Morning journal and courier., 1884-08-12

COuACy3 Sdd14OIA1d 1G cOl1pT1ScS 1yoOO dCACS in grapes, 5000 orange and lemon trees, 2,000 pomegranates, 5000 English walnut trees, 2,000 almond trees, 2,500 peach trees, 1, 900 pear trees, 2,000 apricot trees, 1000 fig trees, and subsistence is furnished for %, 900 head of sheep, 2,000 cows and pigs and several hundred horses and mules and this year before harvest could be seen IT, 900 acres of golden grain.
 Last winter we heard a great deal about what would happen if the whisky makers were not helped out of the slough into which they had plunged themselves by overproduc- tion. Now, to avoid payment of the tax on whisky in bond, dealers in Pittsburg and probably elsewhere are shipping it in large quantities to European ports for storage. The cost for storage and insurance is so much less in foreign warehouses than in this country that it is claimed that the dealers can make about thirty cents a gallon over keeping it in this country and paying the tax.
 The taxpayers of Boston are much dis turbed by the fact that the tax rate for the current year, which has just been declared is $17 per S1, ,000. As compared with 1883, the increase is S2 50 per $1 ,000 The total valuation on May 1, 1884, was: Real estate $488, 130, TOO; personal $194, ,517, 300, making total valuation of $682, ,648 ,O0O, which, compared with that of a year ago, shows a gain of only S215, 300. In 1881 there was a gain of $26, ,OOO, ,0OO, in 1882 there was gain of $7, 900, 900, and in 1883 there was gain of nearly $1O, 1000, GOO. The rate of taxation is the highest ever made in the city
 The dockets of the federal courts in San Francisco begin to look as they did last win ter, when they contained at one time hun dreds of Chinese cases. There are now one hundred cases pending of petitioners who wish to obtain permission to land. Each steamer bringing Chinese supplies business for lawyers and interpret CTS Nearly all the Chinese who come into San Francisco Har- bor, in transit for Victoria, secure, it is said, writs of habeas corpus, and try to land there. This litigation will be increased under the amended Chinese exclusion act, which went into effect on July ,. MT. Justice Sawyer, of the United States circuit court, in deci- sion given few days ago, held that, under the act, women and children, as we'll as men, will be compelled on their return to this country to produce certificates of previous residence.
 George Westinghouse, before he invented and perfected his wel1-known air brake, was regarded by a number of his acquaintances with something approaching pity, because of his alleged lack of Etgumption." His air brake was a success, and his friends began to think there was something in him after all. His automatic engine added to his fame and bank balance and he mounted higher in the esteem of his former friends. A few weeks ago valuable well of natural gas was struck on his premises at Homewood, near Pitts burg. The well is 1 1880 feet deep, and the flow of gas is tremendous, the roar being al- most deafening and scarcely endurable to the citizens of the neighborhood. Two other wells are being put down by Mir, Nesting house, and he estimates that his profit there from will soon amount to one thousand dol lars day.
 Correspondence with Queen Victoria by l6GG6f IS one or the daily duties When there has been an i'm portant division or debate in Parliament and members are hastening home tired to bed, the Premier alone can take no rest until he has written to the Queen his official report of the proceedings. These letters couched in the third person: ''Mr. Gladstone pre- sents his duty to your Majesty, etc." ;" and her Majesty's replies, usually dictated to secre- tary, also run in the third person. Though never discursive, they not mere formal acknowledgements, but often enter succinctly into the question at issue. The Queen de- votes several hours every morning to the study of state business, and her time is no longer wasted now as it was during the first twenty-five years of her reign by having to sign all commissions for the army and navy. In 1862 an act relieved her of this tedious task. She was in that year still engaged in signing the commissions of the year 1858.