MISCELLANEOUS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 7066, 11 February 1893, Page 1

MISCELLANEOUS.

Sir Benjamin Baker, one of the engineers of the Forth Bridge, notes as a curious fact that during the progress of the work several of the workmen fell from the bridge 160 ft to 160 ft into the water without being killed or even stunned. They had breath enough left in their bodies to enable them to catch a rope when it was thrown to them, but not breath enough to speak for the next fortnight. During that period they lay perfectly still, and at the end of the fortnight they generally said they felt as if they had been beaten up inside, “ a sort of whipped egg arrangement.” It is further stated that the percentage of accidents since the bridge has been opened has been greater than while it was being made. The experiment of closing publio houses in Ballarat under the compensation clauses of tne Victorian Act has proved a very ooetly one—so costly' indeed as to have caused a very strong reaction in that borough. It has transpired that the total amount awarded to the sixty-six licensees and owners whose houses have been closed in the city and town runs into the very respectable sum of £56,165 14s 7d, or an average of £4859 lie 8d per house. In Geelong the average amount awarded was £llO4, and had the Ballarat owners and licensees been treated on the same liberal basis they would have besn granted a sum of about £16,170 more than has been awarded them. What the cost, including the judge's, arbitrators’, and other fees connected with the proceedings amounts to, cannot be given, but the total cannot fall far short of £75.000. The London correspondent of the Manchester Guardian thus describes what has been termed a “Palace of the Poor”: “ Decidedly the best equipped model lodging bouse for the poor in the world will be that which is about to be opened by the London County Council. They have spent nearly £17,000 on it, and it will provide for upwards of 200 lodgers, who will each pay 6d for their nightly bed. It will have the luxury of electric light, heating by hot air, bathrooms and shower baths, perfect sanitary appliances, hot and cold water basins, a steam laundry, dining and recreation rooms with a good library, and a cheap oookshop on the premises for those who do not care to be at the trouble of cooking their own provisions. Everything is being done to make the place cleanly, wholesome, and attractive t and there are not likely to be any lack of applications for accommodation.” A decision of some importance to railway passengers was given in the Court of Appeal on December 17th. A miner employed by the Grasmere Colliery Company, and holding a workman’s return ticket between Sheapbridge and Grasmere on the Midland Railway, presented himself at Sheepbridge station on November 7th, in time to catch a train which should have left there at eighteen minutes past five in the morning. Owing to an accident the train did not reach Sheepbridge until about eight o’clock, and in the meantime, the would be passenger, having waited till seven, had gone home. He thereupon sued the railway company for damages, and the County Court judge of Derbyshire awarded him 6a 6d, the amount of the day’s earnings. The Lord Justices now affirmed this award. It was stated that there were seven hundred similar claims against the Midland Company The Lord Justices, in upholding the award protested, however, against the case being taken as a tost case for more than the particular occasion. They strongly opposed the view that a workman could recover a day's wages merely because a train was late. IS DEAFNESS INCURABLE P J. H. Nicholson, of 176, William Street, Melbourne, has proved otherwise by making a complete cure of deafness and noises i v TKB HEAD OB OVSB 40 YBAEB STANDING, by a simple remedy and without the use of any “clap-trap” so called electro-medication treatment. A fall description of this remedy which has cured thousands of other eases of long standing, will bo seat FREE on applies SOB.