The Star. FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6131, 18 March 1898, Page 2

The Star. FRIDAY, MARCH 18, 1898. NOTES AND NOTIONS.

■ . ■ . ■» ' A good deal has been said, a northern contemporary remarks, concerning the durability of white pine compared with that of other woods. On the property of Mr Davis, Papatu, there once stood an enormous pine, and this was felled some twenty-two years ago. It then measured about 36ft round, and had a beautiful straight bole. It lay for a number of years, during which it was reduced somewhat in size by busK fires. Then Mr Davis and hi 3 neighbour, Mr Henson, decided to split shingles out of it, and started on the bole, which was then 15ft round ; 25,000 shingles were cut out of it at that time and afterwards 1200 more were taken and some 300 palings and 50 posts. The shingles are as sound to-day as when they were put in, a fact ascertained by examination, and the posts are in a similar condition. There is still some 25ft in. length of this giant of the forest remaining, and it is estimated that it must have originally been quite 100 ft long.

An interesting proof of parochial progress was .afforded in London the other day, when the new municipal workshops which have been erected by the Batteraea vestry, at a cost of nearly .£BOOO, were formally opened in the presence of a large gathering of vestrymen and others. Representatives were present from Kensington, Clapham, &c. Mr W. Davies, L.C.C., .chairman of the vestry, having declared, the buildings open, Mr John Burns, M.P., said the new municipal institution was not an experiment, as for three years past the principle of direct employment had been carried out by the ve&try with the best resuits. They had eliminated the middleman, and for what had been done the IJattersea vestry deserved . every praise. Votes of thanks concluded the preceding.

Dr Edward John Hopkins, who has been organist of the Temple Church, London for upwards of fifty-four years, has tendered his resignation of that office to the Benchers of the Inner and Middle Temple, by whom it h as been accepted. They have granted him a retiring pension, and have decided that he shall continue to r* h , on 9 ral T organist of the Temple S n L • 1 17- 1 i S Ufetime - Dr Hopkins as m his eightieth, year The first State cecemooy.in which % 'took ta?t tas ?he

coronation of King William TV. at Westminster Abbey, in September, 1831, whon he sang as a Chapel Royal cho\r boy, atid the last was on the ocjjftsiijQxi of her Majesty's Diamond Ju^k^t wiien he sang on the steps o£ St Pgtfd*S Cathedral.

Along Vflß banks of the Cape Fear River in. North Carolina are lowlands behind, tflxiou lies a higher level or bench. TW lowlands are subject to more or less frequent overflow by freshets, which are destructive to crops planted thereon. A number o f years a^o a farmer, resident in the vicinity, made a very comfortable sum of money by insuring his neighbours' crops against these freshets. His unvarying success aa an insurer was for many years a profound mystery* t° the people of the region. The years when > OSClll^to I insure were invariably years of destructive OYerßow. The years when he was willing to insure were equally certain to be seasons of exemptions from disaster. In the earlier days in England this man's reading of the future would have brought him some unpleasant experience as a dabbler, if not an adept, in the black art. In the Middle Ages of Europe he would probably have been revered as a prophet and saint. Yet his information came from no occult source. Observation had shown him that a certain species of wasp, which built its home in the ground, built some years in the lowlands and other years on the higher level. Experience taught him that when the wasps built on the lowlands there were no freshets, and when they built^n th.i higher ground the lower would some time dm ing the season I c submerged. The man had simply noted an instance of that little-understood prescience manifested by certain insects and animals, a better knowledge of which might even be of service to our national weather bureau. It was only at his death that he revealed his secret. At ten o'clock on the night of Feb. 15, the United States battleship Maine, lying at anchor at Havana, in Cuba, was wrecked by a terrific explosion, an enormous loss of lives resulting. A cable item has informed us that the official inquiry as to the cause of the explosion has terminated, and that the report thtre..n will shortly be placed in the hands of the Government. What that report may disclose will be eagerly looked for by people in all parts of the world. Meanwhile, some further details have come to hand by the San Francisco mail, and these are of a conflicting nature.. It seems that the force of the explosion was so great as to extinguish nil the electric lights in Havana, shake the whole city, and produce the wildest consternation. An hour had passed before the scene of the explosion had been definitely located, and then the civic authorities seem to have done all that was possible in rendering aid. As to how the explosion occurred, and indeed in what part of the ship it happened, is left in doubt. The captain is said to have stated that the explosion was in the bow of the vessel, where, by the way, there were no " high explosives " such as would be likely to be affected by a concussion. On the other hand, one injured man after another declared that the explosion was certainly amidships, where there were no explosives at all. Curiously enough, the sentry stationed at the bow was unhurt. Then, how did the explosion happen? One theory is that a magazine blew up. How ? Another is that a hand grenade did the mischief. In that case, by whom was the diabolical act committed? Perhaps the most significant, item in the mail details is the following : — . . . NEW YORK." Feb. 16. A special to the World from Washington says: — A suppressed cable despatch received by Secretary Long from Captain Sigsbee announced that the captain's conclusion, after a hasty examination, was that the disaster to the Maine was not caused by accident. He expressed the belief that whether the explosion originated within or without it was made possible by an enemy.