GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 61, 12 October 1907, Page 6

GENERAL NEWS.

One of the hitherto unrecorded incidents of the recent breakdown of the Monowai was the attitude of one of the passengers. He was quite convinced that a rescue would not be effected, and provided himself with the best lifebelt he could iiud. Even then he was not satisfied that it would be effective until he had a trial with the lifebelt in one of the salt water baths on board the ship!

An example was afforded last week of the usefulness of the motor car in an emergency. A Palmerston surgeon was urgently reuqested to go to llawera to perform an important operation, but serious cases prevented his leaving town till 2 p.m. Consequently an attempt was '• made in an Argyll 12-24 driven by N. Boon to pick up the train at Wanganui. Unfortunately the car was detained by a puncture and the train was just missed. The motorists went on, however, and after stopping for dinner en route actually reached Hawera at 8.30 p.m., not long after the train.—Manawatu Daily Times.

A telegram from Invereargill to the Wellington i'ost says:--Recently four or live woollen mill operatives clubbed together and took over a mill at Rosedale that had been erected but not used. They have been working hard on the co-operative basis with good results. Their hosiery has been on the market for some time, and they now have looms and other necessary machinery and are turning out blankets and tweeds made of Southland wool. The blankets particularly are an excellent class of goods, equal to anything made in the colony. The mill on .the lines of Petone and Kaiapoi, is dealing direct with the retailer, with the result that the goods to on the market at a moderate price, "it is a welcome beginning of a new Southland industry.

Engine-drivers on Xcw Zealand trains have to guess their speed. There is no appliance in use for letting them know exactly the pace at which they are running. But that doesn't worry them. "With our long practice," a Christehurch engine-driver states, "we enn jud"e within a fraction of the actual speed, no matter whether it is day or night."

In a letter to a friend in New Zealand, Charles Stephenson, who defeated Win. Hearn, of Wellington, for the professional rowing championship of the colony, writes from Toronto that the course in that part of Canada is not kepi clear like the Parramatta. Rowing boats and launches run alongside of and across the scullers during a race, and everyone can see the race from start to finish. To get a three-mile course, a course with a turn at the half-distance is rowed, and even then the scullers have to pull in three feet of water at each end of the course, besides having to pull through eel grass like tliat on the Xepean. "Victor," the contributor of rowing notes to the Wanganui Herald, referring to Stephenson's letter, says:—"lt will be seen that there is not much inducement for Webb to visit Toronto, even if he felt disposed to do so. In any case the champion will not leave Xew Zealand to row so long as he can get matches in this colony. After he has got through with Tressidcr and Arnst. he will probably hear something definite from Whelch — that is, of course, if he still holds the title."

Although Gre-.it Britain is doubtless behind America in the Suinber of millionaires residing on her shows, there are 21 lucky individuals in England, who manage to subsist on incomes of '•upwards of £50,000 a year." Such is the interesting information conveyed in the liftieth report of the Inland lievenue Commissions, issued as a Bluebook. Scotland and Ireland, although by no means devoid of men of money, have no representatives among the "exceeding £so,ooo"division. In Scotland, however, reside nine persons who possess annual incomes of from £IO,OOO to £50,000, while statistics show that ten people in Ireland have the comfortable sums of anything from £SOOO to £lO,000 a year coming in. One hundred and eighty seven thousand eight hundred and eighty-five persons, excluding employees, in England, paid income tax on under £2OOO per annum, as against 33,780 in Scotland and 12,732 in Ireland.