Here and There.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXI, Issue 8831, 11 July 1905, Page 4

Here and There.

Some interesting items may be sometimes unearthed from the Consular reports. For example, there is a description of a soapy lake in the annual statement of the trade and commerce of Nicaragua. This sheet of water, the lake of isejapa, contains a strong solution of bicarbonate of potash, bicarbonate of soda, and sulphate of magnesia. "This water, when rubbed on any greasy object, once forms a lather." The report says it is used as a hair wash, and enjoys a local reputation as a cure for external and internal complaints. The Niearagnails are not conspicuous for commercial enterprise, but during the year they managed to export "four demijohns" of this wonderful water to the neighboring states.

A most astounding tale of the effects of radium on M. and Aldme. Curie (the lady and gentleman who discovered it) is told in the New York American. Says the American journal, the laboratory of the Curies has been turned into a perpetual lighting plant by the abundant use of the metal in experiments, and even the room in which they sleep has become so thoroughly impregnated that it is necessary to surround the bed at night with heavy black curtains on the sides and across the top. There is radium everywhere about the home and laboratory, and there is but little hope of relief for many years to come. The radium follows the two chemists everywhere.

One of the officials of the L. B. and S. C. Railway stationed at Sheffield Park has contrived an ingenious electrical machine, which will automatically light a fire at any given time. The instrument, which is made of odd pieces of steel, knife blades, hairpins, and the like, is connected with a clock, like an alarm, and at the time at which it is set the mechanism will cause a match placed in position to rub against a striker. This match ignites another in touch with the fire, which is thus set burning. The inventor's wife finds it useful wiien she goes out in the afternoon. She sets the "fire-lighter"' so that when she comes home she finds the kettle boiling for tea.

A few months ago considerable interest was aroused by the announcement that the Brighton Railway Company had decided to experiment with electric traction on the single-phase system, with a view to the electrification of its suburban lines. This system is working with very satisfactory results on several American and Continental lines, but is a complete novelty in England. The delegates of the International Railway Congress visited East Pittsburg to witness the trial of a 125-ton single phase locomotive by the Westinghouse Company. This is the heaviest and most powerful electrical locomotive in the world. The importance of the test will be realised by the locomotive having proved its capacity to start a train weighing 2000 tons at a speed of twenty-five miles per hour. The true value of these remarkable figures may be judged by the information that the heaviest locomotives in England do not weigh more than seventy tons, and that- it is very rare to find a passenger train exceeding 400 tons, or a. goods train 700 tons in weight. The demonstration proves that the single-phase system will be suitable for heavy traction on main lines, where the backbone of the earnings is the goods and minerals carried.

The grim experience of the barque v nneira in the ice district of the North M lantic was reported by the Cunard recently from New York, where the Vimeira had put in. The latter—a. four-masted barque, owned by Messrs J. Hardie and Co., of Glasgow—encountered a fog off Newfoundland. At two bells of the morning watch the lookout shouted the terrible warning: "Ice on the port bow, plose aboard! The air suddenly became very cold, and not more than two fathoms distant a dark cliff almost overhung the ship. The mate shouted hurried directions to the steersman. Slowly the barque answered her helm, and veered away just in time to avoid crashing Into the tower of ice. The full extent of the danger was hidden by the fog, but the waves could be heard breaking against the base of the berg, which was sweeping towards the ship with its own momentum. The Vimeira only proceeded a few fathoms when the lookout cried: "Ice on the starboard bow, close aboard!" The mate again shouted orders to the man at the wheel, and the ship swung this time the other way. The ship had drifted into a forest of ice. The remainder of the night was a series of hairbreadth escapes, the vessel holding a zigzag course through a labyrinth of giant bergs, which it was impossible to see until the ship was almost striking them. The crew of the Timeira declare that one of the bergs was haunted. As they passed it they heard sounds like the voices of women, the lowing of cows, and the cackling of hens. The crowing of cocks, they declare, was also distinctly heard.

An English bishop who once had a half hour's talk with the Russian Procurator Pobiedonostzeff describes him as '.an exceedingly able, astute and shrewd man, but a fossilized fossil." As he withdrew they passed by a corridor set with telegraphic and telephonic apparatus connecting with all parts of the Empire, and the head of the Russian Church remarked: "There you see the pest of civilisation."

Prince KMkofF, who has been in charge of railway communications with the Far East ever since the war, and who recently returned from Manchuria to St. Petersburg, made some interesting statements to M. Gaston Leroux, who communicated them to the Paris Matin. The Prince stated that people in Europe had no notion of how promising the state of things was in Manchuria. According to the Matin, "the Russian troops have, he says, got over, the effects of their frightful defeats ; they have had the rest they needed; they are better equipped and provisioned than they ever have been since the ouibreak of the war; 'they have full faith in their chief, and are- sure of victory.' The Prince says that 300,000 fresh troops have crossed into Manchuria since the beginning of the year. At-oae time there were 45,000 wounded men in Harping

alon«. Only one thing alarms Prince Khilkolf —the impenetrable secrecy in ■which the Japs sliroud all their movements. It tells upon the" Russian nerves—that astonishing secrecy. 'We know no more now than we did formerly at what point the Japs may attack us. They are threatening our right, and they are threatening our left.* And that is all the Russians can make out. 'But for all that, we shall not retreat. No, no. We shall not give way.'"

The position of matters in New South Wales in regard to the outbreak of plague is becoming eminently satisfactory (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph). Sydney is free from the disease, and the last patient has been discharged from the Coast Hospital. The plague has also ceased at Newcastle, and clean bills of health will be issued from that port to-day. There are only two patients with the- disease in the local hospital, and they are progressing satisfactorily. In the north coast towns, which have been affected, cleansing operations are proceeding, and it is hoped that all traces of the outbreak will Boon be removed. No plague rata have been found in Sydney now for several weeks, but notwithstanding that, the work of destroying rats and mice is still proceeding. The capitaiion fee continues to be paid, and the Board of Health and City Council staffs are also busily employed in hunting the animals in the vicinity of the wharves and other places. During the recent four weeks 6655 Tats and 5560 mice have in this way been destroyed. Of this number a capitation fee was paid on 5163 rats and 3844 mice. In Newcastle during the same period 752 rats and 551 mice were killed.