LOOKING BACK A CENTURY HENCE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 46, 8 March 1901, Page 2

LOOKING BACK A CENTURY HENCE.

We have r coived a copy of the Scarborough Post which is somewhat unique, inasmuch as it purparts to be ptiblis d on January let, 2001. The literary matter takes the form of a retrospect, and comparison of affairs of to-day *ith three of a century hence. Revewing the order an! looking forward the editor's forecast starts with the elevation of Lord Salisbury to a Duki dom, and then deals At large with the growth of Scarborough and its neighbourhood. A lengthy article is naturally devoted to the growth of mechanical inventions. In the first place we of to-day are assured that the question of aeri'l navigation will nob be un fait accompli at the close of this century. Tte " Skimmer" stage will have be*n : reached but not that of the great aeroplanes. Only the wealthiest, howrvtr, i will have aerial conveyances, the great ; mass of humanity having to be contont ; as at present with railways. Electricity i derived direct from coal is to be the , motive power, not oil or liquil i air, roof gardens, huge blocks .of flats supplied with fsod by pneumatic tub?s from halls of ! cookery, fires lighted and lifts moved i by a touch of the finger, door bells which are spoken intoas well as rußg, passenger i ships a quarter of a mile long doing the , journey frors Southampton to New , York in days, and Australia in a fortnight are some of the advances made. To housekeepers whose continual bane of existence is, what is known as the domestic affliction, otherwise the servant, t : i« dawn of a period when electricity wilt light the fire, cairy (ranks upstairs, hoiit bath.', mince meat, cook dinners, cl»an knives and dishes, scrub floors and dooi steps, polish gratis, wash c'othes and turn the mangle and finally cremate their own bodies, should be welcomed with delight, The prospect is altogether too tantalising to us of to-day. Of course electric motors are in full swing and cil bombs for use at shipwrecks. In military (matters etheric telegraphy plays as iifi- ! portant part as do also nir ship?, smoko I balls and dynamita combining to o2eet le.iorinous detraction. 'J'cero are two '.striking facts tjisdosed by Ska advorI i iu i!>:, one <>ei' ■;* She hi_sh price of jarticles of i'oo;I, and tho other that life is j'ist as short, if not'ahorior tuan at present:. As agiiia.st this, ko.vuvor, it is evident that muuh moi-e can bo done than in 1901 so that the/o is coiapenS'ltion in all things. IVo'jublj iu;.ny people are fuirty weli aoutens wicn things as they are.