News, Views and Opinions.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 230, 26 September 1903, Page 1 (Supplement)

News, Views and Opinions.

ffis Majesty displays his accustomed , oc t and good sense in the notice taken oi a request that a Royal order might te issued pronouncing it unnecessary that the King's health, when proposed Siary is represented as replying that SiSsty thought the Lords of the Stafflty would not like his inference Ksuing orders, but he would be glad fifwas circulated privately that His MaWy considered that his health was umuch honoured by those who drank it in. water as by those who drank it ra wine' This considerate and diplomatic Llv will meet all the requirements of the case, while it cannot ruffle the dignity of "My Lords of the Admiralty," or of those who profess to dictate upon matters of custom and etiquette ra the service. The Navy has fortunately been remarkably free from the demonstrations of personal oppression and tyranny which have too often characterised the bther branch of His Majesty's forces. In certain regiments of the Army a man is made to suffer for the offence of being poor, or being unable to sponge upon his relations in order to meet the reckless and extravagant demands of his wealthier brother officers. This is the sort jrf thing that has made the Army in the past impossible as a profession for earnest and hard-working men.

In Japan the women arrange their hair in manner so ingenious that a person can tell at once whether any woman whom he sees is a maiden who desires to get married, or a widow who is inconsolable, or one who is willing to be consoled if the proper suitor presents himself. Young girls arrange their hair in front in the form of a fan or butterfly, and adorn it with silver or coloured ornaments.: widows who are looking for second husbands fasten the hair at the back of the head by means of tortoiseshell pin 3, and widows who are resolved to remain forever faithful to their departed spouses cut the hair short, and ■wear no ornament in it.

The progress made by the Russians in completing their establishment at Port 'Arthur surpasses anything they have achieved elsewhere. The hills already bristle with guns, and 45,000 Chinese workmen, not to speak of the Russians, are employed upon the forts, docks, and basins of the port. The dockyard is enriched with the spoils of the Tientsin Arsenal, which transports were employed for months in conveying from Tangku. So well supplied is the place that it is said to be capable of maintaining 8000 men for two years unrelieved. Meantime nothing is being neglected to make it impregnable. The fleet in the Far East is krger than at any previous period, and a great flotilla of destroyers is being organised. Twelve of recent construction have gone out from Europe, three or four more have been built a>t Port Arthur, and,the work of construction -will go on rapidly.

Among the many thousands of disftressejS beings who obtain out - relief from the London guardians is an Italian feountess. The granddaughter of an English landed proprietor and the child cf a gentleman farmer who lost all his money when she was nine years old, the lady came to London when she was sixteen and acted as companion to a woman of fashion. Afterwards she married a titled Italian who had been attached to the Court at Milan, but who lost the greater part of his fortune as a consequence of his championship of the Garibaldian cause. The husband obtained a tutorship at a London college, his wife adding to the family income by entertainii/f paying guests. When he died suddenly without informing the countess how the remaining portion of hi 3 property could be recovered, the 'fife sank lower and lower, until now, over eighty years of age, she lives in one room in a court in West London, tad 13 in receipt of parish relief. .

Some interesting figures are given in the report of the deputy-master of the Mint for the year 1902. The gold eurttney issue amounted to £ 6.908,000, the mean of the last ten years being £ G,974,----437. Of silver there was issued £937,----202, again less than the ten years' averse, which i 3 £1,207,122; but of bronze pieces the amount was £148,499, as against an average of £92,199. The pieces of Imperial money struck during the year numbered 81,108,815, and the colonial 41,277,735, an increase as comP«ed with 1901 of nearly four million pieces. Last year, on the occasion of the ksue of the new coinage bearing the e %7 of Hi 3 Majesty, five-pound and two-pound pieces were struck and supplied to the Bank of England, as was <tone in 1887 and 1893, when new dewere adopted. But there ;.3 no demand for them as circulating media, they are sought after at the tune, they are not infrequently returne 4 to the Bank at a later date for ex-<-wnge. The new reign has necessitated '"be preparation of many departmental and other seals, of which "twelve English, BT e Scottish, one Irish, and thirty-three colonial were completed at the date of toe report.

Serr Budde, Prussian Minister of jwilways, ia an energetic statesman, and £°, partisan of a policy of "Laissera «e." Hj S Excellency has recently ada circular to the keepers ot ailway refreshment rooms, deploring ta Progress of alcoholism in the jajnerland, and enjoining them to subitute fruit syrups, lemonade, and r?. ar innocuous refreshments • for liquors. He has even gone Bh n a3 *° re ?ommend that beer ed t k * be iced ' but should be allow ' to become warm enough to offer no Ration to the thirsty traveller. teriM 1S D 0 savin 2 to what 'lengths pa«ounL g °[ ernment ma ? not So in * live • re, a 9 in Prussia > the Execu"practically able to do precisely , D .".Pleaues, and where there ia no »J? - ? om ,;h . e " Sic rol °' sic jubeo" of k til! ial circular ; tut every Teuton Vp? 111 beer drinker > and likes his icrnnfi coo] - Herr Budde's decree, if obeyed, will hardly tend eoLW ° te the § rowth of the n&t ye popularity of Prussia in er PCrtioDs of the German Empire.

