Thursday Is. Topics

Electric Light For

Town

(From Our Own Correspondent) THURSDAY IS., November 1.

TENDERS have been called for the various sections of the Town Coun cil’s electric light scheme and if these prove reasonable in cost we may expect to see town lighting within eighteen months.

The power plant will be housed near the swimming baths in a fibrolite build ing, and from here the wires will radiate on overhead wooden poles. The whole residential area will be served from the Wanetta station to the hos pital, and a trunk line is to be laid out as far as the reservoir, where in future all pumping will be carried out with electric power. The generating machine will most probably come from Crossleys, Manchester, but in any case it will be British. An electrical engi neer and one assistant will be in charge of the power house.

The service is to be continuous. It is estimated that the cost of lighting at 1/6 per unit will amount to £7/10/annually in the case of an average consumer. Power for cooking and iron ing, etc., will be supplied more cheaply, perhaps as low as 4d. per unit. The cost of wiring and fitting will come to about £15 for a medium-sized house, and the Council will be prepared to do this work at consumer’s expense.

Spare parts, accessories, such as fans, etc., will be kept for the convenience of residents at the Council’s office.

Twenty-four street lights are being erected, including those on the jetty, and in placing poles for these it is hoped that no interference with our street trees will result.

Signs Of An Early Wet

During the month of November, the favourite topic of North Queenslanders is whether there will be an early “wet” or not. Signs and portents are notori ously unreliable in predictions of this sort, taut, as everyone who takes part in the discussion favours an early on set, there is no one left to say “I told you so,” when Providence decides other wise. We shudder to think what might befall the man who is foolhardy enough to remark that there may be a late wet; such opinions are unpopular in N.Q. hamlets, and tropical tempers would surely resent such utterances.

Even as these lines are being written it may be that some weather prophet is giving reasons for his faith in a local pub, where the subject usually comes up at this time of year; perhaps his wife’s tassel fern, or her corns, are shooting, or he heard one of George’s milking cows sneeze twice the night before.

Everybody has his own particular fan cies on the matter.

It may be taken for granted that with the usual cussedness of Nature there will be a delayed onset of the rains when the town water supply gives out earlier than usual, and as it is lasting better this year than for some time past, the writer joins the major ity and plumps for rains in early De cember.

Concerning Lights And

Lighthouses

A familiar feature of Thursday Is land’s harbour, the oil lighter, will shortly disappear for good, its useful ness having come to an end by the installation of increased storage for oil on board the two lighthouse steam ers which visit Torres Straits regularly.

The lighter, which resembles a cross between Noah’s original ark and an up-to-date destroyer, will probably be towed to Brisbane before the end of the year, and some hundreds of pounds in upkeep and wages saved by its de parture.

Apropos of the Commonwealth Lights service comes a little story of how the goose that lays the golden eggs may be killed by clever people. Some time ago engines for hauling stores from beach to lighthouses were installed and the keepers saved much unnecessary labour. Two bright spirits at a south ern station, after enjoying the use of their engine for six months, put in a claim for wages as engine drivers, and the Department was forced to pay it.

But as the engines themselves were not compulsory they were all removed to prevent further impositions, and nowa days the old back-breaking system of doing your own carrying has been re vived.

Gold In Papua

Some years ago a very observant man with a scientific training told me that gold will be found along the course of the southern escarpment of the central Papuan plateau, a region which is per haps somewhat more precipitous in nature than a plateau is usually sup posed to be. At any rate he based his opinion on the fact that the Edie Creek (New Guinea) lodes were found along the northern boundaries of the same plateau. No one would grudge our neighbours in Papua a really good gold field as some compensation for their present troubles.

For the year 1928-1929, 313 European males and 77 females were treated in New Guinea Administration hospitals.

Of that total twelve males and one female (3.34 per cent.) died. Malaria was responsible for 88 admissions and three deaths.