PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3488, 18 January 1921, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday’s Daily Times.)

When both head and stomach are prone to disturbance, and when one’s words become too deep for thoughts, the mind is not easily disposed to philosophical reflexion. In the case of an aerial joy-rider, however, on his two hours’ whirl to Timaru, the force of circumstances may at any . time bring up weighty matters for consideration. When such a person, in the ecstacy of his woe, cries out to the passing winds, “Gad! We’re moving,” ne is meditating on the rapidity with which methods of travelling have developed during the past two centuries. To him the golden age becomes that in which the serf was bound to the soil and forbidden to stray beyond the limits of his parish, and the squire or merchant travelled m the huge contraption of a state wagon, behind six or eight horses, at a pace of two or three miles an hour. He suddenly develops a romantic affection for the old coaching days of the sixties, when the Tokomairiro mail required all its three feet of clearage beneath the axles in order to get through George street. He finds a new charm in going slow, and in his disgust at mere speed he feels that even a journey by the Otago Central railway would be a joy ride. Who is the man, you ask, -who thought these thoughts and felt these feelings? ’Twas the man in the air who, according to the newspaper report, drew a £lO note from his pocket and offered it to the pilot if he would only let him down. Only £lO. At that sum he valued his life, including his hat, clothes, boots, and watch. A man whose emotions are comfortable would have put a much higher figure on himself.

Yet this new method of travelling will bring in its train momentous consequences. When everybody has his aeroplane, a man may live twenty miles away from his shop, and he who was a pork butcher in Princes street at 6 o’clock in the evening may be a poet or naturalist in a Waitati lane at half-past. He may visit Balclutha without being a teetotaller, and may run up ti Mount Cook of a fine evening on the income of a clerk. Every man will iecomo his own Marco Polo, and none but the very poor will lack excitement, vaHet j , and a continual change of sky. The opportunities of the average man will be multiplied enormously. The aeroplane wi! liberate him from his servitude to one place. It will bring his parish into the civilised world, and will make the civilised world his parish. But there is anothoi

side to this Tose-coloured picture. The aeroplane will be the ruin of the country side. It will bring to the country ths vulgarity of town, from the town itse.f it will take away the small remains of quiet still left to it. Lovers on our city streets will be compelled to converse t>y megaphone. The country road, of no earthly concern to the Otago Aeroplane Club, will be abandoned to weeds and ruts, and used only by the milkman’s motor and the farmer’s four-ton truck. I see the decay of everything that made the country the home of the idyll and the birthplace of romance. There is only one compensating thought—’twont cofne in my time, and apres moi le deluge.

The man who whiles away the tedium of a seaside holiday by reading novels may frequently while away the tedium of his novel reading by a study of the change that has come over the naming of characters. Remarking that there was ao name like Wragg on the banks of the Ilissus, Matthew Arnold raged about the touch of grossness in the English race, and its shortcomings in the more delicate spiritual perceptions. This may be true in actual life, but a novelist or poet, who can style the creatures of his fancy as he wills, is without excuse if their names oe unpleasing. Research has revealed the real names involved in the romantic story of Tennyson’s “ Lord of Burleigh.” The lady wooed by the aristocratic landscape painter was named Sarah Hoggins, and the scene was laid in Bolas Magna. And Hoggins has only one rhyme —noggins. Wise novelists take infinite pains about the names of their characters and the titles of their books, but infinite pains are not adequate without that artist’s zeal for exactly the right thing that sent Balzac roaming Paris in quest of it. And dangers beset the unwary. The villain in youi novel may be the name of some quiet, respectable gentleman in real life whom the coincidence does not please. Thackeray was assailed by some Irish journalists who accused him of libelling the young actress Catherine Hayes by giving her name to the murderess in his “ Catherine. ’ His reference to “Mrs Hayes who died at Tyburn and subsequently perished in my novel ” only led to further abuse. The old fashion of using names suggestive of physical or mental qualities has gonn Thanks be. Bunyan’s Badman and Talkative, Marryatt’s Peter Simple, Sheridan’s Sir Fretful Plagiary, or the Quirk, Gam mon, and Snap firm of solicitors in “ Ten Thousand a Year ” are now regarded as weak. Nor are names indicating professions any longer in vogue, and “ Mould the Undertaker” has long since been ear ried to his grave in his own hearse. The merely grotesque, such as Timothy Tittlebat, have also disappeared. Miss Braddon was young and awkward when she called a town Sloppington-on-Sloshy. Nowadays we prefer the less obvious. Some authors left'the imagination cold by speaking of “ the little town of W as Lytton did. This was the eighteenth century practice, when Richardson made Mr B—— famous as the pursuer of Pamela, and Feilding served him right when he wickedly enlarged the name to Mr Booby.

