Page 2 Advertisements Column 5

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9123, 2 July 1891, Page 2

A telegram from Christchurch states that the Union Insurance Co. will pay a dividend of ten per cent.; place £7500 to reinsurance fund : and carry forward £7G67. The first batch of pecitions to the House asking for the abolition of the harbour rate has been sent by the New Plymouth Committee to Mr Barleyman at Stratford. They contain over eight hundred names, and other lists in town are being rapidly filled up. Those who have not signed should do so at once, as it is necessary to forward the petitions at once to the House. A copy of the petition is lying at the Herald Office for signature. It is stated that the scheme of retrenchment decided on by the Governors of the "Wellington College, and forced upon them by want of funds, involves the retirement of Mr Kenneth Wilson from the staff and the possible resignation of the Principal (Mr Mackay), as it is considered improbable that he will consent to accept the reduction o£ salary which the Governors are forced to propose. "A Resident of JNapier," says the Telegraph, who has been studying the Financial Statement, and the Property Tax Commissioners' Report presented to Parliament in 1890, writes to say that there are fifteen sheep farmers in the Hawke's Bay Provincial District who collectively pay property tax to the amount of £6468 7s 6d, including tho amount payable by mortgagees. Under the land tax proposals these same fifteen gentlemen will pay £6470 19s 2d, a difference of £2 lls Bd. From the returns mentioned it would also appear that these fifteen settlers hold personal property to the value of £504,985, all of which will escape specific taxation under Mr Ballance's proposals. It is calculated that somo 2500 tons of flour are required in New Zealand every week, and there is sufficient milling plant in the colony to produce 3500 tons a week. That means that between 40,000 and 50,000 tons of flour mast be exported annually to keep all the mills going steadily. A Melbourne bank manager, writing to a friend in Auckland, says : " A few years ago the name of New Zealand used to stink in the nostrils of the people hero. Now it is quit© different. New Zealand is everything that is good. She docs not need to borrow money. She has magnificent native resources. Her soil is wonderfully productive Iler exports exceed her imports by more than £3,000,000 per annum, and her Colonial Treasurer has just mado his Financial Statement, showing a handsome surplus. In fact, New Zealand is now pointed out as a model colony." If the air inspired by a healthy person in a lying position be taken as 1, then the air inspired by the same person in a sitting position will be I*lß ; standing, 1*33 ; walking one mile per hour, 2*9 ; walking three miles an hour, 3*22 ; running gently, 7*5 ; riding, 4*05 ; swimming, 4*33. The census returns received in Northamptonshire show that in purely agricultural districts the population has declined in the last decade by 10 to 40 per cent. The following appears in an English paper, under the heading of " Vegetable Wool :—": — " New Zealand and Peru, in the South Pacific Ocean, are the places whore the goßßypiu?n herbaceum peruvlunum is produced. It is an article used very extensively in Europe for the manufacture of woollen goods, with which it mixes readily on account of its rough, strong and long fibre. It is produced abundantly throughout the New Zealand islands and in some places in the Republic of Peru. The plant is arborescent and perennial, and after fully developing continues producing cotton for five or six years in succession, provided there be some moisture in the ground, needing, however, very little of it. on account of the deep rooting, thus reaching" moisture at great depths. The soil where this cotton is produced is wonderfully rich, and has been under cultivation by the aborigines from time immemorial ; and its fertility is kept up unimpaired by the slime (limus terra) which is abundantly deposited during inundations that happen often in those regions. Mr George W. Childe, the philanthropist editor of Philadelphia, has offered to loan for exhibition at the World's Fair, Chicago, his valuable private collection of souvenirs and works of art. The collection includes a harp which belonged to Tom Moore, an authentic miniature likeness of Washington, a silver vase presented to Henry Clay by the Whig ladies of Tennessee, and almost innumerable relics and mementoes of Napoleon, Emperor William, Emperor Maximilian, Emperor Dom Pedro, Presidents Washington, Jefferson and Jackson, and of S?ott, Dickens, Longfellow, and other notables. '