TOPICS of the DAY.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 30, 4 February 1905, Page 9

TOPICS of the DAY.

LOIfDON, December "23.

A r.Hitis'rwAS FOG. London was tack in the middle ages on. Wednesday. la the darkness ot the J worst fog known for years past tire street .lamps were absolutely useless, and the singnlax spectacle might have been witnessed of citizens trying to light their -»-ay -with torch, or lantern. About four o'clock in the afternoon, when (the fog was at its thickest. I happened to be in TralaJgar Square, and found \&H extraordinary state of affairs. Traffic [was absolutely at a standstill, and the square was packed with, omnibuses, cabs, drays, and vehicles of every kind, wedged together in helpless confusion. So thick. ■was the fog jrest there that it was. impossible to see more than a yard or mo ahead of you- To step off the pavement into the blackness meant losing ; your bearings 'Utterly. Of the vast mass o< traffic with which, the Sqoare was «t£ abeoiateiy eoaMt be

seen, but you could not walk two yards across the road -without finding yourself under a horse's head. Sixty huge fiaie lights provided by the Westminster authorities were blazing fiercely, but at a few yards'jStfiistance taey loked like glimmering caHcQes: the fcg swallowed up their light as effectually as a blani ket. People- -wandered about the paveiments hopelessly bewildered, and experi- ! I eaced busmen seemed equally helpless. | I One driver headed direct for the paveIment by the Nelson Column, and the I horses were actually on the footway I before he realised his whereabouts. At least one conductor lost his omnibus, and mijrhfc have been discovered standing in the middle of the square, helpless and forlorn! The only pe-rscra who did not seem to have lost his way was a ; blind man in Whitehall who kapt tap- . ping his stick an the pavement and caii- j ing oat "Who wants a guide?*' Similar | scenes took place in all the main thor- ' oughfares aard street and railway traffic ■was dislocated everywhere. The tog was no respecter of persans. The Queen was unable to leave to-nm and the only iray the Chancellor of the Besdieqner conld get from Down ing-street to Enston was by walking: no cab would take him. j Tradesmen must have suffered hea-viry [ia .loss of esseten, fex the fog plsved ■

havoc "with the Christmas shopping; theatres, restaurants, cabs, and buses all lost mon£7 by the fog. One paper estimates that the dislocation of trade j during the day cost London something like £600.000." I must say the Londoners took the visitation very phQosophiesiiy. At the railway stations they waited patiently for the trains which •would not coxae in. until the platforms ! swarmed with, the mass of outgoing paa- ! seiners: and whec a train did happen ] to arrive the scramble for seats good-natured in spite of the jostling and the crush. In the evening the fog was as bad as ever in some localities. I and it lent a delightful touch of irony ■ to the paper read before the MeteoT»-iogic-.il Society that night on '"The Decrease of Fog in London During Recent Years-" The fog demon certainly soot- , pd over the weather prophets cm" Wed--1 nesday. GENERAL PARALYSIS. The weather experts, always sticklers for accuracy, declare triumphantly that there -was a denser and more persistent fog than Wednesday's in the year 1579, when Christmas shew cattle were poisoned fay its density. Btr& granting cfae. experts their "record,'*' we had no show cattle to put to the test this week— the fact remains that London has been |ior the last two. or three days » city

