CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12567, 31 July 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

Even people who have not a trace of superstition in their natures are sometimes

UNLUCKY DATES.

struck by the apparent illluck attending, their friends on certain dates. The “ Daily Chronicle ” recently published the extraordinary story of a London -worker w,ho never seemed to escape accident on June 12. It -was on June 12 that he lost an arm in some machinery, and being thus disabled be was, employed by his firm as a messenger. On June 12 of the following year he was run over iu the Strand whilst on an errand, and had a leg broken. The next year, on the same date, he fell .down .stairs and broke his remaining arm,- and last year, on June 12, he had three ribs broken- in an accident. This year his employers determined to give him a holiday, and probably he stopped in bed all day. An astrological correspondent of the London journal infers that this unfortunate man must have been born on June 12, 1865, “when the sun was in conjunction with Uranus in Gemini, and within two degrees of Mercury retrograde in the same sign.” June 12, 1903, it seems, should be another of his disastrous days. The case is paralleled by that of George White, a printer, who is well known' in London as the “one-armed champion swimmer.” He has found April 14 a convenient day on which to stay abed. In 1875, on April 14, he broke his right arm, a year later he broke his left leg, on April 14, 1877, he broke a wrist, and had to have bis .am amputated. On April 14, 1887, although he escaped himself, his wife was taken to the hospital. On April 14, 1889, he broke three ribs, and on April 14, 1891, fell down stairs, and broke his remaining arm. Curiously enough, since 1889, he has been’ - ordered to remain at home on the disastrous day, but in 1891 he had a vivid dream pointing to a new accident on April 14 in that year. To dispel his fears his employer told him to come to work as usual, and the broken arm was the result.

IRISH METHODS.

The people of Sligo must have had an enjoyable reminder o| old times last-

month, when Judge O’Connor Morris, presiding at the Quarter Sessions, heard the claim of Mr Edward Perdue, for £530, for the malicious burning of heather and gorse on one of his preserves. Mr Perdue stated that he hpl bought a stretch of mountain shooting lands through the Land Commission. He could not be accused of dispossessing any tenant, because the land had always been occupied by the owners; yet he was immediately attacked by the United' Irish League, the Kilmactigue Branch of which carried the following resolution, reported in the “ Sligo Champion ” : Resolved, that whereas the farm attached to the Kilmactigue Rent Office has been taken by bigotry and foul means from the tenants of Kilmactigue and given to a stranger, who has no right to the place, and even at a lower price than the tenants would have given, we hereby declare that we null put in force all the powers of the U.I.L. to rescue this farm for the rightful owners, and warn all concerned that their conduct in future will be vigorously scrutinised, Mr Perdue , was accordingly boycotted, and the gorse and heather of his land! were burnt. After the fire, the brancjx met and declared itself “satisfied at the progress made by the campaign against the usurper of Kilmactigue Farm.” Judge O’Connor Morris, .in giving judgment, said that the facts were about as bad as anything he

had ever heard. If people took it into their heads to burn these places, if people passed these resolutions that set the coun- ; try mad and incited people to commit these; dimes, then the district must suffer. His Lordship awarded a -sm*. of £2OO to Mr Perdue, the amount to be levied on , :he’ electoral division of Kilmactigue. On r,he following day a similar case was dealt with, the Judge delivering a vehement attack upon the League and its criminal methods.

AMERICAX V. BRITISH LOCOMOTIVES.

The introduction of Ame-

rican locomotives into India and the colonies appears to have been the sequel to a

strike. Regarding the contracts placed by the Indian companies, Lord, George Hamilton stated in the House of Commons “that, up to the date of the - recent great engineering strike, no order for a railway locomotive had over been given outside Great Britain.” But he asserts, reassuringly, that the monopoly will be quickly regained if British engineers will “profit by the hints and suggestions which the reports cn the- working of the American locomotives convey.” So far as the Indian Secretary is concerned, he promises, moreover, that unless tha v difference in price, quality and delivery is very sub-/ stanrial, preference will always be given to British firms. In reply to this suave explanation, Sir Alfred Hickman, who has , been fighting the battle of the British ironmasters, retorts that the purchases , have ■ been utterly unwarrantable. The Burma reports, he states,' show that the American engines burnt 35.5 per •■cent more fuel per train mile, and 23.5 per cent more per vehicle mile than the British. • “You say,” continues Sir Alfred, “ that the competition we have to face is founded upon superior chemical research, technical education, etc., but what evidence have you of this? : If it were true, how do you account for the fact that the English, maker is full of orders while the American will undertake to deliver immediately at any price? Surely, that is some' evidence that the world outside Indian railway officials consider English engines and' material better and in reality cheaper.” The Chief Engineer of the Egyptian Railway reports that the Belgian engines cost £45 each less ! than the but in repairs they had cost £382 / \ per engine more. The latest official report of the Assam Railways, dated April 16, 1901, , says that, the Baldwin engines take 24 per cent more coal and 25 per cent more oil than the English engines. The excessive consumption of oil and fuel is, of course, the most conclusive proof of bad workmanship. It would- be interesting to know how the Baldwin engines imported into our own colony compare with those previously in use and with the latest British makes.