COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 4430, 1 June 1875, Page 3

COMMERCIAL AND INDUSTRIAL NOTES.

(From the British Trade Journal .)

The total length of cables laid by the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company in 1874 was 5973 naxxtical miles.

St. Helena, the solitary island in the South Atlantic, has at length found a promising industry in the cxxltivation of Nexv Zealand flax, which thrives there.

The Chamber of Commerce of Lyons has offered a prize of 15,000f.—£600—for the best essay, written in Frexxch, on the “ comparative state of the cultivation of silk in France and Italy.” A Cairo letter states that an 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, and salt works are about to be established at Port Said.

The extensive manufactory and storehouses of Mr. Eugene Bimmel, the well-known per-, furaer, situated in the Strand, were totally destroyed by fire on the morning of the 19th March. The business is being carried on in the retail premises, which, standing far 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 European States; North America and Australia are also large customers. The Japanese are about to 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 have purchased an outfit of boilers, engines, &c., for sinking, to be shipped to Japan. Buyers of wrought nails in the Black Country are, as usual at this period of the year, giyla.out orders with tolerable freedom, in anticipation of the decline in production which is always experienced during the summer months, when so many of the nailers seek employment in the neighboring harvestfields.

A change is about to be made by the Lords of the Admiralty in the preparation of hides for the making of tiller-ropes. The hides have hitherto 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 tanpits near the ropery, where the hides are to be prepared. A very ingenious application of electro-metal-lurgy has recently been brought before the, notice of the Society of Arts. It consists in the application of a coat of silver, by means of electro - deposition, on natural leaves and flowers. By this means, very delicate ornaments are produced, since the precise form and texture of tho natural leaf are preserved under the thin silver film. The special process by which these results are attained is the invention of a Mr. Denton.

'- The value of the raw’ cotton imported into the United Kingdom,last yearwas £50,936,509, as compared with £54,887,320 in 1873, and £53,617,457 in 1872. In the totals American cotton figured for £29,611,282, £31,725,672, and £26,098,067 respectively ; Brazilian for £2,761,820, £2,866,831, and £4,729,772 respectively ; Egyptian- for £7,219,966, £8,594,792, and £7,740,043 respectively ; and Indian for £10,346,633, £9,841,303, and £13,008,101 respectively. The manufacture of cast iron nails and shoe pins is peculiar to South Staffordshire, although, curiously enough, tho demand for one description known ns lath nails exists almost entirely in Scotland. Tho smallest nail made is J-inch in length, and of those a good workman will mould upwards of 750,000 in a day. Tho largest measure 2J-inohes long, and of these a good day’s work is about 52,000. Tho yearly production of cast nails is about 1000 tons, Tho sugarcane in Oartlmgona has hitherto been grown only in small quantities, Hiilllclimt for making rum and spirit called, anisado. Us cultivation, however, has latterly inuroasud, and there is now a prospect of Oarthagona becoming an important sugar-producing country. One firm in Oarthagona “planted in 1872 about 300 acres of cano, and have since gone to great expense in getting out from London largo and powerful steam machinery, which they have erected on their estate.” Tho fruit trade from tho Azores to Groat Britain continues to bo steadily prosecuted. Tho value of tho exports will be considerably augmented in a few years by the largo number of pineapples shipped to England, as the cultivation of this fruit has been wonderfully developed during the last two or three years. Tho attention of proprietors has also been turned to bananas, which are now being exported on a larger scale, and an increase' may be expected, aa prices have been encouraging. The Independence Bdrje gives some curious statistics-relative to the consumption of wood in Branco. A largo quantity of soft wood is used for making toys, and to give an idea of tho magnitude of this trade it will be sufficient to take one article alone, children’s drums, of which in Paris alone 200,000 are sold every month. Tho total number made annually in Franco is estimated at thirty millions, whilst a considerable quantity of, wood must be consumed to supply sixty millions of drumsticks. Messrs. Wright and Butler, of tho Bristol Lamp Works, New John-street, Birmingham, have just erected n new factory in the same neighborhood, and a foundry in Hospitalstreet, with a view to develop and extend the manufacture of their specialities and meet tho keen competition in foreign markets. The new works, which are built bn a plan quite unique, are now occupied in tho production of lamps, and tho former manufactory is exclusively devoted to tho counting-house and warehousing departments,-