PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2323, 8 September 1898, Page 35

PARLIAMENTARY RETURNS. (From Our Own Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, September 6.

Returns have been laid on the table of the House showing the articles on which the rate of duty was charged by " The Customs and Excise Duties Act 1875," the amount of duty paid from the Ist of April, 1896, to the 31st of March. 1897, with the amounts which would have been paid if the rates had not been changed, and also for the period from the Ist of April, 1897, to the 31st of March, 1898. In the first case the amount of duty paid was £724,629, and if the duty payable under the former rate had continued the amount would have been £709,638. The net increase was therefoie £14,991. The figures in regard to last year are: — Duty paid, £778,461; duty which would have been payable under former rates, £746,292 ;— net increase, £32,169. A return has been laid on the table of the House showing the amount drawn by each member of the Executive for travelling allowances and travelling expenses during the financial year ended March 31, 1897. The totals are as follows : — Mr Seddon, £483 9s 7d; Mr Ward, £203 6s; Mr M'Kenzie, £333 18s ; Mr Caclman, £262 6s 8d; Mr Hall-Jones, £98 8s lid; MiThompson, £247 4s 8d ; Mr Walker, £228 3s lid Mr Carroll, £230 7s 3d;— .total, £aoo6 IBs 6d. The expenditure last year on the Levin State farm was £2197 19s 2d. The balance of receipts over expenditure, was £369 9s lid, but the receipts included a Government vote of £800. To the retux-n giving this information a note is added to the effect that a large amount of profit derived from the expenditure in live stock during 1897-98 will be received during 1898-99.

GOOD FOOD — GOOD DIGESTION — GOOD CHEER. "Moral character is located in the stomach," says a recent writer. He is wrong ; but there [ is a shade of truth in the iuea he throws out. | .Napoleon was often willing to trust others \ to look after the arms and ammunition of ; his armies, but the commissary department he looked after 1 imself. The bravest men ; won't fight unless they are fed, he said. Nor will they. That's why we are not surprised to find Mr William Jones saying that at a certain time ho was in a low and desponding state of mind. He gives the reason himself in three words: "I was weak." And why was he weak? Ho explains that, too. "1 was always strong and healthy," he says, "up to January 1892. Then I had a severe attack of influenza, followed by congestion of the lungs. After this I never got up my strength, and I was low, weak, and desponding. I had a bad taste in the mouth, my appetite was pflor, and every morsel of food 1 took gave me intense pain at my chest. After every meal I was sick, vomiting a green filthy fluid, which was often mixed with blood." We shall have no trouble to understand this especial phase of Mr Jones's illness. Tho green, filthy fluid was mucus mingled with bile, and the blood came from some of the small blood vessels, which were ruptured in retching and straining. The bile was out of its place ; that's why Nature tried to get rid of it. But how dm it get out of its place? Wait a bit ; we'll come to that presently. "I had," continues our friend, "dreadful attacks of cramp in the stomach, and the gnawing pain was well nigh unbearable. At night I got but little rest : sometimes none at all — cold, clammy sweats breaking out all over me, and in the morning I had barely | strength to raise myself. When I went out j of doors my breathing was so bad I had to slop and rest every few yards. [The cramp was caused by the gas arising from the fermented f oou and the short breathI ing by a partial paralysis of the nerves, j created by tho poisonous acids which had | entered the blood from the stomach. The ! norves were also enfeebled by the enforced starvation — like all the rest of hie body.] " As month after month went by," says Mr J ones, ' ' my relatives and friends could see me wasting away and apparently sinking into the grave. I became as thin as a lath, and you could see through my hands. My legs and face were attenuated to the same extent, and as for my muscles, they seemed to be all completely gone. [Now, inasmuch as when people waste away the fat goes first, and the muscles and other tissues last, you can perceive how far advanced in a decline our good friend really was.] I "Yet I continued in this condition," he says, "altogether for over 17 months. I was attended, off and on, by four doctors, but their medicines had no good effect on me. I also used lung tonics and cod liver oil, but to no purpose. "In June of this year (1893) I first read of Mother Seigel's Syrup, and my wife got mo a bottle from Mr Cole, the grocer, at Grosmont. After taking it a few days I was relieved, my appetite improved, and the sickness (the nausea) left me. Keeping on with the Syrup I gained strength every day, and in a month I could walk and ride, and was soon as well and strong as ever. Your remedy saved my life, and I wish others to know it. You can refer inquirers to me. (Signed) William Jones, Bridge Inn, Kentchurch, Pontrilas, Herefordshire, October 31, 1893." The case of Mr Jones and his recovery as set forth by him aro well known in his neighbourhood. His wife says that one of tho doctors told her that all hope was gone. Bui, happily the doctor was mistaken, as the wisest of us sometimes are. His disease was chronic inflammatory dyspepsia, and that only. But that was enough, mercy knows, and a fatal end to it was not far off when Mother Seigel's j Curative Syrup had a chanco to do its healing j work. ♦ _ | Our friend is cheerful now because he is j strong i and he is strong because this remedy J set his cUgeMiQH to right* " '