2 lying in the hands of the Bank of En- This process has thus been going on ACCOUNT of FRACTIONS of a PENNY accumu- Consolidated 37. per Cent. An- ties Cent. Annui. New 37. per Cent. Annuities 21. 10s. per Cent. Annuities, 1854 New 31. 10s. per Cent. Annui- Annuities for terms of years Red Sea and India Telegraph New 57. per Cent. Annuities, 1830 57. per Cent. Annuities (Con 44. per Cent. Annuities (Con 31. per Cent. Annuities, 1726. 41. per Cent. Annuities, 1826 New 4. per Cent. Annuities, New 31. 10s. per Cent. Annui Amount carried forward £ S. d. 80,997 1 9 15,068 5 11 7 Another account contained in the same statement requires some explanation. The amount of the dividends is paid on a fixed day by the exchequer to the bank, but the fundholders do not all take what is due to them with the same punctuality. Many dividends are received by London bankers through powers of attorney. Some, and an increasing number, we believe, are remitted through the comparatively recent adoption of dividend warrants sent by the post. But many fundholders still prefer to receive their dividends in person. There are always persons of a secretive nature, who do not like other people to know anything about their affairs. They do not like to entrust others with a power of attorney, and, in consequence, they leave their dividends till it is convenient to them to come and call for them. Some of these persons may come once a year, some, we believe, even at longer intervals. The outstanding balance of unclaimed dividends, hence, of course varies very much. It is very large immediately after the dividend becomes due, and gradually diminishes towards the end of the term. The amount outstanding in this manner is smaller now than it used to be some years since. In former days, when communication was less rapid and easy than it is at present, the dividends were not claimed as quickly as they are now, and a heavy amount was always outstanding. The government naturally desired to make use of these sums, considering that it had the right to do so, till they were claimed by the persons to whom they belonged. Power was, therefore, taken in an act of Parliament in the time of George III., in 1791, to lend the gov ernment half-a-million of the amount. A further authority was also taken a few years later, in 1808, by the government to borrow back another half million if the fund disposable would admit it. It was never large enough to permit as much as this sum to be advanced, but 376,7397. making with the former advance 876,739%. in all- was lent in this manner to the government. Of recent years, as the div Iidends have been, as we explained pre 7 viously, taken up more rapidly by the ACCOUNT of SUMS BORROWED by the Gov- of the GOVERNOR and COMPANY of the Excess on 31st March, 1882, of £ ing amount ap- dend accounts £876,739 09 Less Issues to the Bank in 1877-8, 187980, and 188081, under 24 Vict., c. 3 Net repayment by the Bank 756,739 09 92,633 16 4 From Chambers' Journal. PAPER AND PINE-APPLE FIBRE. THE variety of purposes which paper can be made to serve is every day increasing. A few of the latest of these are worth mention. It appears that thick paper and cardboard can be rendered as hard and horny as papier-mâché by means of a kind of cement called Chinese varnish, which is easily prepared from blood, lime, and alum. With four parts of slaked lime and a little alum are mixed three parts of fresh blood well beaten up. The thick-flowing mixture that results is, we are informed, at once ready for application to paper or card. Selected Amongst the curiosities of the late Australian exhibition is stated to have been a house entirely constructed from paper, containing carpets, curtains, dishes, and what not, all made of the same useful material. Whether the dishes aforesaid were similar to the plates and dishes made in Germany, we cannot say; but in that country, we are informed, platters are being manufactured from sawdust and paper in the following manner: plane shavings are bound into bundles, and steeped in a bath of weak gelatine solution about twenty-four hours, then dried, and cut into suitable lengths. Plates are cut of strong paper or thin pasteboard of the size of the objects to 849,372 17 I be produced. These are moistened with a liquid consisting of weak gelatine solution with sodium water-glass, and pressed in heated metallic moulds. After drying, the pressed paper objects are coated on both sides with an adhesive material made of five parts Russian gelatine, and one part thick turpentine; the shavings are applied to them, and the whole is sub-ers, the conclusion naturally suggests jected to pressure. (Wood-shavings alone itself, that some day a new and hitherto would, because of their unequal thickness, unsuspected meaning may attach to the present uneven surfaces.) The objects proverbial phrase of a paper war." are now cut, if necessary, dried, and var- Apropos of our subject, it may not be nished. uninteresting to note that the amount of paper required for the census of last year was stated to have been fifty-seven tons, thirteen hundredweight-comprising considerably over seven and a half million householders' schedules, more than seventy-nine thousand enumerating books, and one hundred and ten different forms for vessels. In a former number of this journal, mention was made of the dome of an observatory having been constructed of paper compressed to the hardness of wood. If buildings can be satisfactorily roofed with what is usually considered so frail a substance, it is not surprising to learn that hats and umbrellas can be made from the same material, a paper of extraordinary fineness and strength being said to furnish the people in the Corea with both of those useful articles. As regards the raw materials out of which paper is made, the immense