LOCAL AND GENERAL

Evening Star, Issue 17764, 12 September 1921, Page 2

LOCAL AND GENERAL

The experiments which the Railway Department has been carrying on in connection" with the use of pulverised coal on the railways has now reached a stage (according to Wellington advice) at which it is possible' for practical tests to he made in an engine which has been specially converted to burn this type of fuel. A quite successful trial run was made from Otaki to Auckland on Friday with a locomotive burning powdered coal. Only the required number of nominations fthree) were received on Saturday for the three vacancies on the Technical School Board, and these nominees—Mrs Camming, Mr Thos. Scott, and Mr E. F. Cathie—were declared duly elected.

“iThc radio station at Awanui, by reason of its semi-isolation, is comparativelyriporo .costly to run than would be the case i! it. were situated nearer to ,*he main lines of communication.” states a clause in the report of the Chief Telegraph Engineer (Mr E. A. Shrimpton) to the PostmasterGeneral upon his recent European trip. “Its situation is such that it is easily vulnerable from, the sea. which is an undesirable feature When it is considered that, this is our most important long-distance transmitting station, and that it is responsible for maintaining communication with Samoa and the Cook Islands. This,is a subject which I discussed with a number of interested authorities. It was generally recognised that if the station were placed, say, in the centre of the North Island, near) to the Main Trunk Railway, its reliability in operation, particularly in time of war, would be greatly enhanced, and at the same time it would bo brought closer to the main centre. This would be a distinct asset, both from the point of vie"" of the annual- charges and of linking up the station with the principal land lines of the ..North Island. If New Zealand is ultimately to form an efficient link in the Imperial wireless chain this station will have to bo modernised, and such an occasion might well he regarded as a favorable one for its removal to a less vulnerable locality.”

In the Supreme Court. Masterton, Roy Bateup and Boy Wilmhurst were found guilty of cattle-stealing and remanded for sentence. There was a recommendation for mercy to Wilmhurst on account of his youth and low intelligence. Mr Justico Salmond, in summing up, oaid it was the first time in his experience in which an accused had had the assurance, not to say the audacity, to go into the box and try to make the jury believe he was an innocent man when two written confessions had been handed in. Both men were admittedly liars; and Bateup, by. his own confession, was also not only a liar but a forger as well." He had forged documents, told lies, and deceived police, and Wilmhurst jn two formal admissions had confessed 'bis guilt. He had not the least doubt that one of them stole the cattle. The jury took seventy-five minutes to arrive at a verdict.

The report of the Chief Telegraph Engineer (Mr E. A. Slyimpton), who recently made investigations in Europe and America, states that machine-printing telegraphy is gradually replacing manually and automatically-operated Morse apparatus. Mr Shrirapton says modern apparatus provides a five-lever key, which mechanically translates electric impulses into letters tliat are printed on paper tape at the other end, these in turn being gummed on to telegraph forms and delivered to the addressee. The principles were discovered by M. Baudot, a French telegraph engineer, and improved by Donald Murray, of England, _whose system enables the operator to increase the sending speed 100 per cent. A complete machine is expected in the Dominion in lees than a year, _ which will increase the carrying capacity of lines 300 per cent. In the meantime. Baudot tape printers are to be installed, necessitating , the staff being specially trained to use them. A set of American telegraph apparatus has been secured for trial, and will be used over the wire from .Wellington to Christchurch, thus enabling eight telegrams to be sent at the same time, so that Greymouth. Camara, Timaru, and Christchurch could be simultaneously sending and receiving telegrams to and from Wellington. . A contract has been let to Messrs H. S Bingham and Co. for the erection of the ‘iKaikorai School memorial, the total cost of which will be approximately £SOO. The memorial is to take the form of two arches, built at the top of the steps on the Tyne street frontage, and connected by a balustrading. A central feature will be a marble panel containing the names of the fallen. The memorial arches are to bo built of Leith and Oaraaru stone, and. as they will be situated above the road level should present an imposing. appearance. ; Gold, in what is believed to be payable quantities, has been found on the island •of Yanua, Leva, in the vicinity of the 1 Dreketi River, Fiji, _ Mr W. 'Scott, of Suva, has taken specimens to Sydney for , analysis, and if the analyst’s report is satisfactory, a company will be formed to work the find. Further investigation is being carried out in Fiji. The people of Mercer, on the Waikato Biver, Auckland,* have devised a war memorial which is certainly unique, whatever its artistic merits may be. The body of the memorial is the actual gun turret from tie old river gunboat Rangiriri, which saw service in the Maori war, especially near Rangiriri. The tprret, which is loopholed for guns and rifles, has been placed on a eubstantial concrete baseband will be surmounted by a full-sized bronze figure of a soldier in full fighting kit. Upon the sides will be affixed two tablets, one giving the names of those men from the Mercer district who fell in the Great War, and the other, as far as possible, recording the names of those who fell in the Maori War. The monument is being erected upon ..the old “Mercer Cab Stand,” known as ‘such to the pioneers when the railway only ran to Mercer, and it will look out upon a river and district rich in historical associations. The history of the turret is very interesting. It weighs three and a-ha!£ tons, and is made of iron, flush-joined so that the bullets would slide off easily. The gunboat Rangiriri was built by the Imperial Government, brought out in sections, and put together at Onehunga; the engines and winch were made by Russell and Co., Sydney, in 1863, and 'these engines and frinch are now in constant nee in the steamer Freetrader on the Waikato.' The gun turret has had many uses during the long years, and was once used as a Jock-up for drunks on the very spot where it has now been placed as a war memorial. .The turret of the Pioneer, the Eangiriri’s sister boat, now lies in a swamp some two miles below Mercer. , An appalling position has been created in Cape Town as a consequence of the passing of the Apprenticeship and Young Persona Act of 1918 (says the Cape ‘Times’). A large number of young girls have been put out of employment owing to the fact that they have not the mental faculty or physical ability to enable them to earn more than a certain amount. It is, in our view, a serious hardship to insist upon a graduated scale of wages, because some poor fellow or woman who has not got the same mental vigor as others will be deprived of a living altogether. , As to whether the effect will be to throw those out at the top of the scale for the purpose of taking on others at the lower end of the scale, the point is , that it does hot pay the employer to 1 pay the scale when_ the time arrives for the increase if the grl is not worth the money, consequently he discharges her. The difficulty is that she cannot go anywhere else at the minimum rate, because of her ago, ; and she is forced on the streets, perhaps—a state of affairs that Parliament should pot tolerate.

The coast of Ireland at present appears , to be an unhealthy place for . manners. The currant ‘ New Zealand Gazette,’ with characteristic official reticence, thus deah with what is probably the latest Sinn Fein protest against the tea patrol maintained there by the Admiralty —“ Manners are hereby warned that, until further notice, too much reliance should not be placed in the maiatenanco of the lights and fog signals on'the. coast of. (reload. Notice will. in each case be given, when it is known that an important light or fog signal has been discontinued or is unreliable, but attention is- called tp the liability of these., aids to navigation being temporj wily without warning,”