NEWS ITEMS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XII, Issue 1074, 16 December 1903, Page 3

NEWS ITEMS.

Upon the death of an old woman in Paris who passed for a beggar, L63G5 in consols and money, was found in her bed. The Devon (England) oat crop is Heavier than it lias been ior years. At Colyton, a single stalk has lEea found to bear 319 grains. Parisian street lamps will in future bear various colored signs. A green light will indicate a tramway stopping-place, blue a fire-station, red (with white inscriptions) the police offices, and the .Geneva red cross an ambulance station. A monument depicting an artist at work is, it is understood, to be erected over the grave of the late Phil May. Thus the Christchurch Press on the Victoxia memorial grunt: The nalutal inference from the Premier’s action is that he was afraid the vote would not be carried if the House had suificient time and opportunity to debate it in the ordinary way. The result is that a contribution which the Premier admits the people were not likely, to make voluntarily jn 19(11, and which he then

thought they, ought not to he even asked to contribute,' js now extracted from their representatives practically by main force. What is even worse is the fact that the Premier further tells us that if the people of New Zealand object to his course of action, it is a proof that the adulation of the past was not sincere. This, in the face cf Mr Seddon’s own statement of 1901, as to the ample manner in which the people had shown in practical form, their appreciation of the late Queen is not only unjust, nut it is an insult to the

loyal colonists of New Zealand. We do not suppose that one ot ‘ them grudges the vote of £15,000, although the Commonwealth ot Australia has not thought it necessary to make any such grant. The public have every reason, however, to' complain ot the way in which the vote Was forced through Parliament, and the Premier has no right to fling an insult in their teeth with the object of stilling the tree expression of their opinion.' The exorbitant rents many ot the brewers exact for their houses and the severe conditions they impose make it often impossible for their tenants to pay their way except by unlawfully and disastrously pushing the sale of drink, and the shortness of their leases gives to the tenants no interest in caring what may be the result of the next local option polls compared with making all the money they can during the unexpired brief interval remaining to them of tn.eir leases. In- the absence of any reasonable prospect of improvement! it will not be surprising if the fiat of the people goes forth to end what no warning seems sufficient to mend. —Wanganui Chronicle.

There are some men who would rather steal a fortune than make it honestly (says Christchurch Truth). A recent cable indicated that certain American Trust magnates sometimes employ methods that w T ould get a poor man a term of imprisonment without the option. Mr Ohas. M- Schwab, who rose Irom being nobody in particular to the position of a financial emperor, appears to have attempted to smash the Shipbuilding Company (which he had assisted to construct) by unloading something on it for £0,000,000,- “ well-kndwing that it was not worth £2,000,000.” The information with which we supplemented this cable message (continues Truth) supplies ample proof, if proof were needed, of the corruption of Trust methods. Mr Schwab nearly smashed the Steel Trust when he was compelled to resign from its presx'dency, and he also badly damaged the Shipbuilding Trust. I-Ie must have become intoxicated with his success—drunk with the fascination of his financial genuis. The only comforting phase of this sordid melee of magnates is the partial righting of the wrongs of the hclpr less bondholders,- wdiosei fortunes are the checker pieces in the game of million-making.