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Star (Christchurch), Issue 6989, 18 October 1890, Page 3

The Feanklin Belief Expedition. — The death is announced as haviug occurred at Strood, near Rochester, of William Thomas Walter, aged sixty-six, one of the f ewsurvivors of the Sir John Franklin Belief Expedition. The deceased was carpenter on the steam yacht Fox. He possessed several interesting souvenirs of the expedition, besides a valuable watch from Lady Franklin, and a history of the expedition, with an autograph inscription, presented to him by Admiral Sir Francis Leopold M'Clintock as recently as June, 1888. Benzon's Wardrobe. — On August 20 a large crowd filled the auction rooms of ■Messrs Robinson and Fisher, at 21, Old Bond street, to assist at the sale of the wardrobe of Mr Ernest Benzon. The articles, which were described as being nearly new, consisted of sixty-four lots, comprising a large number of collars, pique waistcoats, coloured ties, silk cravats, white pique shirt fronts, riding boots with spurß, linen sheets with monogram, and frilled pillow cases, bath gowns and towels, twelve scarlet hunting suits, with cord breeches, &c, a quantity of other articles of clothing, including the morning coatß, serge reefers, dress coats, overcoats, and tourist Buits ; a cane-handled cricket bat, an antique Court sword, malacca canes, and several travelling bags. Tbe great interest displayed in the Bale did not extend to what may be called practical sympathy, for althongh the lots sold fairly well from a dealer's point of view, the whole sale did not realise £200. A Year's Eailway Accidents. — From the annual return made to the Board of Trade, it appears that 1076 persons were killed, and 4836 injured in railway accidents last year. By far the greater number of the victims were the servants of the railway companies. If attention be limited to passengers and to casualties beyond their control, the number killed was 88, and injured 1016. These figures are the largest recorded since 1874, owing to the terrible disaster at Armagh, which contributed to the total 80 killed and 262 injured. Railway travelling is still the safest of all means of locomotion. Swollen though the numbers are by the wholly exceptional catastrophe on the Great Northern and Western of Ireland, only one passenger in 8,808,875 was killed, and one in 762,975 injured. The return shows that there has been a large extension of the absolute block system, the interlocking oE points and signals, and the use of continuous brakes, all of which reforms tend to increase the security of railway travelling. A Mechanical Invention. — No one who has ever driven in a heavily-laden tramcar can have helped experiencing the feeling that the scientific mechanists ought to turn their attention to finding some means of starting the car mechanically, and so saving the horses a terrible strain. The required discovery, we are happy to say, seems to have at last been made by Mr Betteley, whose invention was described in a recent issue of the Times. The principle involved "consists in utilising the spring-power given off from the working of the brake springs, and storing that power for the purpose of facilitating the restarting of the car." The actual details are not easy to follow, but we take it that the main idea is like that of the Moncrieff gun. There the force of the recoil is utilised to Bink the gnn. Here the force exerted to stop the wheels is stored up so as to make them revolve when they are required to be again put in motion. The South London Tramways Company is said to have applied the invention with success, and we may therefore, we suppose, assume that the matter has become one of practical mechanics. Societe DEB Metatjx. — The Court of Appeal gave its decision on August .5, in the case~ of the Societe des Metaux. It overturns on two points the judgment drawn up by M. Flandrin, President at the Eleventh Chamber. It holds (the Times correspondent writes) that the Court has erroneously applied to M. Secretan Article 419 of the Penal Code relative to the offence of forestalling. It decideß that there haß been a coalition between M. Secrotan and the mining societies, but that such a coalition between buyers and sellers may legally exist on condition that the object in view is known to all. The Court says that, although the contracts were entered into separately between M. Secretan and each of the thirty-seven mining companies, each of these companies knew perfectly what were his contracts with the other mines. There waa also wanting another essential element in the offence of coalition— the engagement of those combining not to sell or only to sell at a fixed price. In no contract had M. Secretan entered into such an engagement. With regard to the offence of distributing fictitious dividends to the Societe deß Metaux in 1887, the Court admits that four and a half millions were distributed to the shareholders of the Company ; that the industrial profits { during the financial year amounted to three millions ; that the realisation of the stock of copper, even if it had been made at an average price of £55 a ton, would have secured a profit of about a million and a half ; and that under these conditions it was evident that the dividends distributed, whatever the amount carried to the reserve, had not been exaggerated. With regard to the distribution of fictitious dividends to the Societe des Metaux in 1888, and to the Comptoir d'Escompte in 1889, the Court supports the judgment appealed from. It holds it as certain that it was impossible at the time to believe in the security of the operation entered upon. The Court therefore finds that it cannot support the appeal of the Public Ministry. In spite of theße modifications it maintains the sentence of six months' imprisonment pronounced against M. Seoretan, whose influence was preponderating, and who was the soul of the enterprise, but it reduces the fine of 10,000 francs to 3000 francs. It annuls the punishment of three months' imprisonment pronounced against M. Laveissiere, but maintains against him the fine of 3000 francs. The judgment of the 11th Chamber is confirmed as regards the damages claimed by the shareholders against the accused. There will probably (adds the correspondent) be a farther appeal,