TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10333, 29 April 1899, Page 9

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

. Among the minor conseEnoouraging quences of the recent asInventors. sumption by the Dowager Empress of China of the reins of power, and the check to reforms and progress which ensued upon that act, Was the* "set-back" given to inventors and pub-lic-spirited patriots. Nearly a year ago, the youthful Emperor, now almost entirely superseded by his energetic aunt, promulgated a decree which went even further in the,direction of encouraging and protecting inventora than the most sanguine Englishman or.colwctial would 'ever dare to hope would be bis own experience. After remarking that though China had possessed hot a few men of learning" and brilliant talent, their movements had hitherto been hampered by old prejudices, which had formed a bar to thinking-out l and introducing to practical use new inventions, the Emperor went on to say that as he had "entered upon the high road towards the education and enlightenment of the masses," so as to make China strong and wealthy like other nations, his first duty would be to encourage and employ men of genius and talent He therefore ocmananded that "henceforth, if there be any subject of ours who should write a useful book on new subjects, or who should invent any new design in machinery, or any useful -work of art and science which will be of benefit to the country at large, he shall be honoured and rewarded' by t us, in order .to Serve as an encouragement and exhortation to others of similar genius and talent." Definite promises were made as to the rewards. As in China it is the height of every man's desire to become an official, geniuses who showed real ability were promised that they should be given posto, or t if-they preferred it, decorations would be granted to them, or fine raiment, "in order to show the masses who have gained honour by their talent and genius." Successful inventors would also bo encouraged by being given papers "empowering- them to be the sole manufacturers and setters within a certain limit of time." The lucky inventor of something "useful to the .country at large" had therefore the prospect not only of rich rewards from his Emperor, but "of being able to reap the fruit of his labour and ability by being granted a free patent and monopoly of the sale of his invention for a -certain time. And yet wo call the Chinese antiquated! There is, we are •sure, rut a patentee in-all New Zealand who will not feel an access of respect for the CJMnese Emperor when he reads of his ad- ■ vanced views on the subject of patents. One would hardly go to .% Remarkable eemi-ofnoM publication, Maps. such as the."Colonial Office List,*' for amusement, aid yet that sober, and at times useful, book, is morejhnmorous, in spots, than many which set out with the wowed and advertjsedipurpose of n*d-cmg one laugh.- As is often the case with the fun—est remarks, the humour of the "Colonial. Office List" is quite unintentional, and lies wholly in one or two of the mops which relieve tbe monotony of page after page of facts. - In the map of New Zealand, for instance,-the first thing that strikes the-eye i» that the engraver has completed the Midland Railway between Greymouth and Nelson. To make up for this, which, as the debenture-holders know, is sadly prcnnature, he has omitted from the Hurunui-Biuff line all the branches except one, which we presume to be the Oxford line. The Northern end of this island is shown to be rather peculiarly shaped, which perhaps account for the queer route of the Bleoheim-Picton line, though some of the unfamrHdar look of the country is due to Cape Campbell being moved down towards the Clarence river. "Littleton," Banks •■Pemnsular,*', "Ti_nara"--rthese are mere orthographic-bhuaders, but what had Oamaru done to be left put altogether, and why should Ean*och, Kingston, and Clyde - be mentioned as the . only townships in. all Otago? Port C*h&bn-er3 is divorced from Dunedin, Amberley figures as the one settlement, except Christchurch, between Timaru and BlexOheim, while Jackson's' Bay is apparently the most important place on the .whole West Coast. There is no Westland, *by the way; it is all CJanterbury. t The railways which are shown, on the map- of the North Island would hardly be' recognised by a New Zealand railway man. The Manawatu Company's line is left out altogether, a fate which has also visited Manukau Harbour, and Awfclandm might complain that their city deserved bigger type.l3ian New Plymouth. Another map which attracts attention is that of Barbadoes. That interesting island is .apparency very*lightly settled, but> the religious and, mora* i-equire-toensta of fpture generaikm4 have been provided for by the erection of churches and police stations all over,the place, frequently,, _o it seems, cnany miles distant from the nearest town.'