Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 204, 7 October 1878, Page 4

The revenue of the Telegraph Department for the year ending 30th June was estioiated at £70,000, but has exceeded" that amount by £3,284. The number of telegrams of all codes transmitted during the year was 1,260,354, or an increase over the previous year of 135,893. The number of telegrams transmitted during the year as comnared with the letters posted during the 'same ; period shows that 20*71 telegrams were sent j for every 100 letters. The number of money ! order telegrams during the year was 12,800, representing a value of £54,922 10s sd. The largest number of orders was issued in Wellington, Dunedin coming next, and Christchurch third, the value of the transactions ' ranking in the tame order, On the 30th June 3,434 miles of lines, carrying 8035 miles of wire, were in circuit, and the number of stations open to the public was 182. The average cost per mile for maintenance oflines is £5 10s per annum. — Chronicle. Mr Norman Lockyer sums up the wonderful results which have been reached during the.last ten years as to the Sun's material aricFcondition. By means of photography and spectrum analysis the brilliant orb of j day is slowly but surely yielding up his long concealed secrets. This is what can be done now with the phototelescope, "It is possible to record every change which goes ou in the Sun, down to a region so small that one hardly likes to challenge belief by j mentioning it. Changes under one second I of angular magnitude in the centre of the Sun's disc can now be faithfully recorded unci watched from hour to hour; in other words changes in cloud regions ten miles square iv a body 92 millions of miles away can now be chronicled." Uuder the manipulation of the spectroscope the number of elements fouad iv the sun has gone on increasing tiil now the number is over thirty. But the singular fact is that those elements are metals. Nor a single metalloid, such as carbon, aulphur, and the like has yet been found. It has lately been reported that Dr. Draper, of America, has seen covered proof of the presence of these substances, bufc Mr Lockyer has gone over the process aud cannot confirm the alleged result. So far as our uncontested knowledge goes, says the writer, " the sun is made of metals, and on this account is straugely different from the crust of our earth, in which the metals arc iv a large minority." To have learned this much is surely wonderful. We are i already in the very dreary land of science.