CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12622, 3 October 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

A prominent French en<J gineer, while in London a. few weeks ago, was inter* viewed by a representative

FUTUUE OF THE AUTOMOBILE.

of the "Daily Mail," and gave a most interesting account of thai progress the automobile* is making in hia ' own country. In France the new means! of conveyance is not looked upon as a, mere luxury to be enjoyed only by the wealthy classes, but is regarded as a necessary part of the equipment of every; pushing commercial and professional mam. It is not only superseding bicycles, but ia also taking the place of horses, and doingi their work so much cheaper and better than it was clone before, that no one who has made the change ever thinks of going back to the old order of-things. But the genial Frenchman does not claim that even ia France the automobile has yet reached perfection in the way of construction. He shares the general opinion that the chief trade of the future will not be done in cars of the ponderous and enormously powerful kind, which, a few months ago, the fashion seemed to bs setting. He believes that the commercial future of the industry will lie with the voiturette, bs light car, which costs so much less both, initially and for maintenance. It is not, of course, so luxuriously comfortable, but it is far more handy. Among the rival systems he is convinced that the explosion , engine will hold the field for many years to come. Any unpleasant odejur from this . engine arises from incompetence or negligence in the mechanician. During the sum-< mer which lias just closed in England, fruitgrowers made extensive use of the "motor"' for getting their products to market. One large gardener whose strawberry grounds are in the neighbourhood of Manchester, was persuaded to use an automobile' for sending his daily pickings to Liverpool.. The baskets were loaded up by seven o'clock in the morning, and in less than three hours the fruit was in, the consumers' hands, fresh and dry, and at a much smaller cost than would have been entailed by rail. In the same way a grower at Enfield Highway sent two and a half tons of tomatoes twice a day into Covent Market, a distance of sixteen miles,, at a cost of Is 6d for fuel. The automobile did the work of six horses in half the time. There is a. great deal of work of the same kind that could be performed by "motors" in every well-roaded country, and it seems likely, with the promised improvements in the construction of the machines, that the,time, is not very far distant* when horses will ba raised solely for pleasure and war, and, perhaps, for preserved soups and potted' ' meats. .

The cable message published on Monday referring to Mr Clement Wragge's

.. WEATHER. SHOOTIXG.

attempts to produce rain by artificial means, makes it clear that man'. lias dot yet solved the problem of controlling the weather. ■ Though most modern experiments have 'been, .aiimedi at the pro-i duction of rain, tho practice of making discharges of gunpowder 'to ward off the hailstorms that threaten the vineyards in wine-_ producing countries, is quite an eld one. Some months ago ai 'prominent American meteorologist characterised the efforts ci rainmakers as preposterous, and, the. weight of evidence is rather against tho utility of these experiments. The meteorologists of the exceedingly careful and elaborate American Weather Bureau ' are -by no means' agreed that the detonation of high explosives either produces or prevents rain.. In fact, they are so much divided on the question that the'Bureau has so far been unable to express any official opinion on the subject. The peasants of Styria and Italy, however, continue to carry out the system inaugurated in 1396 by Burgermeister Stiger, of Windisch Feist'ritZj whose weapons are being used by . Mr Wragge, and, undeterred by the uncertainty of the results, have made quite an* institution of the " vine-dressErs' volunteej artillery." Their weapons are peculiarly constructed mortars, which produce a deaf' eningj volume of sound, and an enormous cloud of smoke. The Austrian- Governmeat lias appointed a commission to inquire into the matter, but the. majority ol scientific men seem to think that the weather will be unaffected by any "pe< culiarly-constructed mortar" contrived by the mind of man. Australians evidently do not expect very much from Sir Wragge's experiments and New Zealanders would probably get much, tetter results from tap* ping the rivers' that, appear to have been specially provided for the irrigation of theit .land, than from any attempt to increase' the fall of rain by attacking the clouds that' refuse to give down their supplies. Tho Canterbury Plains, at anyrate, might easily, be saved from the consequences of drought by distributing fhs water that flows across their face, and while the landowners ignore this simple precaution, it would be rather absurd for them to invade the heavens in search of relief. It has been predicted that the approaching summer will be a very dry one, and there are certainly some signs of the prophecy being realised,but the farmers,, in spite of the repeated warnings that Providence helps those who help themselves, are still content to'leave their crops and their flocks to' the tender mercies of chance.

THE GBIJISBX TROUBLE.

Housewives .j-all over England will be disappointed by the failure of tlie arbitration proposals in t>bs

Grimsby dispute. In Jims the employers in the fishing trade gave notice that a row scale of wages would coine into operation on July 1, the engineinen en the fishing boats being reduced 12s and 16s a week, and tli« . deck hands a .proportionate'amount.. In* stead Bf discussing tho proposals at tin time, the employers gave notice to tlu unions of. the ,proposed reductions, and th; : men, on receiving, the. notice, declined t(f> ;',. r go to sen." For three; months, >thereforo,; ; ";: : ; i sciae ■, four' taadred/ ; trawlejrs iiiayei: ;t^|l^|||||

tip in the docks, and ten thousand people, including -women and children, have been on the verge of starvation; "Grimsby, in fact, has been losing about £12,000 a week in -wages. Relief Committees -were, of course, established and soup-kitchens'open-ed, where the children were served first each day, Until the last few weeks there was nothing in the shape of a disturbance, and labour disputes in the Old Country have rarely been conducted more peaceably. The position evidently became acute, however, for serious riots .have occurred lately. The employers proposed, to return to the old system of payment, known as net settling, by which the hands.receive a bonus cut of the net returns of a trip. They contended that the profits of the trade were falling off, for whilst in 1899 the companies paid an average dividend of 10 per cent, in 1900 no dividends were paid. The net settling system would cause the men to be. more careful in the use <rf coal, oil and stores, and small repairs would be effected at sea, and on the basis of tfco January, February and March trips the men might earn from 50s to 70s a week. Against this the men urged that a reduction of 12s or 16s -was far too serious to be accepted, and under the proposed system wages would become mere or less of a gamble. A trawler might make a trip to -Iceland and then break down, returning without any catch, so that the men would have to make a trip of one thousand miles, covering several months, at th° reduced rate. Fishermen, as a rule, are not thrifty, and the Union protested that therxwould be unlikely to save the earnings of a good trip to make up the deficiencies of a bad one. The men ask, therefore, that, instead of the payment by bonus, the companies should offer them a permanent wage, and although, in the circumstances, they are willing to accept a reduction, they contend that the rates proposed are unreasonably low.