TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 10973, 24 May 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The destruction of the AmeriRaising can second-class battleship a Maine, while lying at anchor Battleship, in H&vanna harbour, was one of the incidents which led up to the Spanish-American war of 1898. An explosive was plated beneath the vessel and fired, with the result that she at once sank, and two officers and 253 men ■were either tilled outright or drowned. This was on February 15th, 1898, and the

battleship has remained tmdisfcurbed at the bottom of the karboor '«W «w». A few month* ago, however, an enterprising engineer propounded a plan for raising the vessel, ancUth& United States Government having assented to it-the contractors are now at work carrying out the scheme. It | is intended to raise, the great war vessel : completely "to the surface by, means of a coffer, dam. This is really a kind of fence, built of gigantic piles. The idea is to drive in a double row ot these.piles—-each pile 70ft in length—all round the wreck. The tops of the piles will come just above the surface of the water, and when the double row is completed, the space between will be filled in until a water-tight barrier is formed, with the vessel in the centre of the dam or dock. Then the watjar will be pumped out until the 'Maine will be left clear of water, and lying on the mud bottom. This sounds simple enough, but the difficulties in the way of making the dam sufficiently water-tight to enable the pumps to do their work and keep the water out are not by any means light ones, and there are other risks to consider. However, having overcome these, the next step will be to attach enormous buoys to the ship, sufficient to raise her to the surface, and hold her there even when partly full of water. When these buoys are in position the water will be admitted to the cofferdam again, and the vessel is expected to rise with it. The coffer-dam that will require to be built to do this, is said to be the largest ever built. The filling-in material to supplement the piles will consist of brush, rock, earth, gravel, and sack sand. The GovernmemV schedule shows that when the Maine was sunk in the manner mentioned she had in her £100,000 worth of ammunition, IQO tons of copper and brass, and 100 engines, in addition to her very valuable armament and fittings. All this salvage is to go to contractors, with the exception of 3 per cent., which they have agreed to pay to the United States Government. - ■ ' m '. By-law restriction on the Motors Cars speed of motor cars, the and Councils, infringement of which has twice been punished by fines in this city, are by no means unknown in the Old Country, and cause equal dissatisfaction in the heart* of automobilists. It is complained, indeed, that it was chiefly the old regulation, preventing them from ex-" ceeding four miles an hour,—our Christchurch limitation,—which flung the trade of motor manufacturing principally into foreign hands. When the Light Locomotives Act of 1896 removed this restriction, French and German engineers had already got so far ahead that British manufacturers are only now beginning to compete with them on fair tennis." What has chiefly incensed the automobilists of late, however, is the fact that various county councils have recommended the Local Governmefnt Board to limit the speed of motor cars to ten miles an hour, and to make them carry a The latter indignity of itself, which places the self-propelling vehicle in 1 the same category with the despised hani som, would be bad enough,- but the former. , is being resisted even more strenuously. . It is allowed that the County Councils, are [. working for what they consider the safety ' of the public. The members of the Automobile dub, therefore, are taking every 5 measure to convert them to better counsels. * It was the East Suffolk County Council that . first proposed the restriction, and sent cjrj culars to similar bodies, advising them to do tihe same. The Club forthwith sent a few motors down to Suffolk, and treated . some of the; offending councillors to a T twenty-mile an hour journey. The councillors could not deny that they had enjoyed themselves, and were forced to realise the ease with which the machines were stopped. At their next meeting, accord--8 ingly, they removed the restrictions alto- ?' gether. To prevail upon other councils to i the same end, the Club is now inaugurating 8 on, automobile demonstration, which will take place some time this month, and has already issued: more than 4poo invitations to their members. The motorists point dufc S that the present speed limit imposed upon ' them is twelve miles—less than the rate at c which men travelled on. the pre-railway - coaches, which often attained to eighteen _ miles an hour. Twenty miles an hour for the quickly-stopping motor, they think, would be quite compatible with public 8 safety on open roads, and sighs could be a put up indicating distances from corners, c villages, and places of danger. In France, • they point out, races on the road have n been permitted at sixty miles an hour, while the maximum speed is eighteen and a-half '' miles on open roads, and twelve and a-half '" in places of traffic. It would seem that, if k English motorists complain of the comparat. tively racing speed of twelve miles an hour, j. New Zealand automobilists deserve some . c sympathy, when suffering under tbe limitation of four. Ie ....-.;..- ---ir ' ' rfi Mr J. Pierpont MorA' gan, the author of the Multi-MiMionaire Billion Dollar Steel ts Scrutinised. Trust and many other sn smaller trusts, naie turally attracted a good deal of It attention when he arrived in England a few weeks ago in furtherance of his gigantic schemes. It was only natural also that the enterprising-newspaper reporters ' n should seek to interview him, and to ties' picture him to their readers. Among the 8) crowd who met the Teutonic on its arrij e val at Liverpool was a "Daily Mail" repre- , sentative, told off to describe tbe scene at the landing of the man of millions, and he P* performed the task in a manner characterisat. tic of the smart journal he belonged to. ts "Mr Pierpont Morgan," he wrote, "does n . not look in the* least like Mr Pierpont Morgan. His brows are not clothed in thunder, nor do sovereignty and power express themselves in his mien. He does not jingle as =h be walks, nor does the radianoe of diamonds i>y encircle him. He is just a quiet-looking, j y elderly gentleman, with a certain masterful expression on his rugged features, who ' walked down the gangway dressed in brown clothes and a blue tie, holding a paper- °* wrapped parcel under his arm." It is not en surprising to read after this that there were en no brass bands to meet Mr Morgan, and i that the people did not even bow right and left. There was not even anyone to meet - r " him. Nor did be take the slightest notice j* of the waiting crowd, but strode with slow ;ly step and impassive face across the landingig_ stage and up the incline to the riverside jj_ station, where a private saloon attached to the special Euston train was in waiting c'e ' for him. There he became busy. Efforts ia * at interviewing the financial .giant met with rt- failure. At Euston a group of represenasl tatives of American newspapers were waiter ing for him. There were also bis two little grandchildren, with their father, Mr J. '. Pierpont Morgan, jun., and several other relatives and friends. The "Daily Mail" representative was on the point of holding him to his promise to talk on his arrival ri- in London, but the sight of this tall, lip gaunt man of millions with a tiny child ior holdinar on to each forefinger and looking a* up with big fond eyes to the smile on his eh rugeed face, forebade any thought of such }8. intrusion. A compatriot of his, however, ■pel was more daring. "Oh," said the grandhe father with appealing pathos, "please, please <n leave mc alone!" The transition of the ;d. colossal financier and hard, unyielding man h« of business to the role of commonplace hu-

manity softened «t jbl* sight i&&__§& of his HttUr grandchildren, ' «fn& £&$? been too macti even for the most pttjG£jf3H; pressmen, and they retired to await r'taJM opportune occasion for the coveted" k__W> view. • - £*M-