Adventures of an Aeronaut.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3454, 8 March 1890, Page 2

Adventures of an Aeronaut.

J. Ti Williams, who hadpreviou6ly successfully descended by parachute from a balloon, attempted to repeat the performance at the Ashfield Eco- ■. reation Gromid, near Sydney t last week When the balloon was almost fully inflated a small rent was causo/L. insido by ono of tlio ropes, andf Williams, giving the signal to lot go, was soon rapidly shooting upwards m . the damaged balloon. ' He was takear W toaheigntof several, thousand feet "- bofore the balloon appeared tocollapse. Williams was.howover, quite proparod and immediately released himself and the parachute'from his balloon.; All, this occurred some distanco to the south of the placo of ascent, and almost immediately.after Williams commenced his descent drifting towards the coast, he was lost to view behind a mass of clouds. Cabs wore sent to pick him up, and up to midnight nothing had been heard as tobis ; - • whereabouts. Next day ho was found' to have succeeded in lauding in the George Bivev, one of the arms of Sydney Harbour. He says he went up 20,000 ft, and that ho camo down so swiftly that he wont underneath the water several feet, Ho was much exhausted when picked up by a boat, —Evening. Star. , : • .•--" ; : . MISCELLANEOUS. T ■ln (lid New Hebrides there, is-a'' Babel' of tongues, but 'the 'Presbyterian missionaries have reduced 12 of thorn to writing. The 17 missionaries labouring on" the group are all busy with the work of translation. - New Guinea is tlio laud of 'beetles. ' A cataloguo of the coleoptera of •that .: happy land,..which.-has/ been'.pub. lislied s.C Sydney, sbSfciJ that" thero aro 2079 different varieties of theso insects in that part of the world, Thrcetrains lighted with electricity aro now being run regularly by the Midland railway of England. Ono of the latest applications of electricity is the making of a floor, mat that throws out heat-Hmjelcctrio h«ater,m fact, ill the form of a'matf An excellent device for warming the toes. In the Fiji Islands the remedy for a disease among the bananas was discovered through accident. Tha sea broke in and flooded the groun&i killed tho plants, but afterward now shoots free of tho disease were seen to spring up, and the planters have therefore taken to watering their infeoted plantations with sea water. Mrs N. G. Bartlett, of Chicago, the wife of a well-known analytical chemist, has discovered n process by • which photographs can bo devoloped without the old time process of y washing [in a dark room for hours and without staining the fingers, Tho pictures produced by Mrs process resomblo'Cuß etchings,

By an edict of Victor Emanuel the Waldesian Church has a recognised civil position, and can hold its property in its own nariie—a right not yet possessed by other Prolcstunt bodies iu Italy. The most fcrtilo land in Europe is a district of Eussia lying between the Carpathians and the Urals. Corn has been grown on somo of this land for 70 years without tho application of manure. Near-sightedness is overruniog the French peoplo as much as the U; Germans, Among tho senior brys :.▼ in the different French colleges more than 46 per cent are-near-sighted. Mies Von Finklostoin, Ihe lecturer on life in tho Holy Land, is reported to havo cleared £SOOO by her campaign in Australia. The terrible storm that overtook the Province of Catania, Sicily, early in December, was marked by a curious phenomenon. ■ Near San Matleo a rent was formed iu the earth from north to south nearly a niilo long, 9ft wido, and from Gfc to A SOft deep, Tho Manchester canal employs ■? 12,000 bands, and will be ready in 15 months, Tho three curates attached to the Church of Old Trinity, Now York, receive respectively £I6OO, £I2OO, and £BOO a yenr each, wliilo tho rector Dr Morgan Dix, Las £IOOO a.year and a beautiful houso in addition to a number of special allowances, In the wonderful wine cellar under

tho Hotel do Villo, in Bremen, there are 12 cases of holy winu, each caeo hffecribed with tho name of one of tho Apostles. This ancierj, wino was deposited in its present resting place 2G5 years ago. ' Emanuel Louis Carligny of Hyeres is supposed now to be tho sole survivor of the battle of Trafalgar. Ho was a cabin boy on board the French ship Eedoublablo, which .carried a crew of 800 men, of which only 130 survived. Tho London illustrated papers ato enjoying good sale on the Continent, owing to the spread of the English language. At Trinidad, where in 1805 the three first victims to leprosy could still lie pointed out, an investigation ordered by Governor Woodford in k 1818 revealed 73 lepers in a total pop--9 ulation of about 32,000. Iu 1878 tho number of lepers was ofliciallv stated lobe 860 iu a population of 120,000. France is goiug to put an increased tax upon strong liquors as a means of checking their saleas much as possible,