Untitled

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1172, 15 November 1871, Page 2

In the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, one drunkard was fined 5b., and cautioned by the Resident Magistrate to keep clear of the publichouses in future. We have been requited by the Chief Postmaster to imi mate that mails for Europe, America, &c, via San Francisco, will be despatched hence by the first steamer for Wellington, and that supplementary mails will be forwarded to Auckland by every steamer leaving here for that port that will reach there on or before the 27th inst., the day appointed for the despatch of the Nebraska. [We may observe that the Nebraska is advertised in the Auckland papers to leave that port on the 30th inst J Under the heading of " Too Rich," a recent number of the Melbourne Age makes the singular announcement that ''• Victorians are once more in danger of becoming disgustingly rich," and continues— " The banks are overflowing with money. The rise in the price of wool, the increase in the yield of gold, the diminution in the import of goods, the manufacture of which has been commenced in the Colony, have so affected the balance of trade that the importation of English sovereigns has set in, and is likely to continue. That time so Jong looked for, when the gold is to be kept in the colony, has come at last, and the march of improvement may be expected to be henceforth rapid. This is no dream. The yield of gold is already half-a-million more than it was in the first seven months of 1870, and the increased value of wool represents probably a similar amount. By the end of the year the balance in favor of our exports over our imports is likely to be upwards of a million and a half, and this increase is all the more wondeiful when it is borne in mind that at the corresponding period of last year the balance was three-fourths of a million the other way. The balance in the first eight months of 1871, is thus more favorable than it was in the month of August, 1870, by nearly a million and three-quarters, and the disproportion is going on increasing. There are thus ample funds to the credit of the colony for investment in the establishment of new industries, and the quality of our moneyed men will be put to the proof in the enterprise displayed by them at such a juncture." The armies and navies of Europe are said to contain at present 5,101,300 men, 512,394 horses, 10,22-i field guns. and 800 mitialleuses. The institution of Civil Engineers, London, has more than doubled its members in less than nine, y-ars. In November, 18G2, the number was exactly 1,000 at present it is 2009. The following is from the Athenaeum --It was noticed long ago, by soap and alkali manufacturers, that the caustic alkalies, soda oi potash, protected iron or steel from rust. Prof. F. Grace Calvert has now communicated to the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society an account of some "experiments on the oxidation of iron." The results at which this chemist ai rives are important. First, the caibonates of potash and soda possess the same property of protecting iron and steel from rust as do these alkalies in a caustic state. If an iron blade is half immersed in a solution of either of the above-named carbonates, it exerts so protective an action that that portion of the iron which is exposed to the influence of the damp atmospheric air does not oxidise even after a period of two years. Similar results have been obtained with seawater to which have been added the carbonates of potash or soda. The applications of this, fact are numerous and important.