In the selection of names for characters of novels present associations are more important than history or pliilolology. “Snooks” has lost the air of sweet romance it possessed before it was abbreviated from “Seven Oaks.” “Stig-o-ins” was once “Stigand”—a noble Norman name, but now the taste it leaves is bad. Most of Dickens’s names leave you with a tantalising sense that something more is meant than meets the eye. Into the sound of such names as Pecksniff, or Tom Pinch, or Chuzzlewit you may read what you like. Thackeray’s “Percy Sibwright” in “Pendennis” is surely meant to indicate a sybarite, for he lives in the Temple and takes things comfortably. Meredith’s editor in “Diana of the Crossways,” “Mr Tonans,” is bad, for the name itself does not strike one as possible- “Dr Pangloss,” the optimist of Voltaire’s “Candide,” is good, though

perhaps too obvious. The same is true of Thackeray’s “Mr Honeyman.” Presentday novelists must be hard put to it to avoid entanglements in the peerage. The “Earl of Mulberry” is safe enough, as also is the “Duchess of Charing Cross.” But there is need to tread carefully, for where the peerage is concerned you would be walking on eggs.

An appealing telegram from Ashburton appeared the other day in a Wellington paper : —- To-day is the hottest day experienced for many years. The barometer registered 90 degrees in the shade at midday. There are several reasons why a place like Ashburton should mix its glasses. First of all, in such a district you must take your glass as you find it and when and where you can get it. Whether your glass is of this kind or of that, is of trifling interest compared with the important news that “this is a glass.” Further, in Ashburton dryness usually generates heat, so that the one means the other and the other means the one. But what the press correspondent meant was evidently : “Ashburton is dry and hot in the ‘shades’ ” —which is about as forcible as he could express it. But Dunedin papers, too, contain strange notices advertising the fact that someone is “full up” - Misses Alpha and Omega, Plair and Skin Specialists, Buildings. Ladies will find the above replete with all modern conveniences, and clients will receive the best of expert and courteous attention Make an appointment. ’Phone .

Apropos of a recent Note on the use of the personal pronoun in “Everybody is trying to get as much as they can,” a correspondent writes : The weakness in our language pointed out by your correspondent occurs in a number of sentences in daily use, as e.g„ “Nobody knows what they want.” The use of the neutral “it” seems to me equally faulty. If we could got into the habit of using the pronoun “one” the sound and sense would be much improved—e.g., “Nobody knows what one wants,” or “Everybody is trying to get what one can.” My suggestion to use “it” to refer to a person of indeterminate and indeterminable sex E here taken seriously. As a matter of fact, there is no weakness in our language here. The pronoun that naturally correspondents to “everybody,” “nobody,” etc., is “he.” In all languages the masculine may embrace the feminine, and the feminine makes not the least objection. When we say “man is mortal,” do we exclude women from the statement ? Or do we mean that women are only deadly? No. “He” may mean either “he” or “she,’’, whether “she” likes it or not. A further grammatical question has been sent to me. Can you tell me if the following sentence is grammatically correct: “If men could only know' each other, they would never either idolise or hate”? Presumably the point in doubt is the use of “each other.” It is customary to use “each other” when only two persons or things are implied, and “one another” in the case of more than two. But this is merely a grammarians’ rule, and grammarians do not make a language. Most writers quietly ignore it and them.