commercial importance of cotton and jute as textile products suggests a few important considerations. Within a comparatively short space of time, these fibres have been the means of founding industries which rank by the side of the time-honored silk, wool, and linen manufactures. Is it not natural to suppose that if, in scientific Talking of dress equipment, a writer in the Theatre mentions having seen in Paris a magnificent stage costume enriched with the loveliest lace he ever be held. In his own words: "The dress was displayed on account of that lace; and that lace was worth, perhaps, twenty-matters-notably electricity-we seem five francs; for it was paper, wonderfully stamped, and represented trains of fuchsias, and looked just as much a piece of real lace as a Paris diamond by night looks an old mine gem. Parisian actresses wear that paper face a great deal; it is tough, soft, and very effective. To wear a costly lot of lace which may be ruined in a night, when very cheap lace-paper looks as well, is considered the height of folly by intelligent foreigners." almost daily increasing our knowledge, similar progress should be made with respect to those more prosaic subjects which very closely affect the personal and domestic comforts of mankind? Amongst the latter, clothing is, after food, the most essential requirement. The discovery, or application, therefore, of a new textile fibre is of much economic importance; and the recently published accounts of the properties of the ananas (or pine-apple) fibre are sufficient to show that in all probability a very valuable raw material for the manufacture of certain qualities of cloth has been placed within the category of textile vegetable fibres. In Other triumphs in the way of utilizing paper may safely be predicted. By some enterprising Americans at least, the time is thought not far distant when yachts, lighter, swifter, and stauncher than any craft yet built, will astonish the maritime The pine-apple is justly esteemed in world. Not very long ago, a citizen of Europe for its delicious aromatic flavor, the United Statės made a journey of over and when grown in this part of the world, two thousand miles in a paper canoe, requires to be kept in hot-houses. built for him by a firm in New York. The the more sunny regions of the East and total weight of the canoe was only fifty- West Indies, South America, Mexico, eight pounds; and for strength, durability, and the Philippine Islands, the pine-apple and elasticity, could not, they say, be sur- grows in wild luxuriance. Yet, however passed. The paper skin, after being wa-widespread its fame as a table fruit, it is ter-proofed, was finished with hard varnishes, and then presented a solid and perfectly smooth surface to the action of the water, unbroken by joint, lap, or seam. Unlike wood, it has no grain to be cracked or split; and paper being one of the best non-conductors, boats of this kind appear to be admirably adapted—which cannot be said of steel or iron-for use in all climates. The surface, polished like a coach-panel, never shrinks or absorbs moisture. Once employed by boat-build doubtful whether many people know of the plant in connection with the textile fibre it produces. According to one practical authority, the leaves of both the wild and the cultivated kinds yield fibres which, when spun, surpass in strength, fineness, and lustre those obtained from flax. It is further added, that in its manufactured state, this product has been long known as an article of commerce in the countries referred to. One of the leading trade papers of the German textile industry has given attention to the investigation of the | come within the control of the foreign properties of this fibre. From India and customs. Still, though in this respect from Central America, two specimens of imperfect, they record with sufficient tissues woven from it have been received. closeness the fluctuations, one year with The former was a piece of striped mus- another, of the external trade of China; lin; and the latter a sample of dress ma- and it is satisfactory to find that of late terial in which the yarn had been their record has been one of progress. bleached; thus showing that the fibre is For the past three years the recorded valcapable of undergoing that process suc- ues of the net foreign imports - that is, cessfully. As to the uses to which the of the foreign goods retained in China. fibre can be put, it is asserted that it can and of the exports of native products be employed as a substitute for silk, and have been: as a material for mixing with wool and cotton. It is likewise stated that for sewing-thread, twist, trimmings, laces, curtains, and the like, its particular qualities render it specially applicable. 1881 Net Foreign £* Native Exports. £ Total £ 27,195,000 19,798,000 46,993,000 24,437,000 21,580,000 46,017,000 24,640,000 20,028,000 44,668,000 About five-sixths of the total imports of China consist of opium, cotton and woollen goods, and metals. And as regards these staples, a comparison with 1880 brings out the following results: VALUES OF CHIEF IMPORTS. Cotton goods Metals As to the extent of its production which is a primary consideration, from an industrial point of view-it is remarked that the plant in its wild state covers large tracts of land; and that, owing to the absence of suitable machinery for preparing the fibre, the domestic consumption, in the principal countries where it grows, has never increased beyond a point which leaves a large quantity for export. The large size of the leaves gives a great Opium length of fibre, which is an advantage for manufacturing purposes. It has hitherto been mostly used, in the countries referred to, for the making of fishing-nets, lines, etc.; its great strength, and its peculiar quality of