No section of the share market) to-day is more dead than rubber, so certainly it will not come amiss to mention any item likely to cheer up the long-suffering and impoverished shareholders in plantation companies, The salvation of the rubber industry in the long run depends upon a more extended use of the material, and there is one feature emphasized in the Home papers which holds out a certain Jamount of hope in that direction. This is in rubber roadways, and while the idea is by no means new, the announcement is made of sub initial progress in the direction of bringing these to a state of practic ability, for instead of £5 a square yard, which such roadways would have cost a few years ago, they can now be laid down at from 50 shillings to £3 a square yard, A mile of rubber roadway 45 ft. broad will require 250 tons of the raw mat-such roads, which are said' to have great wearing pro-arties, can be popularized, a substantial amount of surplus rubber will be taken off the market. Should one project now under consideration materialize, this future for rubber will undoubtedly be assisted. "This than _convertin thoroughfare, the City Corporation and property owners to bear the cost jointly. Nothing has yet been decided, but should the roadway come into being and prove a success, it would go a long way to help the rubber industry.
~The Envious Casco"
Just before the earthquake which plunged Naples into mourning the other day, excavators at Pompeii nad made a discovery which I be of far wider interest chan such discoveries sometimes; are. A three-legged marble table (minus the top) was unearthed and, on examination, it was found the legs were fashioned like} legs of lion and crowned by lion's head.' On each head rested block on the surface of which was] carved the word antiquaries with the amazing power of deduction which their tribe. possesses, have decided that this table fence belonged to the man who ws foremost in the murder of Julius (Cresar. Whether it was actually in the house which Casea was known to have possessed at Pompeii or whether it was brought from Rome by a Patrician living there is not definitely decided, Thanks to Shakespeare Casca's character is better known than that of far more important folk. He was—in the eyes Jof the dramatist—a very vivid and! uncompromising conspirator. To the fourth form at all events, he is a Hying memory by reason of his use jof the phrase "he plucked me ope his doublet" which is one of those Jsxamples of Shakespearian ana Jchronism which, when judiciously} ited, cheer examiners' hearts.
An Author's Memorial The recent report from Japan that} the old home in Tokyo of Lafcadio Hearn, known to educated Japanese his adopted name, Koizumi Yakumo, is to be transformed into 'a memorial hall in his honour, is a happy commentary on the changes which time works in public opinion. During his peculiar life, Hearn w regarded as "haunted" by all Jape ese with whom he came in contact. They appreciated the brilliant inaccuracy of his descriptions of thei mode of living and took delight in quoting his references to their nobility of character; but they could) not understand why a foreigner] Jshould shed his nationality like a kimono, abandon all the practices and beliefs of his race in an effort! to become more Japanese than the [Japanese themselves.
Strain made him an ardent sentimentalist, but even the people. at} where fect"he immolated all that his wide experience had taught him to!
the truth know that no man in his fall senses could brant go unduly of cherry blossoms and eleadas. In short, he was laughed out of court! fand for the greater part of his stay] ju Japan was forced to live upon the small income derived from the sale! of works abroad. It is strange now to think that the house in which wrote those bitter expressions disappointment and disillusion to his American. friends. will be the Mecca the. descendants of a generation him, to say the least
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.