MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

Waikato Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 645, 9 May 1900, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS.

The AVuirarapa Times says : —AN c learn that in Agricultural In.p’cmcnt Association has liccn formed in Few Zealand, '.hose belonging to it binding themselves, among other things, not to deal in second-hand agricultural implements, not to give in any extra or duplicate parts with an implement sold, and generally restricting dealings between vendor and purchaser very considerably as compared with existing usage. Pine trees are asserted to be a sure safeguard against many of the prevalent epidemic diseases. It lias been found in America that wherever unhealthy districts have been planted with pine plantations the low fever has left them, and when cholera was raging those districts which were largely planted with conifers were perfectly free from the epidemic. They are, if possible, more valuable agents against fever and lung complaints than even the eucalyptus. A learned German investigator has found that the quarrelsome tendency of strange lots of swine may be overcome by plying the anima’s with cheap spirits when first turned into the pen together. The beasts are made mellow, and when the resulting sleep has passed they wake fully acquainted and at peace with all and sundry. This is the best use (remarks an exchange) we ever heard that liquor has been put to. Some good yarns come from the land of Kruger, and are too good, alas ! to be true; although truth is stranger than fiction. One story, which must have originated in Norfolk, is that a newspaper correspondent on the Natal frontier wandered out of camp in search of information, and forgot the countersign. He knew it hud something to do with Norfolk, but could not for the life of him recollect. When challenged by the sentry; he blurted out “Bloaters.” The sentry let him pass, remarking, “ It’s all right, sir, the word is *'Yarmouth,’ but when you said ‘ Bloaters,’ I knowed you was on the kerect track.” A well-known North Island medico, prominently connected with insurance circles, was recently asked to answer certain questions as to a man who had died from a disease named. The concluding question was“ And do you think lie sufferers from it now The man of pills and lancet replied : 11 I an: unable to answer this question, either from my experience or my reading. As far as I am aware there is no work published on the science and practice of medicine in the hereafter.” To this he got an acknowledgment, but with an expression of regret that his reply did not answer the question specifically ! Many who are otherwise keenly appreciative of the value of fruit as a food display a great kck of judgment in the manner in which they take advantage of its valuable qualities. As is argued by a well-known food specialist, most people instead of taking fruit on an empty stomach, or in comlination with simple grain preparations such as bread, eat it with oily fooods, or take it at the end of the meal, after the stomach is already full, and perhaps the whole mass washed down with tea, coffee, or other liquid, Fruits, to do their best work, should be eaten either on an empty stomach or simply with bread—never vegetables. In the morning they are not only exceedingly refreshing, but they serve as a natural stimulus to the digestive organs. The good effects that would follow the abundant use of fruits arc often more than counterbalanced by the pernicious habit of saturating them with sugar ; very few fruits, if thoroughly ripe and at their best, require any sugar, particularly if eaten in the raw state. ■' A curious point has arisen in connection with old age pensioners received into the Benevolent Homes. For instance, a number of old men, drawing the full pension of £lB per annum, sought admission to the Ohiro Horne. They paid over the amount of their pensions to the trustees of the home, but demanded a rebate, because the average cost of their maintenance was not as great as the pension they received. The pensioners receive 80s per month, and the cost of maintenance is. at the Ohira Home, taking the average for the past four years, 26s per month, so that the pensio'ncrs receive a rebate of 4s per month as pocket money. The Act is clear upon the point, as it stipulates that an old age pensioner entering a public institution must pay for Iris maintenance, and any surplus shall be returned to him. Throughout the colony some objection is being raised to this, as it places one sort of inmate on a different tooting to another sort. This, however, was evidently the design of the Legislature. The Marine Review gives some very interesting tables showing the ships now' in course of construction in the shipyards of the United States. From this source we learn that American shipbuilders are now engaged on the construction of 41) warships, having an aggregate displacement of 117,263 tons, and eugiued with 308,000 i.h.p. for the U.S. Navy. The contract piice of these vessels, exclusive of armour and armaments, is 34,654,410 do!s. In addition to these the Cramps arc building for the Russian navy a battleship of 12,700 tons and 16,000 i.h.p., and a cruiser of 6500 tons, 20,000 i.h p. The vessels building for the home navy include six battleships, four monitors, seven cruiser o , 31 torpedo craft, and a submarine boat. Unfortunately, the particulars given regarding the merchant vessels under construction in American yards arc not complete as regards tonnage, but they show that the builders on the coasts and western rivers are engaged on upwards of 300 new’ vessels ; many of these, however, are of the largest size, two of them being of 18,600 tons each, two of 12,000 tons, and 13 of 5000 tons or more. From the builders on the Great Lakes the returns show 37 vessels aggregating 185,500 gross tons under construction, exclusive of vessels under ICO tons. M. Jean Hess, who recently went to the Far East to study various political and commercial questions, gives an acoounl in the Paris Journal of an interview he had with Li Hung Chang at Peking. The latter uttered bitter complaints against the European action in China, which aimed at imposing on the Chinese a social life differing from their own, with which the Chinese have no- ■ thing to do, and which they regarded as the destruction of everything. “ You put the knite to our throat,” Li Hung Chang continued, “ to plunder us. When we feel the point we give whatever is demanded, holding ourselves free to get it back if we. think we can escape by a ruse. Is not that the diplomacy of all countries ? What but sheer robbery is the partition of which you no longer make any mystery, confirming it by treaties in which the only party not consulted is the one to be pillaged ? The north fur the Russians, the centre for the British, with a good part of the south, and the rest for you and others, and for the Chinese nothing. But 500,000,000 souls do not let themselves be juggled with like that. It is easy enough to light us now ; it is not so easy to conquer us. For our defence have we not both your jealousies ami your conflicting controversies ? It is upon them wo play,, Take for instance, the story of your Shanghai concession. We give you everything you ask even what you bound yourselves by treaty never to demigod. We give you all, but we so arrange -that the British forbid your taking anything, and you lake nothing, for yem are i afraid of the English just as. we are of } you. International politics .a made up of fear felt and fear inspired A' Li Hung Chang showed that he was afraid of the armaments of Europe and America crushing China, although he at. the same time dealt on the latent energies possessed by his country. Ho eonolmbed with a renewed protest against the attacks made i ou China by Europe.