ITEMS OF INTEREST.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 207, 1 September 1908, Page 3

ITEMS OF INTEREST.

A gentleman, well versed in riauti r cal matters, has suggested to The Dominion that a relief., steamer^ if equipped with a captive balloon, would command a wider, view, arid the /chances of finding the Hawea would be increased. He advances the theory that the Hawea would have been found some time ago had a captive balloon been tried, and also that the advisability of having captive balloons in readiness for similar cases to that of the Hawea would, in 4rmte, result in a huge saving to the Union Company.

The ship ventilator, which spreads its gaping funnel to the breeze to circulate fresh -air in the passenger quarters and cargo holds, may easily become a distinct source of danger, as its capacious mouth may catch a passing spark and convey it down to cargo. The New Zealand Shipping Company (says The Times) has adopted a clever device to guard against this danger. The inventor is Captain W. Lawson, the company s marine superintendent at London. The steamers Rimutaka, Ruapehu, and Turakina have already been fitted with, the new type of ventilator, and each of the company's vessels will be dealt with similarly m rotation at "Home. The contrivance is "rather similar to a Venetian-shut-ter fited across the" mouth of the ventilator. The air passes through a fine wire mesh. The ventilator remains as at present, except that t it is increased considerably in size from the top end .of the shaft to the mouth. A shipmaster related an instance which happened when a passenger casually remarked to a steward that he was afraid he had thrown his cigar butt down the ventilator. The steward hastily acquainted the chier officer, who descended into the hold, and found the cigar butt burning on a case of cargo. The passenger narrowly escaped having caused a disaster in mid-ocean.. The new ventilator will prevent' the occurrence of anything like the above.

The late Mr James Bragge, who was in business in Wellington as a photographer for over a quarter of a century, left a very valuable collection of negatives that have almost an historical value as far as that city is concerned. ' A'few photographs printed from these negatives secured thirty years, ago are now'" on view "in a Willis Street shop (says The Do- , minion),, and are highly interesting as showing the development of the city. One is a view or Customhouse Quay taken when the waters of the harbour used' to lap tinder what is now tho Bank of Australasia, and what was then the Star Boating Club's shed. Another shows Te Aro House (of another generation) draped in wet blankets, taken on the morning following the destruction by fire of the first Opera House, which stood on the site of the present theatre in Manners! St. A very fine negative is

that of the basin of the Karori Reservoir taken when empty. One shows the Government Buildings^ .* with steam-drrtfen trams, drawn up on Lambtonj^Quay, and still another as a photograph' of the, laying of the foundation stop'e of the .Supreme Court buildings, »< ceremony: which, drew a large crowd); including the Garrison Band and a company of Volunteers. Several of those persons,'figjiring in the .crowd, are easily recognisable as prespnt-day citizens, and others are' there who have gone the way of all flesh. Among the latter is the late: Drum-Major Davis, who for many years headed the Garrison Band on parade. The photographs are a standing tribute to the excellent results obtainable with the old wet plate process.

Fleet "Week in Auckland will long be remembered, for various reasons (says the Eltham Argus); Sarcasti-cally-inclined people—and there are many in this world—prefer to speak of the famous week as " Fleece Week," and not without reason, for the strangers who came within the gates of-Auckland vwere taken in and done for in tha most barefaced manr ner. One little paVfcy of four from Eltham were charged £29 8s for four days' accommodation in a boardinghouse. ' Eight shillings per day is the usual tariff at this particular house, but for this ocasion it was raised to a guinea per day, and the whole week had to be paid for. An American officer showed the writer what he (the officer) believed to be a piece of New Zealand greenstone which he had purchased for 30s. It was polished green glass, probably from Birmingham, and not worth 30s a hundredweight. A Maori on a railway platform was selling inferior apples at four for a shilling. The cabmen excelled themselves in Auckland. Without a blush they asked 203 or 30s for trips.that under ordinary circumstances they would eagerly perform for ss.

Ifc has frequently been contended (says the N.Z. Times) that the flaxmilling industry distributes, more wealth among the workers of the Dominion than any other rural industry, and Mr H. Greig, president ot the Flaxmillers' Association, supplies

some interesting figures in support of this view. Be .declared that on a block of 800 acres at Tokomaru the average wages , paid by . him during the past two years has been at the rate of between £4 and £5 per acre per annum. During the present season he expects—owing to running two mills on the property—to have to pay at the rate of £8 an acre. No other industry in the Dominion, declares Mr 'Crreig, can in any way compare with this for the money circulated among the workers, even taking the intensive industry of fruit culture.

"Fleece-week" in Sydney:—Pickpockets apparently ■ find a splendid field for their light-fingered operations in ihe crowded streets of the city when people are busy viewing the sights (says the Sydney Morning 'Herald). The detectives are keeping an eye on suspected pickpockets, but, despite this fact, several cases of theft have been reported to the police. Henry Hillier, of ■. Ada Street, 'Concord, had a gold watch and chain, valued at £10, stolen from his pocket in the'city on the day of the Fleet's arrival. Thos. Howe, of. Pyrmont Bridge Road, reported that he also had a watch • and chain and money, valued in all at £10, stolen, in a similar manner.

Horses that eat gates and rail fences are something of a rara avis, but ihere are quite a number in the snow country in Central Otago. When at Hawkdun Station an Otago Times reporter was show the remains of wooden- fences where only the ends of the rails were.left ; the remainder had been gradually gnawed away by the station horses. A Grimmerbiirn man owns half a dozen horses'which, were in a distant paddock when the snow fell. When, a fortnight later, he visited them he-found that abjßu't all> that was left of the Jarge gate leading into their paddodk was the ironwork ; the horses had eaten i.he rest: It seems that the animals develop this peculiar habit when in a country where snow has lain long en the ground, ahd.they are more or less hungry. The manager of, stated that the horses on his station^ Avhich- ate his bluegum i-ails^ had as much food as they ,could veat,.,yet they turned ay/ay from their mangers and gnawed, t-he fence's; urid gates. . •

America's labour army, which is always a yery iihportant political Jactor' (says tne^New'^orkr^oorresppndent' of they .Daily," Telegraph, on July 7th); has been immensely tickled, apparently, by the action of the Socialist harbour Legion in nominating a convicted murderer, Martin Preston, who is now frying a sentence of twenty-five years', imprisonment, as a candidate for .the Presidency 'of the United States. Levene, who presided, declared that .when Preston shot and killed a saloori-keeper in Goldfield, lie acted ! itt self-Kiefence. "The stai^smanshiijt of our National Convention in nominating Preston is beyond all praise," he said; - John Koroher, of Cleveland, began by saying-^—" When Harry Thaw rushed x>ut of his hotel to.a roof garden and shot a, man in what he believed to be selfdefence, he was * declared td have brainstorm. When our candidate for t^e Presidency shot a man in self-de-fence he waa called'a murderer." This caught the fancy, of the audience, and.was received with a burst of