A further point is raised by the same correspondent : A column such as yours should be very useful in discussing modes of expression and improvements in our language. If, for instance, you could start a crusade against the misuse of foreign words you could perhaps do some good. I refer to. such words as “quay” and “queue,” taken from the French. I do not object so much to the use of a foreign word as to the way it is done. In “quay,” as we use it, the vowel is misspelled and mispronounced. And “queue” cannot be pronounced in English. As regards the latter, why could wo not say “standing in line” instead of saying “standing in queue,” and thus do without a foreign word. The correspondent who comes along with the injunction that we should mind our quays and queues has not quite the right of it. He is, of course, correct in his standpoint that no foreign word shonld ever be used if there be an English word available of the same meaning. This is an elementary use of style. But “quay” is not quite the same as “wharf,” and every “queue” is not a “line.” A quay is more solid than a wharf, and is usually of masonry or iron. The two words do not overlap throughout the whole of their areas. Consequently they are both necessary. Similarly every queue is a line, but every line is not a queue. A queue etymologically is a tail. A dozen recruits up for a medical test may stand in line, but not in a queue. The line that runs out from the front door of Begg’s or of the Bristol, turns up Princes street, and curls round into Moray jdace, is a queue ? Are not late comers joined to the tail-end ? Civis-

During 1920 there were recorded at tha Christchurch Official Assignee’s office 22 bankruptcies, of which tho total liabilities were £8941 4s 2d. The assets realised amounted to £5606 5s lOd.

A Press Association message from Auckland states that, while crossing the North Atlantic from Liverpool to Newport News, the Waiotapu, which arrived at Auckland early on the sth inst., lost the whole o£ her deck cargo, composed of phosphorus, sulphuric acid, and other chemicals. Shortly after leaving Liverpool heavy seas wero encountered, and portion of the deck cargo was washed overboard. In another gale the phosphorus ignited, probably through concussion caused by the heavy seas, and set fire to the remainer of tha cargo, which bad to be jettisoned. Beyond this no damage was done, and Newport News was reached without further mishap. Writing on November 26 our London correspondent says that a committee has been appointed to make arrangements for the organisation of an International Cold Storage Congress, to be held in London in 1922, at which 40 countries should be represented.

Discussing tho letter-writing proclivities of the world’s people, Australia, with 130 letters per year per head of population, was placed first. Thus a writer in tho British Australasian, who asked where New Zealand came in:—-“New Zealand, I am told by a correspondent, does not beat Australia at letter-writing, its average per head for 1918 being 112, as against Australia’s 130. My correspondent, a lady, and a New Zealander, is generous in giving mo these figures to disabuse my mind of tho idea I had that her country beat Australia in the epistolary line, but she odds to her nolo, ‘if post-cards, newspapers, and parcels., be this 112 is brought up to 154 per head of mean population for that year (1918), and this latter total has been ex- ( ceeded. As far back as 1912 New Zealand’s total in this regard was 157 per head, and , in 1914 and 1915 actually exceeded 160 petf r head." Perhaps the post-card explains it. , Many New Zealanders are of Scotch descent, and ‘though on letter-writing Lentj they have a frugal mind.’ ” -

A handsome challenge trophy has been completed to the order of Colonel G. F. C. Campbell, for competition amongst tha . Senior Cadets of New Zealand (says our London correspondent, writing on November 26). Great skill has been displayed in the execution of tho special design* j which is that of an infantryman in full; trench kit. The figure itself, which is made of silver, stands about lOin height, and ia wonderfully accurate in all its details, even!' to the correct position of buckles on tha ; chin-strap of the steel helmet and the gas mask container. Tho base is a pyramid, of solid ebony, about 18in high, with an ornamental silver shield on one face, n-nd on the other tliree faces plain silver plates, with ample space for engraving the names of successive winners The trophy, wbiobi 1 will be open for competition- in physical and military exercises by Senior Cadets throughout the whole of tho dominion, is being carefully packed and sent out in*mediately.

