COMMERCIAL and INDUSTRIAL NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume X, Issue 136, 8 June 1875, Page 2

COMMERCIAL and INDUSTRIAL NOTES.

(Compiled by tlie N. Z. Tmes from the British Trade Journal.) m T'" * _ ' '--»' K "' " M -« laid by tbe lelegraph Construction and Mainteuance Compauy in J 874 was 5973 nautical miles. St. Helena, tbe solitary island in the South Atlantic, haa at length found a promising industry in the cultivation of New Zealand flax, whioh thrives tbere. The Chamber of Commerce of Lyons has offered a prize of 1 5,000f.— £600 — for the best esi-ay, written in French, on the "comparative state of the cultivation of silk in Fiance and Ilaly." A Cairo letter slaieß that au export trade in salt is springing up in Egypt, and promises to attain to a considerable development. Some shipments have gone forward to India from Suez, aud salt works are about to be established at Port Said. The extensive manufactory and storehouses of Mr Eugene Rimmel, the well known perfumer, situated in the Strand, were totally destroyed by fire on tho morning of the 19th March. The business is being carried on in the retail premises, which, standing apart from the warehouse, escaped destruction. The exports of caoutchouc manufactures now reach nearly a million in value, and we compete successfully with the Continent, where some of the largest india-rubber works are established, for half our exports go to the Europeau Sates ; North America aud Australia are also large customers. The Japanese are about io do something with the petroleum in their country, and a delegation, accompanied by interpreters, have been making a tour of inspection among the Pennsylvania oil wells. They bave purchased an ouifit of boilers, engines, &c, for sinking, lo be shipped to Japan. Buyers of wrought nails in the Black Country are, aa usual at thia period of the year, giving out orders with tolerable freedom, in auticipation of the decline in production which is always experienced duriDg the summer months, when so many of the nailers setk employment in the neighboring harvest fields. A change is about to be made by the Lords of the Admiralty in the preparation of hides for the making of tillerropes. The hides have hitberto been supplied by contract, but the Admiralty have now directed that they shall be prepared at Chatham Dockyard, and workmen are engaged constructing a number of tan-pits near the ropery, wbere the hides are to be prepared. A very ingenious application of electro-metallurgy has recently been brought before the notice of the Society of Arte. It consists io the application of a coat of silver, by means of electrodeposition, on natural leaves and fiowerß. By this means very delicate ornaments are produced, eiuce the precise form and texture of the natural leaf are preset ved under the thin silver

film. Tbe special process by which these results ore attained is the invention of a Mr Denton. The value of the raw cotton imported into the United Kingdom last year wa» f50.936,509, as compared with £54 887,320 in 1873, and £53,617,457 in 1^72 In the totals American cotton figured for £29.611,282, £31,725,672, and £26 098,667 respectively ; Brazilian for £2 761,820, £2,866,831, and £4,729,772 respectively; Egyptian for £7,219,966, £8,594,762, & £7,740,043' respeciively; Indian for £10,346,633, £9,841,303, aud £13,008,101 respectively. The manufacture of cast iron nails and shoe pins is peculiar to Soutb Staffordshire, although, curiously enough, the demand for one description known as lath nails exists almost entirely in Scotland. The smallest mail made is £-iuch in length, and of these a good workman will mould upwards of 750,000 in a day. The largest measure is 2J-inches long, and of these a good day's work is about 52,000. The yearly production of cast nails is about 1000 tons. The sugar-cane in Carthagena has hitherto been grown only in small quantities, sufficient for making rum and spirit called anieado. Itß cultivation, however, has latterly increased, , and there is now a prospect of Carthagena becoming an important sugar-producing country. One firm in Carthagena " planted in 1872 about 300 acres of cane, and have since gone to great expense in getting out from London large and powerful steam machinery, which they have erected on their esta'e." The Independence Beige gives some curious statistics relative to the consumption of wood in France. A large quantity of soft wood is used for making toys, and to give an idea of the magnitude of this trade it will be sufiicient to take one article alone, say j children's drums, of which in Paris alone 200,000 are sold every month. The total number made annually in Frauce is estimated at thirty millions, whilst a considerable quantity of wood must be consumed to supply sixty millions of drumsticks.