GENERAL NEWS.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 891, 23 November 1871, Page 2

GENERAL NEWS.

The revenue collected under the Goldfields Acts of New Zealand amounts to a net sum of £127,156 19s Id. Of that amount, Otago has contributed £40,526 3s lid; Southland, £2OO 4s 8d ; Westland, £31,597 Is Od; Marlborough, £531 2s 8d ; Nelson, £26,342 15s; Auckland, £27,959 lis 4d. An American named June Webster has accomplished the " biggest walk " on record. He has completed his undertaking to walk 400 miles in five days. He had eighteen minutes to spare at last. A very capital stone crusher is to be seen at work at the International Exhibition, which does all kinds of work, from breaking down the hardest granite to powdering emery or any finer material. It is known as Blake's crusher, much improved by the present maker, Mr Marsden, of Leeds. The stone is put in at the top, and is worked through it, meeting on the way with a powerful serrated jaw moving against a fixed vertical face. One great feature of the machine is, that by attaching a rotating cylindrical screen to the mouth of the breaker, material can be delivered at one operation in the form of sand, gravel, or road metal. For reducing hard ores I should think it would be invaluable.

The career of Mr Clarke, the gentleman who has recently purchased the 50,000 acres of land in the province of Otago, is a marvellous one. A contemporary says —Originally in business in Tasmania as a butcher, and that not in a very large way, he is now probably the largest landholder under the British Crown. His faculty seems to be that of gripping with pincer-like tenacity everything that once passes into his possession. It is, however, within my knowledge that a mere accident turned the current of his fortunes, Iu 183G he left Tasmania for New South Wales and took up a station on the Liverpool Plains, at that time, of course, such could be had at a moderate expense. He became the neighbor of Mr llichard Jones, a well-known leading merchant and a man of influence iu Sydney, but now long dead. Disputes arose between Mr Clarke and Mr Jones's superintendent, and the former, believing the influence of the latter to be too overpowering to leave him any prospect of justice, sold his property at the very nick of time when the plains were looking their very best after a wet season. Their verdure and carrying capacity at such times are most extraordinary. The happy moment thus seized by Mr Clarke to clear out, was followed immediately by the droughts of 1838-39 ; and those who are colonists of that standing, must remember the losses of those seasons, and the ruin entailed by them. Mr Clarke invested his augmented means in the vicinity of what is known as Keilor, in Victoria, and there laid the foundation of those enormous territorial possessions that are a wonder even in the colonies.

Some very interesting experiments have been lately shown at Greenwich as to the effects of a new material in resisting, or rather retarding, the course of fire. It is the invention of Messrs Erichsen of Copenhagen, and its rather formidable name sufficiently explains it viz., the Asphalte Roofing Pasteboard and Asphalte Mastic, To show what it can do, two wooden huts were built, one covered in with boards and slates as usual, the other roofed with the asphalte. Then they were both set on fire and burnt, but there was a vast difference in the time of burning, for while the slate hut was a complete wreck in fourteen minutes, the other held out jnst double the time. Again, bundles of straw were burned upon the roofs, and the rafters under the slate were found to be entirely charred, while those under the patent roofing were unaffected. It is not pretended that fire will be prevented or stayed by the new material, but it is a great gain if a house takes twice as long to consume as it used to do, for thero is more chance of getting aid in time ; and this particularly applies to young towns, which being at first built of wood, generally come to grief half-a-dozen times before they are permanently established. It is worth knowing, as we cannot nil be provided with the patent asphalte, that a fire can easily be pat out by dashing in three bottles —one of water, one of sulphuric acid, and oue of potash or sait. A gas is produced which puts out the combustion, and as the expense is almost nominal, it is easy to keep the remedies handy in case of danger.