Dec. 12, 1884.] 



♦ KNOWLEDGE 



489 



THE ROWLAND HILL BENEVOLENT FUND. 



WE have received the following communication from the Lord 

 Mayor; — "Sir, — 1 desire, with your kind permission, to 

 make a very special an<l earnest appeal to the public on behalf of 

 the Rowland Hill Benevolent Fund, of which I am a trustee, and 

 which has for its object the relief and assistance of Post Office 

 employes distressed from poverty, age, or infirmity, and of their 

 widows and orphans throughout the United Kingdom. When it is 

 remembered that the number of persona employed in the Post 

 <.)ffice is over 53,000. and that cases of distress are very frequent 

 and pressing, the absolute need of some such organisation as this 

 becomes apparent. 



" It is not for a moment suggested that the remuneration given 

 to Post-Office employes is less liberal than it should be, but what I 

 venture to urge is that the necessary and unavoidable conditions 

 of the Service bring about, in many instances, distress and hard- 

 ships which, though unable to be alleviated by a public department 

 spending public money, might well and very appropriately be 

 dealt with through the charitable and compassionate aid of 

 the trading community, and of private donors throughout the 

 country. I 7nay mention incidentally that while such of the 

 employes of the Post Office as have served over ten years are 

 entitled to a pension on retirement, proportionate to the length of 

 their service, persons who have been less than ten years in the 

 department, and who through illness or other causes are obliged to 

 give up their situations, receive nothing but a small gratuity. In 

 the case of the pensioners, the grant absolutely ceases on the 

 death of the individual, and is in no case contiued to his widow or 

 orphans. It is obvious, therefore, that in such a state of things 

 very wide scope is afforded to public benevolence to deal with the 

 numbers of instances in which incapacitated Post Office servants 

 and their families, and the widows and orphans of former employes 

 are involved in great destitution and distress. 



" I venture to think that owing to the peculiar conditions inci- 

 dent to the daily work of most of the servants of the Post Office, 

 their exposure to inclement weather and consequent tendency to 

 contract dangerous ailments, they have a special claim upon the 

 sympathy of the public. Again, the verj' fact of employment in 

 postal work betokens that the employes are persons of excej)- 

 tionally high character and honesty, and fit to be entrusted with 

 the delivery of those important communications so indispensable to 

 the conduct of trade and commerce throughout the country, and to 

 the requirements of family and public life. 



" The Rowland Hill Benevolent Fund has hitherto been so 

 modestly conducted that perhaps its very existence, and, certainly, 

 its needs and merits, h.tve not come prominentU' before the 

 charitable public. Its annual income is only about £570, and the 

 donations last year amounted to £1U0. From these sources tem- 

 porary help was rendered to 74 apjilicants during the last twelve 

 months, but the small amount at the disposal of the trustees unfor- 

 tunately precluded them frotn dealing adequately with many 

 distressing cases brought to their knowledge. 



"It is almost impossible to discuss any question bearing on 

 the Post - Office Department, especially in reference to the 

 welfare of its officers, without recurring to the great loss 

 recently sustained by that department by the death of the 

 late lamented Postmaster - General. The trustees of the 

 Rowland Hill Fund have, therefore, resolved to associate his 

 honoured memory with its object by setting apart a limited por- 

 tion of it — to be called '' The Fawcett Memorial Fund "■ — for the 

 benefit of those employes or their widows or orphans who may be 

 afflicted with blindness. 



" In all these circumstances, I have thought it right to open 

 a. special fund at the Mansion House, to enable the public to con- 

 tribute to this very deserving charity; and I earnestly commend it 

 to the attention and sympathy of the country. — I am, sir, your 

 obedient servant, George S. Nottage, Lord Mayor. 



" The Mansion House, London, Dec. 3." 



Feesh Discoveries .it the Fish River C.^ves, — These natura' 

 .subterranean wonders, which more than rival the famous Kentucky 

 Caves, have had their name altered by the New South Wales 

 Government, and will henceforth be known as the Jenolan Caves. 

 The keeper reports that he has made another interesting discovery, 

 having found the entrances to several new caves, the existence of 

 which has hitherto been unknown. Having proceeded a short 

 distance into one of them, he was lowered down over a precipice, 

 at the bottom of which he found a number of fossil bones. Some 

 of the remains are stated to be those of an animal of the tiger 

 species, and the others are at present unknown. The exploration 

 of the interior of the caves was, however, retarded for the time 

 being, owing to their being Hooded by heavy rains. 



iflisrellanra. 



