NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 78, 1 April 1905, Page 9

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

I« is not strange that the American 'ation of Masters and Pilots is %,-» seriously of trying to have vessels compelled to carry the W& "Plimsoll Mark" that all Bri- ! 'f craft have on their sides. It is that perhaps American vessels do | need it any more, than the English ff_ neerled >t before 1876; bnt as a , Smark, a sign to indicate, that the • F\j bearing it has been inspected by the mark lias done 1 !Lh to aid British shipping. There it 'on the ship's tide, a mark to show how fin'the" vessel may ho loaded; and the lit timid person may see at ones ' ' tttlier the craft which is to carry him ,' i-* deeper _ in the water than it ■ lluld he. American ships carry If of inspection, but they \i BO t so evident that he. who runs ]"\ , r read, as is the Plimsoll mark. A '' •fa-iKfr thing ahont the mark is its origin. Vm\, Plimsoll fought a long battle before ■ Piijliamenfc accepted his views and im- ■ iKSfd th" loadline mark on British yes- ■ JtjTand he credited his interest in the ■ subject largely to his wife. "It was all ■ onaccount of Eliza," he once explained j I-niblicly, and the phrase became popular .-nil England, and was used as the refrain I|v W a top if ' al sorl S tllat *" acl mt| cb success %jn the popular opera., "Billee Taylor," • 'Mmtt known twenty years ago. Many icrsons will recollect the phi 3'; comparatively few know that its most familiar m n owed its origin to Mrs. Plimsoll, to ihom also was owing the patent device joi the safety of British ships. There is every reason why the Japanfi e should be better sailors than the Inssians, One person in twenty in the Khole Japanese empire is more or less / Jdi a fisherman and fish appears in some t _fiorra upon the table of every Japanese J family daily, if not, at every meal. The JHsnniml value of the water products' is Ijow about six million pounds. Half a 18 million boats are engaged in fishing. Al- ■ H most a million men are professional fishf'ennen, and one million four hundred 7J_'ihmisand more give part cf their time to and the rest to fanning or other V jursuits. I The British War and Navy DepartI merits are close observers of events at the front, and among other'points which attract their particular attention is that cf the weather conditions accompanying the operations of the two forces. Official : records show that almost every imporTrtiant, action since gun, cannon, and morstar have become factors in warfare was naccompanied or followed by thunde.r|j;torms or heavy rainfalls. In fact, the -j continuous discharge of firearms and ■ heavy ordnance is said to be tbe direct ■ cause of this natural phenomenon.

ilifc in north-eastern Siberia may lave its compensations, but they would iced to he considerable lo balance its drawbacks. Captain Thwing. who has returned to America from the - Eastern Coast of Liberia, tells of an invasion of j,tlie cities and villages of the Kamtchat"'kan peninsula by hundreds of starving 'riSiberian bears. The ferocious animals, lUriren from the mountains by hunger, iraade their way to the inhabited regions o( the coast, and for days kept the nafires in a state of siege. , In UstakamtitatKa, k mmari town'near the city of Petropavlovsk, 150 of the savage brute* **ere shot in a single day as* they-prowl--11 among the houses in search of food.

' Mr. J. Stanley Todd, the portrait painler, was talking about the beggars of different lands. 'T have met," said-Air. Todd, ''beggar* of every description— iliy beggars, blustering ones, old beggars, robust ouei—but the most remarkable beggar of the lot was a man whom I never met. yet whom 1 never, assuredly, will forget. All I saw of this beg-. J!*r was his hat aud his chair. The chair stood on a corner of the Rue St. taziirc, in Paris. The hat Jay on the thair with a few coppers in it, and belind the hat was a placard reading: — •Pleasp, don't forget the beggar, who is low taking his luncheon.' "

An exceptional |>roportion of the |)>resent , occupiers uf the Mansion •House, the residence of London's Chief I Magistrate, refrain from, touctimg al>cojiolic*. liquors. At a recent social Sartoring j n th e City the Lord Mayor Pok an opportunity of mentioning thut his wife (the. Lady Mayoress) Md his three daughters, hi.s " eldest Son and daughter-in-law, the senior Sheriff, the Chief Commoner, his chaplain, the City Marshal, the City Libhis butler and steward, bis ipersonal valet, liis Slate coachman, and several minor members of hi.s household were all ' pledged and i&tanneh. teetotallers of long standing.

