SHIPS OF THE AIR

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20793, 12 August 1929, Page 8

SHIPS OF THE AIR

There is certainly no lack of enterprise on the part of those responsible for the activities of the German airship Graf Zeppelin. The vessel is being well tested in long flights, in which she may be said to be playing almost a pioneer role, and is providing the world at large at the same time with an interesting spectacle. Eleven months ago Dr Eckener made his first trip across the Atlantic in the Graf Zeppelin, and, in spite of a mechanical mishap and a rather unhappy buffeting, the crossing was effected in 112 hours. The return journey was accomplished in 684 hours. Two successful Mediterranean cruises were undertaken in March and April last, and in May the commander, full of- confidence, set out upon a second Transatlantic flight which proved, however, more exciting than successful. The failure of two out of the five engines at an early stage of the voyage compelled the aviators to turn back,, and, encountering heavy gales, the Graf Zeppelin drifted in a parlous plight over French territory, and thanks to Providence and neighbourly assistance was just able to make 'a safe landing at Toulon. Nothing discouraged, and the airship having bcea repaired, the enterprising German navigator within the last few days completed a second western Transatlantic flight, covering the distance in 954 hours, and, save head winds, encountering no serious obstacles. That journey has been only the preliminary to the much more spectacular project of a grand tour, a round-the-world trip, upon which the vessel set forth from Lakehurst, New Jersey, on Wednesday last. The route is from Lakehurst to Friedrichshaven, at which the airship has now arrived, thence to Tokio, thence across to Los Angeles, and so back to Lakehurst. It is a highly, ambitious programme which, once fairly embarked upon, has its hazards. Sir Hubert Wilkins, who is one of the passengers, speaks of the flight across the Siberian wastes as the most dangerous part of the journey, and it may readily be understood that great dependence is being placed upon the reliability of the mechanism of the airship. For the landing of a crippled dirigible in an area where no special preparations have been made, or are possible, is one of the contingencies against which no remedy has yet been devised. Twenty two passengers are taking part in this adventure, for so this round-the-world flight of the Graf Zpppelin may be termed, and cheerfully paying, so it is said, a nine thousand dollar fare for the privilege and the; experience. The Graf Zeppelin carries;a crew of forty. Thus the complement of this Huge craft is less than seventy persons, and this would seem to point to. a deficiency in airships in that their carrying capacity is so small in comparison with that of ships of the seagoing variety. It has not been suggested that the airship|will ever possess any really great lifting and carrying capacity commensurate with its cost and dimensions. And, while brave predictions have been made, that reason alone, apart from other factors, may well appear sufficient to dissipate any idea that, at its present stage of development at all events, it is going to be a serious rival to the great ocean-liners with their thousands of passengers, to say nothing of the freighters. The tendency on the part of the great shipping companies is to build still more huge, luxurious, and costly vessels for the Transatlantic passage. The stimulus for this will hardly be traceable - in approaching competition from the | air. The Transatlantic airway cannot perhaps even yet be regarded as reasonably safe. The flights of the Graf Zeppelin naturally increase jthc expectation attaching to performances of the two British State airships, the RIOO and RlOl, upon the construction of which so much time and thought have been expended. These vessels, the building of which has been greatly prolonged because of the care and consideration given to the details, were to be ready in June of this but the authorities are adhering to their policy of thorough preparedness before initiating their trials. The proposal is to fly one vessel to Canada and the other to India. Colonel IV. C. Richmond, designer of RlOl, has visualised nonstop journeys lasting from two and a-half to three days as within the scope of the airship’s achievement, but in a recent address to ithe Royal Aeronautical Society he'deplored any unjustifiable attempt to take a chance, where experience Was scanty, just to achieve a high performance before the time was ripe. It inay bo considered, perhaps, that Dr Eckener is about to take chances that arc rather less than justified by experience. The flights of the Graf Zeppelin should be of some value as a guide to. the conditions and risks which the groat British airships will have to face when their powers are put severely to the test.

In a reserved judgment given at Wellington on Saturday the magistrate (Mr E. Page) dismissed a charge against a local bookseller for sellinjg Dr Marie Stopes’s “ Enduring Passion,” an allegedly indecent book. . The Auckland Grammar School’s jubilee celebrations were continued during the week-end (says a Press Association telegram). In order tjo make a permanent recognition of the jubilee the Old Boys’ Association decided; to erect a school library. The sum already subscribed is £SOO.

