Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 1 December 1891, Page 2

Notes and Events.

4 A London paper recently offered a prize for the beat definition of " money." The prize was awarded to Henry p. Baggs, of Sheffield. His definition was : "An article which may be used as a universal passport to everywhere except heaven and as a universal provider of everything except happiness." According to the Property Tax returns the real estate of the colony in the hands of private persons and companies is valued at about £90, 000,000. The mortgage indebtedness amounts to £30,000.000 and it should be evident enough that any policy which induces the withdrawal of this capital or forces an increase in the rate of interests, which amounts to much the same thing, cannot prove beneficial to the prosperity of the colony. It has frequently been pointed out that France >s losing and Germany gaining population. Here is one instance: — We should think it an exceptionable circumstance (says the London Evening Standard) for a whole year to pass without a aiegle birth being declared in a French commune. This, however, it seems was the case last year in the coramue

)f Charette, situated in the department of •Irene. From the first to ;he last day of 1890 there was not me birth— an unpredecented fact in she district ; and to make matters worse, so far as th^resent year has is yet run its cours^there has been ao addition to the population. The Mayor of the commune it appears, lias so taken the matter to heart ihat he has sent the drummer round the locality to announce that he (the Mayor) undertakes to present a gift —or as he puts it, ,a prize of lOOfr to any woman who gives birth to a living child in 1892. The- money is fco be handed over to the mother eight days after the declaration of birth at the mairie, it being stipulated that the parents shall have lived in the commune for at least one year, and that the child bern shall not be illegitimate. Here is the other :— Nowhere in Europe is the struggle for existence fiercer at the present moment than in Germany. The nation is growing at the rate of 18 per cent per annum, practically at about the same rate as the English. Allowing for deaths, there is an addition to the population of 600,000 yearly, which, deducting 200,000 who emigrate, leaves an increase of 400,000, for whom room must be made and food provided. " A full-grown wild boy, aged about 16 years, has been captured at Knoch's Point in Australia. His body is said to be covered with hair foui* inches long, the hair of his head being four feet long, and his nails five inches long. He was captured without very much difficulty, and the latest advices represent him as trying to speak." The King of Siam has just turned the first sod of the first railway in that country, marking an era in railway building in the east. Steam locomotion is making steady but not rapid progress in Asia, leaving India out of the question. The effects of the proposed taxa- ! tion becomes everyday more visible. An instance is given in the sale of the Great Peaks estate, which was bought by the late Mr Sanderson twenty- seven years ago from a part of the then Stonyhurst property at £2 per acre, and a fortnight ago it was sold at an average of £2 14s pei? acre. Five or six years ago MrSanderson had £50,000 offered by a well-known station owner, but the price of property has been affected by the proposals of the Government, and this low price, appears to be one of the unfortunate results of a want of confidence in the future, At the present time, when the country under notice is full of feed and pasturage, the evident fall in values is all the more notable. After twenty-seven years' holding of the property the owners now have only the very small return of from $ 8000 to £4000 as the increment upon their investment — a sum that must be most discouraging to persons owning similar property, and _as affecting the values of adjoining stations for assessment and taxable purposes. ____________