News Items.

Colonist, Volume XXXII, Issue 5634, 25 October 1889, Page 3

News Items.

The torpedo lannch invented by Mf ■.. S. D. Eagan, of Wellington, whiofc was classed No. 2 at the recant naval review off Portsmouth, and was highly; commended by Lord Charles Bereaforct and officers of the Amiralty, is the same lannch which was tried.in Wei-, lington about twelve months ago in the presence of Admiral Fairfax and Captain Kane. The boat, according to the Wellington''.Press,''went Home' practically in charge;of Sir W. Jervpia,. who hag an interest in it; Them*chinery is so constructed as'to.work by steam, hand, or oompressed air power, and whichever of the Utter two is used one man can work it by means of small crank handles, driving the machinery, at suck a ra'e as to give the extraordinary speed of 450 revolutions a minute, or at a calculated speed through the water of 22 knots. TJiat, speed she actually attained. Mr Eagan was at one time in the service of the Union Steam Ship Company;; Hi* invention will probably realise £50,000. Every summer (aftys the American correspondent of <he '..Argus,').'bring!. one or more victims of the old delusion that an air ship i 3 possible. A few week 3 since a 'Professor' Campbell, persuaded that he had found the means to regulate the course of a balloon with a email electric engine mo by a storage battery, induced a Michigan 'aeronaut, Hogan by name, j and also a ' professor,' to make a trial of the inveotion. Hogan accordingly made an ascension in a large silk balloon, inflated with common illuminating gas. Before he had reached ft height of more than 1000 ft a portion of the regulator—a large fan wheel, made like an exaggerated propellerbroke away from the balloon, and fell to the ground. It would have seemed possible for him tben to descend, but he held on his course, nearly southeast from New York, whenoe he started st aight out over the open sea; Nothing was ever agfrin heard from or ot him: The balloon, without the car, was sighted drifting, half collapsed, on the surface of the ocean several days after the .ascension.and, some 50 mites from the nearest laud. It reads curiously that the German Emperor enjoya a higher military raak in Englaui than he does in his. own country. This ia nevertheless, ft fact. As an English admiral of the fleet he stands on the same level as ft* field-marshal; whereas in Germany he ia still only a simple general ot infantry. And even this position heowes to very recent promotion. The, Emperor's military rank is in the gift of the army and his promotions are signified to him["through '", the oldest officer in the service. In pursuance of this custom Field-tdftrahal. Count Moltke waited on his Majesty/one day las); week and, in the name of the army, begged him to assume the stars, ,of a Prussian general. The late Em-: jperor "Uilliam was appointed' a* fieldto ».rshal in precisely thesimewayiu 1871, ' ;■*'.■'■■ Writing of the, Jubilee Plunger, a correspondent of,the • Pall Mall Ga-, zette ' says ;—• Mr tssnzou, pere took A that name in lieu of his owq when he married — the one he adopted, being that of his wife. When the fashion of ladies' crinolines was introduced, Mr Benzon shrewdly bought up all the steel that was adapted for that t purpose—or a great portion of it—and sn held the market ia. his bauds. Having got the trade, he was wise enough to keep it, and introduced his > brother.3 into the concern, helping them all to realise va?t profits.. Remaining childless for some years after his marriage, he adopted a young lady as hie daughter, aad by hid will, which he never changed, he made her his sole heiress, or, in the event of his ultimately becoming a father, he directed that the property should be divided equally, his adopted daughter sharing on equal terms with his own child or children. Ia course of time Mrs Benzon presented her husband with an infant planner, nod so. it tnrns out that whereas Mr Benzou /Us has lost £250.000 in two years, Mis3,Benzon retains possession of a like amount in the'same time. These facts I have from a sort of connection of the yonag hero. A London Exchange says:—Typhoid, fever is unfortunately becoming very prevalent in the West End. Some of ; . the Duke of Weetniinatera's children, • ~vho have been removed from Grosvenor House to Clievefien, have been attacked, while Loid and Lady-' Gtandy's children have also been" ■offerers in Bruton-steeet, and in both households several of the servante »re ', *lso down with the same malady. In Eaton-place one of Mr .. Muoro'i daughters ,is passing through' the phases of the same disease, and so is •■ the daughter of Bir Charles and Lady 1 Palmer. The general idea seems ta,'\f be that there is a leakage in the main drain in this part^f Londe^, for mvtft \

