THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 21, 23 January 1913, Page 7

THROUGH Our EXCHANGES.

The Dominion tolls the following story; A few days ago a certain steamer was lying at one of the Wellington wharves almost ready to sail for Auckland. A young man who had put all his baggage aboard was leaning over the rail awaiting the departure. Another man, totally strange to the one first referred to, went aboard, and after awhile approached the man who was leaning over the rail. “Are you going up on this boat?” asked Hie more recent arrival on the vessel, “i am,” was the reply. “Well, she does not sail for a while, let us go for a walk.” The pair walked about the city, and incidentally went into a fashionable hotel where the beer that is brown was looked upon. They had left the hotel and got a few yards along the footway when the man who had gone aboard second of the two ejaculated, “By Jove, I was staying at that hotel, and 1 nearly forgot to pay my bill. Lend me some money till we get back to the boat! I haven’t got enough on me, old chap.” The other produced a £lO note, and the man who had asked for the temporary accommodation hurried into the hotel. He has not been seen since. Neither has his “tenner.”

By the narrowest margin imaginable Gisborne escaped a serious gunpowder explosion on Thursday last, says the Poverty Bay Herald. It appears that the grass across Stanley road at, Awapuni was discovered or. fire, and word was sent to the Borough yards. Fortunately a trap happened to be handy, and the Borough overseer, Mr Dart on, and one or two other members of the staff hurried oft post haste, and only just succeeded in beating out the dames that by this time had actually surrounded the two powder magazines. In fact, in one instance, the grass was burnt to within one foot of the magazine, and there was danger of the dames entering through the ventilators. The extreme danger associated with their task Mr Darton and others failed to realise at the time, both magazines being full of explosives. For a time the dames threatened the native pa in the neighbourhood, and the prospect of being burnt out caused great consternation amongst the Maoris, who, howevey, were induced to co-op-erate, and succeeded in beating out tnt fire before it had done any damage.

Some remarkable information regarding Australian liquor laws is gathered by the Sydney Daily Telegraph from a Canadian newspaper that has just come to hand. This veracious journal, published in Brampton, a town of about 5000 inhabitants, states; — “The Australian liquor law is the best after aIL In Australia they allow as many saloons as there arc men willing- to pay the registration fee. Every man who drinks, or expects to drink, in a saloon must go to the City Hall, and take out a license in the shape of a brass check, on which is stamped a number, and for this he pays dve dollars a year, and must always carry it with him. Before he can get a drink in any saloon he must -display that brass check. A barkeeper looks over his books and tallies his drink or drinks. Failure to do this or selling a man a drink without having been shown the brass check means the actual and absolute dosing of the saloon, and there is no appeal. Every morning a black list is sent out from the City Hall to each saloon, and woe unto any barkeeper \vho sells a drink to a man whose name is on that list. Now, you see the revenue must be ten times greater than if only-the saloon paid the license, for in that country, at least, there must be many drinkers, not so much of whisky, because of the climate, but of the light wines and beer. There is a public record of every man who takes a drink and the number of drinks he takes in the course of the day, week, month, or year.”

Australia (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) is a large importer of moving picture films, but it also does a large business in the way of film export. With so many pictures coming into the country each week, it must be obvious that, did the films remain, there would be stored up somewhere a mighty mass of used-up pictures, awaiting the touch of some stray match to bring about their removal from the already overcrowded stockrooms. But film-dealers do not do that. The proceeding would be dangerous and unprofitable. They have in China an unlimited market for every film that can be sent away,'and rarely a ship

sails from Sydney to Shanghai, or any other of the ports on the China Sea, without its supply of films which have been exhausted in Australia, and which are awaited at their destination as eagerly as those which reach Sydney by each English and American mail. And if picture shows exist in China to the same extent that they do in Australia—which, by the way, is quite unlikely—the Chinese market is not likely to be overstocked for many years to come. In the Philippines, too, there is a big demand for second-hand films, in supplying which Australia also plays her part.

A Melbourne lady has been placed in an uncomfortable plight through being caught in a thief-preventing device at the Melbourne General Post Office. The Melbourne General states that on New Year’s Eve a lady wished to post a bundle of letters at the General Post Office. They jammed in the letter-box, and she gave them a forcible push. Her hand passed right through the combs, which are intended to prevent thieves from abstracting letters from the boxes. In a second she was caught, and her embarrassment at once caused a crowd to collect. With tire best intentions, they appeared likely to do the lady serious injury. Some advised a long pull, and strong pull, and pull altogether. Others, more astute, suggest cd enlarging the already large letterslit with a crowbar so that the lady could go right through and emerge from the inside of the post office. Others counselled trying a side-ways pull, but, against this, the lady herself protested. After a very bint: time, and the gathering of a (vo vd that threatened to block the traffic at. the junction of Bourke and Elixabc.h Streets, it occurred to someone to get the help of the officials inrid". a wl in a little time the lady, t: ar;V! and a little dishevelled, but unhurt, was sot free. 1 The following letter, sent by a New Zealand up-country farmer m an Australian machinery firm, whoso iepresentative “happened around”,—to mind things some little time ago, may bo said to be more eloquent than elegant:—‘‘What do you send a man tc

