Miscellaneous.

Waipukurau Press, Issue 310, 19 September 1908, Page 3

Miscellaneous.

The only woman lighthousekeeper in England recently surrendered her lighthouse, after 35 years’ service. The Leasowe lighthouse, which is being closed by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board in favour of the flashlight buoys, has been for 15 years in the sole charge of Mrs Williams,

It is announced that the Equitable Life Assurance Association of New York is to put up a building in that city sixty-two stories in height and overtopping every other structure now in existence or likely to be built. This is to be done not because it will be a profitable investment, but as an advertisement, to the end that the Equitable Company may be kept in the public mind.

In the House of Commons on Monday (says the “ Spectator ” of July 18th) Mr Arthur Lee opened the debate on the Navy Estimates. In the course of his speech he turned to what we cannot help feeling is a very serious question. There were, he declared, at present building in private yards in this country three vessels of the Dreadnought class for Brazil. Past experience showed that whereas Brazil had many ships built in this country, very few of them remained in her navy to-day. Brazil was rather a speculator in warships, and if she had found this profitable in the past, why not in the future ? A sudden and unexpected addition of three Dreadnoughts to the fighting strength of any first-class naval Power would completely upset the balance upon which our shipbuilding programme was framed.

Sweeping over a large part of America, the “ great hot wave ” of July, 1908, will long be remembered for the suffering and discomfort it brought and for the number of its victims. In the Eastern and Middle States, where the mercury climbed to a record height, the mortality from sunstroke and heat was the heaviest in many years. Nor was it confined to the cities, for the sea

beaches and the public parks yielded their quota of those who died in giving battle to the deadly heat which they could not escape. In New York the temperature was like that of an oven, and the climax was reached only after the record had reached twenty-four deaths and eighty-eight prostrations in a single day. Then there was a sudden change of wind and the superheated, gasping millions took fresh courage and a new lease of life. The “ hot spell” for the time being was over.

A correspondent of the “ Hot Lakes Chronicle ” says: I was present at one of the entertainments given, by the Maoris on Saturday night, and among other items produced for the amusement of the audience was a haka by six r who were announced to appear as specimens of the “starving Maori.” After the announcement there appeared on the platform six Maoii wahines, any one of whom would have turned the scale at fourteen stone. All were in the best condition, as may be imagined, and had a very different appearance to tile illustration one has seen depicting the starving Indians during the Indian famines. With others, I am inclined to the opinion that there is little foundation for the assertion that any Maori is in a state of starvation.

The marvel of the telepone has become commonplace through general usage. Yresh interest, how - ever, is likely to be aroused in its wonderful possibilities oy the invention of Herr Gustav Grzanna. His marvellous apparatus has been exhibited in Germany, where it has aroused profound interest. Herr Grzanna can transmit handwriting 1 , sketches, etc., over an ordinary telephone wire for very considerable distances and within the period of a few seconds, thus making a considerable advance on the old system of electric writing at a distance. He uses a low tension current, viz., 12 volts, in the transmitting and receiving boxes, and his apparatus can be made an auxiliary of common telephonic communication, and, therefore, its commercial utilisation in ready to hand.