Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1893.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXVII, Issue 11846, 18 July 1893, Page 2

Wanganui Chronicle AND PATEA-RANGITIKEI ADVERTISER. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." TUESDAY, JULY 18, 1893.

Sin William Harcourt, the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the present Imperial Government, stated in his Budget speech, on April 24th, that the national debt of Great Britain had been reduced during the year by nearly £7,000,000. The statement was received by the country with much satisfaction, as was natural. In the midst of the rejoicings, however, the Bimetallists step in, with Mr Leonard Courtney, M.P., as their oraclo, and throw a wet blanket over the warm enthusiasm of politicians of all shades — or try to do so. Mr Courtney, writing in tho Nineteenth Century, says that owing to the fall in the price of commodities, consequent on the appreciation iv the value of gold, the nation has lost all tho benefit of the reductions which have been made in the national debt for tho last fifteen years ! He says the nominal amount of the debt has, of course, boon lowered, but the real indebtedness stills weighs upon the people. Seeing that within the period to which Mr Courtuey alludes, the people have reduced their public liability by a hundred millions sterling, it is not very comforting to be told that such agiganticeffortistogofornought. " But," i\s an Euglish comtemporay says, " this is just what Bimetallists ask us to believe. How they they make it out is one of those question which Lord Dundreary would have said ' no fellah can understand.' " It ucu'.r is easy to get into ordinary brains a decent conception of the occult science taught by the Bimelallists, but if these gentlemen wish us to believe that tho British nation is no better oft' now, after reducing the national debt by ono hundred millions, than it was 15 years ago before that reduction was made, will they also say that it would have been no worse off to-day had that enormous reduction never been made ? Of course not. It is too clear, according to their own reasoning, that if the hundred millions had not been paid the nation would not only suiTer by the appreciation of tlie present balance of the debt, but also l>y the appreciation of the. enormous sum by which it has been reduced. Therefore Uie nation would have been worse oft had the reduction never been made, which, to ordinary people, is as good as savin;; it iv the better for having made it

A siiokt time ago we gave prominence to j a legal dicision iv a case of interest to Lite s Insurance Companies ;.n I their clients. In | the papers received by lust week's mail we find an important judgment by the English Court of Appeal, this time bearing on accident insurance. The greater publicity such cases get, the better the public understand their position, and therefore we need make i no apology fov placing yet another of them before our readers. Tho case in question was brought by a Mr Hamby against the Crown Accident Insurance Company to decide the meaning of the word " external" \ in a policy of Assurance against accident, The plaintiff had effected an insurance with the defendant company —against personal injury " caused by violent, accidental, external, and visible means." In stooping down to pick up a marble, with which a little boy was playing on the floor of his shop, he displaced ono of the cartilages in his knee, and was temporarily disabled by the accident. He then plaimed to recover the policy-money. - But the defendants refused to pay, on the ground that, inasmuch as uo foreign matter had come in contact with the plaintiff's body, he had not been injured by "external" means within the fair construction of the policy. There was a good deal of prima-facie force in this contention. But the Court of Appeal, affirming the view of Mr Justice Lawrance, before whom the case was tried at Bodmin Assizes, repelled it, and decided that the term "external," as used in tho policy, referred to injuries not caused by " internal" disease. ' 1 1

A Biudfobd (Yorkshire) merchant, Mr Gott by name, who.has evidently as much faith in his fellow creatures as in his own goods, bas adopted an enterprising style of advertising.. We have heard of tradesmen who were, or professed to be, so sure of the goods they sold as to offer to take them back again and return the money if they did not give satisfaction. But Mr Gott gives further. Here are some specimens of his advertisements. •' We are making these cashmeres, serges, beiges, tweeds, etc., etc., "in all colours) into parcels containing three dress lengths each, and will send them carriage paid for 21s. Name the colours you prefer and you will be delighted with the goods. We will return 245. if you are unsatisfied with the value!" This is sufficiently surprising, but it is beaten by the one which follows. "We have just purchased about 300 yards of plain botany wool black serge, and offer the same at 12s 6d per dress piece, carriage paid. To show the confidence we have iv this lot, we offerto return the money in full and allow the purchaser to keep the serge if it does not give perfect satisfaction." Can enterprise go further?