Notes and Events.

Manawatu Herald, 25 May 1893, Page 3

Notes and Events.

A country M.H.E., says a contemporary, while visiting his electorate called at a farmhouse and asked for 1 the boss, whom he found a little distance away at work; "Good morning," he said : " Morhin'," was - the gruff reply. " Crop looks well," he ventured. "»Might be wuss," said the farmer. "I'm Mr , member for this district," continued the visitor. " Yes, I know ; I voted •foa yV "Thanks; I am just taking a look found." "Oh yes, that's all right— us long as you don't take nothin' else," said the farmer, as he proceeded with his work and left the, M.H.R. to \proceed at his leisure, and employ his time in cursing the newspapers which have taught even the simple minded tiller of thje. soil to regard legislators, alleged" and otherwise, with suspicion* The omnivorous World's Pair is to have yet another •' big thing" from Britain. This 'time it is '• the largest English Jocomotive ever seen Which has just been built by Messrs Hftwthorn , of Newcastle. Iron gives a description of the leviathan engine. It runs upon a four-wheeled leading bogie and two pairs of independent driyirig-wheels of 7 feet 6 inches diameter, and it has four high'pressure cylinders, a note worthy fact. Two cylinders placed inside under the sraokebox are 17 inches by 22 inches, and they actuate the first pair of driving-wheels. Two outside cylinders are placed behind the. bogie-wheels; they are IG£ inches by 24 inohes, and they work the second or trailing pair of drivingwheels. The total tractive . force ■exerted by> Jthe four, cylinders upon the foiip qriyingwheels is therefore 1481$ J for each pound of effective pressure. The boiler works at, a pressure of 175 ib, but it is constructed to carry 2001 b if necessary and it is of oval section, in H order that it may be placed between the loj&'.of the driving wheels. The nuiSoer'^ of' tubes is 189; Siajine^r is 2|in ; their length 4s Jwi-theiv beating surface is 1880 rtuare feet ; the heating surface of Ihe- firebox is 188 square feet ; the total heating surface, 2018 square Iffift.*- 3 ' the of firegrate is 28 pquare feety the weight of engine, fn working order, 60 tons ; and the tender, when loaded, is fully 45 toes ; bo that the engine and tender complete weigh about 105 tons. Mr Selous is full of elephant stories, but not of elephants, though kW u natives eat all of them except the bones. He states that the most "'Sdible pArt iaf the heart, after that 'the /fool or trunk. The natives have no' objection to their game being Jbigh, as they eat an elephant when aWa pijtrid just as greedily as when _ 41 -igfresh killed. The African elephant stands about ten feet high, and their tusks< weigh from SOlbs to 701bs each. A pair of average tusks pf sQlbs each repre-, "Bij > ■ abney value of £50. The ef^hant'ls a natural reservoir of fat and the natives preserve every 'Mrtfdle, 'diiring which process they bathe in its blood and let it dry on thflnr — — - . »->l — . One curioßity of the elephant no.^cecf by this traveller is that when it gets. very hot the- elephant inserts hi» trunks into his stomach and draws

up water and sprinkles it over its back. Preferring to be wefc outside than in, a startling contrast to some old .boozers. <•... : The same authority declares that lions are very easily killed, and that a bullet that would not break up an antelope will do for a lion. Lion's flesh is capital eating, lion pie being almost as good as real pasty, and quite as white. A lion measures from ten ta eleven feet from nosetip to tail-tip, and weighs well on to four hundred-weight. Mr Sfelous asserts that the lions at the London Zoological Gardens are much more nobly maned than their wild congeners. The lion walks with his head lower than the line of his back.