*' m ? opinion, says a medical man ■'jMo has performed hundreds,.of autopsies for the authorities, no man should *« before lie is eighty. Indeed, 1 jhink ■-,]__ S j )au of j-;{ c m ig n -t reasonfly he prolonged to k-JO or 140 years, "eryous waste" is his way of accruing for those frequent cases Wro, j n S pjt e 0 f ni . improvement lr ; public sanitation, and in the art 01 medicine, young and middle-aged fwn die, without apparently adequate l w *t hi specific disease. Anxiety. M*'*' l accompanies gambling and TWlation. the irritable, manner of ißp?n jostled in public conveyances, lmiJpCKSary exertion put forth in the |*SP»t .ordinary acts, are all mnnifesBwticms of i his wasLe.

!-* r P the American people becoming li would almost- seem so. ** 1 the conclusion/ of a sensational """■di-r t r i a | ~,, fcsombridge, Massa*™setts, the olher day, an extraorIWavy scene occurred. The senior *oUßsel f,„. tnc prosecution and the defence- were so overwrought that Wy throw iheir arms around each "'tar and wrpr, while the junior eoun--861 for tiie prisoner became hysterical ? Cl * fell into the reporters' arms. A_'if? njr of i; - 1p spectators also wept. lltk 10 P uv,i,, '-lars calculated to throw KeSjt on tho muse of all this emotion • ho in< -resting. ■ ■'^•* l >U-m l ,(ovists will rejoice lo learn |v| Tenl nieanig of the word chauf-, : i, r ' ' b has been discovered in an LI/ 0 !*, "_\ Leader of Society at JNa^ " Ifm-• ' ' n '■''''"••"' tne follow big extract D mmkg the clue: ''Out of the strife, , J V\to cr '* aTul confusions that for 31, nic ye. rir s bad prevailed in France, J|*f aeW c,!iarT,rt T had arisen. A band I ttt ro^^ws > called 'chaufTenrs,' whose ■•'iSi 6 * • Wl<tc them til ° terror of ihe fi j-7 1 country, now infested, not only I !**>■ Pro-ri.ces, but Paris itself."

According to Professor Okakura, of the Imperial Uiryersity of Tokio, the Japanese ideal of beauty is unvarying. In the women mildness and grace arc preferred to the suggestion of streitgtit and manliness. To be beautiful aJapanese girl must measure sft in height, have a comparatively fair skin, and well-developed limbs; hair long, thick, and jet black; face oval, nose high, narrow and straight- eyes large, with large black pupils fringed with thick black lashes. Her month must be small, and hide between red hut not too thin lips even rows of small white teeth. The cars mast not bo altogether small, and the eyebrows must be long and thick. According to Prof. Patten, who fills the chair of political economy at the University of Pennsylvajiia, the married woman ought to contribute to the support of her family, and he deplored the existence of so many married women in tho leisure class. The economic independence of man and wife would go a long way to promote the happiness of both. "Formerly the wife was always occupied in attending to her household duties, but in these days of steam-heat-ing and of the presence in American homes of so many labour-saving appliances there was no longer any necessity to restrain a. woman from developing her industrial and commercial instincts. Her industrial development should progress simultaneously with tlie development of her character- Rome ladies present took exception to Prof. Patten's argu: orients. 1 A writer who is fond of anathematising the long-winded methods of lawyers has perpetrated the following amusing illustration:—"lf a man were to give another an orange, he would merely say: 'I give you this orange.' But when the transaction is entrusted to a lawyer to put into writing, he adopts this form: 'I hereby give, grant, and convey to you all aud singular my estate and interest, right, title, claim, and advantage of and in the said orange, together with all its rind, skin, juice, pulp, and pips, and all rights and advantage, therein, with full power to bite, cut., suck, and otherwise eat the same, or-give the same away as fully and effectually as I, the said A.8., am now entitled to bite, cut, suck, or otherwise eat the same orange „* give the same away, with or without its rind. skin, juice, pulp, and pips, anything hereinbefore or hereinafter, or in any other deed or deeds, instrument or instruments, of what nature or kind soever to the contrary iv any wise notwithstanding." M. Hachet-Souplet. the founder of the Institute for the Study and Development of Animal Psychology, as a result of bis remarkable experiments with various animals, is naturally full of interesting and strange stories about them. "Recently,*' he says, '"I compelled a monkey to go for sweets to a box, the cover of which was ornamented inside with a mirror. Not only did the animal discover that the glass reflected his own image, but after a few days he used the mirror as a dsuidy would. One day a bit of liquid plaster fell on his face, and immediately hardened. The monkey ran to the box, opened it. and used the mirror to scratch away the plaster. Likewise he Would often go to the glass, and, pulling his cheek with his finger, see exactly what quantity of hazel nuts he had stored in the pockets of his chops."

