NEWS BY MAIL.

Hokitika Guardian, 7 March 1925, Page 4

NEWS BY MAIL.

FASTER “.MET.” TRAINS. LONDON. January 3. A scheme for doubling tbe most important section of the “ Inner Circle ” line of tbe .Metropolitan Railway is in Jiam.l. It is 'proposer! to olecirity and utilise the present steam lines running parallel with the Metropolitan! line from King’s Cross to Moorgate and to link up to these by means of an old tunnel which runs from Eustoii-square to King’s Cross. This will provide an alternative route to the City and give a better service of trains. A tunnel is being made at Harrow to avoid the delays that now occur through the Uxbridge and Riekmanswortli lines crossing on the level. A new electric service from Bakerstreet Station to Riekmanswortli, a run of 17. V miles at a speed of about -13 miles an hour, "’ill start on Monday.

AYHAPONS OK RACK OK GIANTS? RESEARCH IN NORFOLK. CROMER, December 22. During the lust three or four years .Mr Reid Aloir lias been carrying out archaeological researches in a remarkable deposit known as the Cromer forest Bed. It lies at the very base of the high dill's of the Cromer coast. The bed is composed chiefly of layers of gravel and peat, and in its lower part contains a large quantity of roots ami other parts of trees and the fossil remains of many extinct animals. In addition to these vestiges of a vanished land surface, there has now been found, by Ah' Reid Aloir, a large series of massive flint implements which prove that mail was present in Norfolk when the Cromer Forest Bed was being laid down. Some of these flaked Hints of pointed and other forms ore so large that it seems almost certain that the ancient Cromerinns were people of great muscular strength and gorilla-like proportions. This, however, is only a surmise, as so far no human hones have been found in the bed. In the day when these primitive people lived, the famous cliffs of Cromer did not exist, and where the North Sea now is was a wide, shallow valley occupied by a northern extension of the present River Rhine. It was this river that deposited the strata now forming the Cromer forest Bed. From remains found in these strata it is known that no fewer than three types of elephants, together with the sable-toothed tiger, hears, deer, horses and other animals, including man himself, lived in the ancient valley of the Rhine. The forest lied is now covered by the immense deposits laid down by a glacier, which, during the great lee Age, extended all the way from Scandinavia to the Norfolk coast.

AAA'E-INSPIRING PICTURE. . AA'hen these vast changes in the earth’s surface are realised, it is not difficult to believe that several hundreds of thousands of years must separate us from days when ancient man made his flint implements and hunted big game in this part of England. To walk along the Cromer coast and examine the great cliff sections is, even to cue possessing only a slight geological and archaeological knowledge to .see unfolded an almost awe-inspir-ing picture of the antiquity of man, and of the irresistible power of the slovlv moving ice of the Glacial Period. Air Reid Aloir hopes to be able to continue his researches at Cromer, and

looks forward to making next year still more interesting discoveries of the remains of Forest Bed man. THE DISAPPEARING KITCHEN. (By Sarah Speed in London Daily Mail.) “Which do yon find the most interesting room in the house?’’ my hostess asked me. I thought of the small hut lovingly chosen library, of the bright spare bedrooms, of the almost austere din-

ing-room. But 1 answered the question without hesitation. “ kitchen,” 1 said. “It is a real kithcen, such a one as T have not seen since childhood. It brings memories of those rare exciting days on which I was permitted to visit the kitchen and explore all its mysteries. Modern housing conditions are largely, but not altogether, responsible for the present ridiculous si'se of the kitchen. The architect who was instructed to plan a small house economises

first in kitchen space. In presenting the future tenant with a tiny kitchen he believes he has saved money and will save the housewife or her servants labour. lint every domesticated woman knows that it is easier to be workmanlike, tidy, and efficient in a large space than in a very small -space. A large, well furnished kitchen is a delight to the eye. It is in itself an invitation to cook. When 1 hear

women say, “I don’t like cooking, 1 always imagined ther kitchens to be little, dark, cramped places, with no room for shining copper pans, homely brown casseroles, the flour bin, and the tightly stocked spice cupboard. Englishwomen used to pride themselves on their cooking. It is wholly modern illusion that in the French character there is an undefinahle “something,” which , makes every Frenchwoman superior m the kitchen to the Englishwoman. But it must he said of French women that they are proud of their kitchens while we in England are gradually allowing the kitchen to disappear, j And a nation without kitchens must inevitably become a nation without I cooks.

