NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 25 July 1925, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

C 3 A MINCTC IN FINKS. CONDON, -May 17. There was a financial slump at Sutton Police Conn yesterday when a modest t"v_> only was collected Iroin motorists, as compared with the re-cord-making L'l.'ll paid in tines hv 43 motorists last week. Owing to the unsettled weather, motoring business lias been had everywhere tfnd garages are also complainitit£ <>i poor returns. The T'o'2 was contributed by 29 motorists who wore convicted of exceeding the 10-mile limit in Sutton main street. The 23 cases were disposed of in linlo more than half an hour, and the money flowed in at the rate of more than A 3 a minute. Sutton has a set rate of charges. First offenders yesterday who answered in person were charged i'3. I hose wini did not appear and sent no adequate excuse paid AM. and second offenders Co. One defendant, a barrister, wanted to know all about- the trap and how it-' was worked. He was told that one policeman with a stop-watch stood by

;> lamp-post close to AYorccsrer-earden? and another also with ;i stop-watch, liv 'the third tree to the sotitfh of Grange-road. As the hack axle of his car came in line with the lamp-post the policeman there started his stop-watch and dropped bis arm as a signal to the policeman by the tree, who also started his watch. When the hack axle came in line with the tree the process was reversed. Result, he covered 22-j yards in 17 .'i-j secs., or, in fumble language, lie was travelling at 2d miles an hour. The barrister said his speedometer reading never went above Id m.p.h. and the case was adjourned for evidence about the accuracy of the speedometer and the police timing.

Money collected in motoring lilies goes toward upkeep of the roads. If the money collected in Sutton were earmarked for Sutton the ro.uls ought to be perfect. STATK MONOPOLIES KAIL. Rr.YKtAVnt (Iceland), May 1-1. The Icelandic Tobacco Monopoly, having existed three years, has been definitely abolished by Parliament as it has not given the expected returns, besides being regarded as undesirable. For 2 years the Government monopolised petroleum, and this lias al.-•> given an unsatisfactory result by high prices. Parliament lias now passed a resolution that from January, 1020, importation will he free and the Government shall trade in competition with the other importers. AMONG Tll M JI KA l)-H I NTERS. <J. J. (Jilin in " Daily Mail.") There are lew more dangerous occupations than collecting camphor. Kormosa. which practically produces the world's supply of camphor, is inhabited by a rate of head-hunters whose intractable savagery is v. ithoul equal to-day. Thousands o! lampnor gatherers, ihiolly imported Chinese, have paid toll with their heads. Scattered through the island, for the purpose of distilling the drug Irom logs, arc approximately 5,0.« l -tills, run by small communities ol workers and protected by Japancs ■■ troops. Tin's measure of protection is not always enough to awe the head-hunters, who, without warning, sweep out of the forests and fall upon the 'ullages on their errand oi destruction. Formosa is the only country in the world where large forests of camphor trees still remain. An idea of toe tremendous wealth contained in these for ests may be gained I rein the lari that one tree alone, with a girth at the foot of 12 feet, camphor to the value of Cl.lint) has been distilled. The .Japanese Government has no injtuition of allowing the aborigines’ taste in skulls to lontimie to interfere with one of it- lies! valuable monopolies. 11l addition to the subsidy of 1 1 a SOO.n-i wbc. Ii it has vot'd t"Uuids the industry's more. rapid development. it is addin ; every year more troops to the large number resident in the island. Unless {lie head-hunters at. .p( civilised conditions in the near I'ul lire, they face invasion and summary defeat, if Hot extermination.