GENERAL NEWS.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2131, 13 July 1907, Page 1

GENERAL NEWS.

The demand for carpenters in Wellington is reported to be Heller tins winter than uitring the wet period o, last year. Competent men are coinmanuing high wages, and it is said that tUeru is every likelihood of trade being even brisker in tlio near future. Profiting by an error in connection with the ,"south Australian Senate election, the Department of Home Affairs lias framed specific regulations to ensure tho safety of ballotpapers for a lieriod under tho Rctcreiidtim Act. ~lf is provided that tlio ballot-papers must'bo preserved, aitti tlio polling, in tho custody of the divisional returning officer, until tlio result of the referendum can bo “110 longer in question.” A curious point under the Factories Act was determined at Melbourne recently in the Full Court in the case of Bishop v Chung Brothers, when it was decided that a firm can be prosecuted ns such, but the conviction must be recorded against tlio individual members of the firm. The case was remitted to tho magistrates for rc-lioaring. Nuptial knots have been tied at times in strange places and under peculiar conditions, but the place chosen for a wedding which has just taken placo was perhaps unique, the ceremony being performed 011 board a tug-boat in the Firth of Forth, not far from Leith. The contracting parties were Norwegians, the bridegroom, Captain Olson, being skipper of the steamer Unimak, while the bride was a lady named Miss Hansen. Miss Hansen, who is young and pretty. travelled all the way from Norway to take her place beside tlio bridegroom, but at the last moment it was discovered that the Scottish law forbade a marjriage in Scotland unless tho contracting persons had resided 21 days in the country. This was the difficulty which liiid to be faced, hut “necessity is the mother of invention,” and the parties succeeded in overcoming the obstacle which presented itself in the way of their immediate union. They hired a local tug, and along with some friends, including the chief mate and chief engineer of the skipper’s vessel and a Norwegian minister, they steamed out to, the Firth of Forth, where the knot was duly tied.

A motor-bus without passengers came tearing into the Boulevard" ties Italiens from a side street, says the Paris correspondent of the Daily Telegraph, ran into a cab, knocked it to pieces, and threw over the horse, tho cabman having luckilv just n-ot down, lurched across the road, then hack again, spreading terror, burbled off into the line Drouot, apparently bent on demolishing the Figaro office, hut changed its mind, and charged. into a bakery at the corner of the Rue Rossini. It stopped at last in a wreckage of loaves, rolls, tarts, and broken glass. Bv a miracle no one had been hurt. But the crowd which had collected was in a temper to damage tho chauffeur. He was dragged out of his seat, and tilings looked ugly for him. lint jio yelled. “Snare me I It was my first trial trip !” and the crowd was tickled and disarmed. The humor of such a trial trip struck them all, and they let him go.

“AVhy do not' English husbands I wear wedding rings?” writes a fair correspondent whoso better half is a German. “Aline l does, and 1 always led so safe about him. I know ho is never likely to raise false hopes in another girl’s heart, seeing that ho is labellod ‘married’ : and I do feel that, if every married man were similarly adorned, there would be fewer heart-burnings than tliero are, at present, among our sex.” All that can be suggested as a reason for English husbands not wearing badges of matrimony is that an Englishman is in honor bound to bis wife, and that anv outward sign is not necessary to keep him true to her. AVithout casting any reflection upon tho members of an honored profession, it is none the less a fact that tho litigant in Now Zealand rarelv knows where his law costs will land him. Possibly, in somo cases, that very uncertainty may deter him from having recourse' to tho law. The French litigant lias one advantage over his other suitors ; ho does know wlia't an action in which money is involved will cost him. It is regulated by law. A barrister and solicitor must be employed, and there may be jiortentous possibilities in that the client is responsible for all disbursements which his solicitor may think necessary. For the rest, the matter is fixed by scale. There is a “fee of advice” of 8s for sums up to £GO, and of 16s for sums over that amount. A “fee for formalities” amounts to 12s for sums up to £6O, and to 24s for sums of more than £6O. Thereafter the trial costs for a sum tip to £6O, a fee equal to 2.5 per cent.; over £6O and up to £2OO, 1.5 per cent. ; over £2OO and up to £4OO, .5 per cent. ; over £4OO and up to £4OOO, .25 per cent.; over £4OOO and up to £40,000, .16 per cent. ; above £40,000, .05 per cent. At the Jewish Club, AVellington, a lecture was given by Dr. T. I‘'. Alacdonnld on “The Prospective Settlement of Jewish Colonists in Northern Australia.” He stated that the climate of North Queensland and the Northern Territory was in no way inimical to white workers, and lie saw no reason why the sugar-cane industry of North Queensland should not support a large population of white colonists and settlers, and afford them profitable employment. The scheme for Jewish settlement was commendable, and there was a large tract of laud in North Queensland available for settlement. No land in the world excelled it in agricultural value. Should the Government be favorably disposed towards tlie Jewish immigration it only remained for a small number of immigrants to pioneer the districts and mako themselves thorougly familiar with the local conditions. A Jewish settlement in the Northern Territory would be a safeguard against an Eastern invasion. It might be, too, that some day Japan would apply to a Rothschild for a loan of a few millions of pounds for the purpose of a war to capture Australia, and at such a crisis the existence of some thousands of Jews settled at the vulnerable point of tho Commonwealth might bo the determining factor to lead to U refusal of the required loan. There were tliirtv thousand Jewish

agriculturists in Russia prepared to emigrate, and if they could be induced to settle in the Northern Territory their presence would benefit Australia, for the social and mutual aid instincts of the race were just the dualities required for agricultural success.

