Items of Interest August 21, 1902 Issue

Items of Interest

The Standard Oil Company is to have built in England a fleet of twelve steamships of the "Kennebec" type for the Eastern trade. If two trips a year are made by each of these vessels, it will be possible to ship 48,000,000 gallons of oil to China and Japan during the year. This amount would be equivalent to an eighth of the total amount of oil exported to foreign ports from Philadelphia.

The construction of a vast filtration plant, now going on in Philadelphia, is one of the greatest public work ever undertaken by a municipality. The ultimate cost will be $34,000,000, and when it is completed Philadelphia expects to be behind no city of the civilized world in respect to municipal provision of a pure and adequate supply of water for all purposes.

The task of returning and settling the Transvaal Boers on their farms has assumed immense proportions and is perhaps the most difficult of all those undertaken by the English administration. Great difficulty is experienced on account of the want of cattle for ploughing. Those left by the military are necessarily in an emaciated condition and practically worthless, owing to the difficulty of feeding them, besides not being sufficient in number. The work of repatriation, though it is proceeding as rapidly as circumstances permit, is hampered by the lack of transport, an obstacle which it is extremely difficult to overcome quickly.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The Riches of the Sea