CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 364, 15 April 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

liecent cablegrams from Sydney show that cargo-broaching ia Cargo carried on to an alarmBroaching. ing extent in Australian. ports. Indeed, a labourer mentioned that his life wouldn't)' be worth much if he refused to be a cargo-broachcr. This is a direct accust i tion that all cargo-workers are necessarily cargo-liroiichers—a very serious posi | tion; Cargo broaching is very common in 'New Zealand ports, 'but while it is possible to accuse a man here and there of the sin, cargo is much more frequently broken into before it arrives' at the port of destination. For instance, it is reasonable that where a consignee finds bricks instead of the goods he has or | dered, and the case carefully nailed down when it touches the wharf, that the evil may have originated in London or Berlin or Paris—or any other place j Men on board steamers are riot always angels of light. Stokers, for instance, 1 are not paid huge salaries, their work i-i sometimes demoralising, and they have uniquie opportunities for "plant-! ing" goods. The temptation to err is great. The consignee who does a large trade loses a very large sum of money per year. One Wellington firm j in evidence eighteen months ago, mentioned that their loss ran into fou j figures yearly. It is conceivable that the purchaser pays for the laches of the London labourer, the fireman on the liner, or the wharf labourer at this end who is disposed to dishonest practices A. gentleman yesterday discussed with a • "News" man the subject of cargo broach j ing, and gave an example. At Capetown, during the war, he had been able to gather a large quantity of valuable curios. Among them was a very beau '• tiful mauser rifle, the property of a j Boer general, and having his name and coat of arms engraved in a 'gold plate on the butt. This, together with the rest of the valuables', he put in a sped ' ally constructed case, and' had it screwed down with lour dozen two-inch screws.' To make "assurance doubly sure" he ad | dres'sed it (with permission) iai. the name of an officer of high rank. H i travelled in the same boat as the case and occasionally saw it in the hold'. WJien he opened it at Wellington the case contained firebars and straw! So disappointed was he that he set the police in motion. By a remarkable co- | ircidence the rifle was returned to him after four years, by the Scotland Yard police. It had been found among the goods of an ex-fireman "wanted 7 ' for burglary at Batters'ea. | Mr. Greenfield, an honored but retired Magistrate, was df I Mr. Greenfield's sired by the Depart-j Position. mout of Justice to temporarily take the place of Mr. TCenrick, P.M.. who is ill. Mr. Greenfield accepted the task.

Jf lie had not been capable of undertaking the hearing of contested cases lie would have refused to sit. Although aged, he is not incapacitated for acting judicially and impartially. There are eminent judges in tilie Home Country wjio give brilliant service to the people, end wiio are of very advanced age. Some people infer that the temporary appointment was forced 011 Mr. Greenfield, and cloud this' inference by appearing to be very sorry for the octogenarian Magistrate. Mr. Greenfield has every reason to feel "sore" at the suggestion of a section of the Bar that he was incapable of conducting contested cases. It is to his credit that he occupied the temporary appointment, and to the discredit of the member of the Bar who quite cruelly inferred Incapacity. Gererally, the Bar is the chief sin-r-er in the matter of debarring the progress of eases, and thousands of .hours are wasted to judges, magistrates, jurors and 1 witnesses every year in New Zealand because barristers and solicitors pre not ready to go on with cases. The man who has cooled his heels for a week or s.o waiting tilie pleasure of the Bar (at his own expense) knows what ! a dilatory person a lawyer can lie. The Eitliaui incident was 1 not an attack: it was merely a piece of rudeness. We publish a very interesting article elsewhere in this is- | The Romance sue under the heading i, of Oil. we have used for this topic. It contains information to hund by the last mail regarding the "oil boom" on the London Stock Exchange, and the consequent anticipation that in the near future petroleum will largely supplant coal in ships. It will 'be .seen from the figures quoted that at present the United States supplies nearly two-thirds of the total mineral oil production of the world, the other third coming from Russia, Roumania and Galicia. The British Empire supplies a very small percentage. But there are many rich oilfields in the Empire, and it is very gratifying to know that the eyes of England' are being turned towards New Zealand, and particularly Taranaki, as a likely field for obtaining the Empire's future oil ■Supplies. Already a company has been formed in England, with a capital ot' £200,000, for the exploitation of the Gisborne district, while it is moi;e than probable that one if not two groups of English capitalists will shortly commence operations in and about New Plymouth. We are given to understand that the arrangements are well forward, and that there will be abundant capital available for the thorough exploitation of this district. What this means to Taranaki, and New Plymouth especially, can scarcely be over estimated. The success that lias already attended the work at Moturoa demonstrates beyond doubt that oil in considerable qualities, and of a quality richer than anything yet found in the world, exists here and only wants extracting from the bowels of the .earth. Herein lay the difliculty in the past. Methods that are .successfully adopted on other fields cannot be applied successfully to the operations here, partly because of the unusual conformation of the territory, and partly because of the enormous depth to which the bores have been lowered. The experimental work is not all over yet, it is true, but the seams that have already ' been passed indicate that the wells are profitable even if the main measures. ( which are presumed to exist still lower ; down, are not tapped. The prospects were never more rosy. Had they been 1 as favorable a year or two back, it would have taken, we opine, a good deal to keep the exuberance of New Plymouth in its place. And the prospects arc all the more gratifying from the fact that within a very short time ivill be a plentitode of English capital available for exploiting the field in n I way never hitherto possible. With the | experience of the tn'oneer companies tn go unon. the work of the new com- : panics should be comparatively smooth sailing.

