AMERICAN NEWS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1783, 7 March 1888, Page 2

AMERICAN NEWS.

(" Australasian an i South Am^rloan "

February 3rd ) M da Lassppj will visit the Panama Oinnl w-'irka m March,

T. H Mnore, L'sVwn , Mass, hai mann* factored thi< year 24,000 buhela of shoe pete, the entire production being exported to Germany

Mr Robert Kerb, of Paleley, Scotland, has bought land on Fall river, Massaohnasette, on wh'oh to ereot a thread mill, employing 700 hands.

Bangs Brothers, Angasta, are now filling an order for window frame* whioh will be shipped to Africa. Each frame ia boxed, and when they arrive they will be carried on the backs of the natives Into the Interior.

The locomotive belonging tf* the Lehigh Valley Railway, on which Professor Kline is making his <>xp3r!mentß. attained, during a recent trial, a speed of elgnty, two and a half miles per hour.

It will take £10,000 to break up the Great ""astern, which was sold recently foe £16 000, but Barnnm, the great ■howman, ia negotiating for its parohaes •nd transformation into a huge fljating palace of amusemant.

The three most successful systems of electric street railway m u»e are those at Scranton, Pa., appleron, Wis., and Mont* gomery, Ala. The oars on the latter road are operated at an entire total expense of $1 05 e-»ch per d»y.

A premlu n of #40 000 la offered by the republlo of Buenoa Ayrea, South Amerios, for the beet design of a oapitol building to be erected m that ooantry. The date for submitting drawl oga is set for April next. •

The gold mines at Halls, U.S. Colombia, promise to yield immense ra tarns. The machinery for working them is already on the ground, bat the heavy tains have prevented wotk being commenoed as toon ai h*d been expeoted.

Experiments on a large sole In tha production of snear from beets are to be made on the Pacific 0 >ast, Oiaus Spreok* las, the wealthy Oilifornlan snear refioer, has purchased a site at Wataonvllle, O«Ufornir, fora beet snerftr evaporator aud o'ber works, to cost $500.0)0, and have a o»paoity equil to eighty tons of sog^r a day. Similar establishments . will be erected m other p%rcs of the State.

A steam catamaran, intended for whale an^ walrus hunting m tbe Arctic regions, is being built at Montreal, Can da. It has t«o eteel cigar-shaped hnl's, eaob. 6i'xty-fipe feet long, and built m two cornpartimnts. oie for water ballast, and tha other to carry petroleum for fuel. Tha catamaran is constructed so that it may bo taken apa-t for transportation on the deck of a whaler.

Schemes for colonising Mexico are multiplying. A French company hat acquired a grant of land m Chihoahu* sixty miles l"ng by b<x wide, on which French and Belgian emigrants are to ba Rettlsd. A large body of land m the same State, adjoining New Mexioo, has been secured by a syndicate m wbioh American capitalists are mostly ooncorn ad, and it is to be colonised.

The produot oa of coal In the United States during the past year amounted to abou'. 110,000,030 grosß tons, including collery consumption, and of this aboat 35,864,000 tens were anthracite and 74,000.000 tone bitamiaons coal ; of the o'a' valne at the mines of about 81.75,000 000. Thn production of ooka amounted io. 1887 to about 8,000,000 t n«, hVving a spot value of about $!4 000,f 00

Spain la recovering her maritime Im* porfanoo. Her steamship lines are fait multiplying* one of them oorapatlnj sharply with the American P*oifb Mall line on the Weat Coast, and Spanish steamers ply be ween New York, tho West ludlrs and Mexico. The Hpanlsh navy comprise the Belna Regents, a steamship of 5000- tons, running 21 knots an hour ; a>so the fastest torpedo boat extant, rnnnlng at a speed of 225. knots, or ovnr 26 nvles an hoor.

Maine is a great plnce for the tariff. The Oolleot r of Customs at Eaßtport, m that State, recently submitted an unusual question to the Treasury Pepirtment. He wantei to know whether duty was to be ass ssed unon electricity which o<ime over the wires from Canada to supply electric light tor Calais, Me S-cretary Fairchild has replied that electrioity is an mv sible, subt'e agent or power without any substance as a mercantile commodity, and is not provided for m the tariff or liable to duty. I Truckee, Cal.f recantlyj'oalebrated the! second anniversary of the expulsion of the Chinese from th«t place. Although the mercury was 14° below zaro, a large torohlight prooeasbn paraded the streets and marched over the ruins of old China* town. There were big bonfires, salutes from oannon, and speeches from the most prominent citizens of the place. Mean* while, San Fianoisoo owes its existence as a port of Importance largely to Its trade wtfch China and Japan, and many Gilifornlan industries that add largely to the prosperity and wealth of the Paolfio coast would ba at a standstill without " Chinese obeap labor."