GENERAL NEWS

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 10713, 26 November 1912, Page 7

GENERAL NEWS

MOTOR OAR PRINT* A NEWSPAPER,

The "African Standard" was publulled at Nairobi under unusual cir- | eumstances, the Central News Agency reports. Owing to the breakdown of the electric supply, the- printing machinery was stopped. The propietors harnessed a motorcar to the printing press and ran off the edition at the expense of a. considerable quantity of petrol the paper appearing at the usual time without a hitch.

THE GREATEST OCEAN DEPTH. According to the "Geographical Journal," a depth v all previous records hiiis been sounded by the German survey-ship Planet forty nautical miles east of Northern Mindanao. The depth obtained wa>s 9780 metres, or 5348 fathoms, ami the sounding was obtained under conditions which permit the* fullest confidence in its accuracy, while a determination of bottom temperature and a sample of the sea-bottom at the spot were also secured. The greatest depth previously known was that found by the American ship Nero hear Guam in 1899, which was fixed afc 5268 fathoms. This has now been exceeded, therefore, by eighty fathoms.

A NEW METAL. From a London paper we learn that a scientific expedition under the Ib.. orship of the Academician, Bernardski, lias set out from Russia for the Fergahana Mountains, situated to the north of the, Painio in Turk<The object of the expedition is a metal said to be found there, and to enquire, into its properties. The new metal is described as a kind of brownish paste of considerable specific weight. In contact with acid it creates an intense cold without the formation of any gas. Another property ascribed to it is that of causing any substance which comes into contact with it to lose a certain amount of weight. The properties of this extraordinary metal are too remarkable to admit of acceptance until corroborative testimony is received.

NEW USES OF MATCHBOXES. The use of the match-box as a medium for propaganda wo have yet to learn, it seems, from our Continental neighbours. In England they aro already \ised, it is true, for purposes of advertisement. From Swedish matchboxes the rising generation commits to memory a more or less authentic text of native nursery rhymes;"but from Germany we have to learn the philanthropic possibilities. The Darmstadt Gazette announces that, the Grand Duchess of Hesse-Darmstadt 1 has discovered a new method of assisting the campaign against tuberculosis, in which she is a prominent worker. She has sent out a circular letter to the manufacturers of matches within the Grand Duchy-, asking them to assist the campaign by printing on one face of their match-boxes a succint list of rules of hygiene proventitive of tuberculosis. She hopes witii reason by this means to spread the knowledge of these simple rules of health through the most out-of-the-way parts of the country.