I The State of Pennsylvania seems likely to rival the reputation, of South tiro \ra.y~Xit fovdrife-facilities as evidenced by an interpretation of a recent divorce law by the Courts there. A law was passed last year providing for granting divorce without a personal service of the usual legal papers ou the defendant in the ease where the defendant, resided iv another State. The law was passed for the benefit of a Philadelphia heiress who was married to an Englishman, aud was seeking to divorce him. The papers in this case were sent through the post to tlie husband of the plaintiff similar to the procedure in Dakota, and the divorce was granted. Tlie Courts have now decided that this Jaw has a general application, and can be applied to any case- The result is that people desiring divorce are moving in numbers to Pennsylvania to reside the legal time to take advantage of the law.

hast April the editor of ''Modem Astrology" communicated to the world his '"horoscope of the Czar of Russia," from which' one learned that he "was born when the tenth degree of Virgo was on the ascendant, Mercury, the ruler of this sign, being placed in the meridian in its own positive sign, G-enrini, which denotes thought and action being one in his life." What this may mean wo confess wo do not know. Astrology, we seem to remember, was

an optional subject in. the curriculum of our schooldays. But we cannot imagine anything more fatal lo success as a ruler of men than the fact of "thought and action being one," and the Czar docs not appear to sutler from it. The kernel of the horoscope, however, was the following prophecy: "This war is the beginning of the end for the Czar. The Sun is applying to the square aspect first of Jupiter and then of the Moon, both in the eighth, the house of death. From the beginning of the war every influence points to a speedy tor-

;,iination of physical existence for this iil-fated Emperor. Will he survive the present year? It is doubtful. And even should he do so, his country is threatened by an internal revolution

which will go to hasten his end."' Which all goes to show how extremely easy it is to prophecy plausibly about the Czar.

'"You'll have to pay for this boy,'' said a conductor on the car the other day to a lady by whose side sat a sturdy-looking youngster who appeared to have seen at least a dozen summers. "I've never paid for him before," remarked the lady. "'That does not matter: its-time he was paid for at any rate, and I roust, ask you for his fare!"

"But it's not fair; I don't see why 1 should —" "Now, my good woman, are you going to pay or "not? There's no help for it; pay or I stop the ear and put him off." "But, I say—" Ting, ling —birr. Tbe car comes to a standstill; the youngster grins, and the ear conductor, who is now thoroughly angry, again faces the la-dy and demands a fare. 'Til not. pay." "You .1 not pay?"

"I said so; there is no reason why I should pay for other folks' children. I never saw the lad before, aud if you had only listened till I had explained yon would not be standing there now looking so foolish." The conductor turned round for the purpose of seizing the unh-eky youngster, but he was too late. When the car stopped tbe boy, who had been gradually edging nearer the door, saw that the game was up, and as the angry conductor was trying to wring the copper from the lady the kid seoorted, much to the amusement t oi those insist the ear.