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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 10038, 3 May 1904, Page 1

So many natives of India now study at Edinburgh University that an effort is being mado to raise £5000 to establish a special habitation for them. At the Eltliam Court the other day a case against a Salvation Army officer, charged with obstructing a thoroughfare, was dismissed without 'prejudice. The point raised by counsel for the Army, which was upheld, was that the information having been laid before a J.P. who was also Mayor, and m whom' the streets were vested, rendered the whole cose invalid. The only precedent quoted was the case of Ryan v. Stanford, m which Chief Justice Prendergast quashed a conviction dn similar grounds. A fresh information will be laidThe steamer Windsor, which brought a cargo of oil from Borneo to New Zealand some months ago, met with a remarkable accident m Sydney last week. The vessel, under charter to the Pacific Islands Company, amongst other cargo, j was to load two large buoys which it is intended to anchor off Ocean Island for the use of the large vessels calling there for phospliates. When one of the buoys, weighing eleven tons, had been hoisted to a considerable height over the No. 2 hold, the lower block ring of tlie tackle cnrriedi away. The buoy m falling first struck the coamings of the hatch on the port side, reducing them, to splinters. Rebounding it went to. the starboard side of the steamer, and falling into space at a terrific rate, struck the water ballast tanks with great. force. So severe was the impact that the iron plates of th_> tanks were badly dented. A stanchion wis carried away, and the buoy eventually landed on the starboard side of the vessel at. the' bottom of the hold. Tlie buoy was severely damaged, and had to be repaired before it could be again shipped. The hull of the vessel was uninjured. .

Ono of the latest, and also one of' the most promising, methods of extracting iron from Taranaki irousand is by mean, of what is called the Galbraith furnace, the joint invention of Mr D. R. S. Galbraith and Mr W. Steuart ,of Auckland. It is a very simple and cheap furnace, heated by electricity. The electric current, passes through carbons or graphite conductors, which are placed across the internal area of the furnace shaft, so that lino material, such as sand, passing down this area by gravitation lias to pass very close to, or to come into actual contact with, these carbon conductors or ineandescents. Mr Frank Rich, B.Sc, consulting mining and electrical engineer, who holds the very highest qualifications, m a report upon the furnace, «ays it is most admirably adapted for the manufacture of steel, "especiailv horn ironsand." He further, by means of elaborate figures, shows .that the cost of conversion of iron ore into steel, not includhiK tho cost of the ore, averages about ._» 4d per ton m Europe and the United States. He then proceeds to demonstrate wluit'uie Galbraith furnace is capable of, as rewards production. Basing his calculations partly upon data given him by Mr Steuurfc, as a result of tests made with wind from Moturoa, Mr Rich report, that ■steel cau be produced with the furnace from the Taranaki ironsand at a cost of ;23,s 34d per ton, as compared with 58s 4d m the United States, and to this latter freight must be added to compete 'hew. wi conclusion, he says the Galbraith furnace is destined to play a most .conspicuous and beneficial part m the interests of tho metallurgical world.