ptopl« b»v« been obliged to oloße their windows at night in 'aahs^utaoe 6t the peHtilential smells that have been Jjerefived, his accent. vißifc,. the Emperor of Germany waa amazed at the exhibition of England's wealth And power, and condemned in set terms the persistent croaking about her naval and military position as intensely misleading to foreign pOWWTB. Mr Fredk. Villhsrs, .the well known war correspondent and artist of the Graphic, has joined a party which is accompanying liord Stanley' in a journey across; the Oftcitlian Pacific . jßailway to y&nbonver. l.^er 'eo^ar" ing jd/Oahßda and the l/nited States he will prooeeSiMdAastralia and New Zealand on a leoTnring tonr. "«->Thb '"WarsftW Courier ' states, that «dme'days ago there was terminated Jit Warsaw a lawsuit which has lasted lour centuries. The object of litigation was a piece of uncultivated ground ot forty acres between the estates of Orlowo arid Podlowo, which waa claimed by the two proprietors of them. The suit was commenced in 1490, and was curiously enough brought to an end by amioable arbitration. Practical experiments to illustrate lectures do not always convey the l«sson intended. A young man holding iortb at a Wesleyan Chtiich tea meeting recently in the, Walworth road, on the Suney side, waa loud in bis praise of temperance, coudemniug iLe liquor trwffla in nnmeasurod terms. In illustrating the evil effects of alcohol ha magnified a small portion of tap water, and showed to an admiring audience the lively organisms contained therein, He said every drop oi tap Witer contained hundreds of living insects. Then he went on to explain the awfal effacts of aloohol in destroying life, aod showed this to the audience by adding oue drop of whieky to the drop of water in the microscope, Every living organisation was at ones killed by the terrible action of the whisky. A good old lady, who was spellbound by the lecturer's eloquence, at once said: 'Well, I'll nevr drink any water again without patting some whisky in it to kill all those nasty inseo?s.' The actor who does the villain'spar! EomHtimeshas to suffer from aoting the character too realistically repulsive, An fcxcited audience will frequentlj hiss him in the most thorough-goin^ nunuer when ha laker his ' call,' bu' it is not often that he has to complair. of actual violence. But at tho Theatre Royal, Cardiff, on the 2nd August, i woman became so excited in the gal lery during the performance of '.Faoi to Face' that she threw a large glas: bottle at Mr Horaoe Daly, the heavj Villain, with so true an aim that i struck him on the head, causing £ nasty wound. Although suffering greitly, Mr Daly bravely struggle c through the reat of the performance The ' Illustrated Sporting and Dra malic News' quotes a paragraph fron a New Zealand paper about Lore Otselow going out to shoot, and says. —' I do not know whether the sporting inhabitants of Mew Zealand ar< aware of it, but the fact is that;—the] would have had to search far and widi to find a better shot and all-roum sportsman than Lord Onslow; am having finished their search, th< obances are that they would not havi come across the object of their qnsst Readers who are interested in Scotcl sport will remember the good record his lordship made at the deer two 01 three years ago — particulars wen given in the papers of the day—anc there are few game shots with whon the new Governor of New Zealanc does not hold his own.' Thb American correspondent of the • Dnnedin Star' writes :—• The wollen industry is in distress. The failures in that line are constantly in creasing. Wages are being cut down, There is no foreign market for oui woollen fabrics. The woollen manufacturers are apprehensive of great stagnation and consequent distress. There is, however, a tariff tax on ray« wool. These manufacturers agree with Mr Cleveland that raw material used in domestic industries ought no) to be taxtd at the Custom houses, bui they were unwilling to support him, fearing that trje Democratic party, ii in power, would not be satisfied with making wool free, but would make the manufactures of wool free aleo. They wanted the Bepnblicaßs to remove the tax from raw wool, and to increase the tax an the manufactures of wool; The farmers are now beginuieg to agitate to that end.' A/whiter in the ' European Mail' of August 28 e&ys:—Why is not more done, I wonder, with Isew Zealand hon«y ? The other daj 28 tubs of fine hor-ey were bought in at 42s per owt 1 have spoken to many people on the subject of honey, acd fiud that the moat astounding apathy and ignorance prevails on the subject of hon^y dietetioally. If only means were takwa to educate the publio as to the wholesomenefta and very great Value of honey as a food staple, we might look for the development of a large trade in New Eeaknd varieties. It may not be gfiser&lly known that, according to a Greek classic, the inhabitants of ancient Sardinia lived on little elEe than honey, and were famous for their Jocgevity.. S |A corbbsjondent to the * Evening Post,' writing on a local church subject, Bays incidentally i— 1 Two years ago I was on a certain vestry. Out of seven vestrymen and two churchwardens, there were three vestrymen and one churchwarden FreetLinkers I 1 If this sort of thing is at all common in the Church of England or any other denomination, it ii easy enough to account for small collections, want of hold on the people, and almost total lack,, of- success in the work. Such a proportion of enemies in the guise of friends would demoralise heav<n itself., . ",.. ; ,'