Some carious statistics come from southern Baden. During the recent enrolment of remits in the landau and Align districts, out of 604 young men liable for service, only twenty were found who were up to the physical standard required by the military authorities, 217 were placed on the doubtful list', and the unusual number of 367 were put aside as wholly unfit for service. It seems that the peasantry in those districts were at one time among the most robust in the empire, but owing in the first place to the dearness of meat, and to the fact that milk, which was one of their staole articles of food, is now carefully collected for cheese factories their physique has sunk to a dangerously low level. Their principal food for years has been potatoes and skimmed milk. In order to swell the Jamaica earthquake fund in Barbados the Governor recently authorised the issue of a special 2d stamp, surcharged “Kingstown Relief Fund, Id,” with the idea that the stamp should be used as an ordinary penny stamp, and that the fund should benefit by the other penny. It appears that inadvertently the inscription on one sheet of these stamps was printed upside down. A well-known philatelist immediately bought up the lot

at the rate of 4s* each. The moment the Governor heard of it, lie ordered that 6000 more should he struck off. It is easy to imagine the chagrin of the philatelist.

Amid the general chorus of congratulations that liavo been showered upon Lord Cromer on his retirement from Egypt, a harsh note is sounded by Air. H. It. Fox Bourne in the “Fortnightly Review.” The bulk of the article is directed towards showing that. Lord Cromer has consistently ignored the political requirements of the population of 10,000,000 Egyptians, while he has secured the predominance of British interests and the safeguarding of the interests of every foreign nationality represented in the country. Lord Cromer proposed in his last annual report- to establish in Egypt an International Legislative Council consisting of So members, among whom would be inculcled not only English oflieials in the service of the Egyptian Government, but also representatives of every European nationality having interests in Egypt. Mr. Fox Bourne opposes the proposal in good set terms, declaring that such a legislative body would impair the authority of the mixed tribunals and consular courts, would encroach upon the existing General Assembly and Legislative Council, and would deprive the Egyptian people of tlie political rights which Lord Cromer always professed that it was his aim to confer upon thorn when they were fitted to exercise them. The contributor expresses a hope that Sir Eldon Gorst, who is Lord Cromer’s successor, will not be commissioned by Sir Edward Grey to put the project into operation.

In the course of his remarks on “Japan” last week at tho Sydney University, Professor Starr Jordan astonished his hearers by announcing that, if there was to ho a clcavagp l>pe\veeii tlie white and colored races the Japanese must be classed as white. At

the present time one portion of Japan was inhabited by a race that was pure white. These, the aboriginal inhabi-

tants of Japan, who were despised by the Japanese, were undoubtedly of Caucasian origin. Among the Japanese generally there had certainly been an admixture of Chinese and Malay blood; but, in tlie upper classes, it was alight,'and they were of a much lighter color than the coolies. During his lecture Professor Jordan went lo some pains to defend the Japanese from the charges commonly levelled against them, asserting that they were no more immoral or overbearing than other races, while what apepared to be commercial dishonesty to Western eyes were really an inability to realise tliat the European would lie so discourteous as to demand the completion of a contract which had not proved so profitable as the Japanese party to it had expected. The audience was very cordial to Professor •Jordan personally, but apparently it had made up its mind on the subject of Japan, for the lecturer’s praises were coldly received, while his advice to Australia to preserve peace by preparing for war was loudly applauded. According to a report of Mr. C. J. Davidson, of the British Embassy at 'l’okio, Japan, seaweed products bring in 2,000,000 dollars a year. The coarser varieties of tho vegetable arc stewed and served with fish. Some ol the delicate sprigs of seagrass are boiled with fish soups and remain a vivid green, floating against the red lacquer of tlie soup bowls. Many other kinds of seaweed are used in the manufacture of glue, of plaster, and of starch. "Whole villages are given over to seaweed fishing, aiid the drying and packing of the product for shipment to the manufacturing plants ill the large cities. In the country along the seashore the farmers use the coarse and ropy kelp for fertilising their vegetable fields. In tlie last- few years the Japanese Government has taken up the subject of the seaweed industry. Experiments have been carried on in many places along the coast, with a view to increasing the yield of the deepwater algae. The Government offers a reward for the best method of producing iodine from sea plants.