THROUGH SAND.

Putaruru Press, Volume V, Issue 177, 24 March 1927, Page 7

THROUGH SAND.

A novel method of getting through deep, loose sand, has been discovered by a motorist who does a lot of driving in sandy country. While floundering through some soft stretches he was advised to let most of the air out of his tubes. He decreased the pressure to 15 or 201 b, and found that he could easily pass over places similar to one that had before caused him much delay and trouble. By lessening the amount of air in the tubes the tyres flatten out, and there is a much wider and more pliable surface to grip the sand; neither do the wheels sink so deeply. Possibly the method might also be effective in negotiating mud.

The voice of the sovereign State of Iceland is not often heard in the councils of the European nations ; in fact, not many people are aware that is such an institution. “ The Iceland Year Book ” for 1926, a copv of which has been forwarded to the Christchurch Press, contains interesting details of the present constitution and the amazingly diverse political history of this remote country. It was a republic as long ago as the year 960, and its present status is almost identical with that of the Dominions within the British Empire, in that, while owning allegiance to the King of Denmark, it has an autonomous parliamentary government of its own. Year books are usually dull compendia of facts and figures to the ordinary reader, but this production breathes something of the romance of a great and ancient people in every page. Their history and literature live with the Icelanders, for their language has altered so little in a thousand years that even the peasants can read the old Norse sagas which scores of students from every country in Europe come to Iceland every year to study. Nearly a thousand mil.es from the troubles of Europe, the Icelanders have leisure to devote themselves to the finer pursuits of life, end as a result no other country in the world produces in proportion to its population so many sculptors, writers and poets of merit.