NEWS AND NOTES.

Evening Post, Volume LXIV, Issue 119, 15 November 1902, Page 4 (Supplement)

NEWS AND NOTES.

. Communication by wireless telegraphy is to bo established between Martinique and Guadeloupe, the cable between which has frequently been broken. From the statistics published by the Minister of Finance it would appear that there are at the present time 5386 automobiles in France. Of this total 1149, pr about a fifth, belong to the capital. Greyish-yellow uniforms and BadenPowell hats are now being worn by a portion of the Swedish army. Lieutenant Pearce does not contemplate any future Arctic expedition. He has no funds, his total assets consisting of tho ship Windward • and ouO walrus bides. Publichouse trust companies now control some fifty, publicbouses in England *nd sixteen in Scotland. None of the lessons taught by the South African war were applied at the recent Austrian manoeuvres in Hungary, aa the military authorities arc against trying experiments. The Wedgwood pottery establishment of England has been engaged to make the new service of china to be used on high State occasions at the White House, Washington, United States. The design has been copyrighted, thus ensuring its exclusive us_e for the White House. Signor Marconi has submitted to the Italian. Minister of Posts and Telegraphs a scheme for the creation of a radio-tele-graphic station communicating with those established or to be established by the Marconi companies in England and America. The scneme will be submitted to Parliament* Its estimated cost is about £28,000. Instructions were recently issued that all railway servants below a certain grade on the German Government railways are to have weekly lessons in railway management, theory, and practice. These will take the form of lectures to be delivered by the higher officials. As the result of an accurate examination of the chief Venetian monuments, it is possible (says The Times correspondent) to express the well-founded opinion that, although no public building is in immediate danger of collapse, several edifices, including the Doge's Palace, St. Mark's, the Zecca, and' the churches of Santa 'Maria Gloriosa Dei Frari and of Santi Giovanni c Paolo, urgently need thoroiighgoing repairs, if disaster is to be avoided. A leading Bombay Parsee is about tD hand nearly a million sterling to a trust, the income to be devoted to the relief of persons deprived of the means of subsistence in any country by sudden calamity. The New York Herald recently published the following telegram from Lima, Peru :— "Mount Chullapata, which is situated 18 miles from Celendin, has been throwing up dust and smoke for a fortnight. Loud noises have been audible at c distance of 30 miles from the mountain. There is no record that Mount Chullapata ;was ever believed to be a volcano." A continental journal states that Mr. Kruger's memoirs are divided into three parts: The first deals with the Jameson Raid ; the second treats of the causes, the progress, and the end of the war;' the third is devoted to the future of the Boer people. Mr. Kruger has been paid £30,000, which sum is to he contributed to the Boer relief fund. A despatch from Montevideo says: — "The harbour works are proceeding without interruption. The (Country -has benefited greatly by the recent rains. The service of the public debt is being paid regularly, and the funds are rising. Commerce is developing enormously. Political affafc'S are quiet, and there is every indication, that peace will not be disturbed." A Johannesburg telegram of 23rd September stated : The total number of Boers* who have returned to their farms is 23,944, while about 29,000 remain in the camps. In spite of the difficulties of transport, the work of repatriation is proceeding at a fair rate, and it is 'hoped that it will be completed by Christmas. On one occasion during Captain Sver"drup's recently-ended Polar voyage in Nansen's Fram, the vessel was nea^y destroyed by fire. A spark from the funnel set fire to an awning, and the deck was soon enveloped entirely in flames. In the centre of the fire stood an iron tank filled with spirits. The fire was at length subdued, but the Fram was never nearer her destruction. The Kashgar correspondent of the Allahabad Pioneer, in reporting the earthquake on 22nd August, says that only a dozen people were killed in the town of Kashgar, but many villages were wrecked in the northern part of the province. The total loss of life was WOO. . There were no premonitory signs. The most striking feature of the earthquake was a pronounced rise in the temperature immediately following the shock. This rise continued for a week, during which period there were repeated slight shocks. In the French naval manoeuvres at Cherbourg between the submarines and submersibles on the one side and the Atlantic Squadron on the other, if the periscope of a submarine or submersible boat was not detected by a battleship before there was time for the boat to discharge a torpedo when within striking distance, the attack of the boab was considered to bS successful, otherwise not. One artifice of the submarines has been to set afloat a number of bottles submerged to just below the neck, which gives the bottles the appearance of periscopes showing j above the surface of the water, thus diverting the fire and attention of the veseel attacked. Commander Peary, in an interview published by the New York World, claims that the scientific results of his expedition are far more valuable than if it had reached the North Pole, the discovery of which is a more or less spectacular achievement. Perhaps the most important non-scientific result is the conclusive proof that Arctic exploration can be carried on without great danger or exceptional hardships — indeed, a man of the right sort can* work as well in the xVrctic region as. in New York. M. Dierckx, the Belgian astronomer, and M. Francois Miron, the geologist, who recently concluded a study of the causes of the eruption in Martinique, communicate to a Paris journal the results of their researches. According to M. Dierckx, the Mont Pelee disaster was due to local causes, set in motion by the action of the sun and the moon. If the astronomer's theory is correct, further cataclysms may be expected in Martinique on 17th November and 16th December. The last date is considered to be the most dangerous, as at that period' the moon will pass directly over the island. [Readers of the Post will remember that we drew attention at the time to the coincidence between the eruption and remarkable conjunctions of the sun and moon.] Sir Clements Markham is slated to have declared CapUiin Sverdrup's Polar expedition to be the most successful Arctic expedition yet undertaken for the exploration of "land.'' He believes Ithab it will be productive of the most valuable results ever obtained by such an expedition since the time of Franklin. Captain Sverdrup's and Lieutenant Isaachsen's expeditions together occupied 372 "days of actual travel, during wjiich they covered a distance of 3000 English miles and traversed 1500 miles of newly-discovered land. Newspapers are now being sold' through automatic machines in Berlin. After being on strike for several months ■the factory girls at Kewanee, 111. (U.S.A.), formed a. Union Girls' Manufacturing Company, and started a lively against • thei? former emfcfloyersa