FROM HOME FILES.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXII, Issue 241, 6 December 1900, Page 4

FROM HOME FILES.

EGYPT'S NEW PLAGUE,

-*?''• J the Tel,e "«»My specialist coMuwioned to nit, i ae £ ondan motU to the Egyptian Government WW rinderpest is caneiog enormous losses among the herds in nearly all Weprovmces. flaying regard to the great extent of fcerr tory, the defective meauaof loomotion, and the fanaticism of the population, the Commifgione. deapatrg <i any tflective measures for OMnbatiog the ssourge. LORD ROSEBERY'S NOVEL. Lord Roaebery ia said ti be writing V 1 ! 0 * 6 '- T'll preatnt election, wnich has brought oue or two novelist! into the field as political candidates, Parliamentary noveli,t, have been rare since the d.ya tf l>i,raeii and Bulwer-Lytton. Lord Boaebery, sag geats the Daily Despatch, may conceivably follow Diuaea's lead in impshotting the po;itico-socid atmoaphere of his time. That sort of thing has a greats, if ephemeral, vogae when it is done by a statesman. ELECTRIC TYPEWRITING. The electrical writing maohine is an accomplished fact. Mr. T. Large, the manager of the Bliekensderfer Typewriter Company's Liverpool depot, •tales that an « Electrical" hag already been constructed,, and will be placed on the market early next year. It u the invention of Mr. G. 0. Blickensferder, of Stamford, Connecticut, and, as it can be sold for £25, it is likely to revolutionise the mannfaotnre of twentieth century writing machines. DUD LIKE CHRISTIANS. Some letters have lately appeared in the Italian papers from missionaries who escaped to the cosst. They give a toHcbiog account of the devotion of converts to their teachers, and of help Siren in flight by many villagers. L»ter letters, too, have told us, says a Milan correspondent of the Guardian of a convert who, when asked if ho were a Christian by the mob, only begged to be allowed to kneel down and commend himsalf to God before he was murdered; and of another, a catechumen, who sheltered a fugitive priest, and asked for baptism at once that he might die a Christian. FIRST INIO MAFEKING. A waier of the Liverpool Post sent to the editor jutt before tin rel.ef if Mafeking a cheque fcr £SO, to bs given to ths nun who first entered the besieged town. But who was the first ? Asked to settle the question, Ma General Baden Powell writes : /* M« jor Karri Davis, of the Imperial Light Horse, wi.h about six tioDpers, was first into Mafeking to relieve it. He brought with him a box of chocolates for me. My brother, Major Baden-Powell, Scots Gaards, f illowtd him soon afterwards." KAVAL BRIGADE INSPECTED. The Naval Brigade, under Oaptain Bearcroft, H.M.B. Philome', were inspected by Lord Roberts at Pretoria on October 7th. The Field-Marshai said he wished to express his highest gratitude for the work they had done, and concluded by wishing the returning column God-speed and good luck. The work of the Brigade has included the dragging of huge guns mounted on carnages, hastily marie at Stmonstown, » diitance of near y 1000 iiiilea. Daring Lord iutthuflu's fcait ao Modder river they were ia action daily, and of tea provoked the enemy's fire. During the subsequent lojg titks they were tf .ea the met to arrive in camp, and the first no start again ia the morning. When they eet out they were 530 strong, and the fact tbat they have left 200 here is proof of the arduous nature of the work they have •ceotnmp'ished. MARCONI THE MAGICIAN. S'gnor Marconi is at Poole continuing his long distance t xperimect?. At the offi :ea of Marconi's Wiielesa Telegrapby Company, an Exp esj repre- * ■ Mntative was informed ihit we may soon expect to hear that messages have been suceestfally transmitted over 1000 miles. "You will remember," Jihe official continued, " tint it was at firat feared ■ thao the distaac<s to be bridged would bs I'mited by the heigbss of the poias, and th*o, as impoinbie ta erect Snch thng3 ov3r a Cirwi i length, tie mileige that bo covered wou.d be o .rreapondingly circumscribed.- " Marconi his now almost dispensed with poies. The mßSi'g* am now received on a cj iuder 4ft. in height." "A few days a*.j," he -died, "a tneisige was transmitted fum Boi loagae to Dovercwrj, ue*r fla>wica, * distance of over sixty miles. " We are now sure thao it is oaly a matter of tine before we will be tele- . graphing all distances. Wherever it is ponittle to telegraph with wires it ia also possible to without { wires.'