Company News and Views

considerable way toward completion
[3] Since the above was written the scheme has been developed a very
considerable way toward completion. The name of the confederation is
to be ‘The Commonwealth of Australia.’

bank, payable on demand
A CHEQUE is an order for money, drawn by one who has funds in the
bank, payable on demand. Banks provide blank cheques for their
customers and it is a very simple matter to fill them out properly. In
writing in the amount begin at the extreme left of the line. The
illustrations given here show a poorly-written cheque and a copy of
the same cheque after it has been ‘raised.’ The original cheque was
for $7.50 and shows very careless arrangement. It was a very easy
matter for the fraudulent receiver to change the ’seven’ to ’seventy’
and to add a cipher to the amount in figures. The running line was
written in on the raised cheque to deceive the bank. In this case Mr.
Carter and not the bank must suffer the loss. Mr. Carter cannot hold
the bank responsible for his carelessness. Drawers of cheques should
exercise the greatest care in writing in the amount to prevent changes
or additions. Draw a running line, thus: ~~~_Nine_~~~ before and after
the amount written in words. If the words are commenced close to the
left margin the running line will be necessary only at the right. The
signature should be in your usual style familiar to the paying teller.
The plain, freely written signature is the most difficult to forge.
Usually cheques are drawn ‘to order.’ The words ‘Pay to the order of
John Brown’ mean that the money is to be paid to John Brown or to any
person he ‘orders’ it paid to. By indorsing the cheque in blank (see
indorsements) he makes it payable to bearer. If a cheque is drawn ‘Pay
to bearer’ any person–that is, the bearer–can collect it. The paying
teller may ask the person cashing the cheque to write his name on the
back, simply to have it for reference. Safety devices to prevent the
fraudulent alteration of cheques are of almost endless variety, but
there has not been a preventive against forgery and alterations yet
invented, which has not been successfully overcome by swindlers. A
machine for punching out the figures is in common use, but the
swindler has successfully filled in the holes with paper-pulp and
punched other figures to suit his purposes. The safest cheques are
those carefully written upon what is known as safety paper.

The degradation of the peasantry of Russia is not simply material. It
is also moral. In the language of a recent traveller, ‘they are the
drunkenest people in Europe.’ The principal intoxicant is a sort of
whisky called ‘vodka.’ With drunkenness exist also dirtiness,
idleness, dishonesty, and untruthfulness. And as yet little has been
done to ameliorate this degradation. Ignorance prevails everywhere.
Even of the young people of the peasant class more than eighty per
cent. can neither read nor write. There is no middle class. The gulf
between the upper class and the lower is so wide as to be absolutely
impassable. And for the most part the upper class is quite content to
have this state of affairs continue.

9. CHINA. (_a_) Give an account of China”s size, population, and trade
resources. (_b_) Give an account of China”s present foreign trade.
(_c_) Give an account of the trade possibilities of China, and show in
what manner an increase of the foreign trade of China is most likely
first to occur.