It is reported that a new coal seam has been discovered adjacent •kew Coal to the Main Trunk line, Fields and there is not a little , . speculation as to where it is. The Department is keeping the locality a secret, but a Mr. J. W. Ellis, of Hamilton, states that the coal is on the upper waters of the Retaruko stream, about two miles west lrom the present railway, and the seams extend into the Wanganui river. In a letter to a contemporary, he stated that when he was fighting for the central line many years ago he told a Parliamentary committee of the existence of coal in the locality mentioned, hut nothing was done to discover the value of the "find." and the great bulk of the land has since been disposed of. Such are the ways of the Departments of State. The Wanganui Herald discussed the matter with Mr. A. Hatrick. He confirmed the opinion expressed by Mr. Ellis that the Retaruke seams are probably a continuation of the coal measures of the Tangarakau, on the west side of the Wanganui. The Retaruke stream, it may "bo explained, is an affluent of the Wanganui river, about 110 miles from the town, and the Tangarakau river is flfl miles above Wanganui. Mr. Hatrick stated that on all the Government maps "coal deposits" are marked at the junction of the Ohura (120 miles up-river) with the Wanganui river, where the houseboat is located, and the-Tangara-kau river cleaves a coal seam in two for quite a number of miles, the outcrop of coal being plainly discernible there and on the Eao stream, a tributary of the Tangarakau. Apparently one end of the seams is tapped by' the Main Trunk, the Wanganui river and the tributaries running through them. .4s most people know, there are considerable coal deposits in the Tangarakau Gorge, which the railway that is now being so vigorously pushed on with from Stratford will tap. The opening up of these seams, which scarcely require anv mining, and will cost so little to work, will mean a great deal for Taranaki. as it will enable coal, of a first-class quality, to be supplied to householers at a 'verv low cost. We may mention that the 'existence of the Tangarakau coal deposits has been known for many years. "Fifteen or twenty years ago a member of a survey party took some samples to Wanganui with the idea of form in? a syndicate to prospect. The syndicate was not formed bv him. but some years afterwards—in 1!)00 or 1901—steps were taken to nromote a company in Wan<ranui for the purnose of leasing a-latop. block of land in the vicinity of th° Ohura and Tansrarakau rivers, with the oliiect of mining? the conl thnt might be discovered. The Herald, discussinc the subject, snid it was pronosed to brinf the conl down to Wnn«ainii bv barw and steamers, via the• Tangarakau and Wamrnnui river*. To thnt end it \vifurther de-ided to trr and obtain tV consent of the Government to lock th« TanqraivVau stream from its mouth to * noint /where the now shows, a distance of about 24 miles from it-' mouth, Either for ln"k of financial support or because of the doubt nf bn.Wv nWft to profitably carry out, an midertnkin? necessitating the towin.-r of cnvit" harges up-stream and acainst the ranids. the scheme did not materialise. SnEse-

quently another company was talked about, which was to employ some patent machinery or craft- for negotiating the rapids, but this likewise failed to do anything practical. It looks as though the railways will have to be relied upon for carriage.