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reduced, and, considering the fact that it is stated to require 

 at least 121b. of grain to make lib. of meat even in such 

 a profitable animal as a pig, it would seem better for us 

 to eat the grain ourselves to the fullest possible extent. 

 By a central London railway goods clearing house and in- 

 genious machinery, it is hoped to dispense with a large number 

 of railway wagons in use under the present system, and 

 effect a great economy. Most of these new arrangements, to 

 which we have been driven by causes arising from the war, 

 will doubtless stay with us after it and affect for good our 

 national prosperity. The metric system and decimal coinage 

 both find favour in many quarters, and their introduction 

 is probably only a question of time. A Bill for the establish- 

 ment, of decimal coinage has been introduced in Parliament 

 with the sovereign as the unit, divided into 1,000 " mils," 

 of which one " mil " would approximately equal a farthing. 

 An Aerial Post has already been established between Italy, 

 Sicily, and Sardinia. It was started on June 27th last, by 

 two seaplanes flying between Naples and Palermo, each 

 carrying 100 kilogrammes of mail bags. A scheme in con- 

 nection with our mineral productions, which amount in value 

 to 150,000,000, is the establishment of an Imperial Mineral 

 Resources Bureau, which will deal with their development 

 and utilization. Many large buildings,both public and private, 

 have been taken over by the Government for war purposes, 

 and it was seriously intended that the British Museum should 

 be converted into offices for the Air Board, but the proposal, 

 meeting with great opposition from scientists and others, 

 was finally abandoned, as other premises were available. 

 The plan could hardly have been carried out without great 

 damage, if not destruction, to many of the priceless collections, 

 and nothing but real necessity would justify it. Several 

 attempts have been made at various times to produce a 

 language suitable for universal use, but the idea has never 

 been extensively adopted. The nearest approach to this 

 state of things is Latin, which used to be a means of communi- 

 cation amongst the learned of different ations,and was doubt- 



