CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14581, 15 January 1908, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

The British barque a luckless Annesley, which put in voyage. at Lytteltpn early last year, seems to have had a very unlucky voyago. She left England as far hack as April 14, 1906, for San Francisco, and it took her thirteen months to get there. An average j/.s----eago would have occupied about five months. The Annesley’s voyago was simply a long chapter of accident and adversity. She had barely got clear of Portland Bill before her troubles began. An old seaman who was taking his ‘‘ trick ” at the wheel suddenly fell to the deck in a dying condition, and soon afterwards expired. Ho was buried at sea. Presently the captain fell sick, but recovered before the equator was crossed. By July tho Annesley was well down by Cape Horn, and here her illluck became chronic. It was tho depth of winter. Week after week the barque fought against hurricane and hailstorm. Icebergs, too, were sighted close alongside. During one of the snow squalls the fore-lower-topsail was lost. The braces by which tho yards are hauled round wero frozen fast in tho blocks. When it was necessary to put the ship about, it was found impossible to hack. The frozen fore-braces had to he taken to the capstan, and three hours wero occupied in “ wearing” the'vessel. For full five weeks the ship was buffeted about in tho gales off Cape Horn. At tho end of July, when the barque, to use a sailor’s expression, was right off tho tip of the Horn, the captain died, and his body was consigned to the deep. He was Juried in the midst of the storm. Finally the mate deemed it prudent to seek a port of refuge. At Monte Video the barque lay for two months while needful repairs were effected, and hers a now commander took charge of her. When once again the Annesley put to sea, it was with no intention of making another attempt to round the Horn. It was decided to continue her voyage •'©as-Cahont,” even, though it meant sailing two-thirds round the world. The Annesley put into Lyttelton for fresh provisions, and eventually she reached San Francisco. On. July 8 she sailed for Home. Everything had then been made' ship-shape, and her holds were full of barley. This time she was lucky enough to get a fine weather passage. Capo Horn was passed in September, with nothing more than a squall as a reminder of her former experiences in that region, and in the closing days of November the barque was towed up tho peaceful Orwell to Ipswich, after a voyage of more than eighteen months’ duration.

THE AVON WILLOWS.

It is well known that the graceful weeping willows which line the

Avon, are sprung from shoots taken, from the willows round Napoleon’s grave at St Helena. It is commonly supposed that the early French settlers, coming to AkaroU, brought these shoots with them, but, according to a correspondent of the London “Times,” it was really the late Mr John Tinline who raised tho first Napoleon willows in New Zealand. Mr John Wharton, now resident in London, tells the story. “ About the year 1850,” he writes, “Mr John Tinline, one of the early pioneers of New Zealand, sailed from England, and the ship, requiring water, put into St Helena. Mr Tinlino took several-weeping willow slips from trees round Napoleon’s grave, and kept them alive during tho voyage by sticking them into potatoes. He planted them at Nelson, Now Zealand, and there are somo wonderfully line trees growing there, I believe one or two of tho original slips still existing. A few years later Mr Tinline and others took slips into tho Canterbury province, and in course of years I have had myself waggon-loads of stakes and branches from these trees for planting and protecting the river-banks. They are now largely used throughout New Zealand, and anything will grow and soon beeomo a big tree, from a small slip to a big post several feet long and up to a foot or more diameter, provided there is water. The pretty Avon River at Christchurch is planted with willows from this source; also the Yarra River at Melbourne, Victoria. Indeed, I beJiivA I. am correct in. saving, that alt the

weeping willows throughout New Zealand camo from this supply. Mr Tinline only passed away a short time ago at a ripe old age, having lived to see how successful his act of acclimatisation had been, unlike many other things since introduced with very serious results.” London also has a willow tree which was grown from a slip taken from Napoleon’s tomb at St Helena. It grows in the south-west corner of Kensington Square, and is a fine large tree. Some of Napoleon’s guards, returning to England, carried with them shoots from a fig tree growing near the grave, and these were planted in various gardens.

divers’ TROUBLES.

