Miscellaneous Items

Feilding Star, Volume XIV, Issue 113, 14 March 1893, Page 4

Miscellaneous Items

The only sea-going eteam vessel that has propellers in the centre of the boat, instead of m the stern, is named Le Louvre, and it plies between Paris and Nazaire, thus taking in its course sea, river, and canal. It is a small vessel. The two screws are in two tunnels in the centre, in front of the engine. Tbe tips of the blades do not project below the keel. One advantage claimed for this invention is that the screws can be examined easily in case of accident, as it is only neceesary to introduce compressed air into the tunnels and force out the water. It is reported in France that larger ocean vessels are to be built with this arrangement of the propelling power. This system of propulsion is a modification of that of Thornycrof t, which has been employed for years on the torpedo boats of the Brazilian Government and the police boats on the Nile. — Marine Journal. There was somewhat of a scene the other day (says the Pall Mall Gazette of December 26) at one of the services which the Eev John M'Neill has been conducting in Edinburgh. Dr Blakie, the moderator of the Free Church, seated a few feet in front of the "Scottish Spurgeon," resented the manner in which the preacher condemned, with characteristic warmth, the titles of "rev," "very rev," ' D.D.," and so forth. "Why do you take the title, then ?" interjected Dr Blaikie. Whereupon Mr M'Neill replied that it was given to him ; he never assumed it. He preferred to be called plain John M'Neill—"Moderator!" continued Mr M'Neill, "that word means business," whereat the congregation, greatly excited by the incident, cheered loudly. According to an article in the January number of the Fortnightly Review, the inhabitants of Tierra del Fuego are a msst degraded race of men. Cannibalism is regularly practised at the present day, and in exceptionally hard winters it is still tbe custom to kill off und eat the old women. The victim is dragged to a greenwood fire, and held with her mouth and nostrils over the smoke, while some of her relatives comproes her throat until life becomes extinct. The Queensland flood, it seems, is tbe fulfilment of a prediction. The first sbeep station in Queensland was occupied bj a Mr John ' nmpbell, whose location yea* kuono as Wen brook, on the Dnr ling Down!:. He and the blacks became friendly, nnd Mie degree of the intimacy is pvidenced b> I lie fact that he 'ex* changed nanie«' with one of them. Campbell wrote some reminiscences, wherein lie rel/iU'd It"* Mul'igt'rmb told him ihai i lie fl>oJ of 1811 would soon come buck, nnd that then it would not return until ibe piciiunimes of (hut time were old men. Tbe fulfilment is tbut the 1841 flood was repeated in 181"). and from that time (be land was safe until 1893.