We hear that Dr. J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., &c., the Editor of Science 

 Gossip and author of nnnierous scientific works, is about to proceed 

 to .\ustralia on a lecturing tour. If he only contrives to import 

 the charm of his " Sagacity and Morality of Plants" into his oral 

 addresses, he can scarcely fail to secure very large audiences indeed. 



I.v a volume recently issued by the United .States Census Bureau 

 there is an interesting survey of the history and present condition 

 of the American newspaper press. The list of daily papers in the 

 Union reaches the astonishing average of one for every 10,000 of 

 the population. The number of towns having 10,000 inhabitants 

 and no daily newspaper is declared to bo very small. In the 

 United Kingdom the average is one daily paper to about 120,000. 

 — Athena-um. 



The National Health Society, which has done so much during 

 the last thirteen years to improve the hygienic condition of the 

 population, and which may be fairly regarded as the pioneer in the 

 present great sanitary movement, appeals for increased subscrip- 

 tions. All who agree that it would be regrettable that so very 

 obviously useful an institution should be crippled for want of funds 

 may address the Secretary at 4i, Berners-street, W. 



The Chairman of the Lancashire and Cheshire Telephone Com- 

 pany (Mr. Chas. Mosley), at a meeting held on Monday, said the 

 Company intended to open " call " offices in various parts of 

 Manchester, Liverpool, and other large to^vn^, as well as at railway 

 stations, and persons using them would be charged threepence per 

 message. Trunk wires would at once be laid which would open 

 communications between Manchester, Liverpool, and other Lan- 

 cashire towns, and non-subscribers would be able to use the com- 

 munication at a charge of sixpence for three minutes' conversation. 

 Arrangements had also been made with the National Company, the 

 effect of which would be that the whole of Yorkshire would be 

 placed in communication with Manchester and Lancashire gene- 

 rally. Stations would also be opened in districts around Man- 

 chester to bring in domestic subscribers to the exchange. 



The first of a series of popular lectures upon the subject of 

 precautions — national, local, and personal — to be taken against 

 cholera was delivered on Monday evening, at the Parkes Museum 

 of Hygiene, by Mr. Ernest Hart, Chairman of the National Health 

 Society, who treated the subject in its national and international 

 aspect. Director-General Crawford, of the Army Medical Staff, 

 presided. The lecturer having sketched the history of international 

 law and custom on the subject, maintained that quarantine had 

 proved useless and mischievous ; it had never kept cholera out of 

 any European country or confined it to any district. Referring to 

 the epidemics at Toulon, Marseilles, and elsewhere, he pointed out 

 that those towns which had invited cholera by their neglect of the 

 first laws of sanitation had suffered the most severely. Rome, 

 with its pure supply of water and its relatively efficient drainage, 

 had remained free from cholera ; while Naples, with its ground soil 

 impregnated with sewage, and its filthy habitations and polluted 

 water-supply, had suffered most lamentable losses. He believed 

 that the recent outbreak in Paris was due to the temporary supply 

 of a highly polluted water to various districts. It had been 

 repeatedly demonstrated that the incidence of cholera was in exact 

 proportion to the pollution of the water-supply and the absence of 

 means of carrying off refuse. Cleanliness, in its fullest, widest, 

 scientific, and municipal sense, was the prime element of safety. 



The new installation of the electric light at the Royal Courts 

 of Justice was successfully inaugurated on Monday, and the whole 

 of the lights were kept running until the rising of the judges. The 

 site of the plant is the vaulted basement beneath the Great Hall, 

 in which also is placed the ventilating and warming apparatus for 

 the vast pile of buildings. The electrical plant consists of two 

 single cylinder Galloway engines, each capable of indicating.' 

 110-horse power, and supplied with steam from two fine Lancashire 

 boilers. The dj-namos are of the Crompton-Burgin type, and eight 

 in number. One engine and one boiler only are employed in the 

 lighting service ; the other engine and boiler being in reserve, as is 

 also one of the dynamos. Two of these machines are employed on 

 the six Crompton arc lights which illuminate the Great Hall, and 

 the other five supply current to the 600 incandescent lamps which 

 light the various courts and corridors. The dynamos run at about 

 1,500 revolutions per minute, and give off llOampcres current with 

 an electro-motive force of 85 volts. The incandescent lamps are of 

 20-eandle-power light each, and the arc lights of 2,000 candle- 

 power each. The effect of the lighting is very good, and the power 

 of the one engine employed upon the present installation is suffi- 

 ciently ample to allow of a considerable addition to the lighting 

 being made when required. 



