Items of Interest

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 7727, 1 February 1905, Page 4

Items of Interest

The Admiralty has ordered all the sailing cruisers employed on coastguard duties to be paid off and withdrawn from the effective service. Tho cost of entertaining the King and Queen of Portugal on their recent visit to the city of London wan stated to bo about £1750. "lie Profundis," a prison fliary written by the late Oscar Wilde, and preserved by Mr Hubert l{ o ss, his executor, was to begin to appear in the January number of the German magazine "Neue Kundschau." The War Ofiice has compiled » dotailed account of operations in the Far East, with a" view to applying some of the lessons gained by the military attaches serving with the Japanese forces in the course of this year's home training. Subterranean convulsions have wrecked the IJumble Oilfield in Texas and turned the wells into veritable volcanoes, from which stones and mud aro hurled a thousand feet in ' the air. The inhabitants have fled. Traffic was stopped in the New Yorkc "tubo" reuently by the bursting of a monster water main, but tho automatic switches instantly stopped the trains, and the passen- ' gem were able to escape from the : carriages.. ' liridget Taylor was convicted and bound ov»r at Bishop Auckland for * causing unnecessary suffering to her ' child,_ ngod nineteen days, by feeding ( it with bread and milk, as a result ( of which tho child elied iu convul- ( sions. I Lawrence (Methodist) University, J iu Wisconsin, has declined a bequest ; of £20,000 under the will of a Mr ' Cooper, who perished in th» Iroquois f Thc&tre fire in Chicago. Theatre- f going is contrary to thp American l Methodist Church's regulations. ' Giving evidence before ilia Royal ' Commission on trade disputes and * trade combinations, Sir L'eorge Live- ' rey, chairman of the South Metro- l politan Has Company, said that the ' bonus given lus't, year to the em- < ployees amounted to £35,000. The ' men had now invested £2:10,000 in > th<* company. i The.latest commercial project is I the establishment of a banking in- > stitution at New York which is to ' keep its doors open day and night, < .Sundays excepted. ¥hv regular ' banking hours from 10 a.m. to 4 f p.m. have proved insufficient for a < large class of business men, who are in the habit of making "deals" long after office, hours. It is a fact that ninny of the great enterprises with which New Yotk occasionally star, ties the country are arranged at night between principals who meet at'hotels or chiles. Among the directors of the new bank are Mr Pierpont .Morgan, two of the Vanderbilts, and Mr Belmomt. The simple people of Samara have been cleverly swindled by a. pretty female Munchausen, who called herself "rightful Duchess of Birmingham,"- and has been taking advantage of fix* ant'i-Hritish feeling caused by the North Sea affair in order L to line her pockets at the expense of ■ fools. Vera Abramoff, for such is her riglft name, arrived in Samara ' from abroad with a pitiful tale of j ', woe. The wealthy Duke of Birmingham, sh«< declared, an intimate friend , of King Edward, had married her in London, and after three months repudiated the marriage on the ground that she was not a British stfijject. After flinging a £U'i<k-note :in her face, he had turned her nut of his " palace in Piccadilly," and forbidden her to enter it again. Tin pretty V duchess' " pathetic tale moved all hearts, and loud denunciations were heard of the brutal Kng,lish mi-loKl's ways. A subscription was raised Vn onto- to contest the validity of the marriage in the English courts, and altogether afrt'io ' I roubles found their way into the ' pockets of the charming victim of 1 British barbarism. Finally a suspicions police official referred to the ] Almanach de (lotha, from which he S learn* that " Birmingham had no ' duke 1 .". Thte adventuress, however, Ibrtwvned it out, a«d declared thttt

her husband had been •' made a duke to celebrate the annexation of Thi- I W : the obdurate policeman refused to believe .he I story, and tho •■• Duchess of Birmin- I ham now languishes in the Samara I gaol. Passengers who arrived at Sydney recently by the coasting steamer ' Eden, troru the South Coast „ > remarkable sight. Speaking of the I trip one of the officers says :t"i„ all ! J ... J ' COrS J huvc ••«-'» the I •South Coast trade, I have never seen I the bush (.res along the- coast so ex- I tensive and so fierce as thev are at present. The Dromedary 'Mountain ' nos a magnificent spectacle It seemed to be on fire all over, and a I dense cloud of smoke hung over it and the surrounding country like an immeiMe pall. The glare of the sun thioughthe smoke on the surface of the sea made a weird sight, bring reflected on the waves from a deep ruby rod to a rich jroldcii vol lowand with the rising and falling of the waves made the swi look liku a fierycoal Burned leaves were falling O IT the land, and immense numbers of half-burned leaves covered the ocean tor a distance of 15 miles north and south of Montague Island. We ' had the wind when passing Drome- j dary from the south-cast, and the ' scorched leaves were failing on our | decks from that direction." The East Bay Neck (Tasmania) ship canal has just been completed from plans and specifications of Mr C Napier Bell, M. Inst, C.lO. The canal cut through East Hay Neck (Tasmania) gives a waterway be tween Frederick Henry lia V lu .' ar - M hart, and Blackmail's ; ISuv, near Marian Island, on the east coast, i thus saving a long and orten very stormy passage round by the open sea Ihe canal from low water, on either side is 70 chains, with long approaches dredged through shallow to deep water of the ba\s on either side. .The greatest depth of cutting* is about H.Mt through day, with layers of cemented sand. The ends being secured by rlams.tho cutting was excavated in tho dry, heavy pumping being required to keep' down spring and rain water. The cutting is 18ft wide at the bottom, with two to one slopes, the approaches being 33ft wide, and a .siding i. s provided to Jet vessels pass each other. Tho depth is 10ft at low wator with sfi rise of the tide. A line swing-bridge carries thu main road over the canal ; the road-way, car-

j i'i«l on iron girders VK . in „ ; , column of ~£„*£ °" «■ MP-' SOfu wide, and room u *V" S ~ deepen „„„ Vn , "'a^,, 1 " £ 'imivd in t!,o fur ,„•,. i,v , ,e ~ , canted thatacun-entwoudchie: ! flow from the north t o the. sou h , t'S now fo„ )K l that „ current of to three miles an hour n! ws ■ |«mlerirom south to north and < ™>nmer Iron, north to K()||( j » irregular interval during K ales. Th \ C ; I m, ™' l «! '<»■• tTio use of coasting Reamers and n S hin„ cruft. ! At Pulsnitz, near Dresden, a family of seven persons named Kreuden»KTß_ was , ouml ,„ u ,, k „. t . d „ IK . ' "iR in December. A son-in-law of ■ the parents was afterwards arrested.