GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10716, 9 October 1912, Page 3

GENERAL NEWS

SOCIALISM IX I'IiACTJCK. llemarkahlo. disclosures lis to the extraordinary manner in which the books of the American city of Milwaukee, in the State of Wisconsin, were kept under its socialist municipality, have (says the New York cor- \ respondent of the Daily Mail) been , made in a report that has jusfc beer presented to tho new mayor. The Socialists wava defeated at the polls last April and dislodged from power. Fifty thousand errors have already been detected in the books, involving almost every contract entered into by the .Socialist administration, ltecords } of purchases and contracts were hopelessly mixed,.and, in a large number of cases, there were no receipts I'oi payments that had been made. According to the chief clerk - of Milwaukee, "We came across cases where - contracts to tho amount of IMOOf.' ' ' were involved, and a year later no re- j cord showed whether or not tht I mo;;<\v had beep •piml, In one oar-e [ £oO was appropriated for a liorse. •&''? • i Jiave been able to find out that tho ' i horse was purchased, but from whom .-"Vil h a mystery." The expou- °'.'- V " ' -orodigal. To provide pubditUKMvae 0 poor the ratos were ' he works for U . } -, - raised by £90,000 . l ' J • £IBO,OOO in 1 911, and , +] .., ■ crease must.have occurred' ..' ' if tho city had.not risen ng'ainst , Socialists and driven them out. LARGE FAMILIES. / 'J'hat mothers of modern days have i small families is an assertion refuted, j to a large extent by the investigation \ now being carried out by the Commonwealth statistician (says the Sydney Morning Herald). Mr Knibbs is making an. analysis of the phenomena of fecundity in Australia, an<J r though ho has only recently begun his work, ) he has revealed some extraordinary / facts. For the year 1908 a r-ocord was achieved by a mother who, in fie?.- 23rd year of marriage, gave birth to her *' 26th child. Jn the .same year one woman had liie'r 16th child in her 17th ! year of marriage.. Another her 17th I child in her 21st year of marriage, } and a third her 17th child i'n her 24th year of marriage, and a third her 17th cliild in her 24th year of marriage. Four mothers hud each a 17th ■ child in their 26th year of marriage, ! and one mother her 18th child in [her 28th year of marriage;. In 15)11 \ another remarkable record was achiev- i od by a mother who, in her 26th year of marriage, bore twins, though she had 22 children previously. I WHO OWNS THE MEPEOIMTE? | If a meteor falls on a man's land, ' is it his, or does it belong to the man who finds it? An Irish tenant found ! a meteorite one day, and, said Miss Proctor in u lecture in Sydney last week, the owner of the land claimed it, on the ground that it had been agreed that all the minerals on the farm were his. To this the tenant replied that the meteorite was not there when that agreement was made. Then the owner of tho land claimed it as being flying game, but while he and the tenant arguing, the C'us- ; toms authorities seized the meteorite as an article from a foreign cjou.ntry on which no duty had been paid. As a matter of fact, the courts in America had held that the largest meteorite in the world, weighing lo tons, belonged to the man on whose land it was found.