STEEL TRADE OUTLOOK. FR AXt 0-(! ERM AN COMBIXAT 1 OX. LONDON, January 3. The view that it was inevitable that the Frbncli .and (Herman metallurgical- industries should come to definite business arrangement and working understanding was expressed by Sir William J. Larke, Director of the National Federation of Iron and Steel Manufacturers, jn an address oil the European steel situation at one quarterly meeting of the London Iron and Steel exchange yesterday. We must expect the German export organisation to market l 1 reneh pm ducts. If they were to he lolly employed the French and Gorman metallurgical industries must co-operate and we "must he prepared for such cooperation. In this connection he remarked that British industry had never received any proposals for participation which it could neither accept or reject. Germany would absorb SO per cent, of her production, leaving less than 3,(1110.000 tons for export, fiance, as a result of the rearrangements under tbe Treaty of Versailles, would have a surplus'of .1,000,000 tons for export. We had. if tnilv employed, an exporlalih' surplus 'of 7.000.000 tans, i.asl v‘‘.ir we exported barely 4,0d0,00J tons. ' Compared with 1013 we export,,,l p; p o r cent less and imported 10 per "cent. This was a grave matter, and all concerned ought to get to„,.tlier to assist the industry through Hie present difficult time. There were

„ great many factors in our favour, particularly the high credit standing

of this country. SARGASSO SKA SECRETS. LONDON, January 3. Advices I mill the l nited States 10port the departure from New 5 ork of nil expedition which is at once scientific ami l-oroantic. Umlor -Professor William Beebe the good ship A returns has set out for an exploration tour in midAtlantic to the far-famed and mysterious Sargasso Sea.

There, in what might lie railed the Ocean’s Secret Drawer, in the midst <d vast spreads of seaweed, has gathered the wrack of generations of craft. There, by tradition, is the hiding place of strange fish and soar<e-kuow n monsters. No storm has ever dissipated this tract of almost land, which floats on the hosom of the Atlantic, impervious and unexplored. Characteristically, the Ameiican scientist intends to explore it as iar as lie can. lie will anchor his vessel to a huov in two miles of water at the point of greatest concentration ol seaweed, and the depths beneath will he searched, as he has himself written, by dredge, trawl, trap, net and hook.

The A returns will he as strange a vessel as the Atlantic has ever seen. She will have a movable bowsprit which can he lowered to within a few feet of the water, from which fish can he harpooned or netted. She will have a passage way right round the outside of her hull. She will have diving apparatus on submerged platforms a “ dark room ” for the study of luminosity in deep-sea fishes. There is a hope amid the members of the expedition that a living specimen of the giant squids, 80ft across, may he captured from the ocean’s depths. So far only fragments of them have been found in the stomachs of great marine animals.

EVILS OF “CRAMMING.” LONDON, Jan. o. “Examinations being in some form unavoidable, we must try to mitigate their evil methods and defects.” said Professor E. A. Gardner. Vice-Chancel-lor of London University, yesterday in bis presidential address to the annual conference of Educational Associations at University College, Gowcr-slreet, W.C. Examinations, considered as a test of wluit the pupil had learned, were essential, he said. Considered as a standard. the examination was found cramping. both to teachers and pupils. As a qualifying test examinations bad value, especially if physique were included. The open scholarship system was open to many abuses, the worst being, perhaps. the tendency in schools that prepared students for such xcholarbips to work up to that point ns an end. That was pernicious, since it led very often to over-training so that a boy at 18 or 1!) reached actually a higher point in

the study of his subject than he ever got to afterwards. The same thing applied to such examinations as the Civ.il Service examination. It was very difficult to defeat the crammer. Almost all the good places in certain examinations were carried off l,v those who had been trained ill two or three “cramming” institutions. The students were undoubtedly well taught in those institutions, hut the system was thoroughly bad. It meant overwork, overstrain, and vei.v otten leaving school in order to go to these institutions, and losing the most valuable years of school life. STX GREAT LINERS. LONDON, Jan. 2. . For the first time in the history of the port two great liners —the world s largest, the White Star liner Majestic (56,551 tons) and the Homeric (34.40 l tons)—are side hv side in the ocean dock at Southampton, to give room lor ' three others. Seven tugs placed the two great liners in position. The other vessels in the dock arc the ‘ Cunarders Mauretania and l’ereiigniia. • and the White Star liner Olympic. 1 lie total tonnage of the live is ‘2'20.2d.) toils, and represents nearly £10.000,000 worth

of shipping. On Wednesday the C Hoarder Aquitania, 45.647 tons, will he added, making the total 265,010 tons. | OVE AND A LANTERN. LONDON, Jan. ‘2. Tn the fourth of his Christmas lectures at the Royal Institution. Alber-marle-street I’icadilly. on Saturdav. Ml Frank Browne said a farmer, going out to his farmyard one night, saw one of the labourers walking away with a lantern. . “Where he going. Cargo'-” he asked him, and the farmhand replied: “1 lie going courtin’, mister.” “But when 1 went n-cotirting I didn’t take a lantern,’.’ said the farmer. “No,” remarked Geoge, “and look what you have got.”