NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 95, 21 April 1906, Page 9

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

TCith all due respect to Dr. E. F. Wilj,l,v and other hygienic authorities, recently been laying down the *°° jomewhat rigidly as to what we aid eat and when, one may question ° utility of dogmatising on such a ''* j r social issue as the luncheon projf • for surely it must be recognised Jrf no general hygienic rule can be laid fij, jn this matter? The amount of febeon a man L-itii eat without in- ™ „- evidently varies accordr, to such factors physique, ago. %sic. and the nature of his employi Will any authority contend that should lunch upon a bath ton and a J-' a * s or or the hardline; student upon two regpIj,je« " al, d pudding? On the other * j some brain worker.- hay» proved ? ir' capacity to lunch copiously willing sensible decline or ;n?riii;;n aD< * Probably tn ' s contr-'ver-j jjjl also trno to light tli? vegetarian L-nnan with a taste for a bun and It lias been argued, howpvor. M luncheon 1? not e:uy a men! i.v: a giemony. which apparently means that fine must be killed by eating during the aid-day interval. From that point of 'new a" three-course Hmcheou may be deaiabie ior the leisured cla.= <es, for. a=> a ysioiiable idler once remarked. " A pcid lur'lton breaks the back of t'.ie '• x j> ]sot nil oi us. however, can (foul t° break the back oi thi i.Uy l>} jtßhig our senses with a heavy lunch. $3 to hold that individual i^tlination should solve the luncheon poblem.

Wlile mo?t critic? in Europe as well f= other places very much nearer horn? tre still undecided as to which is the ]jgt oi the many suits of street payJ3£. tic inhabitants of Givandii, iv iirica. have settled the matter entirely jo then - own satisfaction by u=»ing the cknlls of their enemies for paving the Hproaches to the town. Over 1-2.000 finlls hare been used on the roads Jpadjag to the various gates, and. polished mi bleached a? they are by the friction of countless feet and the effect of the jm and air, they are said to have the Eppearanee of ivory. When a new pavement is needed there is no bother eeJ scandal abotit contract?. All that is necessary is to declare war on some j-eiglibouring tribe, for then the roads eie repaired as a matter of course! Is India coming to the fore as a seriws rival to the United States in the jnrreying of mendacity? We are infed" to ask the question after perusal d the following snake ftory: Jn a inngalow a little boy daily had his bowl d bread and milk cm the verandah, sitting in a child's high chair. He was as E*rry as a cricket;. one heard him ta\k--1e? and crowing to himself apparently. stil one niorning he was seen tapping as head of a cobra gently with hi* sjxson. saying " Bobber}', bobbery"— aughty. naughty. The snake was frietly drinking the milk out of theborl, paying no heed to the child's play. :Asudden noise or movement by the f spsctator of this scene,, and the cobra. :f tsild instantly have turned and bitfeu frhoy. Presently down slid the rep- & away into some bushes, and some S3 were sent to kill it. The child tried bitterly, and said the had tone every morning and helped him jrirh Ms breakfast. ; A good story comes from a Southern {own. A ventilating shaft to Carry sray the gases from the sewer was frected near the house of a well-known resident. After a while that gentleman ftote to the Council to complain of the iilmoxious smells coming from the sewer Ihrough the ventilating shaft, and s.aid that the odour was so obnoxious that Ms children were prevented from getting any recreation near the house. The dark's reply was a gem. "Dear sir, -, he fciote, "the ventilating shaft has not jet been connected with the sewer." It is generally regarded as an admitUd fact that France is Jess successful Him she might be in conciliating the affections of her coloured subjects in the tolonies, and even Freachmen lament the incapacity of functionaries to treat the iatire in a spirit of sympathy. But stae is balm in Gilead. if we may befee the story told in a Paris paper of Sβ treatment of £isowath. nominal Sng of the French Protectorate of tonbodge. Sisowath intended to visit •be Colonial Exhibition at Marseille* Bits spring: but he hesitated to leave &c hundred dancers whom he mainSins for his delectation at Pnom-Penh. Re French Government has solved the fifieulty in the most handsome style. *Bring them with you: Marseilles will w-delighted with their dancing, and they toll travel at the expense of the Profetorate." The traditional French lilteness could not go further, and we ™pc thai this instance of ii will be exited to the dignity of a precedent. We krfly expect to hear of President Fallibeing welcomed to London surrounded by the members of the corps « ballet of the Paris Opera; but the *i»ld moves quickly no-svadays. and one •^w , knows what new developments one not live to witness. Oculists have occasion for rejoicing. .Mβ divining-rod has received Governmental recognition. We hasten to add ~*» the Government alluded to is not 116 British, but the German. Acting s°l the Kaisers initiative the authori*sfcave despatched an expert with his "'lie hazel twig to iind water in Gerp 1 South Africa. The diviner is Herr H "& Uslar, who is a land official, and, in H "Sown district, considered the most If water-finder in the world. I . '& a forked hazel-twig in his hands ;.. over the barren land. If there J ? anywhere underneath the twig I Jsns to twist and bend, and Herr yon |*fcr tells where and how deep down ~}* precious liquid is. Let us hope he ?*y be able to point out a few springs the dry and thirsty country he has fc e . n sent to. At the same time w" rethat the divining-rod is also r~ *pr the discovery of precious metals *"* hidden treasure. Germany is quite r.Ataious for these things a3 she is Z .water. Perhaps, therefore, Herr I mission is a double one. Some M c{ . aou s souls see in this recognition A by a Government not usualM e^ted . with superstitious tendencies H ttsr rery eep desig ll3 indead. What M ite^ 6 they y et say. but they ! B &wjt - Herr Uslar a " nd bis * rod - Ths ' no d° UDt De discovered very, 1 '^~ y al tte bottom of a South African ;