not being injured by a prolonged submersion in water, rendering it particularly adapted for such purposes. The fact that every portion of the plant is utilized either as fruit or fibre, has been urged to prove the lucrative results which may attend its cultivation. In conclusion, the writer considers that the ultimate adoption of the pine-apple fibre as a manufacturing product is assured, and urges on German manufacturers to devote special attention to this new branch of textile industry. From The Economist. THE FOREIGN TRADE OF CHINA. A CONTINUED expansion of the commerce of China with foreign nations is shown in the returns of the trade at the treaty ports during the year 1881. These returns, it may be mentioned at the outset, do not give a complete view of the Chinese foreign trade, inasmuch as they take no cognisance of the very considerable quantity of goods imported or exported in such Chinese vessels as do not Increase in 1881 10,416,000 8,962,000 1,454,000 7,217,000 6,479,000 £ 738,000 1,622,000 1,610,000 12,000 204,000 In the sundries, which constitute the remaining sixth of the imports, the increase in 1881 over 1880 amounts to fully 1,000,000l., a growth which may be regarded as specially gratifying, inasmuch as it may be taken to indicate that the Chinese demand for foreign goods is extending to a larger number of products, and becoming more generally diffused. The increase in the opium imports is not a feature of the year's trade which can be regarded with much satisfaction, and possibly the best that can be said of it is that it does not necessarily imply an increased use of the drug, which is now so largely produced in China itself that the import figures are of little value as a guide to the total consumption. There is, however, nothing to detract from our gratification at the development of the trade in cotton goods, the increase shown last year under this head being but the continuance of a growth which has been in progress ever since 1878, in which year the value of the cotton imports was only 4,432,000l. The increase in woollen goods is comparatively slight, but the market for these products in China is lim The Haikwan taels, in which the values are stated in the return, are converted throughout at the rate of 5s. 6'5d. per tael. ited, as amongst the poorer classes wad-about 800,000/, in value, that, however, ded cotton garments are preferred to being accompanied by considerable, alwoollens, not only because of their com- though not quite a proportionate, decline parative cheapness, but also from the in the quantity shipped. These two force of custom, which it is not easy to movements account for nearly the whole break through. In metals the increase of the diminution in the aggregate value arises almost wholly in tin and sheet lead of the exports of 1881, and the changes and tin plates. in the other branches of the export trade show few noteworthy features. The chief articles of export from China are tea and silk, and of the former the export in 1881 was the largest recorded, the figures for the past five years being: 1881. 1880. 1879. 1878. Piculs. 2,137,472 2,097,118 1,987,463 1,898,956 1,909,700 1877. But the prices obtained last year for the Chinese teas, partly owing to the largeness of the supply, and also because of their inferior quality, were very low, and the recorded value of the larger shipments in 1881 is 787,000l. less than that of the smaller consignment in 1880. In the silk exports, also, there was last year, as compared with 1880, a decrease of As to the direction of the trade, it is not possible to speak with absolute certainty; for while in the returns the trade of all the treaty ports is classified according to the countries of origin or destination, no such classification is given of the trade of Hong Kong, which last year amounted to 13,536,000l. out of the recorded aggregate of 46,993,000l. This Hong Kong trade, however, is simply an entrepôt trade, the imports thither and the exports thence coming originally from and being destined to, the various countries that do business with China. But a very good idea of the course of the Chinese trade may be gathered from the following statement of the shipping entering and clearing from the treaty ports in each of the past six years: TONNAGE and NATIONALITY of VESSELS ENTERED and CLEARED at TREATY PORTS. In 1876, the proportion of British to | 400,000 tons to 225,000 tons, and although the total tonnage was about 50 per cent., this is to a large extent attributable to while last year it amounted to nearly 62 the substitution of Chinese for American per cent. It does not, of course, neces- vessels, yet the probability is that a large sarily follow that our direct trade with number of United States ships have been China has developed in the same propor- replaced by British. There can be no tion. It must be remembered that of late doubt, however, that the development of years we have been getting the carrying Chinese trade has been largely with Great trade of the world more and more into Britain and its colonies and dependenour own hands and that in all probability, cies, and that even from the growth that therefore, British vessels are being em- has taken place with other nations, we ployed to a larger extent in the trade of have benefited in the fuller employment other nations with China. We know, for it has given to our mercantile marine. instance, as a fact, that while the trade We cannot, therefore, but feel deeply inbetween the treaty ports and the United terested in the further extension of States increased in value from 2,216,000l. the Chinese trade, which, much though in 1876 to 3,747,000l. in 1881, the Amer- it has increased in recent times, is still ican tonnage fell in the interval from 2,- only in its infancy, for the imports and |