In the delightful spring weather which prevailed in the forenoon on Saturday there was no hint of the boisterous weather that was to sweep the city throughout the afternoon and evening. Towards the latter end of the afternoon the skies clouded over ominously, and fitful gusts of wind brought tidings of dirty weather coming up from the south-west. The day’s sports programmes were not concluded before the advance guard of the storm broke, and games were brought to a close in conditions that were very unpleasant for players and spectators. After dark, however, the position grew worse. Towards 8 o’clock the wind increased to gale force, and throughout the hours preceding midnight it continued with undiminished violence, frequently bringing with it heavy rainstorms. In the early hours of yesterday morning the storm abated, and at dawn the wind had lost some of its force, leaving intermittent rain showers and a keen coldness. There have been no reports of damage suffered during the storm.

Some inconvenience was caused to householders in general and to theatregoers in particular, when at about 7.4 5' on Saturday evening the supply of power from Waipori failed for some minutes. Lights were out for about five minutes, and it was not until about five minutes after the lights came on that the trams commenced again. The cause of the break down was trouble among the high tension wires in the vicinity of Port Chalmers,- which had its effedt over the whole system, right to Waipo.ri. The initial cause of the trouble was the wind and rain which prevailed at that hour. The trams resumed normal running, and a good supply of power for electric light was available in less than a quarter of an hour after the breakdown. Several times after the complete breakage in .the supply of current the lights again gave indications of failure, but the evening passed without any further serious stoppage..

The City Fire Brigade had two calls on Saturday. At 1.41 a blazing tin of petrol in the New Zealand Express Company’s garage in Ward street required attention. The outbreak was extinguished before any structural damage was done to the premises. In the evening, at 8.43 the brigade' again turned out, this time to a chimney fire at the Grand Hotel. No damage was done. The steamer Maheno, which is due at Wellington to-morrow' from Sydney, is bringing nine bags of Australian mails and one parcel receptacle for Dunedin. The mail is expected to reach the General Post Office on Wednesday evening.

Pictures of the snow-lino grandeurs of New Zealand mountains make an- effective front page in the illustrated section of the Otago Witness, to be published tomorrow, and include the groups “Alpine Party at the Foot of Mount Cook,” “ The Rugged Lines of Mountain Giants,” and “In the Shadow of Mount Egmont.” The rest of the edition is composed of a variety of subjects. There are - pictures of the coining of age of the Scout movement in Dunedin and Wellington, of the jubilee of the Pleasant Point Presbyterian Church, of farming on a Central Otago station, of prize birds at the Gore Poultry Show, of the Timaru Ploughing Match Society’s fixture, and of such sporting events as "Country Teams’ Match at Carisbrook,” “ Australia Defeats New Zealand at Rugby Football,” “ Successful Basket Ball Tournament in the Wairarapa,” and “ South. Canterbury Representative Hockey Team.” In addition there are many one-picture subjects where scenery, architecture, fashions, and portraits make an interesting showing. Mr J. R. Bartholomew, S.M., who presided over a short sitting of the City Police Court on Saturday morning, convicted and discharged a first offender for drunkenness. James Jackson, who was similarly charged, was fined 12s 6d, in default ■24 hours’ imprisonment. It was recently reported that some radium needles lied been lost- in the Christchurch Hospital, and all efforts to trace them had been unsuccssftil. It should .interest the Christchurch Hospital authorities to learn that a siniilar joss was recently suffered at the Perth (Western Australia") Hospital, hut was eventually recovered. In the. Perth case the precious needle was mislaid whilst a patient’s bandage was being changed. A minute examination of every ward in which the patient was being treated was made; the contents of the incinerator were examined and microscopically scrutinisd, the whole staff joining in the task. An electroscope was applied to the ashes of the incinerator, and the presence of radium was indicated, but still the needle evaded detection. Then a patient, who was undergoing treatment, offered his services as a dry blower. An old alluvial digger accustomed to the work, he began on the huge collection of ashes and rubbish, and after many, days of unremitting toil he discovered the needle (worth about £3O). The digger was asked to accept something for his services, but he declined even his fare back to the goldfields. The Mauretania still holds the record for the fastest ocean trip across the Atlantic, frorti Southampton to New York, according to a wireless report broadcast from 2FC, Sydney, on Friday night. This vessel, which held the record for nearly a quarter of a century, lost it to the German steamer Bremen on July 22, less than three weeks ago. She has now recovered it by clipping four hours and a-half off the Bremen’s time. • The Mauretania has a gross tonnage of 30.696, and was built in 1907 by the firm of Messrs Swan,' Hun.ter, and Wigham Richardson, Ltd., at Newcastle, for the Cunard Line. For 22 years she held the highly-prized • blue riband of the Atlantic, She recently completed the double voyage from Southampton, to New. York and back again, about 6000 miles, in 12J days, including a stop at New York of 32 hours. The average speed maintained during this double trip was 25.3 knots, a higher rate of steaming than any other liner had previously achieved. Moreover, at one period during these voyages the Mauretania was steaming at 26) knots. On one occasion, it is reported, she reached a speed of 29 knots when going to the rescue of a vessel in distress in the Atlantic. The Bremen, a huge 40.000-ton vessel, built' for the Xord Dcutschor-Lloyd Line, broke the Mauretania’s record on her maiden trip, her time being 4 days 18 hours 13 minutes, "which was 8 hours 17 * minutes better than that of the Mauretania. A cabled report from the Melbourne Observatory, published last week, that a comet of small magnitude was discovered on August 2, has been followed by another comet discovered on August 3 at IBhr. The position of this comet at the time of discovery is given as: Right ascension, 20hr OOmin 52sec; declination, 30 degrees 26min south. Its motion was north-west. No .magnitude was given. A careful search was made on Thursday night with the nine-inch telescope at the Dominion Observatory, Kclburn (says the Evening Post), but no sign, of a comet could be found. Tins negative result Is not to be wondered at, as no precise iu : formation is available as to the comet’s motion, the cabled position being where it was several days ago. Dr C. E. Adams, the Government Astronomer, thinks that the cables refer probably to two separate comets, each of, recent discovery. _ The thrill of seeing snow for the- first time was experienced by some of the members of the Australian hockey team .while travelling from Wellington to. Auckland last week. As was only to be expected, there were sundry snowballing’ scenes, at wayside stations. Soon after leaving Taihape the train entered an area'which was covered as by a great white mantle right on to Taumarunui. The effect was particularly brilliant.in the region of Natioual Park, where the three central mountains sparkled in the starlight. Owing to the heavy going the express was late in reaching Frankton, but from there on to Auckland good time was made. People at the station to greet passengers had, however, to wait beyond the schedule tlmj.

