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New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4301, 9 March 1901, Page 2 (Supplement)

, ,la tlje recently issued report on British trade with Switzerland for the year 1899 by Mr J. C. Milligan,.British Comn: ercial Agent,some interesting particulars are given on, .the trade in Swiss watches. As is well-known, the watch trade forms one of the principal features of Swiss commerce.;. Swiss the largest I,manufacturers ■ of watches, in the world, but last year they considerably exceeded, all previous outputs. , Switzerland’fexports an: .enormous number of watches, and it. is l worthy of note .that Great Britain takes the great part of the, whole, quantity exported. The chief trade is in . silver watches of .which oyer three millions were made last year!-and we took over six hundred at a cost of under ton shillings a watch.’ Nickel watches, however - , run the silver ones fairly dose, as Switzreland made over two and a quarter millions of. them. For., some reason or other nickel watches -were more popular in England .than, those made of silver, for.wo. took more than seven hundred thousand of them at about six shillings apiece. Of gold watches the Swiss mad© eight. hundred and .fifty-nine thousand. The Lbnddn County Council recently experimented with a now line-scraper on one; of. the all night, tramcars to Claphani. Should tho apparatus come into uset the -men scrapers will,he done away with, and,half,a dozen cars will suffice to keep the line clear.; Tho contrivance, which resembles a..straight pump-handle with an oblong box,at the end of it, is fixed •on the hottpn,;pf the car. between the,wheels. It has.a'short,; thick, knife hanging from it, which fits into the grooves in the linos. Tho conductor controls the machine; by ,a chain, and can put. it in or out of action. While working it makes the car vibrate very unpleasantly*, and! , it ? alsp appears. r to bo a'great drag on the horses. By blindly serving the interests of England, Portugal risks drawing upon herself complications which might not b® devoid of gravity^—'Temas,’’ Paris,