PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2465, 12 June 1901, Page 69

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

THE BIGGEST SHIP IN THE WORLD

Have any of you tried to form a reasonable conception of the size of a large ship? It seems only the other day when the Oceanic was launched. Roaghly speaking, she I is about as wide as Princes street from i Brown-Ewing's to Briscoe's, and in length ' would cover the ground from Briscoe's to the Bank of New Zealand, while anyone on her upper deck would be about able to look in the windows of the fourth storey of Wain's Hotel. To be accurate, she is 705 ft long, 68ft wide, and 49ft high. Her funnels, I remember, put end on end — there are two — are large enough and long enough to give shelter to a railway train. Her tonnage is given as 17,300 tons. But the Oceanic had hardly taken the water before the Germans launched a ship which they claimed to be larger.

If the German boat did eclipse the Oceanic, it, in turn, has had to give way to the Celtic, which has just left the yards of Messrs Harland and Wolff, of Belfast. She is the same depth as the Oceanic, sft shoiter, being only 700 ft long — step out that distance to see what it means ! — but is 75ft wide or 7ft (wider), and her tonnage is given as 20,880 unloaded. When loaded, she will have a draught of 36£ ft, and will represent a weight of 37,700 ton«. She is not designed for speed, but as a comfortable boat to carry passengers not v. ishing specially high speed or great luxury. Her human freight represents quite a town. She can carry 2352 third-class, 160 secondclass, and 347 f!rst-clas.-> passengers ; she requires 335 of a erew — 179 stewards, 92 in the engine room, and 64 of a deck crew. She has nine decks — lower orlop, oi^op. lower, middle, upper, bridge, upper bridge, boat and sun decks. I give you these few facts and figures from the Sphere of April 13, where more information, accompanied by illustrations, may be seen ; but I have given quite enough to show you to what a pitch of perfection naval architecture has attained.

"BACK FROM THE OTHER SIDE." is the name of an article just written by Poultney Bigelow, an American, who has just paid a visit to the United States, and who is giving his impressions. He opens with : — " America gets a little more so every year. More noise, more push, more high buildings, more people, more hurry, more Tammany Hall, more luxury, more vice." Going from England, he notices very much the worry that Protection gives to a lnnding passenger, and after describing the indignities passengers are subjected to in the examination of their effects, says : "Protection may be a fine thing in th«ory, but it is to me an institution brought into the world for the express purpose of encouraging lying, cheating, bribing, and swearing." After Europe, the buildings in American cities are noticeable for their height — 20 storeys being common-place. Then lifts are quite a feature, and the management of them has been reduced to a science. They do not stop at all storeys : some are express, -while others may be compared to slow trains, stopping at wayside stations ; and in all big office buildings there is a man whose special Tnisiness it is to see that lifts are despatched by timetables, as trains are despatched from a railway station. The streets as a result of these high buildings' " suggest mountain gorges where a ray of sun penetrates now and then, but never for long." Going back to England, Bigelow found things xincommonly slow. If he wanted a typewriter repaired he found that he had to wait a week ; in New York it would be returned in half an hour. "The London workman tries to kill time, the Yankee mechanic looks upon time-killing as indus-Iria-l murder." There is no doubt that the Yankees are hustlers. THE GREAT NILE DAM AT ASSOUAN. We are living in the age of mammoth undertakings. I have just been referring to big ships and big buildings, both referred to 411 the latest issues of the Sphere : and opening a couple of other illustrated •papers just to hand, I read about the great Nile dam. It is noAV about half finished, and I'll try to give you an idea of its magnitude, though it won't be finished for perhaps three years. Ten thousand men are at ;vork on it, of whom 8000 are Arabs, and 2000 are Italian granite-cutters ; and over all are British overseers. A hundred quarries supply the stone — quarries which date back to the Pharaohs and which still bear traces of the wedge marks of quarrymen who toiled for Cleopatra. The wall opposing the advance of the Nile will be a mile,and a-quarter long, 62ft wide at the base, and 21ft at the top ; the average height is 80ft, and in some cases the engineers had to go down 125 ft to get solid rock for the foundations. At low Nile, this embankment will form a lake over a mile wide and 146 miles long. A huge lock and canal will enable Nile boats to go up or down at will. Millions of acres of land will be brought into cultivation through the irrigation "the dam will provide for ; but unfortunately, some magnificent ruins will be partly submerged. However, we live in a utilitarian age in which the sentimental or the picturesque have very little influence when in competition with dollars.

THE COMING OF ROYALTIES.

I hope all who can will make it a duty — and a pleasure it will be, too, no doubt — to come to town to see the Duke and Duchess : not because they are so much in themselves, but as the representatives of the head of the Empire. To my young friends, the trip to Dunedin will be the event of a lifetime ; and the decorations will make them think themselves in fairyland. If you can you must see the town children, reinforced from as far as Balclutha, going through their exercises with wands and dumb-bells. Then the cadets in uniform will be worth watching, and the singing ought to be attractive. If Royalty will only give us fine weather, Dunedin and its sights will be worth going a pilgrimage to see. Be sure, too, to keep the Witnesses containing the descriptive and illustrative matter, though if what I read is true they will be dust in 50 years, for it is said that the paper used in our dailies and weeklies is of such a perishable nature that they will not endure. But chance that. Perhaps, indeed, you had better get two copies — put one 'away carefully, and use the other for occasional reference. I would advise you all, too, to make immediate arrangements for accommodation. Already most of the hotel accommodation is bespoken.