DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXXIII, Issue 29, 20 July 1905, Page 5

DIOCESE OF CHRISTCHURCH

(From our own correspondent.) July 17. On the feast of SS. Peter and Paul nine young ladies were received into the Order of Our Lady of Missions at the Convent of the Sacred Heart, Barbadoes street. Tihe impressive ceremony was conducted, in the unavoidable absence of the Very Rev. Vicar-General owing to illness, by the Very Rev. Dean G-inaty, S.M., in the presence of a number of local and visiting clergy At Rangiora last week the members of the legal profession met to make a presentation to Mr. M. Lynskey, who has retired from the position of clerk to the Bench on pension. Mr. M. S. Brown said that it was felt that something should be done to show the high regard anid appreciation which the Bar had for Mr. Lynskey, who was always ready to assist them. On their behalf he presented him with a highly polished case, containing pipes, with the inscription : ' Presented to M .Lynskey, Esq., by the legal profession practising, in the Kaiapoi district.' Mr. Lynskey, in replying, referred to the history of the Court, which he had been connected" with for nearly forty years, and thanlved them all cordially flor their kindwess. The following is a summary of the report on the Marist Brothers' School, furnished by Mr. T. S. Foster, M.A., Insipector to the North Canterbury Board of Education :— Reading, good, fluent, and expressive ; composition, carefully taught, with generally good results ; spelling, good ; writing, very good, paper work neatly and orderly arranged ; recitation, satisfactory ; arithmetic, taught on sound lines ; drawing, fair to very fair ; singing, satisfactory ; physical instruction, dumbbell exercises well done ; elementary science, a good course of lessons imparted, and illustrated by suitable apparatus ; in Class P., reaiing, writing, and spelling, good ; arithmetic, very fair ; order, discipline, and tone of school, good. The Inspector concluded thus :— The results of the examination point to careful training of the pupils, and effecthe treatment of the leading sublects of the syllabus, exemplified more particularly in the commendable quality of the reading and the writing. The percentage passed was 93. At the Catholic Club rooms on last Tuesday evening an interesting and instructive lecture was given by Mr. L. Birk6, electrical engineer of the municipal tramways, on the application of electricity to the system now in use in the city. Mr. J. R. Hay ward (vice-presi-dent) presided, and read apologies for the unavoidable absence of his Lordship the Bishop and of the president, Mr. R. O. Duncan. The subject was treated in a most comprehensive manner by the lecturer, and by the aid of the limelight a number of excellent views were shown illustrative of the lecture. ( These included a wide range of smbjects, some of which he had been intimately connected with, such as the Sydney power-house and the electric system of that city, where, at the time mentioned, there were 700 oars either running, ready for traffic, fcr under construction. The great electric works at Niagara were illustrated and explained, and also those of Switzerland, embracing the railways electltined, the electrical technical school at Zurich, operations at Geneva, and the huge lifts in connection with London's underground railways. The projected harnessing of the Waimakariri was touched upon, the feasibility of whioh the lecturer conceded to be quite possible and even probable. The power, he said, had only a distance of 27 miles to be transmitted, whereas electric power was brdught to San Francislco from a distance of 140 miles/ At the conclusion of the lecture, which was listened to most attentively by a large audience, a vote of thanks was proposed by the Very Rev. Vicar-General, seoon'ded by the Rev. Father O'Coftnell, arud enthusiastically accorded. The limelight was manipulated by Mr. Bearasley.

At the conclusion of his lecture at the Catholic Club rooms on Tuesday evening Mr. Dirks exhibited and explained a number of the fittings sjeen in daily use in the electric tramways. The turbine installed at the Christchurch power-house, which was of 1000 horse power made 1800 revolutions every minute and a half. Most people, he said, labor under the impression thjat electricians themselves do not really know whajt electricity is. The lecturer referred to this popular fallacy at the outset, and told Ms audience that the expert knew quite as much about the subtle fluid as the layman did about an apple or a potato. He explained that electricity was identical with ether, the all-pervading fluid, and likened it to water, except that one flowed through pipes and the other through wires. Referring to the popular fear of fatal consequences, by contact with the electric wires, such a danger exists only in the imagination of timid persons, explained Mr. Birks during his lecture. Since the inception of the new tramway system, many unenlightened people are firmly convinced tha£ should they by, any mischance come into contact with the electric current from the trolley wire or any other part of the system, the result would be instantly fetal. But Mr. Birks made it clear that such persons' were agitating themselves quite needlessly. The pressure of the tramway current was 600 volts, he stated. Now a pressure of 50 volts could just be felt when transmitted to the human body, whilst 100 volts gave a pleasing, comfortable feeling. Two hundred volts became painful, but not dangerous, and 1000 -volts would almost always iro\e fatal. But 600 volts— the tramway pressure—was not dangerous, though the shock was usually painful. The maximum allowable for tramway systems had been specifically laid down by the British Board of Trade, so as to come well under the fatal limit, and that maxirmim had not been exceeded in Christchurch, ' I hare often received a dozen or more shocks a day at the power-house,' remarked Mr. Birks, ' and have rfccei\ed no injury. I have taken my hand away and squealed, but have gone on working again.' Still it is not advisable for people to go about experimenting with live wires ; as Mr. Birks pointed out, the shock was ant to give a painful sensation, altnough there was no-( thing dreadful about it.