10 THE president's ADDRESS. 



Goldsworthy Gurney, of Bude, a man of modest and retiring 

 nature, claimed the discovery of the Steam Jet or Blast, which 

 has done so much to increase the rapidity of locomotion in this 

 country ; and his name deserves not to be forgotten among the 

 scientific worthies of Cornwall. 



Cornwall has always been noted for its practical engineers, 

 and in these days of rapid locomotion it is only fair to say, with 

 regard to one of those things most necessary for the safety of 

 trains, that the earliest invention of the Vacuum Brake bore the 

 honored name of Bolitho,* — and now, I believe, the most 

 ingenious and practical mechanical Brake was also invented in 

 Cornwall, by Mr. Parke Smith, of Lostwithiel. This brake is 

 now being tried on the Looe and Caradon railway, with, I believe, 

 great success. It would not be right for me to express any opinion 

 or rouse discussion on a question which has led to a good deal 

 of excitement in relation to one of our largest mines, but as last 

 year I referred to the troubles and rioting which had occurred 

 in that neighbourhood, I think we may rejoice that, although 

 recently there was a great deal of excitement in the neighbour- 

 hood of Camborne, yet, owing to the conciliatory influence 

 brought to bear, nothing in the way of overt turbulence (which 

 had been feared) occurred. There is still, however, a question 

 connected with Cornish mining which forms a problem that wiU 

 have to be solved. We have recently had an instance of the 

 fatal facility afforded for committing frauds under the existing 

 system, but I feel assured that by united action among pursers 

 and managers of mines, some measures will be devised to give 

 shareholders security against a similar occurrence. While the 

 toilers underground are still producing such large quantities of 

 valuable material — more than 23 per cent., as we have seen, of 

 all that the world at present supplies, — there are some favoured 

 spots on the surface of our county which yield almost equally 

 exceptional returns to the labour of the cultivator, — spots where 

 in some cases the tenant can pay a rent of from £5 to £10 an 

 acre, and where yet a very small acreage suffices to maintain a 

 family in comfortable circumstances, solely by market gardening, 

 which has the great advantage of enabling all members of the 

 family to take part in the work. Some of the best land, well 



* Major Glynn Bolitho. 



