HELIGOLAND ISLAND.

Tuapeka Times, Volume III, Issue 188, 14 September 1871, Page 3

HELIGOLAND ISLAND.

(From the "Philadelphia Press.")

As Heligoland, the smallest Colony in the world, and from its geographical position, near Denmark, and only 30 miles from the mouth of the Elbe, may become an object of interest, our readers roay like to know something about if. jTlns little island is about a mil© long, one-third of a mile broad, less than one-fifth of a square mile in area, and about two miles in circumference. It taked its name (Holy Land) from the Temple of Hertha (the Earth), the goddess worshipped by the tribe of the Angli, who lived opposite, and had erected a temple there in which they sometimes performed religious rites in her honor. At one time, as an ancient map shows, Heligoland was considerably larger than at present, containing tosvns, temples, and large districts, most of which the sea swallowed up between A. D. 706 and A. D. 1203, according to DAnville, the famous French geographer. By the end of the seventeenth century there* remained only about the the double the present extent of the island. Its contraction during the last thirty years has been caused by the immense number of rabbits which infest it, and have so mnch loosened the sandy soil by burrowing through it, that when ever the sea gets in, which often occurs in the high spring tides, the land crumbles away. On the Oberland, a rock 200 feefc high and 4200 paces in circumference, stands a town .of 350 houses and 2800 inhabitants. Lower down, but communicating with it by a flight of 173 steps, is Sandy Island, on which are 60 houses. There are two good ports, north and south, and a lighthouse. When Napoleon excluded England from Continental commerce Heligoland was important as a war station, and, from its situation near the mouths of the rivers Elbe and W oser, became a considerable smuggling depot. It was taken by England from Denmark in 1807, and fortifications, including four batteries, were immediately erected upon it. In 1814 Denmark was compelled to cede it to England. This Lilliput territory has a Governor appointed by England, yearly salary a6lsoo,J|anda Government Secretary at £000, and its external affairs are managed by an Executive Council of the islanders. The inhabitants are two distinct races — the natives, of Frisian race, true to the habits of their ancestors, the Sea-Kings of old, despise manual labor aid trade, but are bold and skilful sailors and adventurous fishermen, living by their sale of oysters, lobsters and haddocks, which realise about £5000 a year, and. very contemptuously regarding the merchants, storekeepers and cultivators, chiefly consisting of immigrants from Hamburg, or their descendants. These Frisians call themselves Englishmen, but will not allow that title to the other class. Heligoland isnotself-supporting as a colony. In ISGB its expenditure was £6333 agaiusta revenue of £4769. It exported nothing to England in 1862, and its imports from that country in the same year, amounted to only £158. Its supplies are obtained from Hamburg, with which it has a steamboat communication. It will be seen from these facts that Heligoland is of no importance per se, but from its position it certainly ought to belong to Germany rather than to England.

A man at Peabody, Mass., who had been treated for more than a yeay for paralysis of the throat, and who was for some time able to take only liquid nourishment, recently coughed, up an upper set of false' teeth, whisk he had swallowed in his sleep 15 months before, and which, lodging in the lower part of the throat, had been cause his trouble s,