mechanical processes, the greater the variety of activities our minds would be able to superintend, and the greater consequently our intellectual and physical efficiency.

But that was not all. Without a large development of the mechanical element many forms of modern activity would be quite impossible. At the conference of the Incorporated Society of Musicians at Dublin a week previously, Mr Duncan Hume dealt with this subject from the point of view of the pianist, and gave some staggering statistics as to the processes involved in piano playing. Mr Cope quoted Mr Hume's statistics and pointed out that the performances to which they related would be utterly impossible if conscious thought were necessary in connection with every note. It was only because the process had become mechanical that it was possible at all. They could not rival Mr Hume's figures in Phonography; but their statistics were enormous. To write 150 words a minute involved hearing on an average about 750 distinct sounds-consonants and vowelsevery minute, and managing to represent or indicate 12 of those sounds every second? Writing at 200 words a minute meant hearing about 1,000 sounds in every minute, and representing or indicating rather more than 16 of them every second. If the process of writing shorthand could not become mechanical, these feats would be impossible.

After quoting from Dr Edridge-Green's book on "Memory," a description of the physiological processes involved in learning and practising Phonography, and from expressed opinions of Messrs T. A. Reed, W. H. Gurney-Salter, and various other professional shorthand writers with reference to mechanical work in shorthand, and pointing out that necessarily in all shorthand work, however mechanical, there was some amount of attention engaged, just as where machinery was working there was always a human brain somewhere superintending the operations, Mr Cope concluded by remarking that all mechanical processes were the outcome of mind, and that, therefore, it was no discredit to them that they were mechanical. All mechanical processes had for their object two things: economy of effort, and increase of the quantity of the product. They relieved the mind of labour that would otherwise be thrown upon it, and these enabled it to bestow its full vigour and attention upon other things. They, therefore, indirectly promoted the intellectual life. Every process that had to be performed rapidly and repeatedly could be better performed mechanically. Shorthand writing was such a process. Instead of resenting the statement that shorthand was a mechanical art, they ought eagerly and proudly to boast of it as the crowning proof of the perfection of Phonography.

The address was followed with close attention by a large audience, and the proceedings concluded with the usual vote of thanks.

partner from 1st Jan, 1903. Whiteland introduced no capital, but one-half of his share of the profits, which were to be divided equally, was to be placed to credit of his capital account to accumulate. Mr Ellis was to be paid 5 % per annum interest out of the profits for the use of his capital.

You are to open ledger accounts with the balances shown in the following statement, and the capital account of Mr Ellis, to pass the transactions for January through the proper books to the ledger, and to close the books as on the 31st January. The value of the stock at that date was agreed at £295.

INC. SOCIETY OF SHORTHAND TEACHERS.

LIVERPOOL.

A meeting of the Liverpool District was held at the Y.M.C.A. on 10th Jan., Mr H. E. Blain presiding over a large attendance, which included the members of the General Executive of the Society. The program commenced with a model lesson on the tion hook by Mr J. Karfoot (Chorley), a brisk and interesting discussion being initiated by Mr G. Sandiford (Examiner to the Lancashire and Cheshire Union of Institutes), and continued by Messrs Hynes and Nixon (Manchester), Whiteley (Sheffield) and others, the various points raised being replied to by Mr Karfoot. Then followed an able paper on "Shorthand Teachers and Shorthand Teaching," by Mr H. E. Blain. Mr Nixon (Manchester), opened the discussion, other speakers being Messrs Brooks and Cross (Manchester), Birtwhistle, and Griffiths.

The next meeting will take place on the 21st Feb., for which the program has been arranged. Any teacher in the district will be heartily welcomed. Any information can be obtained from the Hon. Sec., Mr D. Beeby, 108 Blantyre road.

BOOK-KEEPING EXAMINATION PAPERS.

No. 43. INTERMEDIATE.

Henry Ellis, trading as Ellis Brothers, had a statement of his affairs taken on the 31st Dec., 1902, with a view of admitting his confidential assistant, William Whiteland, as a

..

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4 12

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Paid him on account

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17. Returned goods to P. Wood, not being

20

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22 197

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Received notice that H. Barton had

been declared bankrupt. I hold his acceptance for £22 1s. 6d.

to sundry customers

"

23. Sold goods for cash

24.-Bought goods of H. Cole

Pitman's Shorthand Dictionary. By Sir Isaac Pitman, Inventor of Phonography, a System of Phonetic Shorthand based on the Sounds of Speech and the Science of Phonetics. Eighth (Twentieth Century) Edition. Crown 8vo, 312 pp., cloth, 4s.; roan, 5s. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd.

