MISCELLANEOUS.

Otaki Mail, Volume 27, 3 December 1919, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

A < pearl weighing forty grains was found by a diver at Perth and sold for £4OOO.

All American's who lost their lives in the Lusitania have been exhumed at Queenstown and are being shipped for reburial to the United States.

A large English mail is on board the Moana, which left San Francisco on the loth inst., and should arrive in Wellington on December 7. France and Poland have signed an agreement by which 100,000 Polish workmen will go to France to aid in the reconstruction of the devastated regions.

Robert MeMorran, a rubbiter, who was burned in his tent at Lindis Pass, died at Cromwell Hospital, on Friday. He was single and aged 50. His mother resides at Dunedin.

j At Christchurch on Thursday, in a military aeroplane, Captain Isitt made a New Zealand altitude record of £I,OOO feci - . The previous record did not exceed 10,000 feet.

At a meeting of the Trenthnm Dominion Art Union Committee it was announced that the net result of the art union at November L’Sth was £37,250 0s Scl. The accounts in connection with the art union have been audited and approved. Mr Aysdii, the New Zealand Inspector of Fisheries, sailed from Sydney by the Rivcriua, after inspecting the fisheries in the various States. He intends to recommend New Zealand to adopt extensively the New South Wales methods of oyster culture.

Sir Poynton, S.M., Auckland, in his .reserved judgment in respect of a claim for £BS by Mrs Catinan, of Whanganui, concerning a suit case she left on a seat at the Albion Hotel while booking a room, and which subsequently disappeared, held that the hotelkeeper was liable, and gave judgment for £3O, the hotelkeeper’s liability being limited to that extent.

The Bank of England has the right to sell beer without a license. This privilege was granted to the bank in. its charter of incorporation under date 27 tli July, 1094. And. so the bank, if it liked, could open a bar in Tlireadnecdie street, or could send waggons round from door to door. Needless to say, however, it has never attempted to exercise the privilege.

America had a record birthrate last year, despite the war. Statistics just compiled show that thero were 270,000 births in the United States in 1918, or 27,000 in excess of the previous year. This extraordinary war-time record is due to the fact that the Government did not call the married men to the colours, the American army being composed almost exclusively of bachelors. “Profiteering!” exclaimed a Wellington restaurateur speaking to a “Post” reporter; “profiteering!” he said again, and then went on (or “off”) on these lines: —“A lady came into my tea-rooms and had a cup of tea, for which she. paid 4d. When she had left there went with her one hot water jug, value Is 9d; one teapot, 2s 9d; one sugar spoon, 2s; one plate, Is 2d; total, 7s Sd. Where does profiteering come in?”

Mr Powdrcll, one of the Government candidates for Paten, said perhaps they would ask why he was a prohibitionist Drink was destroying humanity. Their produce was worth a hundred millions a year, and it was estimated that 10 per cent was lost ’Trough drink. Allowing only 5 per cent, it meant a tremendous loss. In 1918 there were 7295 convictions for drunkenness, but how many were not convicted? They lurd an army of 70,000 young fellows getting drunk, and still they voted continuance. They should change these young men from spenders to savors, and should encourage them -to make it easier for them to get their own homes if they only put down £lO. Later they might have 10 or .50 acres. What they wanted to do was to give the young fellows an opportunity, and giving them drink did not mean that.