Xature has just presented'a nice-pro-blem for solution in the "United States courts. A man named-Sheerer, upon being told he was fatally ill, made provision lor an unborn 'child. He died, and instead of one child twiiis were born. The will provided that the child, if a boy, should have two-thirds of the estate and the "widow one-third; il a girl, the child to have one-fhird and the widow two-thirds. What shave the twins, one a boy and the other a girl, will have is the problem. Two possible "ways out ?, occur to us. Obviously the father thought that the mother was entitled to half as much as the boy; he took the same view with regard to a girl. Therefore, the boy would get half the estate and the mother and daughter a quarter each. Or, it may be held, the father decreed that the boy should have twice as much as either mother or girl and the mother twice as much as the daughter. To give effect to that solution the estate must be divided into seven portions —four going to the boy. two to the mother, and one to the girl. How, w-9 wonder, will the American courts settle the matter? A little coterie of club meu was the other night discussing the intelligence of their dogs. Some rather remarkable stories had been narrated, and one convivial soul had just finished a comparatively credible account of how his favourite canine pet could play dominoes with the best of them, when the eldest member of the company "capped" the rest with one to the following effect: Hl3 "wife kept three cats. That same week, greatly annoyed at something one of them had done, she expressed an unkindly wish in the presence of a terrier that this particular cat was dead, mentioning the animal by name. Without more ado the intelligent dog flew out of the house, saw tabby in the garden, and immediately slew him.

It was only at the commencement of the year that probate was granted of j the sheet of notepaper on which the ,late Lord Inverclyde expressed his wishes and intentions with regard to the disI'posal of property valued at more than a ! quarter of a million. Lord Inverclyde's J testamentary terseness.. remarkable I though-it was. has. however, since been j surpassed by that of Mr. F. C. W. Thorn, i whose will pronounced in London one (day in February by Mr. Justice Gorell J Barnes to "be "the shortest ever seen." ilt consisted only of the three words,

("All to mother," and two initials, and ali though not by itself sufficient to satisfy jthe requirements of probate, it. has 'been pronounced valid and binding. Its ! chief imperfections were, first, that it did not bear the testator's name or even all his initials: secondly, that it was i not obviously a will: and. thirdly, that jthe identity of the "mother" referred to i was not indicated with incontestable, ■clearness. Fortunately, there were wit--1 nesses both to the genuineness of the j testament and the intentions of the tesitator. and the=e are, generally speaki ing, the only points which the law rej quires to be established. The duty of I making a will, and of making it proj perly, is so iirndbrtant that it is well that (the simplicity of the task should be \ impressed upon who, from dislike jof legal expense or formality, and someI times from mere laziness, are tempted 'to procrastinate.

Some particulars of the Schlusselburg I State Prison, which an official announcement in St. Petersburg has just declared to be closed, are given in an English exchange. The prison ha? the grimmest of grivn reputations as the fortress to which the Russian Government has been wont for upwards of 20 years past to [consign those political prisoners who were regarded a? the most dangerous ■ enemies of the Autocracy. Its situation is in perfect accord with its gloomy terrors. It lies about a score of miles cast of St. Petersburg as the crow flies, at the point where the Neva issues from Lake Ladoga, and the region is very unhealthy. Terrible stories are told of the sufferings of those confined in the dungeons of this Russian Bastille, as it has been called. Last November a number of prisoners were released as a result of the political amnesty proclaimed by the Emperor, and the closing down of the fortress as a prison is a further corollary to that measure. According to a recent issue of the "La Tribune Russe," 67 persona condemned on political charges have been confined in Sc!i hiss el burg for longer or shorter] periods siricn it was declared a prison for political offenders in 1884. Of this number, according to the same autho- ! rity, 13 were executed. 16 died in fits of madness, and half a- dozen committed suicide, three of them in the fortress and three shortly after their release. Canada is about to coin its own money. The Mint, which has been for some time in course of construction at Ottawa, will shortly be ready for work. It will be a branch of the Royal Mint in London, and a.s such the staff will congist exclusively of officials sent out from England. Canada bears the cost of erecting the building, and will contribute a yearly s\im not exceeding £15,000 for its operation. Althoug-h the Dominion has been a gold producer for many years Canadians have no distinct gold coinage. When the Royal Mint was too busy with its own currency to mint silver and copper pieces for the Dominion the work was handed over to the firm of Heaton. of Birmingham, which has been in existence since the period of the early Georges. A silver piece that comes from the Heaton Mint can be detected by the letter "H." under the Royal effigy. In addition to sovereigns from Britain. Canada gets eagles from the United States. Dominion notes are made at Ottawa by a private firm under Government contract. The recent sale of the original draft of Xelson"s "General Memorandum" to the captains oi his fleet on the eve of Trafalgar has inspired a writer in a French journal to recall a famous forgery which took place in Paris in 1869. In the present case the evidence for the genuineness of tlic document seems perfectly convincing; but it is mar\ r ellous with what a lijrht he.art a collector will accept the most self-evident forgeries of autographs. The victim in the ease cited was a learned member of the Institute. A forger succeeded in palming off no fewer than 27.000 documents on the credulous collector, from whom he received 140.000 francs. Tnasmiu-h. however, as tlie list included not only such c-ommcnplare documents as letters of Moliere, Rabelais, and Shakespeare, but others from Alexander the Great to Aristotle, from Cleopatra to Julius Caesar, from Lazarus to St. Peter, and from Mary Magdalen to Lazarus, the eollec- i tion was really cheap at the pricp. What j "blew the jTPfr' was a correspondence be- ] tween Isaac Newton and Pascal,-which the victim proudly read to his fellowmembers of the Institute, whence followed ©lvestigation. discovery, and the ultimate sentence of the forger to two years' imprisonment.