Interprovincial

New Zealand Tablet, 28 July 1910, Page 1186

Interprovincial

The House of Representatives has almost unanimously decided by resolution that the bookmaker must go. The totalisator has been retained by a majority of eight votes. Plans for the convent and school at Kaikoura have been approved .and the work of erecting the buildings will be put in hand at an early date. The convent building will be of two storeys and will be built of timber and roughcast. The school, which will only be of one storey, will be similarly constructed. . '

What Are taste we smell—mostly. This remarkable fact was mentioned by Professor Hunter in a lecture at Wellington on Tuesday evening. He pointed out that the taste cells of the mouth are capable of only four sensations : salt, sour, bitter, and sweet. In proof of the fact, well known to scientists, that the organ of smell is responsible for the reception of many supposed sensations of taste, Mr. Hunter remarked that a person holding his nose could not distinguish any difference in taste while eating first an apple, then a potato, and finally an onion. . The Public Debt Extinction Bill was brought down in the House of Representatives on Friday. It proposes that within thirty days after the end of each financial year the Controller and Auditor-General shall furnish the Minister of Finance with a statement showing the total public debt of New Zealand, and the sum which, if invested each year at 4 per cent, compound interest, would in seventyfive years equal the amount of the public debt. It is provided that after the 31st. March, 1915, the interest, instead of being calculated at 4 per cent., shall be the average net interest earned by the sinking fund invested during the previous three years. On receiving this statement from the Auditor-General, the Minister of Finance is authorised to pay out of the Consolidated Fund the amount required. The payments' are to be made to the Superintendent of the New Zealand State-guaranteed Advances Office, who, with the Commissioners of the Public Debts Sinking Fund, constitute the board, of which the Minister of Financed to be chairman. The Superintendent is to invest thejsrfm paid out of the Consolidated Fund in loans to settlers to workers, and to local authorities under the provisions of the State-guaranteed Advances Act of last year.