“I think you Nelson people,” said Dfl Tillyard, of the Gawthron Institute, in am address at Motueka, “are inclined to think that Nelson is ‘the limit’ as regards pests; but I want to tell you that for every pest you have got thero are 20 pests as bad waiting to come in at the first opportunity. So you have to organise, and realise that, so far as New Zealand being the worst place for pests, it is the laest. The reason why America sends out clean fruit is that every university turns out entomologists by the hundred, and they are eagerly snapped up. It is only by organisation that America has prevented the country being ravaged by pests. If you go to America, and see the different things that try to destroy the orchards, you will be astonished to see what has been done to combat them. You must realise that your safety lies in encouraging tho scientific study of insect pests of all kinds, and in getting the Government to do the same. Above all, I would urge tho great importance of prevention rather than cure. Once you geb a pest in it is a particularly hard job to control it. Organise to keep out tboeo things whioh have not got in.” If was fieely stated, when the shortage of sugar was being severely felt, that tha pi ices of fruit would be very low this season, as there would be no sugar available to make jam, and fruit would consequently be more or less a glut on the market The wish was probably father to the thought, as notwithstanding the fact that the scarcity of sugar continues prices for fruit suitable for jam-making rule very high. The strawberry season is just about ended, but while it was on prioes were so high that many housewives simply could not pay the prices for the fruit and the present additional cost of sugar, and did not make any strawberry jam. The position regarding raspberries is even more acute. Values for sound raspberries ranged in the auction marts on the 11th from lid

to Is Ojd, and all lots were quickly bought up. Raspberry jam however, at, say, Is per lb for the fruit and 6gd for the sugar must be a fairly expensive commodity. Certainly the shortage of sugar has not caused a glut of fruit. A man in business in Prince Albert road was the victim of a serious burglary at his home in St. Kilda on Monday, the lQth. Before going to bed ho placed underneath his bed a bag containing about £IOO. Next morning his suspicions were aroused by the discovery that the bathroom window was open, and when he returned to his room he found the bag was gone. A few nights ago a house in the North-East Valley, temporarily unoccupied, was similarly entered, but until the return of the occupants the extent of the loss cannot be ascertained. A movement is on foot among returned soldiers to obtain from the A.M.P. Society a refund of war risk premiums, it being contended that this course has been followed by other companies. Negotiations are in progress between the Canterbury Aviation Company and the Post and Telegraph Department for the institu tion of regu ar mail services from Christchurch to Timaru and Blenheim. Captain Dickson has been surveying the air routes across Marlborough to the West Coast, and has chosen a suitable landing ground at Blenheim. The company has 24 aeroplanes at its aerodrome atSockburn. Several of these were presented to New Zealand by the Imperial Government, and are being stored at Sock burn by the company for the New Zealand Government, which has no use for them, having an Air Board, but no Air Force. Mr E. S. Baldwin, Argentine Vice-Consul, has received official intimation (states a Wellington Press Association telegram) that the International Dairy Exhibition will he held at Palermo (Buenos Ayres) from May 8 to May 27 next. He has received the programme and rules of the exhibition and I forms for intending exhibitors. Remarkable building progress has been marie in Hamilton during the eight months from March to