A BACKGROUND OF THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 260, 1 August 1939, Page 7

A BACKGROUND OF THE NEWS

Collision Off Devon In a fog in the neighbourhood of the famous Eddystone Lighthouse a Swedish steamer lias rammed a French tanker, with loss of life. This part of the English Channel is one of the busiest, for here passes the whole of the Atlantic traflie save that bound for or from the west coast ]>orts of England, together with the whole of the coastal traflie from west coast ports to Channel ports, London and the Continent. Ships inward hound froip tiie Western Ocean pass the Scilly Isles, then pick up the powerful Lizard Light on the southernmost corner of Cornwall. They then pass into the Channel and sight the Eddystone, standing lone and stark—a man-made pillar emerging from the sea a few miles off Plymouth Hoc.

The Eddystone is probably the world’s most famous lighthouse. It stands on a little cluster of rocks some 14 miles from the coast —rocks which have supported a lighthouse of sorts from the year 1700. The first structure was of wood, but in 1703 it was washed away and its architect, Wiusranley, with it. Six years later another, stronger wooden lighthouse was built by one Rudyard. This was destroyed by fire in 1755. Smeaton’s Historic Light

Nothing daunted,, a famous designer, Smeaton, conceived the notion of building an Eddystone lighthouse in the general shape of tin oak tree, its ‘Trunk” curved outward at the top so as to fling back the spray, clear of the light, during storms. Ry 1759 this was completed in granite and Portland stone. It lasted for more than 100 years.

When the present, larger lighthouse was built in 18-80, -the Smeaton tower was just as good as ever, only the foundations having become unsound; so it was taken to pieces, stone by stone, and re-erected on Plymouth lloe. There it stands today.

The Smeaton-Eddystone lighthouse was first illuminated by. 2-1 large candles arranged on a circular support like a candelabrum, which could be raised and lowered with a chain and pulley. The candles each lasted halt an hour, so the massive grandfather dock in the living-room below told only the half-hours. When the clock chimed the keeper on duty went aloft and changed the caudles. The other keepers remained asleep in curious and extremely un-healthy-looking bunks with sliding doors which enclosed the occupant as 1 hough he were in a cotlin-like cupboard. The idea was to muffle the bowl of the wind and the noise of the sea.

In the bottom part of the lighthouse a certain amount of room was given over to the keepers' stores. The rest of the space was chock-a-block with candles, for in wintertime the consumption of candles was more than 5000 a week, and supply ships called infrequently. Plight Of Refugees

Reports of disaffection in Nationalist | Spain serve as a reminder of the plight of Spanish refugees who, in the clos- i ing stages of the civil war, took re- | fuge in France. Their position was de- j scribed recently by a writer in the j ‘‘Manchester Guardian.” who said: —| ‘‘At Argetles, France, there are 16,000 j civilians who have a camp to themselves ! Most of them have borne arms at one i time or other, but. as officials, lawyers. I doctors, schoolmasters and workmen : their civilian nature carries the day, i and they have begun to organize them- i selves. Thej’ are all organised into groups of forty. Each group has a | chief, who receives the rations and gives orders, also a cool:, who is busy a good part of the day stirring great | j>ots over fires in the sand (there arc now rations of fuel). There is also a working brigade of 900 stalwarts —all volunteers—who are building wooden barracks and see to the cleanliness of the camp. Vermin A Scourge “Vermin is still a terrible scourge, ami as the men have only the rags they stand up in it is difficult to fight,” the article continues. "The British Red Cross has promised shirts and shorts. - At present one finds groups of halfnaked men boiling their rags and blankets to free them from lice —the greatest pest of the camp, and one it. will to possible to combat only when clothes have been distributed. ‘‘lt looks as if it will be many months before a solution is found for most of these men. Refugees are being ad-, milled back to .Spain only, in driblets of a hundred a day; the first embarkations to Mexico have not yet started, except for individuals. To save abandoned men from madness something must lie done for their moral and cultural, life,” United States Drought A beat wave and drought is reported to be bringing serious losses to nine eastern State's of the United States which have suffered from these conditions for the past three months. The States include New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the New England group, and the drought extends north as far as Ontario. The area thus affected comprises the whole'of the north-eastern corner of the United States. In this corner is grouped more than a quarter of the nation's population of 123,000,000. It is an important mixed-farming area, where farming is particularly intensive, dairy products and vegetables for the large eastern cities being produced in tremendous quantity. The most populous north-eastern State is, of course, New York, with its .State total of 12,500,000 jieople. Next to it comes Pennslyvania, with nearly 10,000,000, most of them inhabiting the big manufacturing centres. The State of •Connecticut has a ;iopnlation practically the same in size as that of New Zealand. Yet its area is ■lB2O square miles, compared with New Zealand’s 103,100 square miles. To put it another way, the density of jioptilation in Connecticut would be almost exactly duplicated if the whole of the population of New Zealand lived in Westland. Density Of Population

While on the subject, there are other interesting comparisons when the density of imputation in overseas countries is compared with that of. New Zealand —always remembering that this country is but 100 years old, and that a substantial portion of it is in snow-capped mountain chains. England lias .about 050 people to the square tniio, which is equivalent to a population of 4,000,000 in our province of Marlborough. Italy has about 358 persons to the square mile, which would be an average density equal to putting 240,000 inhabitants on Stewart Island. Japan proper has something like 407 people to the square mile, which is approximately equal to tire province of Nelson with a population of 5,000,000.