TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14811, 31 October 1913, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

An English Prime Minister The has more and more to do as King's the years go by, but his Letter, labours have been lightened in one small but interesting respect. He no longer has to write the account of the day's proceedings in the House of Commons that is sent daily to the Sovereign. Sir Henry Lucy, whose knowledge of these little facts about Parliamentary life is unsurpassed, deals in his "Sydney Morning Herald" letter with this regular communication between the Government and the Sovereign. It is a survival from tho days of the Georges, when the newspapers did not report Parliamentary proceedings so fully as some of them do now, and consequently a summary of the business, written by the Leader of the House, was of great value to the King. When he was Leader Disraeli used to write his letter seated on the Treasury Bench, in full view of the House, and took great pains with a task in which he saw an opportunity of breaking down the dislike with which Queen Victoria at the first regarded him. When he became Prime Minister he took advantage of the Queen's regard for him to have tho duty delegated to a deputy, but Gladstone used to write the letter under similar conditions, and he was actually engaged on it when his Government was defeated on June Bth, 1885. When King Edward came to the throne he allowed Mr Balfour to delegate tho duty, and Mr Asquith is also permitted to do so, so that such delegation is likely to . become an established custom. The letter is now written by Mr McKenna, the Home Se-, cretary, in the privacy of his room, and is nreceded by a telegram from the Whips giving the King a briefer summary of the business. No similar duty is imposed on Ministers in respect to the House of Lords. "The Sovereign seems able to face a fresh day without being specially informed of what took place over night among the Peers." These Ministerial letters are bound and preserved in tho Windsor archives, forming a mine of wealth for tho historians. Lord Morley drew on them freely for his "Life of Gladstone." Sir Henry describes tho writing of the letter as sheer waste of time, but the custom is likely to outlive our day.

A cable message a few days Deadly ago mentioned stone-dust Dust, as a preventive of ooai-dust explosions in mines. The matter ia explained in an interesting article in tho Sydney "Daily Telegraph" apropos of the Senghenydd disaster. It has been established beyond doubt that coal-dust is a cause of explosions, and it is thought some of the worst disasters—such as that in the Pas do Calais, where over 1000 men wero killed—havo been due to it. The theory is that the minuto particles of coal-dust in the air aro ignited by a minor explosion of gas, which, by itself would cause no damage. Ingenious experiments at the "laboratory," erected by British coal-owners at Altofts, in Yorkshire, have convicted coal-dust. A long gallery of boiler tubes has been constructed to resemble the main road of a colliery. Finelyground coal-dust is placed on shelves in this gallery, and two small cannon aro placed near one end of the tube, and fired electrically from a distance, ono a few seconds before tho other. Tho first shot dislodges the dust, and tho second causes a terrific explosion in tho dust-permeated atmosphere of tho gallery. The sight and effect of the explosion give one some faint idea of what an explosion underground is like. Experiments in the same gallery havo proved that the admixture of a very small quantity of stone-dust with the coal-dust renders it harmless. It is a very simplo matter to introduce the beneficent dust into a mine. Once ~a week, when the pit is at rest, two men go round with a truck full •of crushed stono, and one of them flings handfuls of the dust at tho sides of the gallery as ho walks along. Tho coaldust hanging to the sides is dislodged, and is either removed by ventilation or falls to tho bottom mixed with the introduced material. Water, of course, is another preventive, but it is a costly method, causes the miners discomfort, and in certain conditions tends to produce miners' worm disease. If all that is claimed for it is justified, tho use of stone-dust may be made compulsory.