December 1, as shown by official figures just compiled by the borough engineer (Mr N. H. Stevens). These show > an average r;presentation in money value of £28,573 per month, or a total of £228,588 for the eight months. Of this sum £195.365 was for dwellings, £28,627 for business pre : mises, and £4596 for additions—this despite j the restrictions on the building of business i premises. James Archer, formerly town clerk and i engineer of Masterton, charged with having falsified documents, pleaded guilty, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence (states a Masterton Press Association telegram). There are 14 charges, extending over the period from May, 1917, to October, 1919. The Tutanekai is leaving shortly en route to the outlying southern island groups to examine provision depots and search for castaways. As Captain Post is on holiday leave, Captain Burgess, the Government surveyor of ships, will take command of the trip. Seventy years ago on the 11th the first copies of the Lyttelton Times newspaper were, issued from a modest little building in Lyttelton. They were doub’e foolscap in size, and the new journal, a weekly, was of eight, pages. By the time the first parcel of copies was ready for distribution a crowd of colonists had gathered around the door, and the papers were sold directly off the ‘‘stone” To-day the Lyttelton Times Company possesses a large and wellequipped building in Gloucester street, and the newspaper which it produces is recognised as one of the leading dailies of the dcminion. We have p'easure in congratulating it on the attainment of its seventieth anniversary. The British Isles are now the one great market for tea, states the Morning Post. Millions upon millions of pounds of Ceylon and Indian teas, which in normal times would have gone to Russia, have been sent here. "The result is,” said a London merchant, putting the case with extreme moderation, “that we have far more tea than we know what to do with. The public taste in England is higher than it has ever been from the point of view’ of quality. People want nothing but good tea. There are accordingly only two kinds of tea going into Minenig Lane —the teas that every buyer wants, and the teas that no buyer wants. That, in a nutshell, is the j>osit,ion. Common tea has fallen from Is 6d a pound, wliich was the price about this time last year, to 4d or 5d a pound. But nobody wants to buy it, except in very small quantities for blending purposes.” Two records in the selling price of land in the Putaruru district are represented by sales which have taken place within the last three weeks or so (staes the New Zealand Herald). The first was the sale of a small business site with a double road frontage in a particularly desirable position in the heart of Putaruru township. This was purchased by an ex-resident of Putaruru at a price equivalent to the rate of £BOOO per acre, a record for township land here. The second was the sale of Mr F. C. Barnett’s home property of 78 acres, adjoining the township, to a wellknown Wellington investor at over £IOO per acre. This property is an old-settled farm in a fairly highly-improved state, and the price is a record for farm land in the district. The curing of lepers was the subject of some remarks by Ur V. G. Heiscr, of the United States Health Department, who arrived in Auckland from Vancouver by the Makura. Dr lieiser for a considerable period was officer in charge of the Department of Public Health in the Philippines, and has devoted a great deal of time to the study of leprosy. He is now convinced that a cure for this disease has been discovered in the form of one of the esters which have been isolated from Chaulmoogra oil. Hr lieiser stated that he had just examined 137 lepers at Hawaii, and had found the whole of them improving very rapidly. Ho said it was not too much to hope that from 25 per cent, to 30 per

