WHAT MAY BE NEXT CENTURY.

Otago Witness, Issue 2456, 17 April 1901, Page 42

WHAT MAY BE NEXT CENTURY.

AX IMAGINATIVE MAN'S PROPHECIES. Hot or cold air will be turned on from spigots to regulate the temperature of a house ab we now turn on )mt or cold water from spigots to regulate the temperature of the bath. Readv-cookecl meals will be brought from establishments similar to our bakeries of today. They will purchase materials in tremendous wholesale quantities and sell the cooked foods at a price much lower than the cost of mdnidual cooking. Food will be Verved hot or cold to private houses' in pneumatic tube's or automobile waggons. The meal bsing o\ev, the dishes used will be

packed and returned to tho cooking e-iib-lishments, where they will be washed Coal will not be used for heating or cocking. It will bo scarce, but not entirely o\hausted. Man will ha\ c found elcctncity manufactured by water power to be much? cheaper. Every liver with any suitable fall will be equipped with wnt. r motors, turning dynamos, making electricity. Along the bea coast will be numerous iei^'-\oirj continually filled by waves and tide^ washing in. There wdl be no street eaia in our large cities. All hurry traffic will be below cr high above ground when brought within city limits. In most cities it will be confined to broad subways or tunnels, well lighted and well ■ventilated, or to high tittles with moving stainvay3 leading to the top. Trains will run two miles a minute, normally ; exprew trains one hundred and fifty miles an hour. Giant guns will shoot 25 miles or more, and will hurl anywhere within such a radius sheila exploding and destroying whole cities. Such' guns will be armed by aid of compasses when used on land or sea, and teler-copes w hen directed from great heights. Fiesta of air phips, hiding themselves with dense, smoky mists, thrown off by therasehes as they move, will float over cities, fortifications, camps, or fleets. They will surprise foes below by hurling upon them deadly thunderbolts. These aerial warships will necessitate bomb-proof forts, protected by great steel plates o\er their tops as well as at their sides. Huge forts on wheels will dash acro:s open, spaces at the speed of express trains of today. They will make what are now known as cavalry charge?. Great automobile ploughs will dig deep intrenchments as fast a3 soldiers can occupy them. Rifles will use silent cartridges. Submarine boats submerged for days will be capable of wiping a whole navy off the face of the deep. Balloons and flying machines will carry telescopes of one-hundred-mile vision with camera attachments, photographing an enemy within that radius. These photographs, as distinct and large as if taken irom across the street, will be lowered to the commanding officer in charge of troops below. Persons and things of all kinds will ba brought within focus of cameras connected electrically with screens at opposite ends of circuits, thousands of miles at a span. We shall view in our theatres upon huge curtains the coronations of kings or the progress of battles The instrument bringing these distant scenes to the very doors of people will be connected with a giant telephone apparatus, transmitting each incidental sound in its appropriate place. Thus the guns of a distmt battle will be heard to boom when seen to blaze, and thus the lips of a remote actor or singer will bo heard to utter words or mns'o w hen seen to move. W'reles^ telephone and telegraph circuits will span the world. A husband m the middle of the Atlantic will be able to con\crse with his wife at home We will he able to telephone to China as easily as to the next street. Winter is to be turned into simmer and night into day by the farmer. In cold weather he will place heat-conduchng electric wires under the soil of hi? garden and thus warm his growing plants. He will also grow large gardens under glass. At night bis ■vegetables will be bafhed in powerful electric light, .-■crving. like sunlight, to hasten their crowth. pjlectric currents applied to the soil will make valuable plants grow lorger pnd faster, and will kill troublesome weed?. There will be no wild animals except in monageriPS. Ratj and mice will have been exterminated. The horse will have become practically extinct. A few of high breed will be kept by the lira for racing, hui tin 7, and exercise The autiHiObile will ha\c driven out tbe horse A uni\ersity education will be free to every man and woman. Several great national universities will have been established. Children will study a simple English grammar adapted to simplified English, and no' copied after the Latin Time will be saved by grouping like studies Poor students will be given free board, free clothuip,, and free books if ambitious and actually unable to meet their school and college expenses. Medical inspectors regularly visiting tho public schools will furnish poor children free oye-srlasses. fre*> dentistry, raid free medical attention of every kind. The very poor will, when necessary, get free rides to and from school, and free lunches between sessions. In holiday time poor children will be taken for trips to variou3 parts of the world Etiquette and housekeeping; v.ill be important studies in the public schools.— Exchange. The tax'ng master of the Brisbane Supreme Court has finished the adiustment o£ the costs in the Tyson ease. The Crown claim was £10,028. The taxing master has taxed off various items, making the total amount allowed £6393. The annual lo a ? in France cai'-ed by the rn.van;ep of hailstorms is said to amount to about 83,000.000fr. From 1873 to 1895 the figures varied from 40,000.000 to 13^,000,030 francs. It is in the vineyards that the principal damage is done.