CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 205, 18 January 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE MEDICINAL APPLE. One of the leading medical journals states that the very best thing people can do is to eat apples just before retiring for the night. Persons uninitiated in the mysteries of the fruit are liable to throw up their hands in horror at the visions of dyspepsia which such a suggestion may summon up. but no harm can be done even to a delicate system by the eating of ripe and juicv apples before going to bed. The apple is excellent brain food, because it has more phosphoric acid in easily-digested shape than any other fruit, Tt excites the action of the liver, promotes sound and healthy sleep, and thoroughlv disinfects the mouth. This is not all—the apple prevent, indigestion and throat disease. But a man would need to be a millionaire to buy apples at the price thev are just, now retailed at in Taranaki shops. THE MONEY MARKET.

Mr. Ilenry Cotterill, of the legal firm of Messrs Duncan, Cotterill and Stringer, lias returned to Christcliurch from" a visit to England. In the course of mi iiiterview'with a representative of the local News. Mr. Cotterill said that when lac left the Dominion the money market was unsettled, but advices which subsequently reached him in England WL'l'l' io t.he ell'ect that the market had resumed its normal condition. He did not gather that there was any likelihood o*f any financial stress, and consequently lie was somewhat surprised to find on arrival that a shortage of money existed. He was brought in contact with a good many business men in England, but lie did not gather from them that there was any particular reason for alarm in England. The war in the Balkans was causing political anxiety, but the ell'ect on the English money market was not very marked, though of course its effect was there. He was sure that then' was no actual condition of alarm in the English money market, and the condition of the New Zealand money market, if it were due in any way to English conditions. was due to Ore fact that a tremendous amount of English capital is being diverted to Canada. At the present time the possibilities in that great Dominion were attracting both men and monev.

A PROSPEIiOI'S DISTRICT. Motueka, the port of one of Nelson's most fruitful districts, lias a trade which is steadily improving from year to year. The country is not much known to the tourist, notwithstanding its close resemblance to well-groomed English farming country. Jt is a solidly prosperous district, taking in I'iwaka, and lias none of tli.it rough, unkempt appearance of some of the newer settlements of Die North Island. For the year ended December 31, Motueka's exports showed substantial increases in almost every direction. It sent away 144,080 cases of fruit, an increase for the year of 10,044 eases, 1004 bales of wool, as against 803 bales last year, and flax and tow and hops also showed large increases. Butter showed a decrease of r.">7 boxes, which is amply compensated for in 233 factory cans of ereiun—a new item for export, and a good indication of the rapid growth of home-separation in the Motueka district. " In from two to three years, judging by the greatly-increased acreage already down in fruit, the export of apples from Motueka should show an enormous increase.

NEW ZEALAND, THE PLAYGROUND. The New Zcajand (iovcrnmeiit tourist agent in Sydney (Mr. E. 11. Montgomery) is on a visit to the Dominion. Questioned by a AY ellingtou Times reporter in regard to the tourist tratiic from Australia to New Zealand, Mr. Montgomery v/as optimistic. "There has been a steady increase." ho said. "Holidaymakers in the Commonwealth look upon New Zealand as really the only 'playground' of Australasia—a delightful voyage across the ocean, with plenty of ■ scenic attractions. Take the Westralian and the Queenslauder, run down with the intense heat, thev make the trip to New Zealand as a restorative, and they enjov the cold snap and the change of scene. New South Wales and Victoria, arc contributing' increasing quotas* of tourists to the Dominion. The returns show that for the year ending March last nearly 20.000 people went out of the port of Sydney for New Zealand, exclusive of Melbourne passengers, against about 11,000 in 1906-7. Of course, all tnese are not tourists, and they include returning New Zealanders from visits to the Commonwealth, but numbers certainly show the Dominion's increasing popularity as a tourist resort." According td Taranaki men who have recently visited Sydney, the tourist bureau there is not doing the work it should, and its general appearance is far from attractive. The bureau ■hould be a power for good there, and it is "up to" the Government to look into its working*, and, if necessary, brinw it right up-to-date. * SIR HARRY ATKINSON. The heart of all Taranaki should still warm to the name of Sir Harry Atkinson (remarks the Hawera Star). But does it? But for him and those who fought and labored with him, colonist* certainly would not have been here, today under the conditions which now prevail; and so can it reallv be that we have forgotten him ? Ami it is not only Taranaki, but the whole Dominion that has reason to remember him with gratitude on account of his wise and farreaching services as a statesman. An instance of the consciousness of this was given the other day at Cambridge, during the visit of the Prime Minister (Mr. Massey) to that Waikato town, where a suggestion that something should be done to commemorate Sir Harry's life work was made to him. Mr. Massey, in expressing sympathy with the proposal, said that ho considered that much of the prosperitv of the Dominion 'was due to the work of Sir Harry Atkinson, whom he described as one of the greatest patriots that had ever served the people of New Zealand. This was generously said, and yet it was only the bare truth. Mr, Massey, however, added with a touch of sadness in his mind "that it might be difficult to rouse the interest of the people after twenty years, but be would place the matter before his colleagues." Let us hope, for the credit of the country, that when the Prime Minister does this, there will be a fairly all-round proof that the people of New Zealand still hold Sir Harry Atkinson, pioneer colonist, citizen soldier and statesman, in grateful remembrance.