. Proof that clever detective work is done in,New Zealand;, was forthcoming in * case which had its conclusion in the appearance of a man in the F&hnerstdn North Magistrate’s Court last week, pleading guilty to a charge' of theft. Thd case was only a. small one, one that few people wolud hear of, yet it had all the ingredients of a first-class detective story. The Palmerston North police ’ received infer-. •nation recently that premises in the town had been entered, and a considerable sum of money stolen. When a detective arrived on the scene he found all the signs of a genuine orthodox burglary. Apparently the intruder had climbed up on to a window sill, opened the fanlight, and then simply reached down inside, forced down the catch, opened the window, and stepped inside. However, expert eyes, after, a close examination, which a Dominion reporter who was also present, had an opportunity of observing, read a different story from the signs that had been left behind. The outside of the window was very dusty, and the window was nearly flush witli the wall of the building. It would obviously be impossible for a man to reach up from the sill to the fanlight without hie clothing brushing against the window. Yet a- careful examination of the window pane failed to reveal the slightest sign that the dust had been disturbed. This in itself was suspicious, but, an examination of the fan- . light resulted in an even stranger fact being brought to light. On the outside of the fanlight were finger prints. That was only to be expected. Naturally the man would leave finger prints if he pushed open a fanlight; but the peculiar thing about these .finger prints was that they were upside down! Then the window must have been opefled, not by someone outside, but by someone from within the room. , This led to the assumption that the money had been stolen by someone who,had access to the premises, so the next step was an examination of the financial affairs of the employees. Suspicion then fell on one as being the person mostly f in need of money. And an interview by the detective was followed by a confession, and the mystery of the " burglary ” was explained.