Next to the instruction books, it is, by general consent, agreed that there is no more valuable work for the student who desires to make himself master of the best outlines in the system than the "Shorthand Dictionary." The book is also quite indispensable to the teacher and the phonographic worker interested in the determination of the standard outlines. In the present revised and enlarged edition of the "Dictionary" two principal objects have been kept in view, first that the phonographic representation of the words in the language should be in strict accordance with the rules of the system as given in the Instructor" (Twentieth Century Edition); and secondly that the numerous additions made to .he vocabulary should be those of words which have come into general use in modern life, and should include all those scientific and artistic terms which are employed every day in newspapers or speech. These additions, while increasing the number of pages in the "Dictionary," have made it much more complete and comprehensive than any previous issue. Characters are also now given for a great number of inflected forms of verbs, adjectives, etc., where these are expressed by altered outlines. Additions have been made to the list of proper names, in the shape of the names of many celebrities which have not hitherto been given, and also the names of many important towns, especially in Great Britain and the United States, not previously included in the " Dictionary." A new feature, which is likely to be very popular with

teachers, examiners, and others, consists of full alphabetical lists of all the Grammalogues and Contracted Words in the system, with a method of indication by which it may be readily ascertained whether a particular grammalogue is introduced in the Learner's or Corresponding Styles, or a particular contracted word is used in the Corresponding Style.

Shorthand in the Office. A Complete Shorthand Clerk's Guide, with Chapters on Special Preparation, Aids and Hindrances, etc. By Alfred Kingston. Seventh Edition. Fcap. 8vo, 128 pp., price is. 6d. ; cloth 2s. Sir Isaac Pitman and Sons, Ltd.

Taking advantage of the demand for a new edition of the popular guide to the use of stenography in office work, hitherto known as "Phonography in the Office," an improved work, largely re-written and containing much new matter, has been produced, with the title of "Shorthand in the Office." New chapters are introduced on "The Shorthand-Typist" and "The Shorthand Clerk as Private Secretary," and much matter that was either out-of-date, or given elsewhere, has been replaced by new matter. These improvements greatly enhance the value of the work as a supplementary volume to the shorthand instruction bɔoks, and as a handy and practical guide for all who are proposing to use their shorthand skill in the office.

"

With the issue of "The Chimes" and "The Cricket" the publication is completed of the whole of Dickens's five Christmas Books " in Pitman's Shorthand. Two of these, "The Chimes" and "The Battle of Life," are produced in the Corresponding Style; and the other three, "A Christmas Carol," "The Cricket on the Hearth," and "The Haunted Man," are in the Reporting Style. Dickens's "Christmas Books are so universally known and appreciated, and phonographers have manifested such an interest in the issue of the earlier volumes, that we feel assured they will freely avail themselves of the present opportunity of adding to and completing the set.

IGNITING SEALING WAX.-A patent has been taken out for an invention whereby sticks of sealing wax are provided at one or both ends with tips of igniting composition similar to match heads, and in some cases are provided with wicks. The sticks may be made in the shape and size of matches.

AN OCEAN NEWSPAPER-A morning or evening ocean newspaper, printed and published on board ship, is promised as the outcome of the Marconi wireless telegraphy. A British mail steamer is to start from Liverpool at the end of this month with the necessary staff and plant for the issue of a daily paper during the voyage to New York. It is assumed that if Press messages are delivered in mid-ocean private telegrams will also be delivered.

LEGAL TERMS, PHRASES, AND

ABBREVIATIONS

FOR TYPISTS, AND SHORTHAND AND OTHER JUNIOR CLERKS.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "ELEMENTARY LAW FOR SHORTHAND CLERKS AND TYPISTS." I-TERMS USED IN CONVEYANCING (CONtinued). Apportionment (continued).

The ancient state of the law on the subject is quaintly expressed in an old act passed in the reign of George II. This act (11 Geo. II. Cap. 19) recites that where a man entitled to rents for life died before or on the day on which any rent was reserved (as would happen if a man died either on the 24th or the 25th March, the rent being payable on the last mentioned day) such rent was not nor was any part of it recoverable by law by the executors of the deceased, and the person who succeeded him in the title-the reversioner-was not entitled to recover it "of which," continues the act, "advantage hath been often taken by the under-tenants, who thereby avoid paying anything for the same." This act, which was the first Apportionment Act, sought to provide a remedy for this anomalous state of things. It enabled the executors or administrators of a deceased tenant for life to recover the rent becoming due on the day of the death, or, if no rent was payable on that day, then a proportion of the current rent up to that day. This was effecting an apportionment. But the act was crude, and in course of time it was found to be hardly so effectual as its framers evidently intended it to be.