of dreadful night. Yestenday was a repetition of Wednesdays drear and disconcerting: sflKetkna- The dislocation of business ■was leaormons,, and one would not be surprised to find that the [loss of trade this ■week —ordinarily one ' of the best ■greeks in the whole year for the shops—exceeds a'million pounds. The chief losers, of coarse, axe tie shopkeepers, the i&eatres, and the bos companies; and the extra. Mght alone is a heavy charge on the metropolis. Of carious incidents srisin* from the fog it would be easy to fill a column, did space merit it. Imagine a faneral losing its hearse, and arriving- at the cemetery ■without the corpse. Imagine a bos taking an hoar and a half \n come from Westminster to the Strand—usually a five or six minutes' ran—or another bus taking two haurs and a-half instead of twenty minutes to get along the streets from Ptmlieo td Charing- Cross. Fireengines usually traverse the streets at a gallop. bui on Wednesday night they i had to travel at a snail's pace, guided by j firemen carrying torches —an incident un--1 precedented in the history of the Metropolitan Fire Brigade. People living in the suburbs—and most Londoners live there nowadays—had endless difficulty in getting to and from their work, i Trains were anything from half an hour ! to two hours laic in reaching town, and in the evenings the outward traffic was hopelessly disorganised- A friend " of mine caught his 5.15 train at half-past 'eight, and the case is typical of many thousands. At Waterloo a dense crowd stood bvfore the telegraph board, and as each train was tardily announced a mighty cheer went up. The 6.10 far i Haunslow. Staines, and Windsor pulled out laboriously half an hour behind time -with people standing up in all its ; sixty compartments a total load of Little short of 1000 passengers. That also was quite typical of the Londoners' hapless plight. The only railway which I profited fay the fog was the "Twopenny Tubs-" , from the "Bank to Sbepherd'"s Bush. Being underground throughout its ronte, the "Tube" could regard the fog without concern, and it reaped a rich harvest of passengers through its Enmunity from the scourge. In luck, too. were the "Im-kmen, 7, who piloted people across the road by torchlight for a penny, and did a busy trade in escorting stragglers home. But it vcas a dreary business at the best. No doubt a fog like this has its novel and amusing aspects, but when the novelty wears off and the discomfort and the blackness still remain the effect is decidedly depressing. Now. if ever, might one sigh for th-e skies of cloudless blue, and the glorious summer sunshine of a Colonial Christmas! "TAKEN AS HEARD. , ' Speech may be '"'silvern," but there are occasions when silver is "down" in the market, and, more frequently, there are times when the clatter of oratory, especially the post-prandial variety, is burdensome to the flesh and vexatious to the spirit. The consequence of the dreary flood of after-dinner talk brought on by the appalling toast list, which is ever in evidence at City banquets, induced Mr: Carl Hentschel to try a novel experiment at the annual dinner of the Bartholomew Club, a city organisation which has existed half a century, but whose members were, nevertheless, quite easily persuaded to violate precedent in order to render yearly reunion the more enjoyable. Mr. Hentscnel'a notion was to have the speeches as heard."' Every man who was to be called upon to give a reply to a toast was invited to write his speech beforehand, and these were duly printed, in booklet form for distribution among the guests. on_Jhei ~.<*yening- ot the "feast. When toast time came round each speaker rose to his particular toast, referred the diners to a particular page in the booklet, and subsided. The PTperiraent was an unqualified success. The dinner was al] over soon after ten o'clock, and—this was truly remarkable —everyone stayed to the very end. If the members of certain Anglo-colo-nial organisations could only be persuaded to follow the example of the Bartholomew Club, how vastly more pleasant would their annual dinners be! The speeches, in proposing and replying to many of the toasts introduced at these functions, axe such utter piffle"'" that one "wonders that those making them ever permitted their names to be associated with a toast which entails a speech of any kind. Yet these same men, or their oratorical equals, arc, year after year, allowed to get on their legs and prose for a quarter of an hour or twenty minutes on subjects which can only possess the faintest possible interest for 95 per cent, of the diners. Once, not so very long ago, I saw the chairman of a colonial dinner which commenced at 7.30 p.m. rise to reply to the toast of his health at 11.50 p-m. Here's to Mr. Hentschel and Bartholomew's Club I A DSEABY CHBISTMAS. LONDON, December 30. The '"'festive season" i≤ now a thing of the past, and I few people are sorry that it is so. Within my recollection there has not been a ress exhilariting Christmas week than that now closing—not even those which were marked by '"unfortunate incidents" in South Africa. To commence with, fog of a kind we Save, happily, seen little of in London for some years hampered business and traffic to an extent that meant rnin for some., a grievous dimimxtren of prerfit for many, and threw out of work thousand? who would otherwise harve at least had enough money to make merry for. at any rate, a brief spacp, whilst, it rendered the lot of the myriad of men, women, and children already on the verge of starvation more intolerable than ever. It is true that the fog only existed in ! a very mild form on the day preceding Christmas Day, and that it has not . I returned since, save for very brief peri- ' j ods in some localities. But the mischief ! had been done. London, it is computed, had lost one way and another through fog's agency several millions sterling, and that loss was of course reflected in a hundred and one ways, but partien- ! larly in connection, with charitable work. Ko one could help noticing the lack I of cordiality everywhere. The old, old j greeting between friends seemed to be ; given and accepted in a half-hearted sort of fashion, and appeals to people's charity on behalf of their less fortunate i brethren met with a grudging response I in places where you expected to find j "the cheerful gfmv' I I do not wonder at these things. The | weather has been eaough to give Job a | bad fit of tae blu-es. even without foj. I In its place vre have had leaden skies j weeping with Nrobe's persistence. Under j foot, all over London, it has been a case of walking in an inch Oi foidc Black □md or in paddles of filthy staff that clings to clotting '"like" granulated: glue." Of course, the usual street-clean-ers have been holiday-making, and. London being full of out-o'-worte, no one has thought to five the ill am i i m, pogr

