CONSCIENCE MONEY.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 4 September 1907, Page 4

CONSCIENCE MONEY.

The United States Government is set- £ ting a noteworthy example to the world by its decision to cancel a large portion of the debt owing by China in connection with the liexer war. When the indemnity claims were formulated, it was found that llussia headed the list with a demand lor .Ui,iJUU,UUU. Germany sought ;CI2,OUU,UOO, France £ll,uuu,UOO, Britain £4,SUU,UUU., and America £4,bUU,UUU. The debts bear interest at i per cent, and are to bj extinguished in forty years. In six years the American Government has received about .tI,2bUUUU ; very little more than interest on. ihj original debt, and it is now scriosly proposed that when the payments aggregate the whole debt shall be extinguished. This will represent a concession of in capital, apart altogether from interest, and some of the American newspapers have been making calculations 10 show that the cancellation will be equivalent to a gift of anything from X'i,OOO.UUO to JIII,UOU,OUU. i'ublie opinion seems to be unanimously in favor of the course proposed by the administration. The livening Sun justilie= it on the grounds that the original claims were excessive, and that China's friendship is worth winning. "When the Powers turned in their bills," it says, "most of them treated China as an unfortunate debtor wlw was not in a position to >bjeet to anything. The most extravagant demands were made. The looting of the imperial Palace was almost respectable in comparison with their claims. The whole business was calculated to give the Chinese a very peculiar notion of Western civilisation and moderation. Quite apart from the question of aDstraet justice, China's friendship is worth while. She is waking up. . . . The Chinese are not ungrateful. They can never forget what we did for them when their case was desperate." The proposal of the administration has to be confirmed by Congress, but the issue is~regarded as definitely settled.

A BABY SENT BY POST.

A distracted young couple in London a few weeks ago hit upon a novel way of getting rid of a superfluous infant Probably only a post office official, as the man w.is, would have thought of such a method. About 11 p.m. a mail of about thirty-five years of age, well dressed, entered a Strand telegraph office with a lady, and wrote a message. Thi3, lie explained, he wished to have ' sent by express messenger to the ad- i lress, the City of London Lying-in Hos- ! lital, City road. Meanwhile, the lady, .vho was carrying an infant in long lollies, had hailed a cab. The messen;er coming out of the office, the gentleMil asked, "Arc you the man with the , xpress letter?" The man said "Yes," » ,nd was told to get into the cab, the j nfant was placed in his arms (after ! icing fondly kissed by the couple). £ Vhile the messenger as recovering from ' lis astonishment he found himself berig driven towards the City road. Ar- I ived at the hospital, the commission- | ire delivered his remarkable parcel with i he letter, which was found to contain he message: "Please take in the baby mtil to-morrow. Am writing." The light staff at the hospital had a consulation, and it was pointed out to the acsscnger that the institution was not . receiving home for babies. Conse|uently, the commissionaire decided to etiirn to the Strand and report that the human parcel" would not be accepted. The post office authorities received the nan's report with official sang-froid, and here being no "live" parcel office, alhough there is a ''dead-letter office," poicc aid was summoned. At Bow treet the messenger was relieved of his harge, and was placed in the care of he matron at the Strand Workhouse. Tor twenty-four hours the identity of he baby thus singularly abandoned renamed a mystery, but on the second Homing the father and'mother surren[ered themselves at Bow Street Police !ourt. An official of the Strand Worklouse was sent for, but declined to take ipon himself the responsibility of cuargng the parents with desertion. The ouple, who gave the name of Cowling, hereupon agreed to remain at the staion until the guardians decided what ourse they would take in the matter.. The mystery resolved itself into a lathetie little tale when the case came ip before the Board of Guardians. The hairmaii stated that seventy-two oilers iad been received from all parts of the :ingdom and the Continent from people i'ho were anxious to adopt the child. )etective Stockley stated that Cowling ras for some years in the post office at Valton-on-Thames. His wife was also ormcrly in the postal service, and four iionths ago they got married. Within hree"months the child was born, a fact hey managed to'coneeal from their regions. Airs Cowling's baby was born t Queen Charlotte's Hospital, and beore her recovery* her husband was ransferred to an appointment at Ewell, Surrey. There she joined him, and hey lived together for some time. Sudenly orders came to return to Walton, .nd they did not know how to corneal he child from those who knew them, 'he couple resolved to part with the hild, and to that end came to town. )hey heard of someone at Kingston who ras willing to adopt the child, and went o see the people. Finding the place ilthy, they felt that they could not Save their offspring, and came back to own with the intention of asking the latron at Queen Charlotte's Hospital to ake her in. By the time they came o this resolutibifthey realised that if hey went there they could not get back o Walton that night, and, losing their .cads, they hit upon the mad expedieut f sendtng the infant to the hospital by lost. The talc told by the detective

appealed to the Guardians, who decided not to prosecute. The chairman, indeed, offered to pay any expenses that had been incurred by the police and pool law authorities, and bade the repentant couple "go in peace." So the ephemerally famous "Strand baby" is once more in her father's arms, happily unconscious of the curious drama of which she has been the heroine.