ENGLISH CLIPPINGS.

Temuka Leader, Issue 269, 8 June 1880, Page 2

ENGLISH CLIPPINGS.

Last year wai one of the most disasterous for hop-growers ever known-; its < stimated that the 63,000 acres under cultivation only produced bops equiva-r 1 nt to L 65,000 old duty« During the last sixty tears ihere have lieea only .»ix occasions ' v f similarly bnd crops. It is a curious fact in the ensuing year with an increase of acreage, whilst on several occasions when the' crop hat been aSn-rmally lare", the following year has been marked by a decrease of acreage.

At the first ordinary general meeting of the shareholders of the New Zealand Agricultural Company, Limited, held a few days ago at the Gannon Street Hotel, London, Sir Julius Vogel presiding, a report was adopted stating that the net profits up to the 31st July in the colony, and the 31st October here amounted to L 54,851 9s Id. »fter <V->

ducting the various amounts, including the 2s. 9d. interim dividend already paid, there remained L] 2,942 to dispose of This was dealt with by placing L 3,000 to a reserve funds account; by paying a dividend of 2s 6d a share on L 7 les. paid up, which, including the dividend on the vendors' shares, would amount to L 7,384; and by carrying fo.ward the balance of L 2,594. The combination of shipping interests in London, wuich has been spoken of as the shipping "ring," is reported to to have pr< V »kfd concerted action on the i art of colonial importers, who have had to pay increase I freights in quence of brokers chartering on their ovn account instead of doing busin ss a< formerly. By a very recent mail instructions are said to have been sent to the representatives on this side of 21 Ans'ralisin* importing firms not to allow any go««ls of the houses in qn- »-■ tioi. to puss through th • hands of any member of the "ring," but to employ an independent' broker This is to be done even if, for the present, the outside broker has to pay as high a rate of freight as is charged by the »* ring." L» Nature reports that a Paris engineer. M. de Ct-mbettes, has contrived a curious toy, by which fish are made to perform evolutions in vessel of water. The fish are of tin simi ar to those sometimes drawn abort with a magnet But in the present c»F3 the mechanism is concealed ani at ths operator's will the fish swim in circles now in one direction, now in the other. In the wooden supports of the vessel is concealed a piece of soft iron in the fish and by its motion carries them along with it. With the aid of a commutator the motion is reversed.

According to La Nature, M. Lambrigot has invented a modification of Edison's phonographic matrices, by substituting sterine for the tin-foil and e'ectrotyping the impressed surface. It has been suggested that the seeleetrotypes, which can be mads very cheaply* may render great service in the study of foreign languages, for they preserve indefinitely and repeat as often as may be desired, words that are the most difficult to.pr<> ounce correctly. A true speaking dictio might thus be mado undertakin which thewilde?t fancy would not have Ir nied of a few J ear » ago.

A simple method of hardening steel stools is recommended by a German c . Having b«ated tha steel to white heat, it is only necessary to dip it for a moment in sealing-w*x then to take it out'and to dip it aga n repeating this process until the meta has cooled and it produces no impression on the wax. German engravers and watchmakers thus contrive to make their steel tools, almost as hard as a diamond.

The Chicago Railway Review say* t at ,t terrible bridge disaster wai receutly averted at Boston by the alertness of the engineer of » New Yo k and New England train and the Westing house air-brake. A railway bridge, of considerable importance had become s riously damaged, and no one was on* the* bridge or in the vicinity to w.-irn engineer, who saw the trouble when but a trains length from the brilae. He reversed and applied the brake, stopping the five cars 15 feet from the bridge abutment. But for this the train would would have gone into the river, -»nd, as th • tide was hh;h the loss of life woukl have lx\m great. The history of actual railway disaster is appalling enough, but there is an unwritten history of nccid. nts which ought to convey just as important lessons.