THE FIRE ON THE WAIRARAPA.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2136, 3 November 1885, Page 2

THE FIRE ON THE WAIRARAPA.

(united press association.) Gisborne, this day. A passenger gives a narrative of the fire on board of the Wairarapa. As soon as the alarm was given he rushed into the alley way. He saw the fire coming through the bulkhead on the aft side of the alley way which crosses the ship at this part. The fire was a seething mass of white flame, and must have been burning for some time on the other side of the partition before the alarm was given, Some of the passengers were with difficulty aroused from the stupor produced by the smoke. The ladies were particularly unfortunate, the greater immbgp escaping in a single gpqent, but they were quickly supplied with blankets. He thinks there was great neglect somewhere, for it was not till the fire had a firm hold, and burnt through the partition, that any alarm was given, and ten minutes' more delay would have been death to many. Had a watch been kept below, the fire would have been discovered earlier, and extinguished with little difficulty, A rough eomputation has been made, from which it is estimated that the clothing, money, watches, luggage, and effects lost by the passengers would be about £2OOO. Some lost all their clothes but what they stood up in. One man states that he recovered his pocketbook, but some notes were taken from it. The Wairarapa left for Auckland at 1.30 p.m. yesterday, and after landing passengers and cargo, returns to Port Chalmers to refit

THE FLORA OF BANK NOTES. A few months ago we spokijfe the alg® and bacteria that are found in the spaces between the figures and letters of coins, and that are due to prolonged circulation, Mr Reinsch;. who was the one that began this sort of inv.estig,ition#as since thsn discovered two-new specifaof algae upon money—' Chroococcue mmtarrn,' Reinsoh, and ' Flwococm monetarum' Reinsch. On another hand, Mr Jules Schaarschmidt, private teacher of cryptogamic botany at the Hungarian University of .Kolasvar, has undertaken the same study on bank bills.

Upon carefully examining the folds, etc., of any bank notes whatever, there may be readily seen thereon a deposit of dirt and dust. By slightly scratching the surface of the note in these places with a needle or scalpel, and afterward transferring the - matorial thus obtained to a glass slide and mixing it with a drop of distilled water, and then examining it with a high power of the microscope (Bock's one-tenth inch objective), we may readily detect a number of schizomycetes, alg®, etc, Mr Schaarschmidt ■ more - particularly examined the bills of the Austro-Hungar-ian Bank, old (1848-49) as well as new, and Russian .one-rouble bank notes.. Upon all these bills, even thagsewest and apparently cleanest, there vrarfound an abundant cryptogamic vegetation, as well as several microbes, The bacteria of putrefaction (Bacterium termo, Dujardin) was found on all the bills. examined, and on all parts of their surface, In the incrustationsthat are found upon the edges and folds may bo seen grains of starch, especially those of wheat, fibres of cotton and linen, and fragments ,of hair, etc. Upon the Austro-Hungarian onejgtfin bills we find, in addition, many saccharomycetes,especiallySaccharmycescerevisce (yeast of beer). Different species of algto ofthegenusM'c)'ococcus,andoficj)io{!ion'a! (to which belongs the species which is parasitic upon the tongue and teeth of man) and some Bacilli, which are other organisms that are to be found habitually in such deposits, The two new species of algte described by M, Reinsch are very rare on bank notes, It seems that they prefer 20franc pieces to one florin notes, and yet these latter occasionally harbor colonies of green celled Pknrococci, The same is the case with the five-florin notes, which sometimes carry small Ohroococci of a beautiful bluish green upon the surface. list of the cryptogams and other (Jpnisms found by Mr Schaarschmidt upon the bank notes mentioned:

1. Micrococcus, several varieties. 2. Bacterium termo. 3. Bacilhs, various forms. 4. Leptotbix, various forms. 5. Saecharomyces ccrevisiw, 0. Chroococcus monetarum, *!' Pieurococcws monetarum. It is evident that, from a hj®enic standpoint, a microscopic study of wjects that are in daily use presents, great interest.—Science ct Nature.