BY AIRSHIP TO THE POLE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 57, 8 March 1907, Page 4

BY AIRSHIP TO THE POLE

''Wearing mi unimpeachable top lull, I a cane in onu hand, the oilier thrust | deep iu his overcoat pocket, the man i who expects to reach tlie Xorlli I'ole ill a sleerable baloon, and who is spuiiiling a fortune of ,C70,00U to .11011.(100 to do it, was sauntering around the great iiillate.i carcase which has already weathered one Arctic season, when I entered the Oaler-e des Machines" (writes the l'ar.s correspondent of tii<> London "Tribune'). Mr Weliiuan is certainly convinced that, his chance of success are great, but the quiet conlidcnce witli which he eliatted to me of liis plans resembled ill no way the 100 positive eocksurcness that had been attributed to him. "People have ■i.'i'oed," lie said, "thai as the binges! i.-iaiicc ye I covered by any stecrablo batoou is 100 miies, which was done by

M. Lebaudy's Pa trie, i t is_bcynnd hop:that anyone can cross the (iOO miles separating ISpitzbergeii from the Pole, ilie answer is that my airship is bigger and has a tremendously larger earning capacity than the Pair e. 1 shall take 3000 kilos of essence for my iim-

ter. At a speed of twenty-eight kilometres (171/;, miles) an hour, that would last me 110 hours, tlie motor running continuously. 1 reckon thai my dirigeablc' can remain in the air from liitcen to twenty days.' "And how long do you tli.nk your n< riel voyage to the Pole will lake if you are fortunate enough to lvaeli that ous poiutY'' Jlr Wcllniai! was asked. "That depends mostly on the wind. We might get then: in thirty hours, of we might take four days, or even a week, at tlie niaNiniuin," he replied. Mr Wellman will make his dash for the I'ole at the end of July or beginning of August and iu those Iwo months the temperature even in the Arctic region, is not extraordinarily low, hovering generally a few degrees below or above freezing-point. He has deilrised means for preventing his motor carburetter from freezing.

Certainly the most, notable engineering achievement recently hereabouts (writes a Mew \'<ork corn(.jioiidcnt) has been the practical completion this week of tin; rapid transit tunnel beneath the East River. \\ ork on the tunnel was begun in March 19011, w.th the sinking of the 40ft shafts at the Battery. One month later Gut'l shafts ■jvere sunk in llenry street, Brooklyn. Horizontal tunnelling eastward from the battel'y was begun in May an! westward from llenry street, Brooklyn, in February, 1004. As soon atlic Brooklyn tunnel reached Furnian streets new shafts were sunk, and the old ones closed. The two tubes were started under the river about the same time, but the north tube was kept slightly in advance of the south tube. The tunnrj advanced mor<.( rapidly from the Brooklyn side, where it soon t-truck the soft clay, than from the Manhattan side, where it penetrated 2200 ft of solid rock. Last Saturday 90ft of Gin pipe was driven through between the shields and the alignment of the tubes tested. It was discovered that the two shields would meet practically as planned, the error of latelial alignment being so small a fraction of an inch as to be absolutely inconsequential.

A remarkable experience happened at midday on Saturday week to two recent arrivals at (lie Poseidon rush, in Victoria. Two men, named llannon and Gascoync, went to the tiel 1 a few days ago alniu.-t "dead broke,' and seemed a claim, which did not for the time being respond to then- Impes of fortune. So low were tiie:r linaaecs that oil Friday night they spent Iheir last lid for a loaf of bread, and sent to Melbourne to borrow a few shillings. During Saturday morning they sunk a hole 111 the shallow ground, about live chains from prospifior South, and to (heir joy unearthed a nugget of almost pure g'dl. we ghing 87 ounces. A .Melbourne eorrespoadent reports that the past week was rather quiet at "the rush,'' and the only other nugget of any size was that obtained by Wragge HlO-. weghiug 'l'l oz. A peculiar find of gold lias, it is said, been made by a re-ideui ot Linton. A goose was killed, and being opened, rough specks of gold were found, the lot beingfc'about three quarters of a pennyweight, valued at lis. Evidently the gold had been p'eked up wiiiUt the goose was feeding on the roads.

Lord XorlhcM, formerly Sir Alfred Harnrsworth, of England, may !"■ 011 titled the greatest newspap.-r mag nate of the world. He owns, unci actively directs some forty prosperous dailies and othejr Lord Xoi'thcliff has lately secured for hn publications tlic services of l'omeiay burton, one of the nio'-t eflje.ent young editor.sj who have won a reputation ill the United States. Mr BuiUm i* to receive in' his new position the salary of 20,00 ft dolars a year. His career has "been one of brilliant successes and of repeated advancement. From the position of a boy in a small newspaper cilice, Mr Burton ro»e 111 time to be the Washington correspondent of the Brooklyn Eagle. Aftciwards he became managing director ot the New York World, and subsequently an important member of the stall o the llearst papers in New York.