cent, of these would be permanently cured by this, treatment, “Chau'moog’a oil,” said Dr lieiser, ‘‘hao been known for hundreds of years, but the drawback heretofore was that it. vitiated those who took it and the problem was to find the essential properties of the oil that would do good in lepros"y oases. Those connected with chemistry all over the world have been experimenting with a view to solving the problem. Latterly American chemists have taken the matter up at Honolulu, and, as I have indicated, with most wonderful results. The oil was used hypodermically, and this cured a great number of patients.” The Canterbury Plains are a great study in brown (states the Lyttelton Times). Grass

and crops have assumed the colour of khaki. Even the distant hills harmonise in the dial, colour scheme. The only patches of green seen by the traveller on the main line are provided by the plantations, and the bush on the far away slopes. Tire plains have an inflammable appearance —a carelessly thrown match or a vagrant spark might start a fire which would sweep a wide area. Blackened fields and a scorched plantation between Bankside and Dunsandei are a gnm memorial of the fire of a week ago. Alongside the railway line much precautionary burning has been done. The dry grass and gorge have been burned off carefully and scientifically, so that the risk of

another fir© rushing- over the countryside has been minimised. No rain has fallen since Boxing Day, December 27 —over a fortnight ago. A few good showers would be welcomed by the farmers, and their effect would be highly beneficial. Oat crops are being quickly harvested, and wheat is ripening rapidly. There are some splendid wheat crops waiting for the reaper and binder, and harvesting should be in full swing very soon. Now and again, on light or shingly land, thin crops may be observed, but on the whole farmers are confident that this year’s wheat will thrash out well. The Minister of Education said last week that he hoped to build three new schools in Wellington during the present year (states a Wellington Press Association telegram). The following appointments and promotions in the hands Department have been confirmed (states a Wellington Press Association telegram):—Mr G. EL Bullard (New Plymouth), Commissioner of Crown La nds. as Chief Surveyor, Christchurch; Mr 11. J. Lowe (Blenheim), as Commissioner of Crown Lands, New Plymouth; Mr J. Cook, chief draughtsman, Auckland, as Commissioner of Crown Lands, Blenheim; Mr J. D. Manson (Napier), to succeed Mr Cook ; Mr V. I. Blake (North Auckland) as chief draughtsman, Napier; Mr D. Maopherson, Otautau, as chief draughtsman, Invercargill. Referring to soldiers’ graves. Mr G. J. Anderson (Minister of _ Internal Affairs) after inspecting the graves at Featherston, says that the Government will keep in order the graves of all those who had died during the camps or in the hospital from war effects within 12 months of the termination of the war (states a Wellington Press Association message). After the graves in the Wellington district have been dealt with attention will be paid to Auckland, and (subsequently to cemeteries where soldiers’ graves are in smaller numbers. Cabled advice has been received by the Immigration Department (states a Wellington Press Association message) that owing to the strike of the ship’s carpenters, accommodation for immigrants cannot be provided on the Corinthio and the Athenic. The departure of 500 immigrants, who were booked by these two vessels, has accordingly been delayed. There are a large number of applications for the position of Director of Education in New Zealand (says our Wellington correspondent). From England alone there are about 110. The list, it is understood, contains the names of some very capable men at present in England, Australia, and New Zealand. “I am glad that the Government which, notwithstanding what some people say, is the only true workingman’s Government we have ever had, did not increase workers’ railway fares to any appreciable degree when it was fc-und necessary to raise the fares,” said the Hon. C. J. Parr at New Lynn recently, “and that ought to stand to Mr Massey’s credit for a long time. I claim some credit for having spoken strongly on the false policy of making it difficult for workers to live in suburban districts,” continued Mr Parr. ‘The present worker’s ticket at 2s 6d a week is not only reasonable, but extremely moderate; cheaper, in fact, than car fare to Ponsonby or Remuera. I merely call attention to the fact because sometimes what the Government does for the working man is conveniently forgotten.” A shark made its appearance off the beach at St. Clair on the 12th, and remained throughout the day within soma 10 yards of the shore. A Wanganui Herald representative was shown a letter from a Wanganui lady, now in England, which stated that men’s twogarment suits were selling at 365, and’ boots in large quantities from 17s 6d to 20s per pair. By the same mail a copy of the Export Mail was forwarded. A perusal of this showed that two large London firms were prepared to forward through their New Zealand agents goods at the following retail prices:—Men’s suits, 50s to 80s; men’s d.b. overcoats, 60s; juvenile suits, 32s 6d to 455; men’s latest style suits in grey and brown, 70s. Another firm offers its boots as follows: —Men’s glace kid derby shoes, patent caps, 365; women’s glace kid lace boots, 22s 3d to 25s 6d; glace goat Gibson shoes, 17s sd. The following is a copy of a telegram received from the naval authorities, Wellington:— “Mariners and others are hereby notified to keep sharp lookout for floating mines in the vicinity of latitude 36deg. 12min. south, longitude 150; leg. 19min. east. If sighted, masters and others are requested to notify the fact and the position of same by wireless, and to inform the harbour master at the next port of call.” Six or seven cases of infantile paralysis have been admitted to the Christchurch Hospital during the week (states a Press Association telegram), and it is understood that there are several cases still in their homes. The necessary steps are being taken to cope with the outbreak. Many city works are at a standstill owing to the shortage of cement (states a Wellington Press Association message). The small quantities from overseas are inadequate to meet the demands. The Commissioner of Crown Lands, Otago (Mr R. T. Sadd), left on the 13th instant to inspect the country in the Blue Mountain district, near Beaumont, in company with Messrs Smith and Indor, members of the Lind Board. The trip will occupy several days. The functions of the Court of Arbitration were discussed at the last meeting of the Wellington Trades and Labour Council (states the Dominion), when, the following resolution was passed, and has since been forwarded to the Minister of Labour (tiie Itt. Hon. W. E. Massey):— “That this oouncil records its disappointment at the utter failure of the Court of Arbitration to have carried out the duties for which it was instituted. That it is extremely regrettable that the action of the president of the court in the matter

