TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLVI, Issue 7392, 19 August 1889, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

It will be seen from the cable messages in another column that in spite of the great public outcry at the verdict in the May. brick case, the Government have, declined to interfere, and the execution of the prfeqner has been fixed to take placed on the 27th instant. The case in itself presents no very unusual features. Tales of intrigue on the part of husband or wife, associatedwithmurder,ehocking as the idea

may be to our feelings, are not uncommon in the annals of medical jurisprudence. What has taken place since the trial is in many respects * very, remarkable. It is unusual, if not unprecedented, we are glad to say, for an English Judge to be mobbed for discharging what he conceived to be his duty, and to have to seek the protection of the police. It,is alsd unusual to find a Judge, who haShad to pasa the sentence of death on a prisoner, declaring that he will resign if .that i sentence, is interfered with, by, the Executive! Sir James Stephen, supposing the telegram to be true, must have had a very strong conviction about the case to take up such a position as that. The weak point in the case for the prosecution seems to have been a conflict in the expert evidence. That is a matter, however, which juries are apt to disregard if tne other evidence seems pretty conclusive. They are* too much accustomed to " doctor! differing" in private life to expect abso- j lute unanimity when these gentlemen get. into the witness box. The most damaging point in the case against Mrs Maybrick seems. to have been the discovery, of arsenic in the beef extract intended for her husband. The jury might have accepted the lady's statement, that her fabulous .consumption of fly-papers was owing to the fact that she adopted such a singular base for the compounding of her face-washes, but they declined to believe tbe farther assertion that the poisonous powder was put in the beef extract in accordancewith a whim of the patient, and in ignorance of the fact that it was likely to > do him any ha'tm. However, it is impossible for us at this distance adequately to discuss the pros and cons of the evidence. The Judge who tried the case is renowned for his ability as a criminal lawyer. His book on evidence is a standard work. His " Digest of the Criminal Law" formed the basis of a Bill brought in by the Government with a view of codifying to some extent the criminal law of England. He is by no means new to the work of actually trying cases, having been appointed to the Bench in 1879, on the resignation of Baron Cleasby. Having had the best opportunity of hearing all th e evidence, and studying the demeanour of the witnesses he has evidently come to the strongest possible belief in the prisoner's guilt. The Government have decided to disregard the public clamor, and to stand by the Judge. The British farmer is beginning to turn l moreattention to fruit farming. Thatatleast

is what ye Rather from an essay recently read before the Boyal Agricultural Society by Mr Charles Whitehead. Almost everywhere in Great Britain, he tells us, there has been a great increase in the acreage devoted to fruit, and the advance which has been made in the methods of cultivation is'even more marked. Fifty years ago there were probably not more than from 90,000 to 100,000 acres of fruit land. In 1572, the date of the first reliable record, it had increased to nearly 170,000 acres, and Mr Whitehead estimates the present acreage at about 214,000 acres. Still the popular' demand for fruit is growing at an even more rapid rate.*- Aa a consequence the country has been importing more and more fruit from abroad. Take, for example, the case of apples. In 1839 only 71,162 bushels were imported. In 1849 the quantity was 323,719 bushels. By 1882 the foreign arrivals reached the enormous total of 2,386,805 bushels, and last year they were 3,796,692 bushels. Nearly half this vast quantity came from the "United States, while half as much came from Canada. The quantity of so-called " soft fruits " imported has risen , in the same period from 69,740 bushels to 3,037,060 bushels. Spain is the largest source of this importation, and then follow France, Belgium, Holland, and Portugal. In face of these figures the Home papers are impressing on the British farmer that he is allowing his foreign competitors to steal a march upon him in this as in other respects. It seems not improbable that the colonies will at no distant date be also contributing their quota of fruit, as well as of meat, to the Home markets. The colonial fruit will arrive at a time when there is very little of the English, grown article available, so that we shall hardly enter into competition with the local grower in the same way that Continental fruit-raisers are doing. In view of the largely increasing demand for fruit in the old country, it is obvious that this is a subject to which we in New Zealand ought to give our eerioua attention. The recent experimental shipments might be followed up with a view of more thoroughly testing both the market and the means of transit.

The Native footballers have certainly improved immensely in their play since they were last here. We wish we could say as much for their manners. Their play, when they chose to exhibit it, was superb. For some reason or other, at the match on Thursday against Hawke's Bay they took little pains to show what they could do in the way of scientific football, buf. some of their number, exhibited thei r proficiency in lob-lolly antics on the field, and chaff of a not very high class character. On Saturday they did show what they could do in the way of play—perhaps because in the first spell at any rate they were obliged to do so—and a really magnificent display of scientific football it was. At the same time certain of tbeir number distinguished, themselves by he most discreditable language, some of it addressed personally to one of the umpires and the referee. We can hardly imagine that they learned this from playing with English teams, and must regard it as an accomplishment which they have originated on their own account. It is one which can well be dispensed with, and we trust that the respectable members of the team —for we give them credit for possessing a few such among their number— will, for their own credit, take the matter up. If not they will find that the public will be disposed to afford but scant encouragement to Native teams in future, and the particular offenders will probably discover that there are other ways of teaching decent behaviour to men who are evidently very much, in need of such instruction. ..,•■..