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Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 26 February 1913, Page 6

Mr Robert McNab’s “History of the Cook Strait Settlements” will be ready for publication in about two months. Some practical hint of the immense sum of money which the new Federal capital is to cost Australia can be gained from the fact that, though a commencement has barely been made, the total expenditure has reached already over a quarter of a million (says the Argus). What the total outlay upon the project will be can scarcely even be guessed at. So far little more than preliminary survey work has been undertaken, and the actual plan of the city, though decided upon, has not yet been laid out. Plans and sections are now being prepared for the road from Captain’s Point, Jervis Bay, to connect with the main road to Nowra, and it is intended to make an early commencement with the new railway to be built between the city and Queanbeyan. A. trial location survey is now being carried out in connection with the proposed railway from Jervis Bay to the capital. The Sanitary Record gave prominence in one of its latest issues to an account of trials which have been held in Southport, England, of a vehicle which, it says, bids fair to produce a' revolution in street cleansing. The cleanser comprises a 20-60 horse-power four-cylinder motor chassis, a cylindrical brush which runs at a speed of 120 revolutions a minute, and enclosed bins or receivers into which the road dust I is delivered by propulsion and in part by vacuum. The brooms are also en-| tirely enclosed, and the scattering or dispersal of dust in the open air in the process is said to be well-nigh impossible. The application in practice of the machine means that it can travel during the height of the traffic in the busiest thoroughfares at all hours of the day, removing the <lust as it is created, or removing the mud, j if such be found, whilst the collected material would be quickly transferred I from the removable receptacles into j other vehicles for transport.