GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 5 February 1913, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS

The opium question in China is once more growing acute. Tlio Chinese Government are holding up India, opium in Shanghai, and Iho accumulations at that port are valued at toit millions Veiling. Last year Great Britain agreed that Indian opium should not be admitted into any province* which has ceased to cultivate poppv, and had extinguished the indigenous trallic. The Chinese, have violated the agreement by excluding Indian opium from various provinces which do not come within its scope. The epics turn is becoming :m international one, lnvause eleven foreign banks have lent huge sums on tin* opium stored in Shanghai. The bankers threaten to claim compensation, though whether from China or Great Britain is not clear. The opium ex-porters-in India are already claiming compensation from the Government of India, because they were induced to pay huge sums for opium in the belie! that Great Britain would enforce her own Agreement, because the country would never tolerate another opium war, and China knows it. So there you lire. The irony of the situation is that while the Indian opium is being excluded from China. the native opium is once, more being extensively produced.

A.s things stand to-day, tourists can motor from Alexandria, to Cairo, the road being practically finished. Indeed. h> near completion is it and so much use is expected to he made of it, that the automobile clubs have obtained permission from the Ministry of Public Works to erect indication and danger .sign posts nil along the route. The day may not be far distant when on ■ will be able to motor from the landing stage at Alexandria to one's hotel at the First Cataract—about GOO miles.

The "sphinx face/' which is imputed to the present- age, may he a I oomlcaiinatiou or a compliment, ac- j cording to the personal view. The cie- I velopmont c.i' tin* strategic instinct in business may bo the bridge habit sci;ting the- fashion. It is not rathrr the outcome of a patience-saving souko in the cr.nimur.itv: J To beam at one another, when there, are so many of us. j would bo almost as tiresome as in J wear a perpetual frown. We are pa-s- I

sive .resistors for the sake of our f"">a] muscles, and wo cultivate the irnpassivonoss of marble becaise, peiliaps, we envy its endurance.

I Sir 'Edward Carson described himself, at. Warrington,; the other day, as, a somewhat intelligent and respectable, barrister. We suppose he. knows best. But. perhaps he eame to that conclusion after the "accident" in the House recently. The. "Daily Chron- > icle," .speaking of it, '.said that Sir ? Edward Carson addressed the- chair i beheaded —an outrage on an old ParIliamentary tradition which drew cries ( of "Order, order!" from a hundred throats. Sir Edward Carson 'hastily cast about for a hat. A poor substi--1 tute for a head!

An anti-raoo-suicido block of Hats, whore couples with largo families will have preference as tenants over bachelors of childless couples is being erected in Montreal, at a cost of .some £-10,000. The building will be triangular in shape, and will enclose a largo plot of ground, which will be laid out with flower-beds and a fountain as a playground for children. There will be 24 flats, all designed specially for largo families. The flats will averago 10 rooms, and each flat wiH be fitted with a vacuum cleaner, refrigerating plant, and a gas incinerator for rubbish. Most of the. Hats havebeen taken by prospective tenants., and one father of a family 'has signed a ten years lease.

Traffic was temporarily held up in Union Street, Birmingham, so far as crossing the roa<l was coneerned one day recently. An ingenious gentleman liad tied the reel of a fishing rod to a lamp-post near the bottom oF the street, and had unobtrusively fixed the hook in the back of a friend's overcoat near the neck. The result was that the victim walked up the street gradually unwinding the line, and causing the many people wishing to cross this much' frequented thor oughfare either to duck under tho line (with frequently awkward .results as regarded ladies' hats) or to wait until the fun was finished. The gentleman bearing the hook and unrolling the line walked up the, street with great dignity and contentment until he readied Corporation Street, where, he was informed of the inconvenience he was causing.