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Poverty Bay Standard, Volume X, Issue 1204, 17 November 1882, Page 2

Dr. Siemens, the eminent electrician, prei sided at the recent meeting of the British i Association} and the expressions of opinion which he lias given on electric lighting, gas lighting, gas engines, the fuel of the future and the electric transmission of power are entitled to the serious consideration of the public and men of science. Gas engines are to supersede steam engines; and gas making apparatus to take the place of boilers in our steamboats —smokeless fuel for our houses and factories—the incandescent electric lamp for the rich, but gas to continue ns the light of the poor. He is so sanguine as regarding the practicability of thu electric railway, except for short lines where water power can be had. Dr. Siemens has also been expertI menting on the influence of the electric light i upon the growth of plants. His experiments i have produced wonderful results. He pro- | cured cereal grains in pairs wheat, oatsand I barley—from the same samples, sown and ' gathered at the same time. These he planted. The cereals grown in the ordinary way developed to a height of 18in.; during the same time those which had been grown under the influence of the electric light were sft. in height, and in full ear ; a case containing the \ cereals was on view at a conversazione re- ; cently given by the President of the Royal I Society, and was an object of special scientific interest. “Give railway engines an octave,” saith a ■ writer in the papers, “and by these means : abolish the horrid and monotonous screeching which now makes night hideous and day a terror, anywhere near railway lines and railway stations.” “We (says The Sportsman') i fall in with the suggestion most heartily. 1 Let each line, or each train, have a special i tune to play. ‘ 'What’s that ?” will say the ! gentle signalman, as the first bars of ‘ Genv- | vieve de Brabant,’ yelled out by an express j train whist’e, come floating up through the quiet midnight. *Oh I I know ; it is the 11.5 i express.’ Or, just us the householder turns | round with a weary sigh, after a sleep-scat-tering blast of Wagner from the ‘ down special,’ the ‘ Up-north ’ will career past with the first half-dozen bars of ‘Over the Garden Wall,’ whistled with the shrill energy of a cast-iron street boy ‘possessed of the devil.’ The whistle is bad enough—eight notes instead of one would mean Hanwell, a love of solitude, misery, and death.” There was no criminal business transacted at the Resident Magistrate's Court this morning, and the only civil case set down for hearing judgment was given for the plaintiff with costs. A correspondent of the “Napier Daily Telegraph” writes as follows : —“I noticed in a recent issue of your paper that the scenery used by the Trinity Church committee for the late ‘ fair ’ has been purchased j on behalf of the Wesleyan body at Gisborne, i I presume the Wesleyans of Poverty Bay ! are therefore about to follow the example of I their brethren in Napier. In these days, i when the only advice, that is followed seems to be, “ Put money in thy purse,” it is only j | waste of time to find fault with the means that may be adopted to bring about that end. The man is applauded who can devise i novel Mays of making money, and so the . i Wesleyan body can hug itself with satisfac- ! tion in the contemplation of the fact that I i the fair in the Theatre has paid off nearly i the whole of the Church debt. Let all the i churches go ami dn likewise. It is only a j i step from a fair to a theatrical performance.” ’J h.'largest sailing ship in the world has l been launched at Belfast. The vessel, which ’ is four-masted, is 315 ft, long, 42ft. Bin. broad j i with 25ft. depth of hold. !