SCIENCE SIFTINGS

New Zealand Tablet, 23 August 1917, Page 30

SCIENCE SIFTINGS

By “Volt.”

Mr. Thomson recently asked the Prime Minister whether, during his visit to England, he brought under the notice of the Imperial authorities the shale deposits of New Zealand as a source for the supply of oil for the Navy ? The Minister, in reply, said arrange* ments are being made by the Imperial Government for an exhaustive report on the mineral- resources" of every part of the Empire, New Zealand included y and an organisation has already been set up with this object in view. The output of sandbags in Scotland has become prodigious, and the following marvellous calculations made in France have much interest: — has been figured out that our sandbags on the Western front. if piled up in a conical heap, assuming them to be full, would make a hill 900 feet high and seven miles round at the base. Their total weight would be more than 800,000,000 tons. If laid end to end, these astonishing bags would encircle the earth 136 times or reach more than one-thirtieth of the way to the sun. Laid on the ground they would occupy 600,000 acres. At least one celluloid collar was summarily “scrapped” as a result of a lecture given by Nurse Everett at Petone (says the Post'). One question asked by a member of the audience was as to the cause of his suffering at night from a stiff neck. The nurse at once, without examining the patient, diagnosed the trouble as the result of tree perspiration around the neck, conducing to rheumatism, and on closer examination at once spotted the offending collar as the cause of the trouble. The celluloid shuts in the perspiration, which, when cold, causes a chill. She stated that much wrist and throat trouble was caused among nurses when the regulations forced them to wear celluloid collars and cuffs. A correspondent signing himself “R.F.”<- sent a letter to the editor of the Lyttelton Times, - inquiring about the mineral wolfram. Inquiries made by a reporter elicited the information that wolfram is used for the preparation of tungsten, and 1 is black in color. It has been found in New Zealand in small quantities, particularly in Stewart Island and on the West Coast. Large quantities of-wolfram have been found in Queensland, Portugal, Burmah, and other parts of the world. It is used in the preparation of armor plate.. The value of wolfram is determined by the amount of - tungsten found in it. At the present time all wolfram produced in the Empire is bought by the British Government for war purposes, the Government giving 555 ; per cent, per unit of tungsten, or £209 per ton. It is a remarkable fact that the recent series of earthquakes has been most evident and most persistent in the Wairarapa district (states the Press). An explanation of this was sought from a leading geologist. He stated that the centre of the earthquakes had not yet been fixed, as the records were not available, but it was thought that its centre lay out to sea. If so, it might be that the Wairarapa was the nearest land. There was a fault or earthquake line running in the direction of the Chatham Islands to New Zealand, parallel with the Ruahine, Tararua, and Kaikoura ranges. If the centre of the recent disturbances was at the northern end of that line, on which many earthquakes have been plotted, the Wairarapa would be

affected. The line was v;approximately 100 miles in length, and w recent -earthquakes in the vicinity of Gis-borne-indicated - that the fault extended as far north as that district. Volcanic signs are all on the west of the Ruahine *range/ except for some very ancient volcanic rocks (of the tertiary period) on the East Coast. Residents of North Wairarapa-have had an uncanny experience since the big earthquake, shocks having continued with monotonous regularity. Pronounced tremors were felt in Masterton at 3.30 and 6.50 on the following morning.