The joke of the day in Sydney (says the correspondent of the Melbourne Argus) in surreptitiously to slip into the lapel of the coat of a friend a fragment of white paper. Any man with a piece of white paper thus displayed is identifiable as one who is opposed to the high price of potatoes. Miss Portia Geach, the energetic president of the Progressive Housewives’ Association, issued a manifesto calling up all men who supported a boycott to stand fast with their wives in counteracting the machinations of the potato wholesalers by displaying evidence of sympathy. She knew that it would' be easy to tear a piece off the margin of the. morning paper and place it in the coat lapel, and she proclaimed that that would be sufficient for the purpose. The, potato war has disposed of the rival housewives’ association. It considered. that Miss Geach was bringing housewives into contempt by driving through the streets showing a placard intimating her association’s sentiments toward potatoes and potato vendors, and it gave strong expression to the thought, but there was a. rallying to Miss Gcach’s standard. The war brightened up at. once. “ Eat turnips, carrots, and dried beans and peas ” is the order. It is said that many are obedient. Shortly after 10 o’clock on Thursday night a portion of the street outside the Cecil Hotel’ at the corner of Mulgrave and Sydney streets, Wellington,. was flooded when a 21-inch water main burst, and a stream of water gushed from the fault for about an hour and a-half before the supply was cut off. The water forced its way through the wooden pavement blocks, making a hole several feet in diameter.. A motor cyclist who- attempted to ride his machine through' the water came to grief when he struck the hole, and the cycle all but • disappeared from view.

An important conference, convened by the Victorian Chamber" of Mines, was held recently at the rooms .of the chamber to, consider means of reviving, the. mining industry in that- State.. The president of the Chamber of Minos (Mr Augustus Wolskcl) said that gold had been the chief ore won in Victoria until the cost of living had made the industry unprofitable. . About had been- produced. He did not accept the view that the" stoppage was due to, complete depletion of ore bodies. He thought that if a geological committee- were appointed its report would justify the assumption that good ore bodies: remained to > beWorked. It seemed to him that if the principle of the old Anti-Gambling Act could in some way have been enforced in regard to mining to prevent it from being used as a medium for wild speculation a more' stable industry would have resulted. He in no way recommended that a revival of gold mining should encourage a revival of irregular speculation. Rather, mining should be regarded as a basis for industrial investment. Suppose that any advanced foreign nation possessed Australia,” added Jlr Wolskel. If that were the position, would not the national assets in the shape of mines be worked, and under proper conditions be used to employ population? The development of natural resources is a national duty at any time, but it acquires added importance in a time of industrial depression such as the present, when the finding of work for the ployed constitutes a grave problem.” Following upon a general discussion it was decided that two committees should bn appointed, one to investigate the geological side of the proposal and the other to concern itself with the business aspect.

Rumours continue to arise as to the probability of another world cruise'by a special service squadron of the Royal Navy (says the Melbourne Age of a recent date). It was in 1923 that the last “ show-the-flag ” cruise began, under Admiral Sir Frederick Field. The squadron he took to sea was the most powerful that ever left the shores of Britain or any other country. In-the event of the Admiralty deciding upon another cruise it is likely that among the ships selected will be the Nelson and the .Rodney, sister ships, which, if not the largest, are possibly the most effective ships of war afloat. The hitting power of .the 16-inch guns of these vessels is staggering, and a single well-placed broadside from either ship would blow a vessel of the size of the Victory, Nelson’s -flagship, . out of- the water. The new 10,000-ton cruiser Devonshire, which was.launched in May last, would also probably join the squadron. A world cruise, on these lines .would undoubtedly prove popular all over the Empire, and if previous experience is any guide would prove a stimulus to trade. At the time, however, the political situation in Britain seems to throw a doubt on the project. The MacDonald Government, with its pacifist policy, is not likely to support the suggestion very readily. Notjiing is known officially of the possibility of such a cruise, but it is thought there is a distinct likelihood of the cruise taking place.

A further extension of the .exhibition of posters, which is being conducted by Miss Winifred Guy in the Savoy buildiugs, is announced.. Particulars appear in our advertising columns of the fair to he conducted by the Central Mission in the Burns Hall on Wednesday and Thursday of this week. ' Have your diamonds attended to 'by Williamsons. They are the practical geiy experts, and welcome inquiries.—Next Bristol Piano Co.—Advt. W V Sturmer, G.A.0.C., D.S OI optician. Consulting room, 2 Octagon Dunedin - Moat modern scientific equip-’ ment tor sight testing.—Advt A. 12. J Blakeley and W E. BagJey dentists. Bank of Australasia, corner ol Bond and Rattray streets ('jest Telegraph Office) Telephone 12-359 —Advt. Diamond Engagement Rings.—Before purchasing compare. our values; large selection; superior quality.—Peter Dick, the most reliable jewellers, watchmakers and opticians, 490 Moray place, Dunedin! Advt. .