In the year 1834 a much more extensive act was passed which fixes the present law on the subject. This act (4 and 5 William IV., Cap. 22) is often referred to. It is usually cited as the Apportionment Act 1834. It governs a great number of transactions that take place in a solicitor's office. The act after removing some doubts as to the meaning of the former act of 1737, proceeds to declare that all rents reserved by any lease granted after the date of the act, and all other rents, annuities, pensions, dividends, and other periodical payments made payable at fixed dates under any instrument executed thereafter should be apportioned, so that on the death of any person interested in such rents, annuities, pensions, dividends, and other periodical payments, whatever his interest might be, or on the determination of his interest by any other means, he or his estate should be entitled to a proportion of the rents, etc., up to the date on which his interest terminates. It stipulates further that the proportions shall only be recoverable from the tenants or other persons liable to pay, when the full periodical payment becomes due according to the instrument.

It will be noticed that this act applies only to income payable periodically under an instrument in writing, and then only when the instrument fixes the times of payment. It carried the former law very much further, but it did not carry it far enough. Owing largely to modern commercial methods, there are many kinds of periodical payments, in the nature of income, which are not secured or made payable by any definite instrument in writing, or which where there is an instrument in writing concerning them, are not sufficiently regulated by that instrument, to bring them within the four corners of the 1834 act. Accordingly in 1870 still another act was passed. This act (33 and 34 Victoria, Cap. 35) is usually referred to as the Apportionment Act 1870, and the three acts -which are all in force, the later ones not repealing but merely extending the earlier acts-are cited together as "The Apportionment Acts." The 1870 act takes the drastic course of declaring that all rents, annuities, dividends, and other periodical payments in the nature of income, whether made payable under any instrument in writing or not, are to be considered as accruing from day to day, and are to be apportionable accordingly. The interpretation clause in the act is of a comprehensive character. For instance, "rent" is

made to include tithes, " annuities" means also salaries and pensions, and the term "dividends" is made elastic enough to cover all payments (whether called dividends or not) in the nature of dividends, bonus, or otherwise paid out of the revenue of any trading or public company to its members, whether those payments are made or declared at any fixed times or otherwise. The apportioned part of any periodical payment is not recoverable until the whole periodical payment is due.

One other point ought to be mentioned with reference to this Act, as it concerns a question that is constantly arising in practice in legal offices. Dividends on the ordinary shares in a joint stock company are not payable until they have been formally sanctioned in accordance with the Articles of Association of the company. The dividends are usually determined on at the annual general meeting of the company. They are, of course, not paid before that date, though sometimes directors pride themselves on sending out the cheques on the very day of the meeting, these having been drawn and signed in anticipation of the meeting adopting the directors' recommendation on the subject. But although they are not payable until after the meeting, they do not necessarily run up to the date of the meeting. It very seldom happens that they do. A dividend sanctioned at a meeting held say on 15th February, may and probably will, be for the year or the half-year ending on the previous 31st December. How is it to be apportioned as between the estate of a shareholder who died on say 17th October, and the person who became entitled to the income after his death? Shall the entire dividend be treated for the purpose of the calculation as running up to the date at which it became payable, which is the date on which the deceased would have received it if he had been living, or as running up to the previous 31st December? Curiously enough this question is often raised and argued from opposite points of view. It is too often forgotten that the question is decided by the Act we have been considering the Apportionment Act of 1870. That Act expressly declares that all divisible revenue of a company is to be deemed to have accrued by equal daily increment during and within the period for or in respect of which the payment is declared or expressed to be made.

This means that supposing the dividend declared on 15th February is for or in respect of the half-year ending on the previous 31st December," and supposing further that it amounts to £92, on the shares or stock in which the deceased, who died on 17th October was interested, it is to be regarded under the Act as a dividend of ros. a day (there being 184 days in the half-year) from 30th June to the 31st December. The estate of the deceased person is entitled to seventy-nine times 10s. (there being seventy-nine days from the 30th June to the 17th October) or £39 10s. out of the total dividend of £92. Therefore in filling up the accounts appended to the affidavit for Inland Revenue, to be carried in on applying for probate or letters of administration, the deceased's estate will be credited with £39 10s. for proportionate part of dividend up to the date of his death, and when the total dividend is received that sum will be paid out of it to the executor or administrator, and the balance will be paid over to the person or persons who become entitled to the shares or stock by reason of the death.

