TOPICS OP THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11499, 4 February 1903, Page 6

TOPICS OP THE DAY.

Some of the customs and Old World superstition* which linger Echoes." in many an English village

are survival* of the day* of Queen Elizabeth. That they should still «xirt in twentieth century England may seem strange, but it muet be renumbered that in these fox gotten corners of the kingdom old bum and women live wEo have never learned to lead aDd writ*, never travelled beyond the borders of their parish, never setn a railway station; to whom the wonders of the century, the life and ideab of the present age. axo to all indents unknown. They have lived the lives their fathers lived before them, 'heedless of the busy world be-, yond their own little eleapy village. Thus it comes about, that cnetoms and beliefs whksh in places more accessible to modern influence, have long nh>ce been forgotten, are still to be found in, for example, the marsh villages of East Auglia. A writer in the London "Daily Mail" describes some of the most prevalent of these old-world superetitkms of Norfolk. Many of them are connected with the> ways of bees. If a swarm of i>eee, ifc>r instance, alights on dead wood it ia a eign of death, in the family of the ownej. Again, If a nxsnber of the beeowuer's household dies, the bee-hives most be decked with crape, else the whole swarm (so the village,!* believe) wU surely die.

gold (10s J tliey wiHall die, and ii the swSSra|fPJ! flies straight away from the owner's laa&ppijl'* he may expect financial losses. A ' oandLe Seft in an empty room is regained » j East Anglia as an infallible sign of So ako is ji strange dog howling unde* c 't window. To bring indoors a piece of anaka , , - j skin is to court dire misfortune, or et«as" i death. A man who kicks his left foot * a , against a stone is warned t&ereby that the enterprise he has on hor.d will land haa is *% troubi?. There are many superstition* lα* -■ Mini«<r in their application. Thu», on T'l brewing day a man wuL kiss his wife ot« ■ 3 - tha mash-tub in order to make the ye M i " me. It is a common belief, again *th»t * bread baked on Good Friday will never gi ow , * mouldy. "I have seen," "says the "Daily " Mail*" contributor, "some breed baUd on ""*' i this solemn daw over eight yean old and •" "' quite sweet. It is carefully keptandphatir 4" pmed. it v, nii to h, eo3i iw t ; nw j; v I internal complaints triita ciumbW urf ' J eaten. • Thesa and other 1* * ' liefs. he adds, have for tiro simple wllagw '*' ail the weight and solemnity of a rvl.g.oa.' *" The sacccss.'ul o,'.ei>ing ol X A (treat the Coi>l S arJie >wtenrorke if* Work, marked the completion of „». '-' J . ■u> the greatest engineering r : •chemea in these colonies. Ten jears age the goJdfields region of West Awstiaha w» '*$ a bye-word for want of water, f 'ondensew ' ' * produced drinkable water of v sgrt tnvni, T the salt-lakes, but at famine, pi tie?, aui \..« prospectors who wandered away from Uμ mining camps <iid so at the risk of tbeiC Vv livee, as many a lonely death from thiwt,-" ' J testified. Some" seven years ago Sir -> Forrest, thtn Picmier of the colony, ' : ' learned nt first, hand the painful condition! -1 of life on the goldfielde. An cxplorw J himself, lie could appreciate the hardship* 3 caused by the waterless nature of the Water in many places had to be fetchsd • 'M by teams from distant "soaks" and ?$A half-a-crown. a gaUon. the conviet?oia that eomething must be done to bring ■wnter to the parched district was further vf impressed upon Sir John by a visit iw-U*' made to Mount Burgess, a sohtnrv hill '$ Rome nine miles out of Coolgardie. * Sem'V-tj from that heiglit the country looked in. $\i expressibly desolate. " Presently," *aya one who was there, "Sir John tumei to "If a water supply officer -who was with tfat J' v party, and remarked wistfully, «If ye could only get the water up to this hill £\ from Peith. , ' Yeo, , remarked the officer 5/t doubtfully. Perth was over 300 miitt £*$, away. 'By Jove! I'll do it! , exclaimeiT the Premier, after a pause, and from timi'VV moment he never faltered in hie belief in '"• ■? the practicability of a scheme for water through pipes over the whole ' '< tance from the ranges near Perl li to Cook- «. gardie." It was, indeed, a scheme «!? " 4 magnificent liumbers. Ita cost in itnjnd v °J figures has been three millions, and for" this sum five million gallons of water ptt < c ' day is forced along 352 miles of f'vpttC Sirty-five mammoth pumping-engines, jn-{ twenty pumping stations, do this work, *n<f th- water, taken from the Helena reeervolf < l 5 near Perth, which holds 4,600,000,000 gil.*"'' 'V lons» is Btored in a number of ft scattered along the route. It in abxh '"„' lately the largest pumping scheme world, and remains a monument to audacity of ite founder, und tlia »kiU"oft\?ri its designer, the late Mr C. V, Its immediate result ha» been to splendid water to be bought at 9d 100 gallon* in arid mining township*, that it hns been shown that *nch a undertaking is possible in AiutriU* John Forrest believes it will be the runner of many other schemes of fl nature, in whkh ciwe the next will loee part of its terrors. .^JjSf

Most person* who n*T»;S;| A Danger travelled by rail to IgtW-* to Health, ton would be able to •?"*,->>'l feelingly of the sense ' wVjJ suffocation experienced while piwtoijftf.,'! through the tunnel, especially on high dWitjJ and holidays, when the tuffio over ti&S"]'! line, backward* and forward*, is continuous. They will perhaps fc* tewatid to learn the results of on wAjjpffil of the air in the Central London better known ac the "Twopenny The general conclusion to which amining scientist came vat that t3w'&f\'f~ inosphei* in the Tube during the pt&AfiA of heavy traffic was insanitary «ed fit , '** jurioue io health. At certain hoort the day the traffic in and' out of by the' Tube ia much heavier than bfyt/.M others. The number of volume* of dioxide, popularly known as carbonic gas, per 10,000 yolumtw of air, rang<i# •from 3.74 on the platforms ot one- feriodfojl of the week, feu 20.46 in th* carriages turning from tiro City at 6 p.m. <T]*||| presence of 10 volumes of this 10,000 Volumes of air accelerates the h*a&|J!| i beats, and 6 volumes is generally j as the limit of permissible impurity; wi»e*§ j a mining inspector found so much ■ dioxide in the air of a mine, he would I sist on more adequate ventilation. It l* | improbable that the atmosphere in j Lyttelton tunnel approaches in impnrity; j o<l ordinary occasions the poisonous air"fa<f*J | the Twopenny Tube*. The the two places is quite different. Xfi* $% I "Tube* , is really * tube, ami the irafof J|| fit it fairly closely, there being but inches betwe-n the roof and , the top <f£**S the tunnel, a foot at the eidee, and tmfiZsjti feet at the bottom. Each train holds aboflt vjjS 300 paeßengerti, and trains pass every minute in the busiest hours, co tt«-.j«l air of the Tube gets woTse and worn* *Nsol day. The Company have in haoA scheme of clearing the air by great at nigjit, heimetically closing all the trancen to the railway and drawing air in at the City end and diecharging It tho other. Aj, however, the air in Tube is already fairly pure in the t;; ing it seems that what ia more required is some device to cVeanee it '- the daytime. ' '-* ,