TRADE TOPICS.

Press, Volume L, Issue 14889, 31 January 1914, Page 2

TRADE TOPICS.

ST. HELENA LACE. LONDON, December 19. (FROM OUR OWIJ CORRESPONDENT.) Buyers of Christmas presents havo been asked by the Countess Bathurst to look in at the offices of the League of Empire, where there is now exhibited some beautiful work, done by the Lace School of the Island of St. Helena. During the last few years a great improvement has taken place in th© St. Helena lace industry. It was in 1906 that tho Government decided to remove the. small garrison which had hitherto been stationed at the island. This meant practical ruin to the islanders. Most of tho moro prosperous inhabitants left for England or the Cape, and the plight of the poorest was great. One or two industries were suggested, but the lace industry met with the greatest success. The Colonial Office gave a grant,'and two teachers "were sent out, and a small committee of ladies in London advised on the kind of work most suitable for sale. The inhabitants of the island are now making a Drave struggle against adversity. SHIPPING TRADE OUTLOOK. Considerable astonishment has been caused in shipping circles by Sir Walter Runciman's statement, at Sunderland, in connexion with a launching ceremonial, when he announced that the suddenness of the recent collapse in freights was unprecedented in bis experience, and that, furthermore, the prospects pointed to a very bad period of depression during which "only up-to-date boats would be able to keep running." Shipping men in the city do not endorse these views. It is pointed out that although the freight market has become quiet of late, yet shipowners are still working on a remunerative basis, and do not doubt their ability to continue to 'do so. If next.year's crops prove to he unsatisfactory the demand for ocean transport will at once undergo a great reduction, but there is no reason to anticipate, such a development any more than a slump in other forms of commercial enterprise. FOREIGN VEGETABLES. Large consignments of foreign fruit and vegetables have been arriving in London during the past few days, and will be used chiefly for salads. Five very fashionable vegetables for making salad are laitue, romaine la manche, fenocchi, and barbo dcs Capucines; besides which there are the-"better-known chicory and endive. Barbes dcs Capucines (literally Capucine's beard) is not unlike sea-kaie in appearance, and it has a peculiarly bitter, though pleasing, favour. Laitue is simply a | tiny cabbage lettuce. The nicest of i them all, perhaps, is fenocChi,\ an Italian cross between celery and onion, with ! a feathery top like asparagus. Then j there are fresh green peas from Algiers, and fresh asparagus from San Remo. DEARER QUININE. The price of quinine has again been raised, this being the second advance announced by the makers since the agreement was signed between the American and European manufacturers of quinine and the growers in Java of the cinchona tree, from the bark of which quinine is produced. This agreement has the effect of regulating tho output of cinchona bark, and, consequently, of quinine, but it requires- the manufacturers of quinine to purchase from the producers of the bark the equivalent of about a million ounces of quinine a year at a regulated price. It is anticipated- that further advances will take place. The present price is about 40 per cent, higher than that quoted about three years ago, when the lowest figure ever reached was recorded.

OLIVE GROWING. One of the chief assets "of popular wealth in Tunis is the production of olives. The trees grow everywhere, but the large forests lie on the east coast. Roughly speaking, there is only one very good year in four. Thus 1909 was very moderate, 1910 good, 1911 very moderate again, 1912 good v and 1913 offers every prospect of being quite exceptionally good. It is estimated that the output will double tfyat of 1912, in which olive oil was exported to the value of £825,000. The large bulk of olives is crushed to make oil, some, and chiefly residues, being used for the manufacture of soap at Sousa. Thero is an excellent quality of table olives, but so restricted in quantity as not to exceed local consumption. In the favoured region (Le Sahel) fine olive trees are worth from £6 to £8, elsewhere the value ranges from 16s to 30s. DISHONEST TRADESMEN. During 1912 no fewer than 9307 cases of adulteration were discovered by inspector, of the Food and Drugs Act, and here are some of the methods adopted:— . ' Butter: with foreign fat, boracic acid, and containing an excess, of water. Cheese: An excess of water, deficiency in fat. Dutch variety sold as Cheshire. Lard: Adulterated with bee stearine. .Flour: Excess of calcium sulphate, and containing nitrites. Sugar: Beet and cane, artificially coloured, sold as Demarara. Adulterated with starch. Jam: Artificially dyed, containing traces of arsenic or lead. Adulterated with salicylic acid. Pepper: Containing j_ypsum and ground rice. Wines: Adulterated with salicylic acid and glucose. Spirits -. Adulterated with water, foreign spirits, and glycerine. Drugs: Apricot kernel oil sold as almond oil. Suet: Rico added. Rice: Mineral matter added. CONTAMINATED MILK. In regard to the sale of milk, it is stated that in a large number of cases milk is sold in conjunction with miscellaneous articles in small general shops, which open directly upon the living room of the family, and the , conditions under which it is stored there for sale to the poorer section of the working class often "-leaves much to be desired. One borough council has, by resolution, expressed the opinion that the presence in a milkshop of such articles as paraffin, loose pickles, fish, fresh meaf. vegetables or coals, constitutes a source of contamination and renders the shop unsuitable for tho sale of milk. Public analyses have shown that milk has been found to contain as much as 3.5 grains of dirt per gallon.