(To be continued. Commenced in No. 1.)

FOREIGN COMMERCIAL EXERCISES.

SPANISH. 60.

ESTACIÓN ENOTÉCNICA DE ESPAÑA. Mejor que con nuestras propias observaciones, contestaremos á las preguntas y consultas que se nos han hecho sobre el estado actual de los viñedos franceses, extractando los que dice Le Moniteur Vinicole de París del 30 del próximo pasado mes.

Afortunadamente, escribe la citada publicación, el buen tiempo ha venido á sustituir la época de lluvias, vientos, pedriscos y fríos que durante dos meses ha dominado. Hacía más de quince días quel la vegetación parecía estacionada, dando señales12 de debilidad clorótica y comenzando á mostrarse las enfermedades criptogámicas, sin13 que se estuviera13, por otra parte, seguro de la buena marcha de la floración.

En el Gard el mildew15 y la antracnosis16 se han manifestado principalmente en los hondos17, no obstante los tratamientos preventivos. En el Hérault, el mildew y demás criptógamas se han presentado de18 preferencials en los terrenos llanos1o, pues los viñedos de las colinas20 aunque atacados, sufren menos, siendo las cepas21 más resistentes hasta ahora.

A la seguida del largo período de fríos se ha notado en el Armagnac que muchos racimos23 abortaban24 sacando25 hojas ó peciolos26, los sarmientos no medraban y el aspecto de las viñas tomaba" mal cariz.-Diario del Comercio.

I season; 2 œnotechnic, wine producing; 3 we shall reply; 4 questions; 5 consultations; 6 to us; 7 wine producing districts; 8, 8 that which, what; 9 rains; 10 hail storms; II...II it made more than fifteen days that, for more than a fortnight; 12 signs; 13...13 without that there might be, without there being; 14 certainty, assurance; 15 English word; 16 anthracnosis, vine-rust; 17 low-lying districts; 18, 18 by preference, principally; 19 plain, flat; 20 hills; 21 trunks, stocks; 22 following, consequence; 23 racemes, clusters; 24 aborted, failed to develop; 25 throwing off, casting; 26 fragments; 27 vine shoots, grape-bearing branches; 28 were prospering; 29.....29 took a bad appearance, looked bad.

FRENCH.
61.

BLE INDIGÈNE1.

La Bourse de commerce ayant été fermée de jeudi à lundi, les affaires ont été suspendues, sauf2 dimanche, à Orléans, où a eu lieu la réunion3 annuelle. Nous en avons rendu1 compte* et dit qu'elle n'a pas eu l'importance habituelle, par suite de sa date prématurée. On a cependant constaté,5 comme quelques jours auparavant à Tours, et le lendemain à Chatellerault, que le Midi était acheteur de blés ; des affaires assez rondes se sont traitées pour cette provenances à 20 fr. les 100 kilos. Le Centre est vendeur et a des qualités très belles; les blés de 78 à 79 kilos sont abondants, aussi bien que dans l'Allier, l'Indre, l'Indre-et-Loire, le Cher, la Nièvre et le Loiret. Pour l'Ouest et le Nord, il faut, pour juger, attendre; la moisson 10 est retardée. La meunerie11 du Nord est obligée d'acheter des blés depuis le début du mois dans toutes les directions où se trouve du12 disponible; il13 paie13 de 22.23 à 22.50 les 100 kilos rendus; il a été pris au dépourvu, car les blés étrangers, qui devaient arriver en grande quantité, sont encore à attendre.15 En effet, dans toute la campagne, il en est arrivé au total 123,661 quintaux16 passibles du droit17 de 7 fr.

Nous avions donc bien raison de mettre en garde nos lecteurs contre des soi-disant arrivages18, mais nous avions aussi indiqué qu'on attaquerait toutes les réserves et nous ne croyons pas qu'on ait débuté avec un vide19 aussi grand. On le voit bien, au marché de Paris, où il n'y a plus de farine, et s'il reste encore 75,000 quintaux de blés, c'est que20 les détenteurs21 ne veulent pas faire de concessions. Ils les tiennent, au contraire, plus chers que les nouveaux blés. Ils ne les mettent pas non plus en livraison et le mois courant a encore monté puisqu'on le cote22 aujourd'hui 22.25 contre 22 francs mercredi dernier.-L'Echo du Commerce.

