A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 30, Issue 174, 20 April 1937, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

< John Cabot A statue of John Cabot, discoverer of Newfoundland, has been placed in that, country’s court at the Imperial Institute. Actually, however, there was no such person as John Cabot, and the discoverer of Newfoundland was not even au Englishman. Giovanni Caboto, a Genoese who was by naturalisation a citizen of Venice, obtained letters patent from Henry VII in 1497 empowering him and his sons to tit out an English ship and go exploring in search of heathen lands not jet known to Christendom. John Cabot was the agliciscd version of the explorer’s name in which the letters were made out.

Cabot sailed from Bristol that year

with the shallop Mathew, in which be took just IS men for crew. They crossed the Atlantic, and explored the coast from Cape Breton Island to Cape Race, and claimed it for King Henry of England. Then they returned. The ex-

plorer reported that 700 leagues beyond Ireland he had come to the country of Kublai KUau. On his next voy-

age, in the following year, he tried to discover a north-west passage, but the crew mutinied and he had to turn back. He discovered Batlin Land, and discovered and named Labrador. He diet’ iu England soon after his return.

Tasmanian Newsprint It is stated that in all probability newsprint manufacture will have begun in Tasmania in the next few weeks. Tasmania ' possesses some 1,500,000 acres of forest land, nearly 9 per cent, of the total area of the island. The timber is almost entirely hardwood, and has been shown to be of high quality for newsprint manufacture. Canada is by far the world’s largest producer of newsprint, exporting some 2,000,000 tons annually. America is the greatest consumer, her own extensive mills having also a gigantic output. Tlie world uses between 20,000.000 and 30,000,000 tons of paper every year, according to recent statistics, and yet only about 5 per cent, of the timber cut is devoted to this purpose. . The manufacture of paper from wood entails the timber being iirst broken down or pulped by chemical and mechanical processes and then mixed with water into a thin paste. This paste is spread evenly on a fine wire-gauzo screen, which drains oft’ superfluous water. Then the pulp is rolled so as to express the water and leave a rough web, which, after being passed through further rollers, dried, sized, calendered and otherwise surfaced, emerges from the intricate machines in the form of a. 20-foot-wide ribbon that is later slit to form the cumbrous rolls in which newsprint may often be seen on the wharves. Culloden Field

An appeal has been made for more careful preservation of Culloden Field, where Prince Charles Edward was defeated in 1746. That battle marked the final failure of the rebellion of ‘‘The ’Forty-live,” the last attempt to place a Stuart on the throne of England by force of arms. Retreating into Scotland, with 7000 Highlanders, the Young Pretender awaited the coming of the English under Cumberland. The latter encamped at Nairn, only eight miles away, and hearing he wag celebrating a birthday party there, Prince Charles decided, to attack him. But

his half-starved ragamuffin army was footsore and weary and jibed at the long tramp across the moor. They lost the opportunity of a surprise attack, and next morning, April 16, 1746, they met the English, 9000 strong, at Culloden Field.

The Highlanders charged, and spent themselves against the impregnable English line. The fire of the English artillery was too hot for them, and when they broke they left 1000 dead on the field. The English cavalry cut down 1000 more in flight. Prince Charles was a hunted fugitive until his friends smuggled him across to France. On that field the English lost no more than 50 killed and 200 wounded. Pitcairn Island

Pitcairn Island, of which a native, Mr. George Young, is at present Home-ward-bound on board the Arama to represent the island at the Coronation, was peopled as the result of the most famous mutiny that ever took place on the high seas. In 1787 H.M.S. Bounty, commanded by Admiral William Bligh, was sent to Otaheite to load breadfruit for the West Indies. Bligh had previously accompanied Cook on his second voyage, and had visited New Zealand waters as sailing-master of the Resolution. In the Pacific Islands he was greatly taken with the possibilities of the breadfruit tree, and strongly advocated its introduction into the West Indies, his enthusiasm winning him the name of “Breadfruit Bligh.” A stern disciplinarian, Bligh soon fell foul of his crew. After a taste of freedom at Otaheite the men found his regime doubly bitter, and iu April, 1789, off Tofua, they rose and seized the ship. Bligh and 18 others were turned adrift in an open boat, with which they made Timor in the Dutch East Indies, 3600 miles away, after a seven week voyage at peril of the sea, hostile natives, thirst, and starvation. 'The 26 mutineers went back to Tahiti, where most of them stayed, to be arrested and tried in England, and four of the ringleaders hanged. But nine, with six natives and 12 women, sailed for Pitcairn, a rugged 1000-foot rock that had been sighted by a midshipman of that name from the masthead of a passing ship, two years before. On arrival they burned and scuttled the ship.

After two years the natives, tired by jealousy, turned on the white tneu and killed five of them, afterwards taking to the bush. It had been their intention to exterminate the Europeans, and so the survivors, realising that on their action depended their chances of life, killed all the native men, with the assistance of their own native wives. Twenty years after the mutiny a ship, calling by chance at the island, found it to be inhabited. Only one of the original mutineers remained alive, but there were many healthy children, and for the protection of this half-caste community ,in 1838, the island was formally annexed by Britain. Later, as the population of the island had outgrown its resources, the inhabitants were transferred to Norfolk Island. Many, disssatisfled by the change, however, drifted back, and there is now a population of rather less than 200 people on Pitcairn. Although isolated and doing but little trade, they are. reputed to be one of the richest communities in the Pacific. They iiave practically no wants for which their island cannot provide, and most of the money they make by bartering fruit and walkingsticks with tourists on visiting liners they deposit in the bank at Auckland. Vessels of the Shaw, Savill and New Zealand Shipping Company bound out or home via Panama heave-to for an hour off Pitcairn if weather and circumstances permit, and two or three times a year a schooner from Tahiti calls there.