The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-Four Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1906. FIRES ON WOOL SHIPS.

Waikato Times, Volume LVII, Issue 8056, 14 November 1906, Page 2

The Waikato Times, THAMES VALLEY GAZETTE, AND KAWHIA ADVOCATE. Established Thirty-Four Years. THE OLDEST DAILY NEWSPAPER IN THE WAIKATO. THE LARGEST CIRCULATION OF ANY DAILY PAPER SOUTH OF AUCKLAND. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 1906. FIRES ON WOOL SHIPS.

The efforts of the Commission set up a few months ago to investigate the causes of the frequent and disastrous outbreaks of lire on wool laden ships have concluded, and the result has been communicated to the colony in the shape of a voluminous interim report. The recommendations of the Commission have not been acclaimed by the community—especially the farming community —as a complete solution of a very abstruse problem. The Commission has been taken to task for failing to obtain the evidence of the men most competent to express a reliable opinion, the wool graders, aud its suggestions are scouted as absolutely impracticable, especially as it is contended the Commission has failed to ascertain the real origin of the tires. A backblocks farmer, whose views were obtained by a Wellington newspaper man, laughed at the inspection proposal. To suggest that an inspection should be made in order to disclose heated wool, lie said, was bunkum. The disorganisation of shipping business which would result from the detention of the wool would be enormous, and the storage facilities at the shipping ports would have to be increased probably ten fold. The .to the shipper would be considerable, especially to the man who Ims his wool dumped, to be conveyed from there to tl)e Home steamer by means of a small coastal vessel. If it had to be inspected it would have to be landed and stored at the chief port. As every time a man in the canying trade touches a bale it practically means od, and as storage woild have to be paid the cost ot the inspection would mean a serious charge on the pioduce Jn the way of the inspectors tlitre are an array of besetting ditliculties, and according to competent authorities even an expert may often be deceived as to what is wet wool and what is not. Wvol has to be undoubtedly wet before even au can declare with confidence that the v,ct/l is wet from water. Even when wool, absolutely dry, has beeu shorn and left in the bin:; in the wool shed overnight it will feel dtrnp and cold "in the morning if the weather be muggv. Of course with slipe wool, winch lias ! no yoke, any dampness certainly in- j dicates the presence of water. As to sweat, it is well known that when heavy-wool led sheep are rushed in J hot weather the fleece is heavilv j cl"irged with perspiration, probably causing as much dampness as may be occasioned by a slight shower. Wet wool is brought about in a number of ways, and the difficulty of drying tiie '.'ool on the sheep's back are at very great. The real remedy, m the opinion of many people, rests with the farmer, j who does not realise the mistake of! bailing wet wool. The column, ioners might have obtained mui-h valuable' information had they toured (liecountry districts and interviewed the! small growers. 11 is to be hoped, however, that the efforts of the Com- j mission are not to have an entirely negative result, as it was confidently hoped that it would provide a remedy for a serious state of things. Perhaps the final report, embodying the i results i>f the experiments which have been conducted, will contain matter upon which important alteration?; in the regulations may be based. TEE LAKE. li lias been left for a visitor to the ' town to call attention to a very j serious deficiency in connection with j Hamilton's joy and pride—its Lake. , In no respect can ti,e accommodation for picnic parties, why frequent the I Lake ground* in large numbers be I

lies,ciibed us complete. Perhaps tlie j average picnicker would prefer tilings ;is they are ; " camping onl " I in the ]>rimcvsil glades of the wattles \ suitoi Hiding the Lake is more romai lie than in a park dotted with j warning notices to keep off the grass, I and in which the hilly must be boiled at a public lireplace. liut there j should be ample provision of drinkable water. The waters of the Lake when boiled may not be injurious to lie;'. 1111. but in their natural state of partial stagnation are not to lie coninie ided as a beverage. As " Visitor " (whose letter appears in another column) points out, a connection with the town main could be easily and cheaply made, and a bountiful supply carried to a place within easv reach of the spots most favoured by picnickers and casual visitors. In a previous article we referred to the I desirableness of improving the at- I tractions of the Lake at a moderate cost, and we believe that some such scheme will be put in hand shortly. But, with the hot weather coming on, such an urgent want as that mentioned by our correspondent, should be satisfied immediately. THE LATCHKEY CASE. W K in New Zealand, with adult parliamentary suffrage, are not likely to be more than mildly interested in the doings of the Revising Barristers, who at a cost of large sums of public money, sit annually in Britain to determine exactly who is. and who is not, entitled to the vote. "Peers, lunatics and women," as the Act quaintly puts it, are forbidden to exercise the franchise. Hut men who are householders and are over 21 years of age may get it, and it is out ol the attempt to define a householder that the notorious " latchkey case has upset the old practices. 1 his had reference to a voter who lived in an ordinary private house, occupying one room. There were other inmates, all renting rooms, and each was supplied with a latchkey. This voter paid os *d per week—not sufficient to secure a lodger vote. The question to decide was, whether he was, in a legal sense, an occupier, and the Court of Appeal said he was. It is this decision that is now being applied to the country generally and it is stated that a million new lodger voters will come on the rolls as a consequence. If the British Parliament would pass a short act sweeping away these ridiculous distinctions and giving each adult a vote on reaching a suitable age. the peculiar anomalies that at present exist would disappear, and the occupation of the suffrageites would be gone.