NEWS BY MAIL

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1922, Page 1

NEWS BY MAIL

MYSTERY OF THE GULF STREAM. LOWESTOFT. Fob. In. The Atlantic invasion of the North Sea grows. The fact .has been discovered by scientists at the Government’s marine laboratory at Lowestoft, who, under Dr E. S. Russell, last year began a hydrographical investigation of the parts of the North Sea where the .herring should have been but were not. Working from Lowestoft up the coast roughly to Scarborough, am! thence on a course straight across the sea 200 miles N.E., north of the Dogger, the scientists took at intervals of 20 miles samples of the water layers from the surface to the bottom, and found that there was a quite abnormally large amount of Atlantic water in the deeper parts of the sea, and at the same time an unusual deficiency of coastal water, which is ascribed to the very low rainfall.

Atlantic water is detected by its high degree of salinity, its temperature, and the constitution of its plankton, which is the minute life, animal and vegetable, that forms the food of fishes. The cause of this huge inflow of Atlantic water, which only twice previously has been recorded south of the ShieldsChristiania route, is not known. The scientists have no doubt that the herrings have been affected in some way by the phenomenon. But what has happened to the herrings has not yet been discovered.

GIRLS’ FATE IN UTAH

ZURICH, Feb. 9

Years ago an energetic campaign m Switzerland by Mormon missionaries resulted in a large number of converts, mostly young girls, emigrating to Salt Lake City. Inquiries to-day in official circles at Berne reveal that at least 90 per cent of these misguided creatures have now become domestic drudges to newly acquired wives of the husband whose favour they once enjoyed for a brief spell, or, worse still, gone to swell the ranks of the unfortunate class of women from which the South American White Slave traffickers largely recruit their victims. There is the authentic case oi a mother and daughter who occupied remunerative Government posts m Switzerland. Carried away by the eloquence of a missionary, both disappeared without leaving a trace. Several months later their relatives received heartbroken appeals from Salt Lake City describing an agonising existence and beseeching friends to get them awav. Nothing, however, could be done, and the mother, being faced with the prospect of imprisonment for bigamy, returned to Switzerland. _ Although no special legislation has been passed forbidding Mormon activities short shrift is given to missionaries in this country, public opinion being violently hostile to their teachings.