of ita population of 25,000, 5785, which means practically the whole of the adulb males, are members of cooperative societies. In addition to a most successful distributive store, they have six manufacturing co-partnership societies. The most important of these has paid for some time a dividend of- 7J per cent, on share capital, and a dividend to labor of 7£ per cent, on the trade union rate of wages. With their L 83,000 of accumulated funds, and L 18,300 of annual profits, he thought the Kettering cooperators might buy land for a co-opera-tive park, to which might be attached a self-supporting club, and perhaps a cooperative home with comfortable board

I and lodging at reasonable rates for visitors and friends. A fringe of allotments aud gardens might be added to the park. The Kettering co-operator employed in a co-partnership manufactory, with the dividend on his wages and the saving on his purchases at the store, really received 15 per cent, higher income than the men piid trade union rates outside the movement. In proof of the advantages of co-partnership even to employers of labor, he said that since the South Metropolitan Gas Company has adopted the principle, the men had invested LIIO.OOO of their savings in the company. They were freely consulted on questions which formerly could not be discussed with them at all. Mr Liveshy, the manager, told him that 3 per cent, more gas is sold with 4 per cent, less coal usad, the reason being that the worker is a partner and not a hireling, and so has the heart of a friend and not of an enemy towards the work on which he is engaged. The chance of a strike no longer enters into the company's consideration. That veteran pioneer of the movement, Mr George Holyoake, moving a vote of thanks to Lord Grey, said that in the assurance found in the words "As thou sowest so shalt thou reap," they had the whole essence of co-operation. On Thursday the Labor Association for Promoting Cooperative Production held its thirteenth annual meeting at the Palace, when the Council presented a report showing steady

progress. The Central News says : When the defective blossom last spring suggested that there was likely to be a serious shortage of frnit in the autum in this country, Mr W. N. White, of Covent Garden, cabled to Australia and arranged for 5,000,000 oranges to be sent to the Home markets from New South Wales. One million and a quarter of these oranges will arrive today on the steamer Ormuz, and will be placed on the London and provincial markets in the course of the week. The Governmenb authorities at Sydney, taking the greatest interest in the enterprise, exercised special supervision over the export; and stopped everything that was not up to standard quality, with the result that the oranges are announced to be in splendid condition and beautifully ripe and luscious. The oranges have been brought over in the ship's cool chambers, and are, therefore, practically as fresh as when gathered. If the present consignment realises expectations it is certain that the trade in Australian oranges reaching London when most wanted will quickly attain gigantic proportions. An article appears in the Daily News in which Dr Morris, of Kew, who has just been apDointed to be the head of the Agricultural Department to be established in the West Indies, explains the Government's scheme. A grant of L 17,000 has been made towards this object by the House of Commons, as well as a sum of LIO.OOO a year to subsidise trading steamers amongst the islands. Dr Morris

will take up bis headquarters at Barbadoes, a base from which he will be within a convenient distance to every one of thß islands. The chiaf duties of this new Department will be to extend the work of the present botanic stations, to start industrial schools for training; boys in agricultural pursuits, and to encourage the teaching of scientific agriculture in colleges and schools. Horticultural shows and exhibitions of different sorts will also be organised, and literature on products suitable for cultivation in the West Indies will be distributed under the supervision of Dr Morris. With regard to the extension of the work of the botanic stations, he proposes to introduce and distribute all the economic plants of the tropics, and particularly to secure improved varieties of the sugar cane. The stations will be used as centres for teaching and training students in tropical agriculture. And, from them, instructors will be sent to select suitable land for tropical economic plants. Our contemporary emphasises the point that blacks as well as whites are to participate in the benefits which may accrue from this department. This is as it should be, far there can be not doubt that the future prosperity of the islands laigely depends on their efforts and help. Pnder the management of Dr Morris and his instructors, they will be taught to get the most out of their patches of ground, and the best suited seeds for their grounds will be given to fchem, One of the principal difficulties with which the small cultivator has had to contend in the past has been the absence of markets. It is to help him that a special line of steamers has been subsidised by the Government. Dr Morris is confident that he pan save Dominico' by opening up a trade in bananas and other fruit with New York, whjle in the other islands profitable products cap ba raised. His wotk will at first be largely experimental, but in all probability he will succeed in restoring these islands to their former prosperity.