GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 5 September 1907, Page 4

GENERAL NEWS.

o The champion sculler Webb is having 'honors heaped upon him. The latest icome3 from the Futaki pah, Wanganui, where a dusky new arrival put in her appearance on the day of the New Zealander's victory on the Parramatta. The (act that the little stranger being a daughter made no difference and she is to be christened "Webb."

No fewer than 3000 hands are employed in connection with the Colonial Sugar Company's mills and plantations at Lautoka, Fiji. Imported coolie labor is much in evidence. The whole of the raw sugar from the mills is sent to Auckland for refining. Mr A. S. Biss, of Wellington, who recently visited the mills and plantations, states that he found that the authorities were not at all concerned duty being taken off sugar in thc"colony, as they anticipate that the increased consumption by preservers and confectionery works will more than compensate them for the risk of competition with other countries.

"There is not a man who has been in prison for.seven or eight years but whose brain is weakened," declared Mr Small at a meeting of the Prison Gate Mission in Christchurch. "They get affected in some way or other, and after the first eighteen months the actual punishment is, to people in their mental state, a very trivial thing. They get ao accustomed to it that it is not very much to them." Mr Smail argued strongly In favor of short sentences, accompanied by admonitions from the judge, in theTcase of first offenders, who would then be given a chance to reform. which was denied to the long-sentence man.

In a Baltimore (U.S.A.) cemetery there are three curious gravestones. The ■tone at the right has an inscription testifying to the fact that a woman lies beneath, and a hand sculptured below the Inscription points to the centre grave with the significant 'sentence: "He was mine." The grave to the left, likewise, had an inscription testifying to the fact that a woman lies there, and here again is a carved hand pointing to the centre grave with the legend: "He was mine also." In the middle grave is buried the husband of these two women, and on bis tombstone are carved two hands joined at the wrists, one pointing to the right, and the other to the left. Then there is the inscription: "They were both mine."

Another new-chum willing to "tackle anything." He {old the farmer he could milk cows. Busy, the farmer sent him to do so. The youth returned in half-an-hour, with the perspiration steaming from every pore. " 'Er wouldn't let 1 milk 'er," he said. The farmer remarked that she was the quietest beast In the district, and himself tooK the new nan to the old cow. The farmer milkad her with ease. The new-chum atood amazed. "Well, aU'll be dinged," Mid he. "Ah've been tryin' to throw 'ar on 'er back for 'alf-an-hourl"

"It is a curious fact, - says a wellknown scientist, "that some of the most important secrets of manufacture of past years are now lost. Take, for in•tanoe, steel We claim to make good eteel, but the blades the Saracens turned oat hundreds of years ago would cut one of our own bodies iu two as easily as ours would cut butter. Again, take Ink. Much modern ink fades, in five or ten years to rust color, yet the ink of mediaeval manuscripts is as black and bright to-day as it was 700 years ago. In the building trade the ancients were far ahead ot us. Their mortar and cement, the secrets-of which are now lost, were actually harder and more durable than the stones they bound together. We can't even make artificial diamonds now. Old brilliants of French paste were go beautiful that they would frequently deceive experts. But the secret of the French paste, like" a hundred other secrets of the days of conscientious work, Is gone, apparently for ever."

Japan is progressing in many ways, and the latest example of the application of European methods is the adoption of the system of strikes. In a report just received from Mr Suttor, Commissioner for ji'ew South Wales in the Far East, he mentioned that a strike has occurred at a copper mine known as the Sumitomo. The miners recently demanded an increase in wages, but the demand met with a prompt refusal, with the result that a serious riot took place, and the damage to the extent of over £200,000 was done to the mine and machinery. During his visit to Australia Mr SutfoT says'he mentioned in his lectures that strikes or labor troubles were not to be found in Japan. Lately, however, considerable changes had taken place, and socialistic measures had been advocated _among the masses. The influence shown in this direction has doubtless been exercised by Japanese who have visited America and other countries, and who have returned impressed with the value of combination to secure certain ends. Beside .the Sumitomo mine other mines arc also experiencing difficulties, and to such an extent that the output Trom Japanese mines is likely to be restricted, thereby decreasing the exports. With decreased exports, Mr Suttor expects to find a rise in the price of copper on other markets, hence his d«3ire to keep New South Wales interests in touch with the existing state of affairs in Japan, for Japan is a very Urge copper-producing countrj.

At least one relic of the old navy is to be preserved. Thanks to Lord Charles Beresford, the boatswain's pipe, which of late years has been becoming more ornamental than useful, is to be retained, and the "calls" which for centuries have brought men to the performance of their duties will continue to be heard on British warships. The Admiralty have ordered that at least 10 per cent of the buys and youths in harbor training establishments are to be instructed to work to the calls of the pipe, and a prize will be given each halfyear to the boy in each establishment who is considered most proficient in the art of piping.

In reply to a question by a representative of the Hawera Star whether he had heard anything of the New Zealand iron product in England, Mr W. Cowern, who has just returned from a trip to the Old Country, said he had heard a good deal about it, both for and against, lie believed it was very likely that a company wouJd 9c floated in connection with the Cadman leases. As to the titanic ironsand, of which there are suck large deposits on the Taranaki beaches, if a satisfactory process could be discovered it would be an immense thing. There would be no lack of money for dealing with it. He gave instances of how freely money and time had been spent in America and in Sweden to get suitable iron to miv with Cleveland iron, the product of low-grade ores, in order to convert it into a higher class article. The Taranaki iron produced from titanic sand was just what was needed. He believed an electrical process of dealing with the raw material would yet be discovered, for the nutter was of great importance, and men of science were busily at work endeavoring to solve the problem.