Erratic Lights.

From Our Own Correspondent.

THURSDAY IS., August 1.

LATELY, some of the automatic lights which help to mark the inner route along the Great Barrier Reef have been acting erratically.

Hannibal light was reported by one of the Torres Strait pilot service as flashing in an almost unbroken series, instead of doing its regular performance;

and last week another of the Strait’s captain-pilots intimated that the light at Restoration Island was winking in a manner other than the lighthouse authorities intended.

The “Calopus” went down imme diately from Thursday Island —a dis tance of about 150 miles —and matters were duly adjusted by the departmental officer. The cause of these variations is difficult to account for; but once again it is an indication of how, despite the precision of modern invention, the

human element cannot be entirely dis pensed with.

Goode Island light station, close to T. I., which was opened in the ’seven ties, at the time the settlement was transferred from Somerset to Thurs day Island, is having a new cottage erected and other work carried out. It was when the first buildings were going up that a passing ship called in at Goode Island to post some letters: and, discovering the buildings deserted, the captain reported that the keeper had been murdered by natives! As it hap pened, no official had then been appointed, and the buildings were awaiting their first occupant.

Suva—The Cross-Roads Of The South Pacific.

— Photo, by B. Stinson in “Missionary Review