COMMONWEALTH NOTES.—VI.

Taranaki Herald, Volume LIII, Issue 12868, 29 May 1905, Page 3

COMMONWEALTH NOTES.— VI.

SOMEWHAT ABOUT HATS.

As a general rule it is not a difficult matter to form a fairly accurate idea of a man's character by the clothes he wears. But can you by the hat he dons ? Anyhow a hatmaker, giving evidence before the Tariff Commissioners lately, had a good deal to say by way of divulging trade secrets for the edification of the Commissioners. Doubtless ho left a good deal unsaid for fear of being called before "the Bar.'' However, it. is interesting io learn from the authority 'that Bourke-sitre»t (Melbourne) democracy requires a hat made to fit with a list to port or a "throw back" like a ship loaded by the stem. So the hat is made to suit the customer. When "we come to Coll insstreet, a hat with a very •.lilTei'ent wearer is seen, and the silk hat maker has to exercise his ingenuity by providing a hat with a glossy sheen, a bit on the heavy side, and always a black band around it. This hat oives a distinct tone of respectability, and when met by lords or earls is sure to win its wearer recognition. Other hats are made according \o the street you frequent, so that all one has to say when purchasing U ''for Woolloomooloo, or Macquarie-street, or Paddy's Market, or "The Block," and the shop attendant does the rest.

A POLICEMAN'S LUCK

Tho Federal Commission on i)ld Age Pensions is getting through a mass of details and has come to learn, it ne-ver before, that all Government pension schemes are not as profitable concerns as foretold at the commencement. Take one instance. It came out in evidence that in ] 903- 1 CI.V 2. v-29 was paid in pensions to Xew South Wales Civil Servants. The hopelessly insolvent fund was drained at £33.866, so the poor beast of burden, the taxpayer, had to be mulcted for the rest). Tn this connection it was stated by High Authority, Inspec-tor-General of Police, that a Police Officer retired many years ago. The only payment in the course* of his tenure of office was £10 for the Superannuation Fund. Now that officer *hen he died had drawn €7100 from the fund. "Jerusalem !" gasped the President of the Commission.

COST OF TAX COLLECTIOX

X.S!\V. up to the time of Federation was held up to the world as Hie )u>s\yest approach t<> absolute fre««t-rade that any civilised country had attemiptud. Naturally when -he luwl to gather in the different laves ami duties through the C-iiftom lloiuse after F^leration. the cost was proportionately high. This is how «he compares w-itli other States :— N.S.fcV. 10 per cenl, Victoria 3.22 per c<»nt. (Jpu-ems-lnnjd 5.11 per cent. South Australia 5. To per cent. Tasmania .">..">."> per cent.

TFfK SFIOW.

ft jc; not intrMidino- uilctoily upon ,])aco to dovotc somi' lines to Sydney's yearly r-ni'nival. A'Lwit.ors tio RMhournc in the first wcok in NovomJvH-i-adi year aro jo.-ulod about like n herd of cattle in a stocskyand. The -treets are throno-«id with peoiplei (umorerrated for no bettor putitiose tihan lo witness a vtve st<nt!dtjd wil'h a o-ambliiro- ovil t-hat no lume rai-e in the world can equal. Syjdjiev lias it.« Carnival wenk in the more ejdueaUve atmwtfjhere of Hie Easter SMi'ow. Jt is a stiLj)fMi<lojiis afTair, uinv|/ualli'd probably in the Southern Hem inhere, tiral it i^ all to a g<uid purpose. There you meet with country folk from ofvery quarter of the State gaining ankl imparting information one to another as the ponvts of a horse or Wull arc acmrately mpasuml iip, or the oxchange, of ideas on the rotation of c-nips anid all the other scores of ''details wiliiifli a farming comnrunity at a yearly gathering such as these dis'euss to their m'u(ual benefit. The. intormingling oftho metropolitan a'rud con tn try poplul'at'io'n in this way ami in Much great Wimbers ]< an ovi'denco of progressitvo stimiiilus which a country does well "to (aike note of. especially when, as we see, the aggregate quality of oc^ha'bits are iiudiKjiutahly imprqVi'ng each sflieressive whow. Was there ever tfitoh a rarvge of agricultiiiral life or rather the r'ssenre of all the coll n try's best dtiction.s? When we see these, things, otfpecially the nracihinory df'parttme'nts, can we wander that, iho o\ tics' factorieH and workshops are a.n incessant dm, and that many a farm labourer ascinated by th«> mecjhaniHm anld engineering skill which m'odoni mactrinory for agricultural pin-poses suplplies sets his mind to Work, awl, with a brant to become a manufacturer of all that skill can do, quits 4iis life-long occupation and joins the ranks of the city workers. 'Hero we have possibly one cause of the drift of population towards tho cities. For instead of rows of men swinging their snytfies, cutting the hay to the aceotaipanilment of "swish," they are now replaced by the reapers amd binders. Not a century ago the farmer ploughed his lantl with a wooden plough, he cut 'his .wheat with a reaping hool<, and threshed it with a flail, ami after much labour he was seen like a sentinel on the top of a loaded wa«gon drivi/ng his team to the nearest flour mill worked by water or dependent on the more capricious wind to grind the corn. 'Now he revels in a 10-furrovr" steam plough, ami gets through as much in a day as a week under former conditions. He strips the crops and harvests them by machinery. The sons of thislnan, perchance, if you now

acarcli for their whureabbuts, will, b<? found where their rollers are turned Iby steam or elect rk-al power, and are gristing the corn. They find city lif*" A with all its allurements, a prize to oiain which way have meant the loss of other \pioro estimable prizas in the turmoil of life, and so it is where fifty pairs ol hands twenty years ago wrought but little, five can now accomplish more.