GENERAL NEWS.

Bay of Plenty Times, Issue XX, 20 June 1892, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

In Germany vegetable fibre in the shape of pine leaves is taking the place of wool for the manufacture of flannel and blankets, the articles being used in the bitracka, hospitals, etc., because of the fact that no vermin will lodge in them. When spun and woven the material resembles hemp, and it can be employed in making many articles of wearing apparel, as the stuff is warm and comfortable. It may be mentioned that the long leaf pine of the southern States of America is utilised by a North Carolina concern in making mats, also as a substitute for htir in cushions, mattresses, and other purposes.

In Austria an artificial leather is made from red beech wood cut in the spring. The wood has to be worked immediately after being out. It in then steamed, treated with chemicals in a boiler under pressure ; and, after going through various other operations, it is pressed in strong, thin pieces, which are said to make a solid sole leather superior to the uniinal product in firmness and durability, and which can be worked up in the same manner, nailed or ! sewed.

China (says a contemporary) is gradually allowing herself to be dragged into the vortex of modern industrial development. A large,, steel-producing plant for the celea-tial-etripire is at the present moment on its way to China, after being constructed at the Tees Side Iron and Engine Works Company (Limited) of Middlesborongh. It is a complete Bessemer plant, including two five- ton oonverteis, with, cupolas, together with blowing engines, cranes, and other pieoes of machinery. There is likewise the entire machinery for a large rail mill, as well as for a plate and bar mill, together with about 20 puddling furnaces. Two large blast furnaces of the Cleveland type, capable of producing 100 tons of pig iron daily, with all the necessary appliances, are in course of construction on the slope of the Ha my an gf Hills, opposite the city of Hankow. A foreign technical staff has bean secured, and in the course of a few months it is anticipated that there will be produced in China plates and bars, steel rails, soft steel for ship plates, special metal for small arms, and other classes of steel and iron. Certainly this may fairly be termed ' one more instance of the slow but sure progress of the intelligent Mongolian to bring the lutest scientific improvements to bear upon the varied industries of that immense eoopire,' The works will cover some 20 acres, and the execution of the whole undertaking in all its details has beju intrusted to the above-named Middlesborough firm. An order for 7000 tons of rails and sleepers was obtaiued in England some time back,- and this is bow stated to have been lately inoreased to 12,000 tons.

One o! the most extraordinary shipping accidents on record has occurred at Cal* outta. Some time since the Glasgow steamer Lindula arrived at that port., and struck on a sunken ship, with the result that at^ mendous explosion ooouired, which caused the death of nine persons. The official report of the accident states that a subsequent examination of the vessel shows that the Lindula had a large hole torn in either bow 1\ feet square in area. These were made by smashing into the sunken steamer Regius, which was tying on her broadside. When the bow of the Lindula got embedded in the Regius, the holds of which were only half filled with organic substances, the foul gas over these escaped from the sunken vessel, through the fractures, and rushed into the forecastle of the Glasgow steamer. The men went with a light to ascertain the cause of the rushing sound, and the explosion resulted. A quantity of the foul gas wa« subsequently collected, because the authorities could not credit the remarkable theory of the cause of the explosion, and this gas was found to be light carburetted hydrogen, or marsh gas, with the well-known properties of burning with a blueish light, and forming an explosive mixture with air, the proportions producing the maximum explosion between lof gas to 10 of air. The gas is an invariable product of the decomposition of organic substances, such as the cargo the Regius had been composed of — tea, oils, seeds, rice, etc. Only 320 cubic feet of gas were required to produce the deadly cam*' pound, which exploded when exposed to a light. From some further information to hand from one of the officers of the Lindula, it appears that the nine men killed weretall Lascar sailors.

Dealing with the present phrase of the Irish question, the Manchester Guardian gaya : — •« When Irish Protestants talk of Ulster they do not mean Ulster. They mean the north-eastern corner of that provinc3. Ulster returned 17 Nationalist members in 1886, and only 16 Unionists. Of its total population 48 per cent is Catholic, and 52 Protestant. Apart from Belfast the Catholics have 55 per cent : apart from Down and Antrim they have 62 per cent of the population of Ulster. Yet by a rigid sjstem of boycotting and a network of Orange lodge» the Protestants have managed to keep every single official post of emolument or influence in their hands, and have to a very large extent succeeded in keeping the Catholics even out of business. And this rich, powerful province, which is so proud of its wealth and power, has never lifted a finger to raise and comfort the poor backward populations of the west. Is there a spot in Ireland outside Ulster where Ulster has done good ? Is it Ulster whose name is blessed at Cirna or Baltimore ? It is shameful to rich and powerful Ulster that all the philanthropic work that has been done by outsiders in the south and west of Ireland has been done by Englishmen. If Piotestant Ulster thought a little more of its duties to Ireland, and a little less of its superiority, it would be weU for it ; and Home Rule is necessary if only because it will in the long run force Protestant Ulster to abjure this wretched Pharisaism, and to live and work with their fellow countrymen without professing to despise them." News from Adelaide states that the Anglican Synod has decided that women must remain silent at vestry meetings. Mr Dibbs will probably pay a visit to the President of the French Republic to urge I the desirability of sending no more prisoners to New Caledonia. ! Who has not heard of the Yankee wooden nutmeg fraud ? This, however, has been ' equalled, if not eclipsed, by the ingenuity of Dutchmen. It appears that in Holland artificial almonds are being turned out in large quantities. They are made from paste composed of glucose, shaped and coloured to imitate nature, and steeped in uitro-benzole to give the necessary odour. Hundreds of bushels have been sold to unscrupulous dealers, who mix them with the genuine article. The same people are at work on a varnished coffee bean.

In the city of Paris a banquet of the devotees of hippophagy lately took place, when M. Besancon, an official of the Prefecture of Police, presided, supported by M. E. Decroix. A.t the dessert the latter gentleman stated that the opening of the first shop for the sale of horseflesh was authorised on July 9, 1886, at the request of his wife, who wished the poorer classes to have wholesome meat at cheap rates. Siuce then the number of shops had largely increased, till they now stood at 194, the number of horses, mules, and asses killed last year for food being 21, 231, 61, and 275 respectively. Incidentally M. Decroix said he was proud to have given the poor food 50 per cent cheaper than butcher's meat.

A widow named Norrie at Gympifr, New South Wales, who was in poor ciroumstanoes, drew the winner of the Sydney Birthday Cup in a sweep, and received £8,700 cash. The Premier of New South Wales, in his letter to the Economist, reiterates that thd colony which is administered by his Govern* ment has no intention of continuing borrowing or of floating a loan at present.

The Standard asserts that the E*st AMca Company had received £26,000 from the Church Missionary Society, on oonditiOq that it remains in Uganda until the cud of the present year, also that the native treaties leave Uganda within the British sphere, regardless of any action which may be taken by the company to withdraw from the country. The controversy of whether or not Sir Charlea Dilke should be allowed to return to public life, is perpetually going on somewhere in England. The Rev. Dr. Maokennall, one of the most prominent Non-con-formists, writing in the Independent, says : " It is my conviotion that the return of Sir Charles to the Liberal leadership would be followed by a large, and perhaps permanent, secession of Nonconformists from the Liberal ranks. The trouble over the Education Act cost us years of proarre3B ; the perception that viotories won for the cause of moral purity might be sacrificed to retain the services of a distinguished man or to gratify his ambition, would awaken a resentment, a distrust of politicians, that would lose the Liberal party not one, but miny general elections." Printing executed in oue, two, three or more colours at the office of this paper.— Advi.