1 indigenous, home-grown; 2 save, except; 3 assembly; 4, 4 made a report, given an account; 5 stated, mentioned, noticed; 6 a buyer, buying; 7 round, considerable; 8, 8 goods coming from that neighbourhood; 9 a seller, selling; 10 harvest; I corn-grinding industry, milling interest; 12 any; 13, 13 it pays, there is paid, people are paying; 14, 14 on the unprovided, unawares, short of stock; 15 wait for, be waited for; 16 quintals of 100 kilogrammes (about 200 lbs.) each; 17...17 subject to the duty; 18 (naval term) arrivals; 19 vacuum, shortage; 20 because; 21 holders; 22 quotes. ENGLISH VERSION OF LAST WEEK'S EXERCISE. GERMAN.

58.

Petroleum is a natural hydrocarbon stored up in the interior of the earth, which since 1859 has become a commercial article of the first rank for illuminating purposes. Petroleum is found most abundantly in North America, and as a matter of fact in strata which lie parallel to the Alleghany Mountains, and extend from Lake Ontario as far as Virginia. The crude petroleum is conveyed from the place where it is obtained to the refineries. In the oil region of Pennsylvania more than thirty companies are engaged in this industry. The conveying is effected by means of iron pipes. Some of the oil refineries are in the oil region, some by Lake Erie, and some on the coast of the Atlantic Ocean. The refining of the petroleum consists in treatment with alkalies and acids, and in fractional distillation, in order to decompose the petroleum into lamp oil and naphtha, which latter compound further breaks up into petroleum ether, benzine, The refined petroleum is a faintly yellowish coloured liquid which, by aid of a wick, burns with intense evolution of light. If we fix the illuminating power of wax candles at 100, that of petroleum is 180 to 195. Petroleum is also very important as a fuel. The experiments made with petroleum in the navy of the United States have resulted very favourably. A vessel heated by petroleum can keep the sea, under steam, three times as long, with less work and greater economy than with an equal weight of coal.—Society of Arts Examination Paper.

etc.

FRENCH.

59.

In the conditions of progress which the utilization of natural forces has realized, the barrages of reservoirs play a very important part. To store up masses of water in a valley so as to be able to make use of it at will is to create, by the very fact, an enormous accumulator of power; now, the accumulator, under its various hydraulic or electric forms, is, par excellence, the industrial "formula" of the present day, that is, the hand laid upon and controlling energy and irrigation reduced to system. Therefore we construct barrages wherever possible.

But the barrage in masonry, however soundly it may be constructed, has serious drawbacks; we know it only too well. It is merely a wall more or less firmly embedded in the ground, more or less thoroughly anchored in its lateral parts, but having the defects common to walls small and great, viz., liability to become fissured and ultimately break into pieces, to grow old (to use the fatal term); then, some fine day, the wall splits, gives way, and becomes dislocated; then comes a waterspout precipitating itself into the valley. Engineers have not failed to think of substituting the use of metal for that of masonry in order to remedy these defects. The problem is, and we shall no doubt solve it in an effective fashion, to construct barrages in cement or protected concrete, that is to give to the masonry reduced to its simplest expression, a framework of iron or steel. Probably even hollow barrages, with framework of metal, will in future advantageously replace the enormous walls of masonry, which necessitate very fine calculations, and "look very well in the landscape," but seldom fail, after a year or two, to become a perpetual subject of uneasiness to their builders.

-Society of Arts Examination Paper.

MAX DE NANSOUTY.

When the fields have been cleared of their crops and the leaves have fallen in the woods, a sport begins which has been called "thoroughly British," namely that of fox-hunting. All must either have read about, seen pictures of, or actually taken part in a fox-hunt. The "meet" is at some pretty rural spot, and the sight is a pleasant one of a gallant array of riders, gathered to witness the search for and chase of the fox by the fine pack of hounds brought on the scene by the huntsman and his men. Every one enjoys the brisk hunt across the country, and it has even been asserted by ardent devotees of the sport that the fox likes it as well!

The animal which every year gives so much sport to the gentry of this country, is too well known to need to be described here: the sharp pointed muzzle, the round head, the erect ears, the small body, and the bushy brush, are familiar to all.

The

animal is spoken of as 'cunning or as "clever "; and it has certainly a far greater share of reasoning power than some beasts. Its display of this, and the affection it shows for its young, should be placed to its credit when the farmer is disposed to be angry about the ravages of the fox in his poultry yard.

(To be continued.)