IN BERLIN

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 71, Issue 291, 8 December 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

IN BERLIN

Three huge passenger hydroplanes for transoceanic service are being constructed by the .Rohrbach Airplane Works in the northern part of Berlin. The German Luft Hansa Company ordered them and the first will be ready this summer. They will be able to make a non-stop flight with twelve passengers and a crew of four men over a distance of 4000 kilometres, carrying 6000 liters of gasoline. Comfortable accommodations will be provided for passengers in two cabins, in which they can also sleep.

Berlin now possesses 290,000 telephones—so that une out of .very thirteen persons owns o .ie. The consequent rapid increase in the size of the telephone register hag induced the postal authorities to make some changes in that book in order to keep it within reasonable proportions. In the future, for instance, it will have five instead of four columns, and names which occur more than once will be replaced by a dash. Also the name s of companies, and the professions of telephone subscribers will be abbreviated. Lt is hoped that these innovations will prevent the book from becoming more bulky.

The use of electric engines for drawing express trains so long as they are within the city’s boundaries in order to purify the air, the system which proved so successful in New York, will also be introduced in Berlin in the near future on the lines running to the west and east. This would involve the trains to and from London, Paris, Cologne, Warsaw', Moscow, Riga, and the Balkans. In thi s connection, it is interesting to note, not less than 930 miles of German Reichs railways have been electrified already, the distance being equal to that from New York to Chicago. It represents, however, only 3 per cent of the total German railway system, which measures a little more than 32,000 miles.

The Prussian State Library is so overburdened with work—it supplies the entire state of Prussia with books, often lending as many as 2,600,000 volumes to towns and cities other than Berlin—that the necessity Las arisen to provide Berlin w : th a’ similar institution which will devote itself entirely to the population of this city. The wish was also expressed that this new library should assist in spreading knowledge of learning among the population. For this purpose it was decided to remove all fiction from the present Central City Library, converting this institution into one purely devoted to the natural sciences and the arts, somewhat similar to a state library. Of every classic and every book of good fiction a few volumes will be kept, since they are needed for studies. Applicants, however, must prove they want them for that purpose. Fiction will still be carried by the city sublibraries and the people’s libraries. Of the former category a new one is about to be established in i.orth Berlin.

The United States is not the only country where workmen of foreign nationalities are employed. In the comparatively small state of Prussia—small in comparison with the United States—not less than 200,000 foreign workmen were employed last year. Of these about one-half possessed a special license, placing them on an equal footing with the German workmen. The majority come from Czechoslovakia or Poland, and either work as miners or farm hands. In the Ruhr district, for instance, countless Polish miners are to be found while the owners of the large farm estates declare they cannot dispense with cheap Polish labour. These conditions existed already before the war and continued despite the recent temporary friction between Germany and Poland.

A competition was recently organised by the Berlin Street Car Company amohg the school children of this city for the best suggestions to prevent street accidents. Sifting the material submitted vill take some time, foi not less than 2000 essays, 1000 drawings, countless ’crses and even several plays were handed in. All the replies, however, proved that the children on the whole were perfectly aware of the hazards of heavy traffic. Many of the competitors —as children would —suggested radical improvements such as building bridges over the main thoroughfares and squares, or separating the footpath from the road by a barrier. One little girl painted several houses and then crossed them out by a thick, black line, painting next to them a meadow. Frequently the question was asked, “Where do we flnd meadows and woods in our neighbourhood where we can play?” One of the cleverest suggestions was made in a small drawing, showing how every car which caused an accident should be taken away from its owner and given to the city.