of the cost of living bonus should have been so indicative of bias as to have alienated the sympathies of all the workers other than those of the most credulous.” In transmitting the resolution to the Minister, the secretary of the council (Mr J. M. Campbell) remarked: “By way of comment on the above resolution, the council freely confessed that the more virile unions who ceased to submit their disputes to the court had a clearer vision and a sounder judgment than those evidenced by the members of the council who clung to the Arbitration Court, until its president convinced them of its utter futility.” The Commissioner of Taxes (Mr D. G. Clark), at the suggestion of the New Zealand Society of Accountants (states a Wellington Press Association message), has agreed to visit the principal centres in the dominion about March or April next to dismiss with the professional and business men the effects of the recent amendments to the Land and Income Tax Act. Mr Clark wili also set out the department’s attitude on any questions brought before him. A Post Office employee named Win Pickering, who was arrested on Wednesday night, appeared' before Mr H. Y. Widdovvson, S.M., in the Dunedin Police Court on. the 13th, charged with stealing, on October 1, a postal packet containing a pair of ear-rings, valued at £4 16s 6d, the property of Messrs Donald Stuart and Co. Chief-detective Bishop asked for a remand, as other charges were pending against accused. Accused was a married man with two children, and had been working for the department for some months as a messenger. The magistrate granted a remand until next Friday, and allowed bail —self in £IOO and two sureties of £SO. Some months back the Hon. G. M. Thomson despatched to the Cambridge University Press the manuscript of a work upon which he had been labouring for years, “The History of the Naturalisation of Animals and Plants in New Zealand.” By last mail Mr Thomson has received advice that the Syndics of the Cambridge Press have undertaken the publication of the book, upon terms satisfactory to the author; it will be issued in two volumes. The arrivals in New Zealand during December totalled 3366 persons —2087 from Australia, 770 from the United Kingdom, 322 from Canada, 84 from Fiji, 14 from the United States, 34 from Hawaii, 25 from Samoa, 11 from the Solomon Islands, and 19 from tho Friendly Islands (states a Wellington Press Association message). The departures from New Zealand for the same month totalled 2864. During December 59 Chinese arrived in New Zealand. A Wellingon company having inserted in an advertisement for its goods the line, “Don’t support the nation that was last in (the war) and first out,” the American Consul-general at Auckland, Mr A. A. Winslow, protested to the Minister of Industries and Commerce. Hon. E. P. Lee, writing to the firm in question, pointed out that the advertisement did not conform to the standards of firmness that conform to the standards of fairness that asked to have it withdrawn. The company, in reply, declared that it would withdraw the advertisement now that it had served its purpose, but it strongly protested against the dumping of goods into New Zealand from a country where there was the most intense bitterness against the British Empire ,and asked the question: “Can the Americans point to a single instance in which the United States of America ever said ‘Thank you,’ to the British Empire for fighting on the soil of France while Americans remained safely at home coining the almighty dollar”? The correspondence remains at this point. In conversation with a well-known Wanganui medical man on the subject of the Maori “miracle man,” a Foxton Herald representative was informed emphatically that he had no reason to doubt that many of the cases treated were genuine. Tohu’s methods should be known to all medical men, and numerous cases of blindness and paralysis, the result of shell-shock, had been successfully treated by auto-suggestion. Apart altogether from war case-s, similar treatment was given successfully by the same method in cases which had their cause outside definite organic diseases. Tohu’s mana would come to an end when he failed to successfully treat the pakeha. The Maoris were emotional and susceptible, and so long as he kept to the people of his own race, so long would his mana continue, but, in his opinion, the treatment of the pakeha would bring about his undoing. He did not deprecate Tohu’s work, but, on the other hand, considered that he should be encourag’d. His treatment, to the layman, appeared miraculous, but to the skilled medical man it was common practice. There were hundreds of people subject to peculiar mental troubles, which created physical infirmities, which could only be successfully treated by autosuggestion and rftassage.

