CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10104, 1 August 1893, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

“ Visitors to the Imperial Institute,” says the London Times, “ should inspect a consignment of fish, preserved m ice, which has been brought over by the Oceana, from Melbourne, and is now on view in the Victorian Court. It is described as edible and of good flavour, and is of a kind not usually met with in British waters. A few years ago the idea of bringing so perishable an article from a distant country for sals in a perfectly fresh condition would have seemed incredible ; yet this is what has bean dona in the course of the past winter. With the fi-ih under notice have come a large number of Australian apples and pears, many of which, nro remarkably fine.” The fish in fluestiou was, the Southland News learns, blue cod and trumpeter from Stewart Island, whence, thanks to the freezing process, it baa been possible to send it to Melbourne for transhipment to Britain.

The independent Republic of Andorra is divided into eix parishes, of which the largest ia Andorra, with 1300 inhabitants; the smallest Encamps, with only 600. In the whole country there are nob 6000 people, but the territory Is only twelve square miles. Each parish is governed by a Major Consul, assisted by a Minor Consul and by aa elected Consul. Each parish has » right to half its revenue; the other half belongs to the country. The people are really of the Catalonian race; taut their language, although of the Catalonian family, is regarded an a language and not as a dialect. The Andorran men wear the Catalonian 'head-dress, which is a kind of “liberty eap,” a short Andalusian, jacket and homespun knee breeches. The women are considered inferior, receive no instruction, serve their husbands, and are not permitted to cat at the table with thorn.

Some interesting experiments have been mads at Washington University, St Louia, with the largest hydraulic testing machine in the world. It can exert a pressure of 1,000,000 pounds. Timbers such as are used for pillars ia largo commercial buildings were crushed, not broken, lengthwise, A piece of timber capable of sustaining SOOO perrons was crushed like an ogg shell when placed in the machine. Tho beat brick piers two feet square, columns cf granite a foot square and

sand-tone three feet square are ground to powder with the greatest ease. Tho machine was designed by Professor J. B. Johnston, who occupies the chair of Consulting Engineer in the University, for the purpose of pursuing investigations being made by the Government of the strength of commercial woods grown m tho United States. Tho specimens crushed form part of an exhibit fit the world’s fair.

Paris has a number of very peculiar clubs at the present time, more, perhaps, than any other city. Its Deaf Mute Club has been frequently spoken of by tourists. It is exactly what it professes to be, an association of deaf and dumb men, all of them comparatively wealthy. It is usual for a man thus afflicted, and who is in a position to retain a staff of domestics, to retain thece au interpreters, but in this Club there is no pandering to modern ideas, and no servant is engaged unless he or she has lost the power to cither speak or hear. As a result, the establishment is as silent as tho tomb, and is an exceedingly unpleasant place for an ordinary human being to wander into. To get over the apparent difficulty of communications between different parts of the house, a series of electric apparatus arc used to call domestics, but instead of tie usual bell there is an arrangement whereby the party called gets a slight shock.