TRAMWAYS IN AMERICA.

Colonist, Volume VIII, Issue 803, 7 July 1865, Page 4

TRAMWAYS IN AMERICA.

Recent Melbourne papers contain an account of evidence given by the American Consul in Victoria, on the subject of tramways in America. The following extract will be read with interest:—

" Will you refer fco the grant to the Pacific Eailroad Company ?—The Pacific Railroad is one of great importance. They have not only granted the land, but they have loaned to the Company bonds of 15,000 dollars a mile, that is £3000, as fast as the line is completed, making it a first mortgage upon the line. It is to be returned. And in the mountainous country they have loaned as much as 45,000 dollars.' Thus ia a main trunk line, running from the "Western settlements to California, and it goes through prairie land of 800 miles across, where thei'e is no timber. There can be no settlement thei'e till they get the railroad. I do not know how, unless the Act is read, you could get an idea of the Act, beyond this, that it grants alternate sections for 10 miles eacli side of the road, and in the deserts, where the land is not good farm land, they give them the privilege of selecting other places.

" That has been found to encourage enterprises of this character ? —lt has. We have several States well selected that never would have settled if it had not been for grants of land to railway companies. " Can you tell us from your experience whether horse tramways are much in use in the United States ? —They always use horses till the traffic is sufficient to use locomotives. I have travelled on many of the roads by horse cars, that are now some of the first roads of the country. The Baltimore and Ohio railroad was used by horses first.

" What is the greatest length of tramway worked by horses that you are acquainted with ?—Not over thirty miles.

" Do you know how long that tramway of thirty miles has been in use ?—Never more than a year or two; they always get enough traffic to put locomotives on. " It creates its own traffic in fact ?—Te3.

" "What are the rails constructed of on all those tramways? — Various. Sometimes wood; wooden stringers, with a piece of inch iron screwed upon the wood, for the wheels to run upon. Sometimes they are of iron, of a lighter kind than those used on the railways here

"Arid have those tramways which have had this assistance from the Govei'nment — the wooden tramways —have they been complete commercial successes ?—I think they have. Ido not know of one which is not.

" Are you much acquainted with the interior of this country ? Would you think such a mode of communication between towns, situated one hundred and fifty miles from Melbourne, be advisable ?—I think so. I think a tramway or railroad in any part of the country would be feeders to the large ones they have, and beneficial, as much so as a common road. We make very few turnpikes ; there are more railroads than common dirt roads in America.

"In your country the first road is generally the tram or railway, in preference to an ordinary macadamised road ? —Yes. I would state that in 1836 I left Chicago (it was about the size of Sandridge then) with the proprietor of the first stage to go to St. Louis on the Mississippi, in the State of Missouri. There is a prairie one hundred and fifty miles long, and from twelve to forty miles in breadth. It is a wilderness more than any part of the country I have seen here; not a settler to be seen. They went to sea, as it were, after they left the forest, and you would see nothing but long grass ; but now sixteen railroads terminate in Chicago. They settled that prairie by granting to the Illinois Central Railway five or six miles on each side, and the Government have sold land which otherwise they could not sell.

" The general result has been to encourage settlement, which otherwise could not possibly have taken place ?—Yes, that has been the result. I cannot see how they could have settled it otherwise. That prairie in Illinois never could be settled without a railroad. You could not fence it, you could not get building materials upon it, you could not inhabit it. " As another consequence, the land already settled has been enhanced in value ? —Yes, the reserve alongside the railroad, after s granting the land to the Company. They always reserve the alternate sections to the G-ovcrnment, and they always realise enough from it to pay for what they give away."

Heroism of the Maobi. —An eye-witneßs to the skirmish at Koheroa relates the following anecdote of Maori heroism: —The firing had now ceased, and by the Adjutant's order a party of men, under charge of Ensign Howitt, piled their arms, and descended the gully in search of the bodies of the slain. The soldiers here picked up some articles of value, including several double-barrelled pieces and some tomahawks. Whilst searching for these articles, and picking up such of the bodies of the dead as came in their way, one of the men saw a native crouched up with his head in a tutu bush. Going to him with the intention of rilling him of any articles of value which might be about him, it was discovered that he was alive, on perceiving which Mr. Howitt gave orders for him to be placed under charge of an escort, and marched into camp a prisoner. In bringing him up the gully, the escort came across a slain Maori, who turned out to be the young man's father. The escort, ignorant of the relationship existing between them, ordered the prisoner to assist in bringing the dead man up the gully. He refused, in a calm and determined manner ; and, when threatened with death if he diaoboyed, explained that the dead man was his father; that, as he was killed, he (the prisoner) did not cure to live any longer ; and, placing his ear to the muzzle of one of the escort's rifles, desired them to kill him also. In this young man's demeanour there seemed to be no fear of death, but a calm and determined fortitude characterised his every action. His hands had been tied behind his back with the sling of a rifle, and no doubt this must have caused him some little pain, yet it seemed not to affect him in the least, for when the corporal of the escort offered him some damper bread to eat he took it with a relish, and, when he had satisfied himself, made signs to have the remainder placed in his waistcoat pocket. A Chabacteb.—" Do you know the prisoner, Mr. Jones ?—" Yes." " What is his character."—"Didn't know he had any." There abb some people who speak slang, and know no other language. The other day a well-dressed young man—at least, he was so described by the newspaper reporters —made (he following application to the Westminster Police Magistrate : —"Applicant: A party told me lie had gone £2 on a running man, and asked me to stand in. Mr. Arnold : I don't understand this slang. What do you mean, pray, by the phrase, ' stand in ?' Applicant: Bo in it — take a part; but he bested me. Mr. Arnold : What do yon mean ? what do you want? I cannot understand you. Applicant: I want a summons. Mr. Arnold : What for ? Applicant: Obtaining money under false pretences. Mr. Arnold : Then state the facts plainly in proper language." Applicant stated his case again almost in the same words, and the magistrate had to guess at his meaning.— Smith and Elder's Monthly Circular.