. Other places marked on this map are a "brick factory," a Cazarotto, and "Dodd's whatever that may be. It would be wrong, no doubt, to think of Barbadoes-aaa dreary desert, relieved from utter monotony by churches and gaols, and the other interesting strufitares.we have mentioned. Such an impression, however, is left upon one's mind by the map. But '•Bimsbire" people must look after* themselves and their own wrongs. What we have to protest against is the false impression which would be given, to anyone knowing no better, by the map of New Zealand. We real y hope Mr C*haxnberlahi does not rely, for has idea «f 1 "*»t **••*•* «>lony k like, upon tbe information supplied to a trusting public hy few subordinates in the Colonial Office. * Mr D. D. Hyde, the GoA Pamphlet. ver_-ment poultry.. expert, on Poultry, has issued through the De-partsne-tt of Agriculture a pamphlet.on "Poultiry and eggs for market and export." From a literary point of view the pamphlet is not conspicuous for merit, but this wa**perha*Ba hardly to be expected, sod in any ease this would have'been &- matter of bat little consequence bad the information given been of a practical nature. Poultry-raising and egg-production are two of the smaller mdustries of the farm, which are badly neglected in this colony, and a simply-worded text-book, containing sound advice on the beet methods to be pursued, would be of considerable value to fatrmera. Unfortunately, taking his pamphlet as a

be any subject of ours who should write a 1 useful book on new subjects, or who should invent any new design in machinery, or any useful work of art and science which will be j of benefit to the country at large, he shall be honoured and reworded' by t us, in order .to serve as an e_courage_-int and exhortation to others of similar genius and talent." De-. finite promisee were made as to the rewards. As in China it is the height of every man's desire to become an official, geniuses who showed real ability were promised that they should be given posts, or t if-they preferred it, decorations would be granted to them, or fine raiment, "in order to show the masses who have gamed honour by their talent and genius." Successful inventors would also be encouraged by being given papers "empowering- them to be the sole man-facturers and selkrs within a certain limit of time." The lucky inventor of ->methi_g "useful to the country at large" had therefore the prospect not only of rich rewards from bis Emperor, but "of being able to reap the fruit of his labour and ability by being granted a free patent and monopoly of the sale of his in-' ventre— for a certain time. And yet we call the Chinese antiquated 1 There is, we are fiure, net a patentee in-all New Zealand who wiU not feel an access of respect for the Chinese Emperor when he reads of his advanced views on the subject of patents. One would hardly go to .% -Remarkable fiemi-offic__ publication, Maps. such aa the ."Co?onial Office List," for 'amusesneat, and yet that 'sober, and at tunes useful, book, is more__umorous, in spots, than many which eet out with the avowed and adver^jsedi'pur-. 'pose of _-__ng one laugh.- As Is often the case with the funniest remarks, the humour of the ''Cokmiol. Office List" is auite una-te-t-tonal, aad lie* wholly in one or two of the mops which relieve the monotony of page after page of facts. ' In the map of New Zealand, for instance,-the first thing that strikes the«ye ia that the engraver has completed the Midland Railway between 1 Greymouth and Nelson. To make tip for this, which, as the de-e_ture-holders know, is sadly prcm-jture, he has omitted from the Hurunui-Bluff line all the branches except one, which we presume to be the Oxford line. The Northern end of this island is shown to be rather peculiarly shapeM, which penhaps account for the queer route of the ; Blenheim-Proton line, though twine of the j. unf-nn-ar' look of the country is due to Cape Campbell being moved down towards j the Cla-ence river. "Littleton," Banks .''Pern-solar,-' *'T__ara"—4hese are mere orthogi»ph_)-b__iders, but what had Oamaru done to be left out altogether, and why should KdnJoch, Kingston, and Clyde - be mentioned as the . only townships in. all Otago? Port ,C!h__ners is divorced from Dunedin, Amberley figures as the one sett.cI ment, except Christchurch, between Timaru I and Blenheim, while Jackson's' Bay ia ap- ! 'patently the most _npbrta_t place on the \.vfoo\o West Coast. There is no Westland, by the way; it is aU Canterbury. / The railways which are shown on the map of the 1 North Island would hardly be' recognised hy a New Zealand railway man. The Manawatu Company's line is left out altogether, a fate which has also visited M-mukau Har- i hour, and Aucklandm might complain that • their city deserved bigger type.lsian New ' Plymouth. Another map which attracts attention is that of Ba-ebadoes. That interesting island is jKppaxeaiiLj' v_ry~ lightly settled, bu|> the ce&gious an 4 mor_toe_ta of ii-ttore g-mend-oasi have been provided for by the erection of churches and police stations all over the place, frequently,, _o i& seems, <nany miles distant from the nearest town.'