CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 24 March 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

BRITAIN'S ALIEN POPULATION. It is generally believed that John Bull's doors are wide open to people of all the earth, good, had and merely useless. During the events culminating in the Houndsditch affray, Mr Bull was accused of a hospitality that permitted the landing of the vilest criminals the earth produces. That he 'has exercised some discrimination in the matter is evident by a return'recently published, although apparently this discrimination is a very generous one. The report shows that the total number of alien passengers landing in Britain was 470,083, as against 423,548 in the previous year. Of these 179,106 were cabin passengers, 102.295 exempted as second-class passengers, and 140,303 transmigrants. A further analysis of the figures shows that 8380 of these passengers were proceeding to destinations outside the United Kingdom, 844fi held return tickets to foreign countries, 9343 were seamen, and 8001 were residents returning. Leave to land was refused by immigration officers in 1006 cases, as against 1450 in the previous year. There were 144 successful appeals against these decisions, as against 109, and 288 unsuccessful appeals as against 472. The total finally refused leave to land was 922, as against 1347. As against the inward movement there was fcn- outward movement of 377,101 alien passengers returning to European and Mediterranean ports, of whom 53.074 held through tickets from one country outside the United Kingdom to another. During the year 45!) expulsion orders were made, as against 519 in the previous year. OUR DAILY BREAD. At Home there is a long-delayed campaign against poor bread, for which, of course, in the Old Country as in this new one, the eater has to pay the same price as for good bread. The' Daily Mail undertook the task of ''standardising" the loaf, and each day published the names not of those bakers who sold bad bread but those who conformed to the "standard." The King was influenced to insist on standard bread for the Royal Household, and the vogue spread. Stoneground, whole-meal bread is considered the ideal for consumption, and is not related to the pitiful apology for sustenance disguised under the name of "brown." The ideal standard loaf is thus described by a London miller: —"It is made of the best English wheat blended 'with fine samples of foreign wheat, which, after having been washed and cleansed by modern machinery, is milled on stones. The color should be creamy, or a creamy brown; and the smell should resemble the sweetness of newly-threshed wheat. The variation of color arises | from the class of wheats used, and fro.m the percentage of germ and the amount of fine middlings (the inner skin of the wheat berry) left in." The following recipe is of the standard bread exhibited the Mansion House, the Ideal Home Exhibition, and other meetings organised by the Bread and Food Reform League: ITalf-quartern flour, 1% teaspoonfuls salt, %07,. German yeast, 1 teaspoonful sugar, 3 gills tepid water. Cream the yeast and sugar together until liquid, add two teaspoonfuls of flour and the tepid water. Cover this with a cloth, and set to rise in a warm place for about twenfy minutes. Mix the flour i

and salt, pour in the yeast, and mix the dough, adding more tepid water if necessary. Knead the dough until it is quite smooth, form into a loaf, and put this into a greased, and floured tin. Set this to rise in a warm place until the loaf has doubled its size. Bake in a hot oven for about one hour. j A NEW THAMES. The reconstruction of the Port of Loudon and the transformation of the Thames foreshadowed in the reports of the Port of London Authority, have aroused the keenest interest everywhere. Londoners welcome with delight the prospect of a river furnished with the finest docks in the world, and capable of receiving and unloading the greatest liners in existence. London is at present a commercial rather than a passenger port. The recommendations of the Authority, if carried out, will make it supreme in both respects. The twenty-six miles of river between London Bridge and Tilburj' are to be improved at a proposed total cost of over fourteen millions, of which it is recommended that nearly four millions be spent at once. The London Docks are to have their quayage increase to 8810 feet; further down stream the West India Docks, two of which are almost out of use through the badness of their entrances, are to have their prosperity revived by the re-building of the locks; down stream again the Milhvalt dry dock is to be improved out of knowledge. Next comes the "heart-centre of the Port," the Victoria and Albert Docks, where it is proposed that one new dock alone, the finest in the world, shall be built at a cost of £4,350,000, and made capable of receiving the largest ships afloat. Tilbury is to be transformed, and to have railway arrangements which will take passengers to the City in 20 minutes, thus maiking London, it is hoped, the greatest of passenger ports. Already the first instalment of the great works outlined has been begun with the ordering of £500,000 worth of dredging apparatus for the improvement of the river channel. Lord Devonport, in drawing up the great scheme, had the cooperation and agreement of Lord Pirrie, Sir William White, Sir Thomas Sutherland, Sir John Ellerman, and the heads of other great steamship lines.