NEWS BY THE LATE MAIL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 8971, 2 January 1891, Page 3

NEWS BY THE LATE MAIL.

The laboar co-operative system introduced in the London docks as originally suggested by John Barns, is proving, a success. It was at first received-with ridicule!, the dock companies declaring they would never bargain with the unions. Bnt now that the experiment has been put into operation it is proving more successful . than anybody expecled. The nzen are found to work very much more zealously, for they are earning higher wages, and the companies are paying less, because the -Ships are, being more quickly cleared. Yesterday there was actually a trouble at the India Docks because the co operative system had, not been put into force. The_ co-operative experiment has also been tried at Plymouth, and promises well. The Boardingmasters' Association and the Shipowners at Cardiff are evidently winning in the fight against the Sailors' (Wilson's) Union. There are enough free-labor men to do without the u«ion, and the union, on the advice of John Bums, is not disposed to make an open fight, mainly because the dockers refuse to support them if they go on strike. The shipping federation is increasing in, strength, chiefly through the addition of the- Association of Shipowners and Brokers. This step has increased the tons of shipping on the books of the federation from five to six and a half millions. There are now close upon a hundred firms, in the association. ■ ' - ,->•*'' With impressive ceremonial, and amid the pomp and splendour of naval and military display, • the statue of Britannia : surmounting .a massive granite pedestal,' erected on Plymouth Hoe in. commemora-; of the tercentenary of the defeat of Spanish Armada, which Sir Francis' -Drake had his share in destroying in 1578, was unveiled on October 21st by the Duke of Edinburgh in the presence of a vast concourse of people. The statue is a. magnificent piece of art work, .cast in sterling bronze, designed by- Mr Herbert Gribble, and sculptured by Mr W. C. May, of Hatapstead. The day chosen for the unveiling was fitly the anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar. Referring to the event The Times says :—lt required no small degree of courage for the little England of those days and for adventurous Englishmen unsupported by the State to challenge the master of the great fleets that swept every sea and of the army, brave and brutal, that waa led to victory by Alva and Farnese. The Spanish infactry, the creation of the genius of the " Great Captain," : was the finest the world had seen up to that time, and its known ruthlessness in conquest added to the terror it inspired. -But Englishmen, as Sir Richard Grenville says in the "Laureate's fine ballad, The Revenge, never cared for Don. or devil' yet," and their spirit rose high'with their indignation when' they, heard -of such deeds as the " Spanish fury" at Antwerp. A good 'Varsity story is told of the 1 Bishop of Melbourne, who has just been presented with a pastoral staff. He rejoices in a striking combination of names—Field Flowers Goe—and the story goes that, failing to satisfy his examiners at a * vivd voce examination, he was sarcastically told by one of them that "The Field is ploughed, the Flowers are plucked, and you, sir, can Goe." ' An 'arousing' mjshap - occurred at a Limerick' hotel, during the race week. Consequent on' the crush of visitors to, the hotel, beds had to be improvised in the bathrooms, in which one of the occupants in mistake-, pulled the wife connected with the water tank instead of the bell. An excellent story of an actor's presence of mind is told in Vanity Fair. In a play recently produced in Austria the heroine is shot by the vi^ain. At the critical moment the pistol missed fire, but the villain was equal to the emergency, and. promptly exclaimed—" Die, then, the first victim of smokeless powder I" • ■ The value of the personal estate in England* of the late Due de Montpensier, of Spain, has been sworn at £10,759. His daughter, the Cointesse de Paris, is to take the Montpensier, GaUiera, and other estates in France, and his son, Antonio de Orleans, the estates in Italy. His two children are then appointed as universal heirs. The most remarkable novelty of which we heard at "The Brewer's" 1 w.as the invention whereby new whisky is made to age\en years in twenty-four hours. - I have pi^t seen the apparatus-^in fact, only one macnine is in existence,-, and that was not in the Exhibition;, bat the spirit operated upon by it was en evidence, and we are likely to hear more of an invention which, if it bear out all that is said' of it, must have an important effect upon the future of the trade An important discovery of petroleum has just been made in County Down. The discovery was zcade by Henry M'NeiDy, on his farm in the towmand of. Moneydarra, near KilkeeL A sample was: taken and forwarded to Professor Cameron, of Dublin, for analysis. M'Neilly's farm is on the estate of the Earl of Kiltnorey.

Slowly poisoned ! It is a startling fact that-many people are slowly, poisoned by,, the beverages they imbibe. -Many brands of Lime Fruit Juice contain sulphuric acid ~—a_ppwerful poison. Insist' on having Renshaw's Rarotonga Lime "Fruit Juice; it is guaranteed perfectly' pure, and is' the expressed juice of the lime fruit.—Ajpv Be not deceived by specious representations. See that youg^t Wolfe's Schnapps

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