. Other places marked on this map are a "brick factory," a Cazaretto, end j "Dodd'a Reformatory,'' whatever that- may , be. B "tvo-ld be wrong, too doubt, to t-M-k of Barb_dot»aaa dreary desert, relieved from ntter monotony by churches and gaols, and f the other int-reeting atoKt-ores -we have men- . tiened. Such an impression, however, ia i left upon one's aund by the map. But j ■«Biai__tre" people must look after'them-j selves and their own wrongs. What we have , to protest against is the false impression ; which would be gi-en, to anyone knowing ' no better, by the map of New Zealand. We j real y hope Mr does not rely, ' for -is idea of "-**"* 1 * **"*» «>h>ny » like, l upon the i_for_*-"aoB supplied to a trust- \ ing public "by ttw in the Colonial . Office. "'* ' J Mr D. D. Hyde, the Go- j A Pamphlet. vernme/il- poultry:. expert, j on Poultry, ha* issued through the De- j P_r__e_t of Agriculture a pamphlefe.on "Poultry and eggs for jn_rket * and export." Prom a _t_r_ry point of view I the pamphlet is not co_i_»ic-t>us for merit, j but this wa_vperh-p-s hardly to be expected, j and in any cue this would have'been' re; matter of bat little consequence bad the mfc-rn-vtion given been of a practical nature. Poetry-raising and egg-production are two of the wnaller mdustries of the farm, which are badly neglected in. this colony, and a sunply-wordect text-book, containring sound advice on the beet methods to be pursued, would be of con-sid-rabie value to farmers. Uafortanataly, taking his p-unphlet aa a

whole, Mr Hyde seems to write more as a fancier than as one who understands panltryfarming. A good deal of hiformation, for is given about poultry disecses and their cures which would be useful in-the case of a valuable show bird, but is useless to the fanner who wants to sell eggs and poultry, as the remedies would cost very much more than tho average sick bird was worth. Neither would it pay fanners to feed their buds as the Government expert edvises. Dainties may be lavished by the fancier upon a dozen or so of .birds, but the poultiy-fanner would find it extremely difficult to make a profit oat of birds which required canary and hemp seed occasionally. And if chirlff-ns were to be fed with hardboiled eggs, as the Government expert advises, we are afraid that their sale at current prices would hardly be remunerative. With regard to the best breeds, Mr Hyde recommends Minorcas, Leghorns (brown and white) and Andalusians. These varieties are certainly as good as any for laying purposes, but it would be interesting to lesrn in what respect black, pile, and duckwing Leghorns are inferior to brown and white, and in respect of Wyandottes, why golds and silvers are better than white, which the expert does not mention at aIL Then, again, if Minorcas, Leghorns, and Andalusians' are the best layers, we fail to see how Mr Hyde can get his best crosses from breeds which he does not consider the best. As it is," he states that the best crosses for laying purposes are Minorca-Langshan, Leghorn-Plymouth Rock, Leghorn-Houdan, Loghorn-Langshan, Hou-dan-Wyandotte, Plymouth Rock-Orpington, and Wyandotte-Langshan. The two statements do not agree. • We think the expert might well, have devoted more trouble and space to advising farmers as to turkey-raising, which is less generally understood than* any other branch of poultry farming, and yet is one which would pay well if properly managed. Altogether we do not think that Mr Hyde's pamphlet is an improvement on that compiled by his predecessor, and that was far from perfect. The manual for the New Zealand poultry-farmer who wants to make money and has. an eye on the market, both here and at Home, has yet to be written. - i. ■

"Some famous authors as girls" Girl is an appropriate article in the Writers. "Girl's Realm," though beyond those precincts there might be some deb*fte about classing as "famous authors" Mrs Marshall, Miss Rosa Carey, Miss Evelyn Everett Green, or even that versatile persop, Mrs Meade. The chief interest of the article is to show how child tastes or child ckcumstancee influenced later work. Mrs M—rshaU as a girl herd already that love for cathedral towns,, which suggested "Under Salisbury Spire," 'and the rest of her cathedral tales, and earned a very pretty Shakespearian compliment from Longfellow, whan he called her the *'Qneen of Summer, temple-haunting martlet." Mrs Meade had her" rather wild imagination stimulated by living in a romantic old house equipped with ghost stories. Mrs Molesworth was the eldest of six brothers and sisters, and had rt delightful grar_lmother witfli a gift for telling fairy tales—hence her own gift that way} whereas Miss Yonge was an only child in a serious household, with fairy tales forbidden, and her grandmother, an old hsdy of ninety when Charlotte's first book was published, was, deeply shocked at a "young gentlewoman" coining forward as an author. It is a reflection of all'this that one sees in the primness of her girlish work. But perhaps the -most successful -jte-rary "young gentlewoman" sit an early age was the author of "That Lass o' Lowrie's," who waa a paid contributor to magazines at fifteen. ...Miss Jane Barlow, to take a later instance, states that she cannot remember the time when she did sot