immediate availability of its agricultural resources, for its forest
wealth remains undeveloped, and its mineral resources are
comparatively scanty
The great prosperity of Argentina has been due to the extent and
immediate availability of its agricultural resources, for its forest
wealth remains undeveloped, and its mineral resources are
comparatively scanty. Its vast treeless and stoneless plains have
needed no ‘improvements’ to make them fit for settlement, and the soil
which covers them being of virgin richness bears crop after crop
without fertilising and with very little cultivation. Immigrants
arrive in the country without a dollar and in twenty years are owners
of estates of 5000 acres each. In no country in the world has
agricultural extension been more rapid. In twenty years the acreage
under cultivation increased 1400 per cent. The amount under
cultivation in wheat alone increased 2600 per cent. The WHEAT
PRODUCTION averages 40,000,000 bushels, which is not far short of one
fourth of the total wheat export of the United States. The production
for 1897 was 60,000,000 bushels, although the amount exported was much
less than that. The wheat product is indeed very variable, owing to
droughts and locusts, for, like Australia, Argentina is uncertain in
its rainfall. The CORN CROP is steadier, and in 1896 amounted (for
export alone) to 60,000,000 bushels. More important in the aggregate
than the direct products of the soil are the indirect products. There
are 22,000,000 CATTLE kept in Argentina, 75,000,000 SHEEP, and
4,500,000 HORSES. The total exportation of animals and animal products
amounts to $70,-000,000. Of this exportation the principal item is
WOOL, the wool-clip of Argentina being, in weight, one seventh of the
total wool-clip of the world. Unfortunately, however, Argentina wool
is very dirty, and when washed reduces to one third, while Australian
wool reduces only to two thirds or three fifths and is free from
seeds. The profit accruing to the Argentina wool-grower is thereby
lessened. But, nevertheless, wool-growing in Argentina is a very
profitable industry, and many farmers (principally Irish settlers)
have from 50,000 to 100,000 sheep each. Cattle-farming is carried on
mostly by native Argentines, and many cattle farms are stocked with as
many as 10,000 cattle and 2000 horses each. The great exports of
Argentina, therefore, after wheat and corn and wool, are HIDES and
SKINS, TALLOW, CHILLED BEEF, and MUTTON and bones. There are five
factories in Buenos Ayres engaged wholly in chilling mutton, and the
export of chilled mutton to Great Britain alone is $5,000,000 a year.
Another growing agricultural product is WINE, the yearly production
being 1,500,000 gallons. Notwithstanding Argentina”s magnificent
forest areas, but little timber is exported or even manufactured for
home consumption. The other principal manufacturing industries are
carriage-, cart-, and harness-making, cigarette- and match-making,
preserving and tinning meat, brewing, flour- and corn-milling, and the
making of macaroni.

Another class who cannot make contracts are DRUNKEN PERSONS. Once the
law regarded a drunken man as fully responsible for his acts, and if
he made a contract he was obliged to execute or fulfil it. He could
not shield himself by saying he did not know what he was doing at the
time. The court sternly frowned on him and said: ‘No matter what was
your condition at the time of making it, you must carry it out.’ This
was the penalty for his misdeed. It may be the courts thought that by
requiring him to fulfil his contracts he would be more careful and
restrain his appetite. Whatever the courts may have thought, they have
changed their opinions regarding his liability for his contracts made
under such conditions. Now they hold that he need not carry them out
if he desires to escape from them. There is, however, one exception
to this rule. If he has given a note in the ordinary form, and this
has been taken by a third person in good faith who did not know of the
maker”s condition at the time of making it, he must pay. But, we
repeat, the third person must act in good faith in taking it, for if
he knew that the maker was drunk at that time he cannot require him to
pay any more than the person to whom it was first given.

often done in writing
A SPECIAL AGENT is appointed to do a particular thing and this is more
often done in writing. Perhaps the most common illustration is the
appointment of some one to act for another at the annual meeting of a
corporation to vote on stock. Such a person is called a PROXY, and
persons often act as through another in this manner. Sometimes one
person serves as a proxy or agent for a very large number of
shareholders.

ahead, and left it with his clerk, directing him to draw the money on
the day written in the cheque and pay the men who worked for him, and
went away
A few years ago a man drew a cheque for $250, dated it three days
ahead, and left it with his clerk, directing him to draw the money on
the day written in the cheque and pay the men who worked for him, and
went away. The clerk thought that he would like to keep that money
himself and take a little journey also, so he changed the date to one
day earlier, went into the bank on that day and drew the money, and
started for the Klondike or some other place. The maker of the cheque
soon found out what had happened and demanded of the bank to make the
amount good. The bank said to him: ‘Suppose the clerk had waited one
day longer and then drawn the money, you would have been the loser
just the same.’ The man admitted all this, but replied, nevertheless,
that he had not changed the date; that the bank ought to have seen the
alteration before paying, and as it did not it was negligent in that
regard, and the bank was obliged to lose.

parties, and a consideration must also be given
To make a contract of sale there must be, as we have seen, two or more
parties, and a consideration must also be given. The sale is complete
when the _property_, or _title_, or _ownership_ in the thing bought
passes from the seller to the buyer. It is not necessary in order to
make a valid sale to deliver the thing bought. If the _title_ or
_ownership_ in the thing is not transferred, the sale still remains
incomplete.