TOPICS OF THE MONTH.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5401, 19 July 1878, Page 2

TOPICS OF THE MONTH.

Tiib - trusters of the Hutt Park Racecoarse Reserve, judging from what transpired at the meeting held on the 3rd July, appear so far to have been fairly successful in the management of the property placed in their care. They havensmtvllbalanceinliand, and expect tobe able shortly to pay off a mortgage of £230, which appears to be the only encumbrance on the estate. There is now a tolerably good road to the course, and the trustees entertain sanguine, expectations that a branch railway will bo niado to it from Petone. The cost of this undertaking is estimated iu round numbers at £3OOO. The supporters of the undertaking calculate that the passenger traffic on race

days alone would pay a fair interest on that amount, and something over. From, an engineering point of view there are no difficulties whatever to be encountered in the construction of this line. The only difficulty is the financial'one of the cost of a bridge over the Hutt River. If the trustees of the property, the Jockey Club, and the general public unite together in the matter, there can bo no doubt, especially if a probable subsidy from the Government be also taken into a'count, that the work can be easily accomplished, and there appears every probability of its proving ultimately a remunerative undertaking.. With the improvements that have been made from time to time, Wellington can now boast of a very fair racecourse, but if it could be reached by railway a much larger number of visitors would be drawn to it on race days than at present, and if this end can be accomplished, os it is stated it can be, for .£3OOO, it seems apity that it should not be obtained. Some of the laud in the vicinity of the course is well adapted for building sites, and this extension of the railway would undoubtedly tend to the pro-perty-owners cutting up their sections into smaller allotments, and offering them to public competition, with mutual advantage to both vendors and purchasers, as has been done in so many instances lately with respect to suburban properties. The returns of traffic on the New Zealand Railways for the four weeks ending June Ist, 1878, and for the corresponding period of 1877, were published in a New Zealand Gazette issued, on July 4th as follows ;

The working account for the financial year 1877-78, to the termination of the four-weekly period ended Ist June last, shows the following results :— Length open for traffic, 1037 miles; four-weekly revenue, £50,608 17s. Id. ; total revenue to date, £512,849 17s. 6d.; total expenditure to date, £368,725 ss, Id.; percentage of expenditure to revenue, 71*89. It will be observed that the revenue from the railways for the period referred to, embracing nearly the whole of the financial year 1877-78, exceeded the expenditure by £144,124. This is a most gratifying fact,’ and goes far to prove that the extension of railways will be met with a corresponding increase of revenue. A Gazette issued on June 20 contains the Regis-trar-General’s report on the’ vital statistics of the Boroughs of Auckland, Thames, Welling•tpn, Nelson, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hokitika, during the month of May, 1877, jErom which we take the following :