a •chance of earning a few sniffings at street-cleaning. Here was "work which badly wanted, doing, and could be done by any man or boy capable of wielding a shovel, shoving a broom, or manipulating a 'squeegee," staring the authorities in the face, but they naturally preferred to let the filthy streets be London's shame for a. few days rather, than, to give aHe-bodied paupers a change from tiie heart-breaking and unprofitable task of Etone-smashing in the labour yards opened for the relief of those able and willing to work. j On the whole it has been anything bat K A Merry Christmas." Presumably with, a view to gmng a timely Training to our heads not to Ist otix hearts control our pockets during the season of peace and goodwill, the Income Tax authorities saw fit to become immensely energetic during the week preceding! The tax in question is 1/ in the £, only incomes below £160 per annum being exempt f-rntn its operations, so yon can imagine how gratefnl we within its scope felt towards the Somerset House officials for their kindly hint. CHRISTMAS CHARITY. The cry of the woridess has been in our ears "for months past, and appeals for subscriptions to this, that, and the other deserving charity have been coming in of late with appalling frequency. Every hospital in the land seems to be on the verge of bankruptcy, every aorrp kitchen in existence short of funds, and every other charitable organisation more or less desperately hard up. On all hands you hear tne «ame stoTy of appeals that have failed grievously to bring in anywhere near the amounts those responsible for them anticipated. Hospitals hoping for hundreds have received fifties, and minor charities to which Christmastide i≤ usually harvesttime have found themselves in receipt of shillings where they anticipated pounds. Yet the appeals made on behalf of the out-of-works have been well responded to. Without much difficulty the "Daily Mail" has raised nearly 30,000 pairs of children's boots for the unhappy little ones whose fathers are unable "to provide proper footwear for them to attend school in; and the "Daily Telegraph's" shilling fund for the distressed of West Ham (it is said that close upon 50,000 decent workmen are unemployed in this district alone) was so successful on the first three days after it was opened that the promoters were able to- spend no less than £1500 in providing Christmas dinners for the needy in that area. This amount ' may not seeni large for '"a wealthy city like London." as people are so fond of calling the metropolis, but a fund of this kind takes a good deal of advertising before it catches on, and this particular West Ham appeal has come on the heels of the rest, and the money raised through ifc must be spent in one specified locality. Apart, however, from private charity,' Londoners are at present being very heavily mulcted in the cause of poverty through the poor rates. Much of the work done in the labour yards is certainly not of a reproductive character. Stone-breaking—the commonest form of work given to applicants for temporary municipal employ—is certainly not profitable to the community; indeed, it is computed that stone ready broken by machinery to suitable size for roadmaking and repairing can be landed at almost any spot in London at about half the cost of labour-yard broken stone, in spite of the miserable rates of pay given at these places. It takes a strong man accustomed to the task to earn more than half a. .crown a day ■&£ this sort of work, for though it may seem the simplest of jobs to hit a stone with a hammer, more than, a little skill is required to become sufficiently expert at stqne-trrea.king' to earn a. Evinj* Trace. j Londcnfs Poor Law Bill for the nest year -will be an uncommonly heavy one. Probably, taking the metropolis ag a whole, it will amount to fully 5/ in the £ on the assessed value of the property contained in the County Council's area. A RHODES SCHOX.AS Olf OXFORD. In the January number of the "Corahill Magazine" is an interesting article by one of the first Rhodes' , scholars from Germany, giving Ms impressions of the year which he spent at Oxford. The writer, Herr Yon LindeiiMr-Wildan, j seems to have received a warm welcome, j and is cordial in his praise. He was i mostly impressed by the Oxonian cult of athletics, and says:— : "of all impressions I gathered from Oxford, first and foremost comes the wish to be able to help in some degree towards the cultivation and diffusion of the love and practice of athletics among our people and our young men. Outside Oxford I also had opportunity of attending athletic meetings; I believe, however, that athletics take their highest and noblest form as cultivated among undergraduates. I believe that in the rest of England athletics, owing to their enormous diffusion, are now in danger of becoming a professional calling. Who has leisure enough to tour the country for four months vnth his county team playing cricket, and at the same time attend to I his business ? The Oxford sfcodent enj sages in atliletics. but for their own I sake; for the strengthening of his own j body in the noble struggle to attain a J purely ideal and inward success. This : cultivation of athletics from youth up ■ has stamped the English character, and Ln particular tiie character of English. students, with the distinctive features of a firm and healthy self-reliance." Then, as to work, he says: '"'While the afternoon is universally devoted to athletics, the forenoon in Oxford belongs in general to work; and though. I assign absolute supremacy in athletics to the English Universities, in the pursuit of knowledge I must claim the lead for our German institutions. This inferiority, however, is not so much the fault of the universities as of the schools. In tne programme of tiie English higher schools classical education takes" an overwhelming share, nearly two-thirds of the whole time and work being devoted to it. Yet as in any case this time is comparatively scanty, the young Englishman's acquirements - when ha comes to the University are. even in this department, sligkter than is usually the case in Germany. But in other branches of feararng. e-g.. history and geography, one often finds a really astomifflncj ignorance. Astounding above all. however, is tiie deficient acquaintance with bi3 own language, wnose literary treasures are unknown to the average English undergraduate. One thing, however, nrost be admitted: the Oxford student really has little time to pursue his scholarly education."' A taste for athletics and an improved knowledge of the English language seem to constitute tne writer's chief acquisitions during the year. But, as he says very truly. Oxford is not England. It is theoretic and the English, people are practif t.