know how to read (though, how many persons, not famous, might, say the same), «and at eight had set to work upon a novel. She can only recall that the b-wme's name was Alice, and that she lived in Ratten Row, London. There was a terrible time for tbe.young aptbor when her family laid hands on this story, and discovered the address. It was to this same writer later on, when a girl in her teens, that the mci* dent occurred of a postcard from Mr Payn, of the "Ccrnhill,' 4 with what she interpreted as the message, "I hsiye no use for silly verses." * This time the family came to the rescue, for on sub-., n-ttang it to them, after hours' cf silent misery, the right translation was made, "I, hope to use your pretty verses." One must admit, however, that Miss Barlow's verse is not her 1 strong point, and could have, given little idea of the masterly work to follow in the "Irish Idylls."' Beatrice Harraden at ten distinguished herself, and anticipated Andrew Lang, by writing "letters to dead people," especially to her historical friends and htfroes. But the most cha-acteristic touch comes from Miss Edna Lyall, who confesses that in t( story written;"at the age of*_ine, the hero was suggested by a consumptivfrlooki-g young man whom she had noticed in a music-shop at Brighton," "looking as if hie were too good for his surroundings." So _te w invented a wicked uncle to account for the youth being in such straits as to be forced to "tune pianos, and nu _c the victim an exemplary and thrifty young man, who supported himself and two asters in dreary lodgings, principally upon Dutch, cheese. This nay be considered a kind of first sketch for "A Hardy Norseman," if not for "Derrick Vaughan," and "A Knight Errant." Miss EdnaLyall magr feed her characters a little better in these _ays, but she has never left off writing aboul exemplary and thrifty young men. The re-remea* of Dr. ' | A .. , Hans Richter ; .from -_i_ World Parnota ' post of conductor, a* t& , Conductor. Imperial Opera; Yivaxnas foretold by the Vienna" .correspondent, of the "Sydney Morning Herald,". wiE be a noteworthy event in European musical circles. For in -his special department of his art Dr. Richter is a giant, renowned among all the renowned conductors of tbe day. As an m-e-cpreter of Wagner's music he is unsurpassed, and so thoroughly does, he know the scores of several cf the works that he can trust himself to conduct witb the book shut. In the "Meistersinger" he would never, it is said, open the book were it not for the cuts, and in the "Wa-cure" he always -hats the score at a certain passage and puts it under his deskHe does so regularly at Wotan's farewell words, where the fire magic begins. With tho works of other composers he is et_u-itlv familiar. Bizet's •'Carmen,'' the first performance of which he conducted, and which he knows by heart,- is one of his favourites and "he will listen to the p_-a*e in tie introduction to the third act, iv which-the flute and bassoon sing to each other so charmingly, with his arms crossed, his baton lying on his desk, wfeile he lets the harp tike tbe lead." In an emergency he shows all the reeource of a, great captain. On one occasion, daring the performance pf.tbe "Gctterd____M__g," Bruchilde was not present <to take her cue at a critical moment in the last act. "T_e most obvious thing would have been for the conductor to go straight on without hor, but also the worst, for m the endless Wagnerian melody even a more routined singer than Fran Scblaeger would never have fo__d her eae. Richter, however, made a -firm downward movement

, with his hand, hetd his baton on his desk, I and thus made the orchestra keep oh playing that one chord till more than, two minutes la*er Brunhilae entered. Instantly the conductor sang to her the words with which -he had !to begin, and not till after that did he stake the orchestra leave that chord' and go on." It ia not surprising, to those who have heard of Dr. Riehter's occasional outbursts when in England,. to be told that after such aa iiKndeat he wO go behind the scenes and give everyone concerned a piece of his mind. But „ Vienna delinquents have found that a ready method of disarming the great man's wrath is an apt quotation from his favourite opera, the "Meistersingec." His skill in reading scores may be judged from the fact that he has repeatedly been known, when suddenly called upon, to conduct an opera which he had never seen and knew nothing about. A rapid reading of the score just before the performance has sufficed, and, with a word** of warning to the singers, "my children," as he calls them, to look after him that night lest an accident happened he would go through with the task which, with some pride in his voice, he would afterwards declare nobody else would do in a •hurry. The precise reason of his leaving the Imperial Opera is not known, but it is believed that .the smaHness of his salary' has something to do with it. It is only some £700 a year; and in these days of highly paid opera singers so great a master as Bichter maybe forgiven if he thinks he is underpaid for his share in their success,