The births wore 9 fewer than in April; the deaths were 6 less in number than the deaths in April, Of the deaths, males contributed 51; females, 45; 37 of the deaths were of children under 5 years of age, being 38'54 per cent, of the whole number ; 28 of these were of children under 1 year of age. There were 5 deaths of persons over 65 years of age : 2 of these persons were males and 3 were females; 1 female of 76 died in Wellington; 1 female of 91 at Nelson ; 1 male of 67 and 1 female of 77 at Christchurch ; and 1 male of 70 at Dunedin. 96 deaths were registered in the seven boroughs during May, against a total of 102 during April., At the Boroughs of Thames, Nelson, and Dunedin, there were fewer deaths in May; but in the other boroughs the number of tleaths was slightly greater than in April. Of the Zymotic diseases there was a marked decrease in the number of deaths from diseases of the Miasmatic order, the numbers having been 28 in April against 14 in. May; of these deaths those from Whooping Cough were 3 less in number than in April; those from Typhoid and Continued Fever 4 less, and those from Dysentery and Diarrhoea 8 less. But there was a large proportionate increase in deaths from Diseases of the Respiratory System, the number having increased from 6 in April'to’ls in May, owing to the large number of deaths from Bronchitis and Pneumonia. The deaths from Phthisis increased from 5 in April to 9 in May. The subjoined table shows the mortality for the two- months at each town from six 'principal Zymotic diseases of the Miasmatic order and also the deaths from certain inflammatory diseases of the lungs. These causes of death have been distinguished from the others of- the classes to which they belong, as being the most important special diseases which give rise to sudden increase in the death-rates of towns, and the prevalence of which is closely connected with sanitary condition and climatic influence of the season on health. Four deaths resulted from accident in the month of May. A carpenter was killed by falling from a scaffold ; one child was burnt, and another suffocated; and one accidental death was undesoribed as to'cause. The deaths during May, 1877, amounted to 104, being eight more than in May, 1878. In the former month scarlatina caused 14 deaths, but only one last month. —An abstract of meteorological observations for the month of March last is published, showing that, except in the southern stations, the rainfall was much below the average, and fine weather experienced. In the South, however, it was at times severe, and excessively wet and stormy. A slight earthquake was reported at Hokitika on the 11th at 9.35 p.m. At Wellington it is recorded that there was very dry weather during the month, the maximum rain recorded oh 10th, - 45 in.; almost constant N.W. wind and generally strong, especially on Bth, 9th, 16tb, 17th, 21st, and 24th, on the night of 9th reaching a gale, with rain; on the 4th S.E. storm, with rain and hail, also stormy on sth from same quarter ; towards the end of month the weather -more pleasant. On July Ist a provision by which people are able to send a cheap class of telegrams came into force. Some weeks ago particulars of the deferred telegram system were given in the Times, and in another column will now be found the regulations under which these messages may be sent. The department has adopted the word “ delayed ” for these telegrams, a word that leaves the impression that ssmeching neglectful or wrongful has been done, and the title “ deferred,” which has been used in otherplaces, or “postal telegram” would probably have been better. However,pcoplewillsoon understand that when they receive a “ delayed telegram ” it is not called so in consequence of auy default by the office. The regulations provide that a message of ten words, exclusive of the address, may be handed in at the telegraph office at Auckland, for instance, addressed to a person at Invercargill, and on payment of 7d. it will be transmitted in the evening, posted on receipt, and should the person to whom it is sent have a box at the post,'office, he will find the message there for, him the next morning, or if he has no such box, the letter-carrier will deliver ■ the message on his ordinary round. In this way an Auckland merchant writing a telegram on Monday evening can get an answer from Invercargill by Wednesday morning, at a cost of Is. 2d. The charge for: each word over ten is only Jd., a rate which will enable one to have a moderately long .business letter wired for a trifle, the cost of sending 50 words, including postage, being only 2s. 3d. This new tariff should be particularly convenient to persons residing in the more remote parts of the colony—for instance, to anyone living in the far interior of- Otago who was corresponding with a Dunedin merchant, or with, possibly, a friend at the Bay of Islands or Westport, places between which mere postal communication is necessarily slow. One advantage of the “ delayed” system will bo that the strain on the wires during business hours will be lessened, and persons wishing their messages sent promptly will get answers more expeditiously’ than is now the case. Owing to the great distance which separates the chief cities of this colony, correspondence is tedious, much time being occupied in the transmission of letters, and the “delayed telegram" is likely to be very largely used ns a su'hatitute for the letter. The system is certainly a good one, and it may be confidently expected that it will be taken advantage of by the public in a great degree. ■

# Kaipara section 1S78. £ s. d. 320 G 4 . Corresponding four weeks,’!?. £ b. d. 293 4 2 Auckland 2.953 17 0 . 1,021 0 2 1,077. 2 9 Napier 1,803*10 10 . Wellington 1,287 17 10 . 821 5 11 Wanuanui.. 1,710 3 11 . 606 5 3 New Plymouth. 370 14 1 . 244 16 3 Greymouth COS 17 10 . 742 4 8 Westport .. 110 0 5 . 127 10 O Nelson r*47 10 7 . 418 14 3 Picton - .. 403 3 2 . 458 16 9 Christchurch ' 27,497 17 2 . 25,117 11 10 Dunedin .. 9.171 18 4 . 7,354 0-11 Invercargill . 4.302 10 0 . 2,779 0 8

Boroughs. E timated population Total Births. Total Deaths. Proportion of Deaths to the 1000 of Population. Auckland 13,732 41 ' 19 1*33 Thames* 5,425 19 . 3 •65 Wellington 10,037 77 26 1-30 Nelson .. 0,603 18 7 • 1*06 Christchurch .. 13,402 42 20 1*49 Dunedin 22,401 88 16 72 Hokitika 3.244 11 6 1-54 Total.. - 296 06 —