NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 November 1924, Page 3

NEWS BY MAIL.

VKXTURESOAIE YEAR. YOUTHS WHO WANT TO HO WITH ESPLORER. LONDON, September 20. M hieh is the most venturesome year of lilt*. When is a man or a hoy most anxious to face danger and plunge into the unknown.?

One would have thought it to he at about 17 years, hut the ago seems to run a little higher.

Such, at least, is the impression to he drawn from the experience of Air Mitchell Hedges, the explorer, who is to depart liefore the year is out for the feverish and impenetrable wilds of British Honduras in search of the cities and relies of the ancient Alava civilisation.

Ilis post-ling, in two days, lias brought him nearly 30 applications from people who would like to he companions of his perils, and, of these, more than a hundred are from young men of 19—not 18 or 20 or 21, hut from, those who specifically state that they wore 19 last birthday.

Alost of tlio older applicants are men who were through the war and now can obtain 110 employment. Air Mitchell Hedges is busy on preliminary preparations for his expedition

An iiitersoting item of his baggage will lie an amber oil spray. Should anv flimsy manuscripts or kindred article of vast antiquity he unearthed, the danger has always been that, on contact with the air, they crumble away. But if immediately sprayed with the amber oil solution a species of waxen envelope will lie formed around the object which will preserve it intact.

Tlio precious relic can ho sprayed inch hy inch as the superincumbent earth is removed.

MALARIA .MOSQUITOES. HOP-BICKERS’. EYES ATTACKED. LONDON, Seplember 20. Hop-pickers continue to leave sonic districts ol Kent in large numbers, although all the crop has not been picked. Wet weather and the continuously sodden slate of the ground have produced more eases of minor illness and pneumonia that the first aid and mission hospitals on the spot can cope with, and many women and children have been severely affected also by insect biles.

Their eyes, the chief point nf attack have become hadlv inflamed, and seme of the victims seen passing through Tonbridge present pitiable sights. Whether the insect is one of the VSC species of English gnats or the *>’-!’ ii'.-ilaria-carrying mosquito (anopheles) is the subject of investigation.

Dr Halliraith, medical officer of health for the Tonbridge area, says the true malaria-carrying mosquito has been identified in the Romney Alarsh district, and he is disposed to suspect it as the cause ill the attacks. lie recommends spraying of Is and ditches where these pests incubate with crude petroleum. There are over 1,009 species of mosquitoes. an expert on tropical diseises states, hut only a small proportion (it 1 hem carry the parasite ol nialaiia. Some of these are to lie found in almost cvcrv part of England and Wales. Places where they are especially abundant are Romney Alarsh. Sandwich, the 1-lcs of Sheppey and Crain. Malaria, or agile as it was called in England, was very common itirliiorly in the eastern countries, hut it .disappeared in the course of the last ccntiKV.

POISON IX PAPER. LONDON, dept. 29. The liornugli analyst of Salford. Air .1 I) F.lsdnn. states in liis annual report 'trial, he has found arsenic m a number of coloured papers ncl lor wrapping bread. Of 51 sample wrappers 0 contained an appreciable quantity of arsenic. I lie colours of the papers were blue, purple and orecn. The quantity of arsenic in one paper was one third of a gram per square foot. . . Nine samples of ink were examined, all nf them being free from arsenie. except one. which contained ten pel cent, of arsenie. . V docl’ir said lo a reporter that H isVerv unlikely that the arsenic would find it's way into the bread. “1 would rather risk the arsenic than the dirt n the unwrapped bread.” he said ’hut there is certainly no need for the use of arsenic in the paper coverings. century ok railways. LONDON. Sept. 20. Next veal' two of the best known means of transport celebrate notable birthdays. The passenger railway a centenarian in the summer of 1925. The I oiidtni moLr-onmibns comes (it age 'll February next. "I'liere is a movement on loot in the rail wav world to get all tlio companies to take part in celebrating the lOlltli. birthday of the railways. It has already been agreed to decorate certain trains. I -it it is hoped In commemorate the opening of the Stockton and Darlington railway thoroughly national scale. The London and No'“ F.astern Railway may he able to <d<l,rate the 100th. birthday by institutin'.' Diesel-engined passenger trains, the locomotive of which can he managed by one man.