New Printing Machine. —The London correspondent of Macniven and Cameron's Paper Trade Review, says:— "There is an English Engineer of the name of Wilkinson, who has invented a machine for the printing of newspapers which completely surpasses Hoe's machine in respect of speed. I am unable to go into a detailed description of this machine, but one feature of it that demands note is that the paper from which it prints is in the web on the reel, and after passing under the types, it is cut in sheets. The extraordinary velocity of the machine is almost incredible, 23,000 copies of the inside sheet of The Times being printed on both sides at once per hour. This machine does without feeders, and the reel of papers that it feeds from is unrolled by its own action. I should think the paper cannot be damped either, or if it is damped, it must be damped by some strange process not now used. The price of the machine is considerably under the price for Hoe's machines." A Stban&b Bird.—Lately, as Mr. John Hunt was walking on the bank of the Queanbeyan river, near the Elmsall Inn, of this town, his attention was drawn to a rather remarkable bird running about the river. At first he thought it was a crane, but on coming closer found he was mistaken. He immediately procured a gun and shot it. It measured five feet across the wings, and stands between two and three feet high, its beak is over nine inches long. Its color is white, with the wings edged with blue, and the feet of a turkey. It is the first bird of the sort ever seen about here and is really a novelty. It is the intention of Mr. Hunt either to stuff it or send it to the Museum.— Queanbeyan (New South Wales) Age. Outbreak at Cockatoo Island.—A recent issue of the Sydney Morning Herald contains the following :—The other day, a furious onslaught was made by several convicts upon the assistant-superintendent, Cockatoo Island- They inflicted upon him injuries so serious that he was unable to give evidence against them. He is, however, now well enough to appear, and the case will be investigated immediately. It is said that the brutal attack was made because the assistant-superintendent imposed more work upon the convicts than they thought ought to be demanded of them.

Bank Eobeeet at Hongkong.— The Central Bauk of Western India lias just been plundered to the tune of somewhere about 115,000 dollars. Of that sum a small portion has been recovered. The affair was managed by means of a tunnel, which was dug between a drain and the floor of the bank's treasury vault, a distance of 60 feet. A flag was raised up and entrance to the vault obtained. Here were many bags of dollars, four boxes of gold bars, several boxes of "small silver coin, and 63,000 dollars in notes. The bank not having a note issue of its own, the notes were those of various other banks, and their numbers had not been taken, it not being customary in Hongkong to keep the numbers of bank notes on hand. Two boxes of gold bars were removed as well as all the paper money, also two tags of dollars and a box of ten cent-pieces. The authorities at Canton and Macao were at once communicated with, so that they might be on the alert, and we hear that some arrests have been made at Macao. The police of Hongkong made vigilant search throughout the city and the Island, and succeeded in apprehending between 20 and 30 men on suspicion. On the person of one of them was found 5,755 dollars and two bars of gold, having the bank's mark upon them. Further search being made, seven gold ingots were found in a matshed. 0 at Wanchi. One of the men apprehended has admitted his guilt, and given up the names of eight Chinamen who were engaged with him in the robbery.— Straits Times, February 22. Oman* of Petroleum. —A New York paper saVB: —« The formation of the North American continent, the great upheaval which threw off the water and discovered the land, deposited vast fields of marshy salt grass and seaweed in the beds where petroleum is now found. This vegetable deposit, in the transformation, became covered with successive layers of sand, shutting up the vegetation in its salt water beds. The action of the internal heat of the earth upon this vegetation and salt water could not consume the vegetable matter, nor could it drive off the salt water in vapor, for the hardening of the sand into rock cut off all means of escape. As a result, the heat distilled the vegetation, extracting the carbon and hydrogen comprising them—hence the formation of :he hydro-carbonic compound known as petroleum. The same natural heat which performed the work of distillation would naturally crack the rock above, to some extent—hence the fissures through which the oil has been forced up in some localities, producing the oil springs."

It is stated that"the collection of books fonred by the late J. R. M'Culloch, the eminent political economist, has just been sold to Lord Overstoue for the sum of £5000.

Redpath, the convict, has had his ticket-of-leave (in Western Australia) cancelled, as a punishment for a highly insulting message addressed to a clergyman. The following amusing bull was lately perpetrated at Bristol: —A magistrate asked a prisoner if he were married ? " No," replied the man. " Then," rejoined his worship amid peals of laughter, " it's, a good thing for your wife."