ITEMS OF INTEREST November 3, 1906 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

Unexpected good progress is being made by the Mikkelson-Leffingwell polar expedition, which left Victoria, B. C., on May 20 in the schooner Duchess of Bedford to locate a new continent believed to exist in the mysterious Beaufort Sea, westward of Banks Land. Letters dated July 25 state that Point Hope, originally intended as this winter's base, had been reached two months ahead of programme. After wintering at Minto Inlet, the Duchess of Bedford will start in the early spring on the most daring dash of her voyage—skirting Banks Land to its northern end, where it is proposed to spend the second winter, passing on this run between the great ice-packs and the land through less than a mile of free water. The winter will be devoted to scientific research on and about Banks Land. The crucial event of the expedition is due in February, when the party will make westward across the ice packs for the unknown land. If this land be found a new route to the pole will have been attained.

The Postmaster General has issued an order that on and after Nov. I, inst., letters originating in New Zealand and prepaid by postage stamps at the rate of one penny or two cents for each half ounce, will be delivered to addresses in the United States without sur-charge or the collection of additional postage. The Postmaster General of New Zealand strongly urged this concession in the interest of the people of New Zealand, who now have to pay five cents letter postage on correspondence delivered in the United States, while correspondence carried in the same vessel and transported across the territory of the United States for delivery in Canada and Great Britain, is carried at the rate of one penny or two cents per each half ounce.

In fining the New York Central Railway Company $108,000 (almost the maximum penalty of the law) and its traffic manager $6,000 Judge Holt of the Criminal Branch of the United States Circuit Court, New York City used the following language: "Such a violation of law is much more heinous than the ordinary common vulgar crimes usually brought before the criminal courts. Those are crimes of sudden passion and temptation. These crimes we are dealing with were committed by men of education, business experience, and standing in the community, and as such they should be expected to set an example of obedience to the law, on the maintenance of which the security of their property depends."

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