ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43218, 22 August 1907, Page 1

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Those whose 'business draws them courfcwards are often struck with the immense amount of talking and. arguing over debt cases, and there rises in the mind ai picture of emir'” courthouses, idle'magistrates, clerks, solicitors, debt collectors and -bailiffs in that far-off day when credit shall be no inorei 'A,re we in this twentieth century perceptibly nearing that goal? Or are we keeping "up 1 the old, old customs, tiresome and troublesome? Despite the establishment of cash trading; concerns in. almost every town, it seems that the credit system is growing larger and universally comiahon year after year.—Taranaki News.'

The Department’of-Agriculture has decided to take tests as to the practical valhe of the' principle of pasteurisation as applied to butter-making. Certain-'boxes l of pasteurised hotter will- be {held in a. cool store in the colony and treated under much the same conditions as ■butler to he distributed, on British markets. Along with the pasteurised! butter will be stored butter made under ordinary conditions. Tims at the end of the time corresponding with that which it would take for butter; to get into the hands of the British consumer, a fair idea may he obtained as to how buffer from pasteurised milk would compare with butter from unpasteurised milk. ■ Our Ka.rangabake correspondent writes:—“Mi- Hugh Poland, M.H.U., is to be in the district this week. The members of the local branch of the Thames Miners’ Union have invited Mr Poland to meet them at the Karan.ga.hake Union Hall on Tuesday, with a view to bringing one or two j items of interest 'before his notice."

A correspondent writes" Some years ago when it was proposed to put a preferential duty on sewing machines in Victoria, the Melbourne Age. which was and is still the leading protectionesf paper in Australia published a leading article dealing with the matter in very scathing language some of the points of which may well be taken to heart by our own. Government at the present time. The opposition raised in Parliament and in the countrv generallv induced the Government in Victoria to withdraw' the intended tax.”

'An extraordinary case of police espionage in a bookmaking case at BilsYon, Was heard the other day when a bookmaker . w fined £2l for offences under the Street Betting Act. It was shown that a policeman was concealed in a large hamper, placed upon a. trolley, which he had engaged a man to nnsh up and down the street. *He said he saw clearly through the ■ hamper all'-the doings of the bookmaker, and arranged, with his man to cut the string fastening the lid at a given signal.

.It is the opinion of the Dunedin Star that only one word of advice can be giyen to any young man who is thinking of qualifying for the position of engine-driver. It is Mr Punch’s celebrated “Don’t!” This department of industry is now enormously over 12,000. For the last three years the average number seeking to qualify in Otago anrl Southland "has been something like 200 per annum. It is the old awkward ease of supply, and demand. When the dredging • boom started all sorts of unqualified drivers were sought! after. Fullv qualified men for this class of'work are now walking about. £war of reviving the volunteer ?nfc ha,s been suggested to the r; Star by an ex-volunteer officonsiders that if an effort ' Present to form an exvr it could be acc-om-pJish©o%Tthout much difficulty. There would 'he no need for them, to be kept at drill. J This could largely he done away with in thpir cnse, and instead of hawing to turns out for drill, they might meet • once a week, .when lectures could be given and papers read. Then once a year they might spend a week or ten. daws in field work. He feels sure that if something* of this kind was put into practical shape it would meet with success among exvolunteers. After the great fire in Francisco hundreds of tons of lead and zine and - other metals were found fused into a solid inns'?, four or pew! feet'.thick, coyer-m., -\ c entire found,-,-j tion of (he ruins of • old shni : rover.! This represents a large money value; but owing to its enormous size and •" weight it is quite impossible to make use of the metal hv any ordinary means. It has been decided, therefore, to cut the metal up into blocks "weighing about one ton each, and this work is now being accomplished by means, of a© electric arc. All the men.who aPe engaged in cutting dr melting the channels through the I mass of metal have their faces covered 'with. canvas to protect them from 'Jhq blinding glare of light. It is heliev;,ed that the Work will occupy the - whole of the winter, for it is estimated that over 1 200 tons of lead, zinc, and tin pbill remains to he recovered;-