Page 4 Advertisements Column 5

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6072, 8 January 1898, Page 4

full complement for the jury at an inquest. There were two defaulters, and the police were instructed to capture a pair of passers-by. A pressman suggested that two of the stream of cyclists passing along Clyde Quay should be snared. The Coroner demurred. « The only question," he drily is whether a cyclist is presumably sane." This was conclusive, and the inquest was kept waiting till the missing jurors arrived. We have not got the referendum in New Zealand— more's the pity. If we had, it would be an easy matter to take the vote ot the people, from one end of the country » the other, with regard to the Old Age ir-ensions Bill that was killed by the Dry-a-s-dusls of the Upper House; and the vote %°^i. c atL overw helming one in favour ot the Premier's proposals. The Conservatives know that perfectly well, and therefore they are strenuous in decrying n-ny attempt to secure an expression of the popular opinion. That will be got, all the same. If we cannot use the referendum, we can proceed by petition, and we are thankful that this course • ol procedure has been earnestly taken m hand by certain of the Progressive Liberals of this community. Every adult who believes in tho Old Age Pension principle ought to sign that petition. It will do several things. It will strengthen the hands of tho Government, it will harden up the Parliamentary supporters of the scheme, anditwill instil into the hearts of the opponents of humanitarian progress, something of that fear which is the beginning of wisdom. Some of the promoters of art unions in Hew Zealand have— to. use a colloquial ■h v n -P** into a hol °* The y em_ barked on their respective enterprises in perfect good faith, they obtained the requisite permits from the seat of Government, they appealed successfully to a speculative public, and then-they found themselves confronted with the ban of the police. The restrictive proceedings of the police are, of course, based upon the provisions of the Gaming and Lotteries Act, wherein it is set forth, in the wonted verbiage, that applications to conduct a lottery may be made to the Colonial Secretary by "any person being the owner °tv any Paittking drawing sculpture or other work of art or literature or mineral specimens or mechanical models." Be it noted that in Acts of Parliament you are left to put in commas where you please. Now, the police mind is desperately literal, and unless you can get the seductive influences of an art union within the foregoing category, the Inspector and his merry men will be down upon you like the proverbial thousand of bricks. The question arises, What is a "work of art?" We are told, in effect, that it may be a trumpery made-in-Germany oleograph ; a hideous— also made-in-Germany ■—lithograph ; that it may be a collection of "literature" in the shape of trashy novels • that it may be a toy steamengine, which would, of course, be a "mechanical model," or that it may be, say, a lump of quartz. But if you get a few skilled workmen together, say, a gifted designer, a clever cabinet-maker, an expert turner, a tasteful carver, and let them produce a set of artistic furniture worth a hundred guineas, you haye — according to police officialdom— broken the law, and must be haled up accordingly. It's a. funny world, isn't it ? **» , One of the wonders of this globe is the celebrated "Pitch Lake" in Trinidad. How many people know to what purpose this lake is put ! Its area is about 114 acres, and it has been found to have varying depths from 10ft to 130 ft. The "pitch" makes a very good asphalt, and is dug from the surface of the lake and thrown into trucks, which run upon a tramway laid on the inside edge of the lake. After about forty-eight hours, the traces of a day's digging can scarcely be seen, the holes having become again filled. By means of an overhead cable railway loaded buckets of asphalt are carried to the end of a pier which etretches nearly two thousand feet out to sea, and the asphalt is dumped into steamers and sailing vessels. Some idea of the capacity of the loading plant may be gathered from . the fact that 20,000 tons were loaded in a month. The lake is the property of the Crown, but its resources were "not utilised until about thirty years ago. It is leased to the Trinidad Asphalt Company on certain terms, one of which is that it pays -. to the Government a royalty and duty on every ton dug from the lake. Since 1888 over ,£234i000 have been paid to the Government in this manner from this asphalt plaoed upon the market from a British colony by British labour. Yet foreign asphalts imported into England pay nothing to the revenue. In spite of the heavy payment to the Crown, the shipments of Trinidad asphalt continue to increase, and no opportunity is lost to push its consumption ; and in a few years the sale increased from 2000 tons per annum to 100,000 tons per annum. The bulk of the asphalt is used in laying pavements, and also in a variety of ways wherever cementing, waterproofing, and insulating is needed. It is also employed in hundreds of tons for marine glue, and in its most highly refined state is made into wafers for fastening the tips of billiard cues. So it will be seen that Trinidad asphalt is of almost universal use. It was introduced into London three years ago, and trials were made in streets where traffic was particularly heavy. The asphalt has stood the strain remarkably well, and ifc also gives a better foothold to the horses than the foreign varieties. There is no reason, if the experts are satisfied — and seemingly they are — why Trinidad asphalt should not be used in paving all the streets of London and other towns in the kingdom. Its superior merits recommend it, and it is a British product, paying largely to the revenues of Trinidad, and also giving employment to a large number of British workmen, both in the West Indies and in the Mother country.

Pupil Teachers' Examinations. — The results of the first, second and third year pupil teachers' examinations will probably be available on Monday aftornoon. A German scientist deolared that the epistolary phrase " 10,000 kisses " was merely a rhetorical flourish, as no one, within a limited time, coidd accomplish the feat. A Teutonic lover, with the consent of his lady-love undertook to print upon her lips 10,000 kisses within ten hours. At the end of the first hour he had scored 2000, another 1000 was added in the second, but in the third, at the 750 th kiss, the operator's lips became paralysed, and he lost consxiousness. 1