repare my roper and binder that nows nothin about it the cross peaces he put on- broke the furst time i use the machine and the seat bar snapt and damneer killed me if i had i would have slide your form for damages, the man told me the mettaal he put it was unbreakkable but it is brittle! - nor glass now i have to employ men cutting the crops with scithes. come an take yore rotten old machine awa and refun's me the 20 pound deposit i paid or i will go to law. do you thing im goino to get tore to pices an cvery bone ill my bodie broke with your old ramshakle hurdygerdy and pay yore man 4 pounds every time he comes up for repares, if you are willin to send yore man at onct an fixt it proper i will pay you balanse but i wan it fixt so it wont brake again for i can never lorn how to fixe a mystery like this if you dont do this ile see the lot of you in hell befor ill pay you the balims and su for the deposit as well, you may think my langage ungentelmanly but if youd fallen in the machine and hadnt a soun spot in yore bodie and tore all yore close inter the bargin i rekon youd be pritty mad to and had to pay 10 pounds for cutting the crop after all not to speke of the mens taker.” • A nice point was raised in the Magistrate’s Court at Christchurch on Saturday in a trespass case. A number of men were found on Friday night on the premises in Manchester Chambers, used as a meeting place fo'r lodges and unions. One was charged with being illegally on the premises. The defence contended that there was nothing in the Police Offences Act to apply to 'a building of this class. The case was dismissed. The Act enumerates certain classes of premises, and a public hall is not included.

Commissioner Richards, of the Salvation Army, on his return to Wellington from the north, made an interesting statement respecting the Army’s fish and bacon curing factory at fauranga. “We inaugurated the factory,” he said, “to relieve the Maori population of a measure of the distress in which they then existed—about six or seven years ago. We furnished the factory, and had the smoked fish sent to Auckland. The real object of the industry was to assist the Maoris to get on the land. To-day >ve find that wo Have 1 achieved that object.", When I wfi’s there I saw splendid &kds of maiy.fi ; find kumeras. The Mapvv? are and we shall probauWiy dispose of the business to an Auckland firm. "The real reason for winch"we started 1 the business has now disappeared. not engage in competitive husipfiss. Me simply engage in business for the general and particular benefit of humanity. Me could, if we so desired, run the establishment as a great bacon and fishclining ■ factoryV'l but thenifarmers * firfiii abW to do that - for themselves.” \Uoia >n: ik ■- T()Ot new Rpmap Catholic Cathedral at - Wellington) is to be built so as to re^Wt'earthquakes- Mr. J. S. Swan is tub architect,'and lie lias given ins design a Remaps form, with a touch here and there of the Florentine Renaissance. The site of this fine building lies between Brougham Street and Dufferin Street. The chief feature ithe material, which is being used in order to be proof against myth tremors, so frequent. The foundations will be formed of solid concrete, with concrete piles under the towers and main piers. The footings will be of reinforced concrete, and brick walls, faced on the outside with Milestone. Above the floorline, the walls will be framed with steel, with hearting i reinforced concrete, faced on the outside with bricks and stone dressings. The floors will be reinforced concrete, finished with rubber tiles and parquetry. The roof of the aisles will also be of reinforced concrete, and the domes of the towers will be of breeze concrete covered with copper. The only timber to be used in the structure will be for the purlins and backings in the roof, the woodwork to carry the metal ceilings, and the doors.

Farming under dOfi. of water would seem to he rather difficult. It is both difficult and expensive work, and is done upon a vast scale. There are farms under -(Oft., dOft., and even 60 ft. of salt water. Sometimes more than 20,000 acres under a single management. These farms do not produce grain, but oysters. They are sometimes more extensive and expensive than the vast grain fields of the west. Oyster grounds have been sold for £l4O an acre, all under water. The crop is propagated, seeded, planted, protected, removed, replanted, manured, and harvested all by steam power, large steamers being employed capable of patching 1200 bushels ef oysters per hour from these grounds. These oyster grounds, as may be readily seen, are no longer in the little creeks, estuaries, and rivers where natural oysters formerly grew, but are in the great open bays and sounds, where the ground is swept by the deep, pure current of the salt sea .water, and where the product of oysters is always pure and delicious. This is modern culture, which has practically replaced the small, natural oyster fishery.