NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIV, Issue 13487, 14 May 1907, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE WORLD'S MERCHANT FLEETS.? The statistical tables, for 1906 issued by Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign : Shipping show that, during 1906, 731 new vessels of 1,493,967 tons have been classed by Lloyd's Register. This is the greatestamount of tonnage classed in any one year during the existence of the society. Of these vessels, 710, of 1,487,005 tons, are steaihera; and 21, of 6962 tons, are sailing vessels. : ■ With the exception oi 12 : wood; vessels, of about 1000 tens, the material used in the construction: of the whole of the tonnage i:classed was steel.' .■*: Sailing ;■tonnage, which formed 25 per cent of the total tonnage classed in 1891, 30 per cent, in 1892, only between 1 and 2 per cent, in each of the years 1899 to 1901, 5.7 per cent, in 1902, 4.1 per cent, in 1903, 1.3 per cent. 4 n 1904, and 0.73 per cent, in 1905, was only 0.46 of the total classed in 1906. Among the vessels classed during the year were many yof special types ; designed to meetr the requirements of particular trades, including ? - number ' of vessels ; fitted -. with steam "turbines. The average size of the steamers classed during the past year, is about 2094 tons, and of sailing vessels about 332 tons. During 1906, 12 steamers

of over 7000 tons each have.been classed, as: compared with 12 in 1898, 17 in 1900, nine in 1901, 23 in 1902, 21 in 1903, 15 in 1904, and 14 in 1905. • With, the exception' of one, all of these vessels are owned in the United Kingdom. The largest steamers classed were the Nieu' Amsterdam, 16,967 tons; tho Empress of Ireland, 14,191 tons; the Empress of Britain, 14,189 tons; the Araguaya, 10,557 tons; the Deyanha, 8092 tons; and the Oriana, 8066 tons. No sailing vessel of over 1000 tons has been classed during ■> 1906. ;';-; Of the - tonnage classed during the ■ year, 1,353,136 tons, or 91 per cent., have been built in the United Kingdom. Among foreign countries, Germany, Holland, Italy, and Norway have ;■ contributed the largest i amount of tonnage. The return includes a statement showing the countries for which the vessels that have been classed were built: 1,110,407. tons, or .74.3 per cent., : have been built '■ for the United Kingdom ; and 383.560 tons, or 25.7 per cent., for other countries. Among the latter Germany leads with 108,001 tons; Norway has 43,427 tons, Holland 41,241 tons, Aus-tria-Hungary 27,567 tons, Denmark. 27,301 tons, and the British colonies 23,758 tons. FIRE WITHOUT SMOKE. ; The old sayingi" Where there is smokethere is fire," may become obsolete, inasmuch as by scientific investigation and the application of chemistry to : fuel we are promised fire without smoke! Sir William Bailey, one of the most resourceful engineers in Lancashire, who does a big business at his Salford ■(Manchester) works in iron and steel specialties, and especially in coast and lighthouse communications, has been interesting himself in experiments to produce a fuel that will obviate the smoke nuisance. The invention has been successful. Anyhow (says the British Trade Review), it is claimed;that by extracting the smoke-making ingredients ' from coal, and by a chemical process that ' has been kept secret, the resultant fuel burns brightly without exuding smoke, and gives out much greater heat than coal. •"■;' The new product, which has been tried in His Majesty's house at Sandringham, and . has been declared as an efficient remedy for the coal nuisance by the London Coal-Smoke Abatement Society, will be known \ as "coalite." ; II can be sold at a much cheaper price than ordinary gas-coke, and will be a great saving to the manufacturer and the householder while freeing large cities from smoke-clouds, and, to some extent, from fogs. Only .the. coalowner will be hit by the invention. If " coalite" comes into general use the output from the pits will be reduced by one-third. A rich syndicate has taken, up: the invention. Negotiations are proceeding to obtain a site for the;; erection of;;the*':' "coalite" works in [ Trafford Park, beside the Manchester Ship Canal, and it is anticipated that these works, which are likely to cover between 20 and 30, acres, will give employment to nearly 5000 hands. A LESSON FROM ROUMANIA. The London Spectator sees in ■ the Roumanian "jacquerie," whatever': the end ;of the rising may be, a lesson for all Europe. " It has been assumed by all statesmen and almost all observers that in. the great collision between labour and capital, which is I now 'shaking European society, the steadying influence is the stolidity of the peasants, | who have always been, ready to furnish soldiers, and who are supposed to have an instinctive regard for th© security of property. That idea is substantially -sound, so long as the peasants own their little farm's; ; but as we have seen for' generations in Ireland, and as all Asiatic statesmen have recognised for ages, when the cultivators rent the soil in patches, and are liable to increasing or indefinite demands, the doctrine ceases to bo true. The peasants then suffer like artisans, and being armed with; the instruments of agriculture, or,' in Europe, having passed through the military mill, they insurrect with more readiness and much greater effect than their rivals, the workmen of the towns. They are, too, much '.-fiercer, more ignorant, and from, their; position as scattered communities are able to make a better ; fight of it with ' the soldiers, who, again, are for the most part drawn from their own ranks. This is the grand danger throughout Eastern Europe, and .it is very doubtful indeed whether it can be removed without a transfer of property, so great and so violent that it' would make all property insecure, and would incidentally extirpate or cripple the only ' class which, having the leisure and inclination ;to cultivate itself, has begun at all events to be civilised. ■ That class is ;, not numerous enough to defend itself with its own hands, it cannot depend permanently on the soldiers; and it ; has,; therefore, before it only two alternatives. One is to fly as the French nobles dand it is this which is being generally adoptedand the - other is to submit to low permanent • quitrents imposed from above, and .accepted Iby the losers With the ; sense."of insufferable I injustice. If King Charles, who i? thoroughly, aware of the dangers of ",. the situaI tion," and who bitterly reproaches < the statesmen who have just resigned for their want of prevision and energy, can suggest a compromise other than this, he will show himself the first statesman, as he has long since been accepted as the' first; soldier, iin Eastern Europe. In Russia, in Austria, in parts of Italy, and in most of the Balkan States,; the Roumanian jacquerie, whether successful or defeated, will immensely increase the excitability of the peasantry and the perplexities of statesmen, already overloaded by problems which as yet no man of genius has arisen with, sufficient mental power and sufficient daring to attempt to ; solve."