ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVI, Issue 43108, 22 June 1907, Page 4

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

In 1856 the population of New Zea- j land (exclusive of Maoris) was 45,540; jn 1905 it was 882,462. The suction ga® plant being erected at the Monowai by Mr H. H. Adams is approaching completion, and will be at work, ini a d!ay or so. Mr T. A. Coleman, secretary of the East Coast Native Trust Board, has been appointed to succeed the late Mr Harding as Commissioner. The appointment has been received with general expressions of favour. Mir Coleman has been secretary to the Board since its establishment in 1902.. Our Auckland correspondent writes as follows: —‘Captain D. Urquhart, Me of the Hazel Craig, has been appointed to the command of the barque Jessie Craig, vice Captain Mathieson. who is to take command of the Aldebaran. Captain E. Savory, late of the Pedotas, has: taken charge of the Hazel Craig.” At the R&marama Roman Catholic Church a presentation was made to the Misses Higgins, who are about to leave the district' for Mackaytown. Mr D. Maher, on behalf of many friends, presented each withi a gold necklet chain with cross pendant. The Rev. Father McMillan ©poke in eulogistic terms of the two ladies.

News from Melbourne states that Jim Jeffries will referee in the SquiresBruns match on July 4. Sid Russell after leading all the way, defeated Tim Murphy in two round®' at Sydney, ‘Snowy’ Sturgeon beat Han Ham in six rounds.

Mir Duncan Stelfox, of Manchester, is travelling New Zealand with a view to arranging for the export of New Zealand produce to Manchester direct. The Manchester Ship Canal can accommodate the largest cargo boats in the world, and yet goods from New Zealand are transhipped for Manchester. The population of the district is 13,000,000, and -Mr Stelfox believe® that extensive business on a direct basis will result. He ha® already shipped 100,000 ft of white pine from Greymouth, and will shortly interview the timber merchants of the North Island. Our Waihi correspondent writes: “A man named Steir met with a very painful accident while working in the Waihi mine. A piece of quartz fell from the roof and struck him on the hand, making a very nasty gash. He was attended to by a doctor, who found it necessary to insert) several stitches into the wound.

The Taihape Post states that information ha® been received that Taihape will be the principal changing station for the Auckland-Wellington service, and that £16,000 will be spent on improving the railway station.

The Minister of Mines ha® granted a subsidy of £ for £ up to £IOO to>wards the cost of sinking the shaft in the Caledonian (mine at Larry’s Creek near Reefton, a further depth of 100 ft. The prospect® are said to be very good'. In a speech at Milton Mr James Allen. MJ.HLR., siaidi: “I think the real solution of the difficult labour question is to make the early conditions of the labourer’s life healthy, to make his bringing up the best we can give him, to make his education the best we can v give him, and to tum- him out the best workman that we can turn out.” It was asserted by Mr E. H. Buchanan, the president of the New Southi Wales Master Builders’ Association, annual dinner, that mxF j, . of timber in New South Wales 1 than out of agricultural or grazing industries, and for that reason, among others, he suggested that the Govern ment ©houdl check, the exports of hardwood. Forest conservation, he Said, existed merely in name in New South Wales. “On the whole,” remarked Professor Anderson Stuart, in a lecture to th!e Ladies’ Hygienic Association at Sydney, “the greater muscular development of the calf of the leg marks the most intelligent nations. There is a distinct connection between the shape of the foot, ankle, and. leg on the one 'hand, amid on the other the size and shape of the hand, and thus the degree of intelligence.” Professor Stuart Wa® delivering a lecture on “Feet) and Foot-Gear,” and was referring to the fact that a high-heeled boot Weakened the calf muscles. Though the exact distinction of cause and effect may be questioned by some person® (remark® the Sydney Morning Herald), little doubt was left in the minds of those who heard the lecture that the use of high heels is an undoubted proof of either ignorance or lack or brains.