Untitled

Taranaki Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 146002, 7 December 1917, Page 2

When people speak of tho Germans as Huns or use other unfriendly epithets towards them they often have no very clear idea as to why they use those terms. They arc, however, a sign of a real difference of morality. Tho Germans do not limit their actions in any way, if they think they can win tho war by a breach of tho recognised rules of morality. They invaded Belgium although they had guaranteed the neutrality of that country. The plea was necessity, and tho same plea has served to excuse all sorts of other breaches of law or morality. Britain, on the other hand, limits her actions by some dealrules ; there are some things that no British Government would dream of doing, or of asking her soldiers or sailors to do. It is, for example, absolutely certain that Britain would never land troops in Holland, unless invited to do so by the people of that country, even if such action seemed likely to secure a speedy victory. We are equally confident that Germany would not hesitate for an hour about the invasion of Hoi land or Switzerland if she considered such action likely to prove advantageous. Similarly with regard to the submarine campaign, the whole -world knows that Britain would never sink vessels containing women and children without warning, and that her sailors would never dream of firing on boats containing shipwrecked men or of collecting such crews on tho deck of a submarine and then submerging. It may bo thought by some that the Gormans have an advantage in being absolutely unfettered in their methods of carrying on war, but this is not so, because no one will now trust the most solemn engagements of the German Government, and it is generally felt that tho German military power must be crushed if the world is to live in safety.

Upon seeing the Inigo quantities of rubbish of one sort and another brought out of backyards for conveyance to the borough dump the thought naturally occurs that it is a pity the Borough Council cannot derive some revenue (rom this rubbish to compensate for the cost of removal. In Austin, Texas, municipal garbage is used for making fuel bricks. It is carted to a depot and placed on a sorting platform, where it is sprayed with creosote as a sanitary precaution. Openings arc provided in the platform whore the different classes of garbage are dropped into conveyors and carried away—pieces of iron to a storage, bottles to a washing tank, rags to a washing machine, tin cans to a press, where they are baled and conveyed to storage, ashes, stones, brick, and so on to another storage. What is left of a combustible nature is carried to a huge grinder, which reduces it to fine pieces, and thenco to a pulping machine, where hot water and live steam are applied with a certain percentage of tar, which with the hot water and steam acts as a thorough disinfectant and deodoriser. The mass is thoroughly mixed and reduced to a pulp and then mixed with a percentage of coal dust if the’ fuel is required for

domestic purpvwes, or sent on as it is if for steam purposes. to a moulding machine, whore it is Moulded into bricks, those being then conveyed through a drying kiln. Okl boot«„ hats, paper, straw, manure, house garbage, and a variety of other waste products are thus converted into fuel bricks, without odour and easy to handle. Experiments have demonstrated that 121 b. of these bricks will burn on an average 2} hours in a. small stove as against 2 hours and 20 minutes for the same amount of bituminous coal, and will produce the same amount of heaths the latter, '(’ho fuel can be manufactured for about 3s 6d. per ton, and the Austin municipality is able to sell it at £2 per ton, besides which it has a revenue from the metal, tin cans, rags, etc., which arc not converted into fuel. We have not in New Plymouth tho same amount of garbage to deal with, but it should bo possible, oven with ' tho comparatively small output hero to find a better use for it than dumping it into gullies.