The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 18. CURRENT COMMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 8031, 18 January 1906, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, JANUARY 18. CURRENT COMMENT.

Some people seem to possess the most absurd notions with regard to property which has been lost, or mislaid, and many appear to have 110 difficulty in persuading themselves that the mere fact of finding an article gives them the right to keep it, without giving the owner any chance of recovering his property. In a recent article on " Finding and Keeping," the " Mercantile Gazette " pertinently points out that a person who picks up an article in the street is entitled to it against all persons but tho rightful owner. If all efforts to find the owner have been exhausted, the finder may then lawfully retain the article, but still subject to be dispossessed of it by the rightful owner at any time within six years. If 11 person finds something in the streets and converts it to his own use with full knowledge that the property he has found belongs to a certain person, he is liable to criminal proceedings. The moment a finder of lost property does anything which is evidence of his intention to deprive the owner permanently of possession, he is guilty of ft criminal act. TIIO case, of course, is different if the circumstances under which the property is found gave no clue by which the finder can discover the owner. Property found upon the land of any person, prima facie belongs to the owner, so long as it is not what is known in law as treasure-trove. If, therefore, a person, in walking over another's la id, picks up a diamond ring, the owner of the land can recover the article so found, or its value, from any person but the real owner detaining it. The person whlinds an article has the right to its possession until the lawful owner is found, and may, by virtue of this right, bring an action against anyone who detains it, Iu England gold or silver coin, plate, or bullion found concealed in a house or other private place, the owner whereof is unknown, is treasure-trove, and belongs prima facie to the Crown. So does treasure found " in," not " 011," tho earth, or other private place, the owner being unknown. Treasure found in the sea is not treasure-trove,

The appoarance ot blight amongst, the early crops of potatoes in various parts of the colony will probably make this necessary table ;uljunot somewhat of a luxury in the winter and early spring months. Any method of dealing with disease 111 tubers should therefore bo welcomed with acclaim by growers, who in the aggregate lost last year about 000 through the ravages of the blight. Dr, Truby King, who has a a farm at Seacliff, Otago, claims that, the disease " is in a great sense preventive." The secret is very simple —the storing of the seed potatoes in shallow boxes, each tuber separate from the next, the boxes being so placed that there is a constant passage of air and light among and around the seed. Dr. King found this method practised in Japan during bis recent residence 111 the Land of the Rising Sun, but the idea is an old one, and was ventilated in Britain fifty years ago during a period of potato famine in Ireland, To day most, of the largest growers in England use this method of storing, and New Zealand, which buries the " spuds " in pits or in cellars, would do well to follow a good example.

Thus the .special correspondent of the London Daily Chronicle —" The sweepings of the Chinese prisons, who are now over-running a British colon)', are not content with mere robI'ery. They do that as a mutter of course. What the women in isolated farms and lonely stores dread is the cry of, il Tsa, tsa" Kill, kill from the yellow fiends who roam over the veldt. People in the country dare scarcely go to bed at night. Tliey gather at each other's houses for protection and companionship. Only this week the evidence given in the Bergvlei case, where the coolies at tacked Mr Fcrreira's farm on October 16th, tells a story of a midnight raid, where Mr Ferreira's wife, sister and two daughters had to watch whilst he was attacked with knives and sticks. What wonder is it that terror reigns on the veldt, or that the country people are now all armed, and shoot first when they see a Chinaman at night?" This is what the colonial contingents fought for.