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Te Aroha News, Volume VIII, Issue 491, 23 July 1890, Page 4

The British steamer Hecla is to be refitted as a cable ship for war-time, and to be supplied with tanks which would hold 2,000 miles of cable. As a torpedo depot ship she has done useful service; but she wae built as a passenger and cargo steamer, and she is consequently very unsuited for the purposes of war. Besides, she is far too slow to be able to keep up with the modern torpedo boat flotilla. In her new role she will accompany a fleet to sea in war-time, paying out cable as she goes, and so enabling the commander-in-chief to be in continuous communication with the Admiralty. Commenting upon the working of a'ship under such circumstances, an exchange remarks :—“This arrangement will greatly hamper the commander-in-chief ; bufcifc will be good for the special correspondents, and it will please the British public, so long as it lasts! A commander-in-chief of the Nelsonian type will probably, at the earliest possible moment, take care that communication shall be interrupted. Nelson would not have won Trafalgar bad he been tied by a string to Whitehall.” First Chicago Man—What kind of a place is New York, anyway? Second Chicago Man (who had been on a visit to the metropolis)—Pretty fast; They begin to sell the evening papers right) after breakfast. ;vf