The Glasgow :: "Weekly Herald" amusingly guys the absurd reporte that were circulated about Shamrock 111. and her owner by the New York yellow press just prior to the contest. Says ■ that paper: "The chief item in the yachting intelligence from New York this week is not that Colonel Neill, who has sailed in all the Shamrock's trials, takes a cheerful view of the challenger's prospects, or even that Sir Thomas Lipton visited Niagara on Sunday, and was enthusiastically received by a deputation of Canadian yachtsmen, but rather the current report that if Shamrock 111. pulls off two race 3 she is to be fitted with a suit of green sails for the final tussle. Sir Thomas, we learn, has not yet taken the trouble to deny the report —perhaps because he was on his way to Niagara when the Sunday Specials were issued. But we are in a position to deny, unofficially but authoritatively, and in advance, the rumour that if Shamrock 111. loses two races right away, she is to be painted blue and her sails dyed to match, as an indication of her prospe,ct of winning the Cup. Nor i 3 there sufficient foundation for the report that if she does lift the Cup she will have her hull gold - plated, and after being jewelled in every hole, will be hoisted as a sky-sign over the head offices of Lipton, Limited."

A certain M. Francois, formerly <a sergeant-major of Spahis, lias told, in the "Figaro," a curious tale about the new Pope. Being quartered at Tunis in 187S, the sergeant-major happened, one day, to meet the laite Cardinal Lavigerie when out walking near Carthage. The Cardinal engaged him in conversation, and presently introduced him to a prelate who was with him, "the Bishop Coadjutor of Mantua." After some time it began to rain, when the soldier, ■taking off his scarlet Spahi's "burnous," wrapped it round the "bishop, who had no cloak. "Ah!" exclaimed the cardinal, "the rod robe suits you. I should not be surprised if you wore it some day." The prediction has been verified—and more than verified—for the bishop was destined .to become a cardinal, and eventually to exchange the red robe for a white one as Pius X. The honest soldier who tells the stoTy adds a -word of regret for not having preserved the prophetic burnous which had covered t!he s!houlder3 of a future Pope.

Russia is a country with which Englishmen have very little acquaintance, and which they find it difficult to vmderstand. Anything that throw 3 light upon the struggle which goes on there between the forces of progress and reaction is of value. A good deal of instruction may be got from a letter from a Prussian correspondent of the "Times" on the Russian school system. It forces U9 to picture a world which is as different from oTir school world as could well 'exist even in another planet. The present Minister of Public Education, M. Sanger made it one of his fir.?it duties on his appointment to the office to abolish the secret conduct records which used to accompany gymnasium scholars to the universities. What that system of secret records was may be gathered from an incident which is related by a gentleman who had some difficulty in procuring admission to tho university because he was a suspect. At length he found the cause of his being suspected. "You are a Socialist/ said the gymnasium director. "Ho-w do you know I-am a Socialist?" "Why. at 15 years of a<je yoxL were seen in the streets with Herbert Spencer's 'Sociology' tinder your arm." We are told that scholars are subject to domieilia.ry visits, and the confiscation of such books as are considered unsuitable for their youth.

A Berlin correspondent states that a boundless sensation has been caused in Germany by revelations of the participation of the female members of the Bavarian royal family in political intrigues. It appears that eight or ten princesses are involved, including Princess Marie Therese, who, as wife of the Prince Regent's eldest son, Prince Louis, will probably be Queen of Bavaria/ one day; Princess Gisela, daughter of the Austrian Emperor; Princess Therese. who is an abess, doctor of philosophy, and member of the Academy of Sciences; and hnlf-a-dozen younger princesses. The royal ladies seem to have established a petticoat regime in the '<worst sense of the term. They are all bitter Anti-Semites, and promote political Jew-baiting by all possible means. Several have made their palace.9 centres of a systematic AntiSemite agitation, while others have subscribed large sums to the anti-Semite movement, and have collected money among the Bavarian aristocracy to aid anti-Semitic candidates in the Reichstag elections. Less objection is taken to the part which the political princesses have played than to the secret influence which they exercise behind the scenes. Between them they have secured the best appointments for their friends, and have driven men of progressive thought out of office, and generally permeated the administration with reactionary clerical-

ism. The South German Progressive newspapers warn the royal ladies to quit the political warpath, otherwise all details of their mysterious machinations will be made public.

One of the few things Sir Arthur Conan Doyle has not done in the course of his life is to come down from a balloon in a parachute. And he means to try that some day. "I think the man who first tried coming down in a parachute was the pluckiest man on earth," he says in "V.C.," "though aeronauts have told me that it is really perfectly safe. I should like to try it, just for the sake of one great experience. But it must be nervous work stepping over the side of the car for the first time. You must start at least a mile and a half from the earth, and for the first thousand feet I believe you fall like a stone. But I suppose a parachutist gets used to if. Courage is rather a hard thing to judge for that reason. If one sees a man at his own special work for the first time one is generally impressed by his coolness, especially as, being new to it, one is frightened oneself. The first time I went up in a balloon I was terribly frightened. It was pleasant enough at first, with all the spectators cheering, and so on. But when we had been rising some minutes, and were a mile from the ground, and I looked over the side!—l was never in such a miserable fright in my life. To see people running about, looking the size of dogs, and to feel that there was only a sort of strawberrybasket between me and 'that , ! It was a lono- time before I would let go of the ropesf But after I had been up a little while I became quite used to it, and I suppose that is what happens to everyone."