TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8196, 28 July 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

Referring to the case of leprosy reported from one of the Maori pahs near Waikaiemoan&, Dr Po v onre, Native Urn* !th Officer, tninks it may be only a false alarm. "Wo know absolutely nothing about it," he says "So far the only lepers to our knowledge are those who are isolated, as far as possible. One ot! them is at Waucanui, and the others are further north. They have been removed from their family oirces, and persons have been appointed to look after tbem;"

Gas from cocoanutu is the latest illuminant. The coal of the Philippines has been found unsuitable for gas-making purposes. The Government, therefore, has been experimenting in the laboratories and has found that a gas of great illuminating power may bo produced by a very simple method from ooooanut oil. The oil is slowly fed into retcrts whiob are already red hot. Here it volatilises very rapidly, leaving a small residue of tar. Bulk for hulk the oil has a much greater productiveness in gas than coal, and for this reason it is expected that if the supply can bo made to meet the demand it will be greatly used where ooooanuts are abundant.

During his presidential address at the annual meeting of the National Service League at the Royal United 1 Service Institution, on June 12th,

Karl Roberts made a sympathetic and appreciative reference to tbe late Premier of New Zealand. . He said that a feeliug of mingled sorrow and admiration mnst have gone through the Empire at tbe news of tbe death of tbat great democratic Imperialist;, Mr Seddon, whose supreme object in life seemed to be to do everything possible to secure a closer union between all Britons at home and beyond the seas. He was inspired by an intense desire to see tbe scattered portions of tbe Empire united in tbe strung bonds of friendship and mutual affection. This faut, and the loss which they bad sustained, made it particularly interesting to members of tbe League tn remember that Mr Seddon was one of i,the first to give his warm approval to its objects shortly after it was founded.

The preliminary report of the Commission whiou is inquiring into the causes of the earthquake which wrecked Sau Frannisoo states that in the general terms the causes are attributed to tbe theory that stresses are generated in the earth's crust, and accumulate until they exceed the strength of the rooks composing the crust, and find relief in sudden ruptures. The earthquake of April 18 is said to have been due to one of these movements, and tbe rift is described as extending from the vioinity of Point Arena to tne neighbourhood of San Juan, B nito County, a distance of 185 miles. The evidence of tbe rupture and of the differential movement is clearly defined in a continuous furrow in the surface euil several feet wide. The average horizontal displacement is 2ft wide. Modern classes of structures appear to have been relatively passive, while the "made" ground in their vicinity was profoundly disturbed. The weak points in frame buildings were the faulty underpinning, laok of bracing, and the chimneys. Pipe lines on low swampy ground or "made" ground are in greater danger of destruction than those on high ground underlaid. In San Prancisoo the most violent destruction of tbe buildings was on tbe "made" ground, whiuh behaved »s jelly in a bowl. The minor shocks continued for maoy days after April 18tb, and in this respect the earthquake accords in behaviour with other earthquakes in the past. Tbe minor shocks which suooeeded the main one. are interpreted gtnerally aa due to the subordinate adjustment of tbe earth's crust in the tendency to reach equilibrium after the chief movements.