The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. THE EARTH’S MOVEMENTS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXII, Issue 61, 7 March 1912, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. THURSDAY, MARCH 7, 1912. THE EARTH’S MOVEMENTS.

Tllio Director of the St. Ignatius Observatory in Cleveland has announced that a large portion of the : United States of America is tilting toward;Canada. This movement of the earth is' familiar to scientists/ and geologists in various parts of the world are busy collecting details of similar movements and it Js recorded that a great deal of information concerning the tilting of the earth’s surface has heon secured. A contemporary tells us that in Norway investigators have found sea beaches 700 ft. above the water level containing shells that arc identical .with those obtained nowadays at the water’s edge. It is inferred that Norway is 700 ft. higher than it was some ages ago. The whole of Scandinavia is expected to rise 350 ft. in the next 14,000 years, and it is possible that the land may be lifted even more rapidly by means of earthquakes. South America is a country which shows very clearly the effect of earthquakes, great changes having occurred within a few centuries. Tlho whole of Chili and tiie bed of the neighbouring ocean for some distance was lifted by the action of earthquakes only ninety years ago. The rise on the coast was from 2ft. to 4ft. and one mile inland it was as great as Oft. It has been estimated that this movement increased the area of South America by 10,000 square miles. .Proofs of the gradual movement of the earth’s surface have been found on tho coastline of every continent. The ancient outlet of the Hudson llivor was more than a hundred miles east of tho point where it now reaches the Atlantic Ocean to-day, and the St. •Lawrence appears to have had an almost similar history. It has been ascertained that the bed of the Congo has moved about seventy miles, and /many other nVers, among them some in New Zealand, have furnished similar evidence of change. In the case of rivers the large quantities of sediment which they carry exert an important influence upon their movements. It is said that the ‘Ganges discharges 20,000,000,000 cubic feet oi mud in a .year. Tho changes that are going on threaten tho gradual extinction of land along the north coast of France, Germany and tho Netherlands, and tilde west coast of Ireland, Scotland, Scandinavia, and the south of Spain are all being lifted slowly out of the water. AGAINST THE SECOND BALLOT. Mr. ,1. Ramsay MacDonald, M.P,. lias explained to tho “Pall Mall” why lie opposes tho Second Ballot as used in Germany, and prefers the transferable vote. “I am opposed to the second ballot, as well as proportional representation and tho Referendum, and accept the unpleasant hut necessary expedient of the transferable vote, j My experience of the second ballot is! that the result of tho final ballot dor? not arrive at the real expression ri opinion partly as the result of the bargaining which occurs, and which is

very bad for honest politics, entailing at the same time a sacrifice of national interests. The expense, too, penalises poor candidates. It has been found that second ballots do not make five per cent of difference; in fact, in the Italian elections the difference has been as low as one per cent, upon tin*? position of the representative Assembly. By means of the transferable vote if a man docs not get fifty per cent, of the total electorate, and he is fighting two or more candidates, the lowest is taken out, and his votes apportioned (as the elector has indicated) to the other candidates, this being repeated until one or the other obtains the required number of votes. By that means you arrive at a true repi osentation of public opinion.”