The search for tho Elingamite treasure has already, it seems,

involved the death of two divers, and, in spite of the care with -which the apparatus is designed and fitted, deep-sea diving continues to claim many victims. The troubles and diseases from which divers commonly suffer are not easily explained, and the causes of them are not so obvious as the inexpert might imagine. The bodily ailments are usually grouped under tho one name “caisson disease,” hut they ioally differ widely in character. The cause of the common ear trouble and temporary deafness has been ascertained. Normally the eustachian tube connecting the nose with the middle ear, is full of air at ordinary pressure and if the outside pressure increases that inside the tube rises also. But if the diver 'has a slight cold the tube may he partly blocked and then as soon as the air pressure in the helmet is increased the/ ear drum is pressed inwards. More serious are the breathing difficulties experienced under the' water. These have usually been attributed to the pressure of tho water, but. in reality they are said to be due to a deficiency of carbonic acid gas in the lungs. Under normal conditions there is a constant “working” percentage of carbonic acid gas in the lungs, hut when the diver is working in compressed air the percentage of the poison gas diminishes, and the lungs do not at once accommodate themselves to the new conditions. Tho trouble is avoided by carefully measuring the air supplied to the diver and by slow, deep breathing. “Diver’s paralysis ’ is another disease with an obscure cause. It seems to he due to tho too rapid absorption of nitrogen from the compressed air. The blood, following the ordinary rule, takes ,up more nitrogen under pressure than it doos normally. "When tho pressure is reheved. tho gas is set free in the veins, bubbles are formed, and the circulation is impeded. Relief is afforded by placing the patient at once in compressed air and by reducing the pressure gradually instead of suddenly.

A TOLISHED SAVAGE.

The historical records of New Zealand, which have just been published by the Government prin-

ter, under the direction, of the Hon Robert M’Nab, contain some interesting particulars of a visit which Tip-a-he, a powerful Maori chief of the Bay of Islands, paid to Sydney in 1806. Tho chief was accompanied by. four of his sons, and made the voyage to tho New South Wales capital, then a mere village, by way of Norfolk Island, where 110 was most hospitably entertained by the commandant, Captain Piper. On his arrival in Sydney he waited upon tho Governor, clad in the costume of his country, and seems at once to have made a most favourable impression upon liis Excellencyi The Governor’s description of his visitor lias fortunately been preserved, and is included in the records. “Tip-a-he,” j,t reads, “is 5 feet 11 inches high, stout, and extremely well made. His age appears about fortysix or forty-eight. His face is completely tattooed with the spiral marks shown in ‘ Hawkesworth’s and Cook’s Second Voyage,’ which, with similar marks on his hips and other parts of his body, point him out as a considerable chief or Etangatida Etikitia of tho first class. To say that he was nearly civilised falls f«r short of his character, as every action and observation shows ail uncommon attention to the rules of decency and propriety in. his every action, and lie has much of the airs and manners of a man conversant with the world he lives in. In "conversation he is extremely facetious and jocose, and as he never reflected on any person, so Tip-a-ho was alive to the least appearanco of slight or inattention in others.” The Governor has also left an account of his interviews with Tip-a-he concerning the fate of two soldiers and a convict who had been sent as prisoners from Port Dalrymple, to be tried by tho Criminal Court for stealing some pork from the King’s stores. The men were proved to be guilty, and the Maori chief raised a most vigorous protest against the proposal to execute them for their offence. He denounced the brutal justice of the convict settlement, and worked himself into a great fury when the Governor refused to grant tho prisoners an immediate reprieve. He begged that they might be allowed to return with him to New Zealand, where tho people, ho said, had move sense and more mercy, and finally tho authorities pacified him by promising that the sentence should he modified. Some little time before he had told the Governor,- as an illustration of .the superiority of his own adminstration of justice, how he had killed one of his wives to silence her troublesome tongue.