THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXVIII, Issue 7979, 6 March 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, MARCH 6, 1906.

It would be an immense benefit to all mankind if the stores of gold now held by individuals in India could be made available for general use. Ever since the dawn of History that country has been gathering gold and hiding it away. Treasures of almost incalculable value are possessed by many Indian prinoes. When the Maharajah of Burdwan died the stock of gold and silver left by him was so large that no member of the family could make an accurate estimate of it. A report made to the British Government by a seoret agent stated that on the estate of the defunct potentate were a number of treasurehouses, one of them containing three rooms. The largest of these rooms was 48ft long and was filled with ornaments of gold and silver, places and cups, washing bowls, jugs, and so forth—all of precious metals. The other two rooms were full of- bags and boxea of gold mohurs and silver rupees. The door of this and other treasure-houses had been bricked up for nobody knows how long. These valuables,

according to an ancient custom, were in the custody of the Maharajah's wife, the vaults being attached to her apartments, but none of theoi was allowed to be opened save iu the presence of the mantei. One vault was tilled with ornaments belonging to different gods of the family. The natives of India commonly bury their hoards and among the poorer classes, a favourite hid-ing-place is a hole dug beneath the b°d. Disused wells ate sometimes employed for the same purpose, It is undoubtedly a fact that very many hoards thus deposited are lost for ever. Gold is also valued on religious grounds. The gods take up great quantities of gold, silver, and precious stonea. The temples contain vast amounts of the yellow and white metals. The habit of hoarding seems to have been in - duced by agos of mis-government, during which oopression • and violence were rife No feeliug of safety existing, it was natural that the natives should adopt the practice of reducing their wealth to u concentrated shape and hiding it.

Admiral Rozhdestvensky threatens to rival the record of one of Lewis Carroll's eccentric characters, who boasted to Alice that with constant practice he had succeeded iu believing three or four impossible things bttfce breakfast. We noted, a few weeks ago, the Admiral's remarkable feat in swallowing the potently impossible, when he persuaded himself that the British fleet at Wei-hai-wei bad instructions to destroy his squadrons, if Japan should fail to achieve that end. Having believed that at the time of the Tsushima encounter, the Admiral then went into hospital at Tokio, in a fitting frame of mind to accept the proof which was shortly offered of the presence of Japanese torpedo-boats on the Dogger Bank seven months before. The gallant bat credulous officer had as one of bis attendants a Japanese invalid nursu-ofHoer, with his arm in a sling. He was supposed to be suffering from rheumatism. Then it came out accidentally thai: this attendant had been wounded. The Admiral "ponderod mur this mystery," aud made further inquiries. We find nothing mysterious in the presence of a wounded naval officer in hospital. That is where one would expect to And him. Perhaps the Admiral was thinking of the indifferent quality of Russia shooting. J3ut he learned from another attendant that the officer had been to England with torpedo - boats. Apparently, the other attendant was amusing himself at the Admiral's expense; or perhaps he had been told by the dootor tQ humour the distinguished patient in every possible waj. So he was absolutely convinced, at the time, that be had seen real torpedoboats on the Dogger Bauk, and that his gunfire had done such deadly execution that one cf the survivors still had his arm in a sling, seven months after the memorable engagement. This must be consoling for the Minister of Marine, with whose permission the Admira} published his Wei-hai-wei legend ; although his satisfaction must be mitigated by the reflection that his Government paid an indemnity of £65,000 uuder false pretences.