The Minister of Education stated that it was proposed to establish a service of itinerant teachers for the baokblocks (states a Wellington Press Association message). At present the baokblocks schools are staffed largely with young people who have no better equipment ffian a Sixth Standard certificate. The salaries are paid by means of a capitation grant of £ls per head of the pupils. “ The result,” said the Minister, “ is that education in some of the backblock places is of a rather indifferent character.” It is now proposed to pay a salary of £250, plus allowances, to capable and experienced young teachers who will go from family to family and give two or three days’ teaching in each small centre. The- Christchurch Press states that from time to time the Lyttelton trawlers bring in quantities of good hard coal, which they pick up in their nets. As a matter of fact, the fishermen usually get enough to meet their household requirements, and then have some over. During the coal shortage a few months ago, the trawler crews were about the only people in the port who had a good supply of fuel. The men state tin.?

they always pick up the coal in one place, off Pigeon Bay, in about seven fathoms of water. Some of the pieces weigh as much as 20 or 30 pounds, which seem to preclude the theory that, the coal is dropped overboard from passing steamers; in fact, the locality is out of the steamer track. The fishermen are satisfied that a coal seam exists there. Strange to say, the best fishing is found among the coal, and although the trawlers have attempted at different times to clear the coal away, they have made no impression on the deposit. On Thursday two trawlers secured twelve and three sacks respectively for their day’s work. The price of spot copper, according to a statement by the Chief Government Electrical Engineer, is down to £73 a ton, as compared with £B4 a few weeks ago, and £IOO to £llO during the war. It is nearly back to pre-war prices, which is very important for electrical development, since copper is probably 20 to 25 per cent, of the total capital expenditure, but hydro-electrio development generally depended on the price of labour, cement, copper, machinery, poles, and insulators. These items account for more than nine-tenths of the total expenditure. During the year ended December 31 last 200 petitions in divorce were filed in the Supreme Court at Wellington. A decree nisi was made in 149 cases and a decree absolute in 139 cases (states a Wellington Press Association telegram). A slight fall in the cost of living as far as food groups are concerned (states a Wellington Press Association telegram) in indicated in the December monthly abstract. This is accounted for by the fall in prices of items in the grocery and the dairy produce groups. The directors of the New Zealand Insurance Company have declared an interim dividend of 3d per share for the half year ended November 30, payable on February 9 (states an Auckland Press Association telegram). At the Police Court at Lawrence on Friday, before Messrs Urwin and Norrie, J.P.’s, Christian Lawson, alias Larsen, pleaded guilty-sito the issuing of a. valueless cheque for £2l 6s 6d to Messrs Tracey Bros., farmers, Evans Flat, on January, 1917, and was committed to the Supreme Court for sentence. Bail was allowed, one surety of £SO or two of £25. Mr Fletcher appeared for the accused. Our Wellington correspondent states that tho Cabinet on Friday voted £7OOO to assist in the rebuilding of the wing of the Waitaki High School which was destroyed by fire. “In many districts of New Zealand the character of the trees planted denotes the view-point- of the settlers and from what part of the world they came,” remarked the president (Mr R. Nairn, of Christchurch) at the conference of the New Zealand Association of Nurserymen in Wellington. Englishmen and Scotchmen from the Old World were not. satisfied unless they set out oak. elm, ash, sycamore, hornbeam, beech, hawthorn, and similar trees, whereas the squatters of the South Island, who mostly came from Australia, brought with them the seeds of the eucalyptus and sowed them freely around their homesteads. This explains why the old station homesteads of the South Island have such large specimens of the gum in such localities.”