Items of Interest.

Opunake Times, Volume XXII, Issue 774, 19 September 1905, Page 3

Items of Interest.

Tacoraa, Washington, has the loftiest concrete chimney in the world. From the base of the foundation to the top of the chimney is 809 ft 6fin, aud the cost was £SOOO. Rents are said to be excessively high in Wellington. A representative of Thomas Cook and Sous states that a house cau be rented cheaper in Melbourne than in Wellington. Dr Barnado has lately sent from his Homes ; n London to Canada a party of 366 boys, from 8 to 18 j ears of age. In all he 'has sent out 20,526. This Urge army is recruited from the streets of the chief English cities, sent out to follow peaceful pursuits in assisting to build up a great colony. The following letter was received from his sister by a New Yorker who was away from home on a visit: " I am sondiog by mail a parcel containing tSie golf coat you wanted. As the brass buttons are heavy, I have cut them off to save the postage, —Your loving sister, J P.S.—You will find the buttons in the right-hand pocket of the coat." The Waiapu County Council (Poverty Bay) has declined to cooperate with the Cook County Council in preparing data in the support of a light railway from Karaka to Waiapu Valley. The Wniapu Council considers the line would not be constructed by private enterprise or local bodies, and the Government would take too long, and much less money would be more effectively spent on roads.

"If there were not mumbers of women, " said a lady speaker at the women's meeting at Christchurch on Friday, " who are better qualified in all ways to sit in the House of Representatives than the majority of the men now representing us, I should be sorry indeed for my sex. Lnder the present law a Maori or a naturalised Chinaman is eligible to offer himself for election, whilst the most refined and cultured woman is debarred."

Commenting on the potato famine, the Dunedin Star says that some years ago the late Mr Robert Wilson got two or three others to put down £5 each, and with the proceeds they bought several hundred bags of potatoes at Is ber bag, and shipped them to Melbourne as a gift to the pospital or some other charitable institution, Mr Wilson paying the freight. Potatoes were at this time scarce in Victoria, and could hardly be given away here. Now they are £1 a bag in Dunedin.

The Masterton Times says: Our rulers and legislators ought to be locked up, or in some way prevented from doing mad things I A return, under the Lands for Settlement Act, just published, gives £800,427 as the cost of the estates compulsorily purchased, and 892 as the number of settlers who are tenants of the same. Taking the ones that are actually settled, and leaving out the newlyacquired purchases, we find that each tenant costs the Colony the sum of one thousand three hundred pounds. In the old days, each settler on the land cost the Colony about fifty pounds. Settling people on the land, at fifty pounds a piece, is good business ; but putting them there at a cost of thirteen hundred pounds per settler is sheer lunacy I With regard to the practice of blending butter, Mr D. Bray, who has recently beeu on a business visit Home, told a Wellington Post reporter that " under the present regulations it seems to be quite the recognised thing that if the retail price of butter at any time exceeds Is, the quantity of blended butter and margarine in the market at once inoreaßes. It seems to be quite public property everywhere that New Zealand butter is being mixed with Siberian in Denmark, and afterwards shipped to England. The blending of New Zealand butter seems also to be very prevalent in Holland, where as much as 15 per cent, of moisture is said to be added, and the butter is returned toEngland. While I was in England, I teamed that two delegates from Holland were over making enquires with regard to this fraudulent practice, and it remains to be seen whether any action will be taken." Rheumatism Can Be Cubed Do not suffer from rheumatism. One application of Chamberlain's Pain Balm gives relief and its continued use will bring about a permanent cure. For sale by Harwood and Treeby. Every Bottle Guaranteed. This is done with Chamberlain's Cough Bemedy, and if you are not satisfied after using two-thirds of the bottle according to directions, return what is left and your money will be refunded. For sale by Harwood and Treeby,