NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 136, 8 June 1907, Page 9

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

' . -;„„- said at the American Pe_e ° J tB S V_" Grey's account of a £**_ found among Cecil Wiodc_ *-**ffs Ste the most interesting. was twenty-two, and durmX. t exploration .of the new . ?*' f_ t his home, he ._% - P _s a sort of political essay, *?__ Z s dream of a reunion of the axon peoples was first set down gSr_ scholarships .vcrr- his last •&tK effort for the realisation of i-T Oration. Karl Grey, who has $ 3_£E find, in it chiefly, how- *". _ vonthf.il motive: the union was **in the interests of *" te .. fnr it had occurred to Rhodes __* EnVand and the United States .„ acted together they might have "* d f the Russo-Turkish war by a £tOPP - i Invcott of the combatant.. It Point out that Rhode. i 3 __d the idea that, this expedient '*_ To effect it, of _S Governments would have to **"?™ *orei<m investments on the part »^M«fa> aDd thilt 5s imT> T' u ' _! Jirinlv Even if it werei not so. fi£_& only prepare for self-de-*"i,v a larger accumulation of rcfeS® • ih-t" Great Britain and the Sfaetu. together would exercise 5m t t" on „ influence for peace on many a • ie likely enough; but they can S-deSStopohcethcch-iiised _M nor to cripple it, and, naturally, Jgrf attempt to do so would rciHn the Anglo-Saxon union brmg reformidable men-

The educational establishments in S_n have been enriched by the addi58* a school for -prophetesses/ lie % ,_icb has beep opened in North tk advertises that it is directed by f£- who has had large expeneme. Idl. are confined to the female sex. 3 the curriculum embraces all rarie- & of hand-reading—ordinary, spiritistic, ""d" Sipsy methods-also .™_enti_e" chifblogy and the reading nf the future from coffee grounds the Ut of birds, yolks of eggs and the Ss which molten lead assumes when ™md into-rater. The lady ot experience is receiving numerous applications for admission to her academy.

There are pessimists in the world of floe, iancietswho say that the bulldog _a_ been hied out of all his old fine character. A little item in English _w=papers irom Brighton should revive them. A bulldog oi the white bnndie type revealed a rather vigorous ''throwback" recently hy attacking a motorcar—and made a very sporting iigiit of it. He got at the vulnerable point right away.'and demolished a tyre; after which* the car being brought to a stand, he tore tie apron all to "shreds and started on the works. The degeneration of. the bulldog is clearlyi r.ot his fault. * There are no bulls for him. But he still "shows'willing." and perhaps.he might be brought up to date without much trouble with a view to the capture of runaway mptor-'buse; £id German ballooriists.

An interesting story of the supernatural was current not very many years ago of a young girl who slept one night in the "Blue" or "Haunted Boom" at Hampton* Court, At the witching hour, says the writer in " P.T.0.," she was awakened by a loud noise in the adjoining room. The door of her apartment was violently shaken, the handle rattled, and tbe sound of footsteps could be heard distinctly. Suddenly it appeared to the startled girl that a figure was gliding up and down iv the darkness close to" her bed, and then it seemed as if a towering form stooped and gazed into her face. _-j sound was uttered by tbe wraith, but the frightened girl felt -1 cold draught on bar cheek, like the blast of an icy breath that might herald the passing of a soul. Then tlie atmosphere of the room lightened, the noises instantaneously ceased, and the poor girl was left in a dead faint. The integrity of the person who related this story cannot be questioned.

i:-. , . - i """SnlfloSg. n>,- •King ol Siarn—'" most | \sgji,-illustrious, invincible, and 1 powerfuli .i_rch, crowned with 101 golden] owns, each adorned with nine species cf precious gems, greatest, purest, and Host• divine master of immortal souls, ■idio sees all things, Sovereign-Emperor. under the shadow of whose wings lies the rk_ and incomparable kingdom of Sian, King, to whom is subject the most fruitful of all lands lit by the sun. greatest of lords, whose palace is of line gold and gems, divine master of the golden tones, and of the white and red ele-J-bmts, sovereign god of the nine kinds ci gods. King-who is like unto the sun at its zenith, and like the full moon, King •fiiose glance is more dazzling than the ntb of the morning, King tvho is above sli emperors, monarchs, "and potentates tithe universe, from the rising to the atting sun." to give his Majesty his full official title—has just arrived in Europe ra a visit of State and pleasure and commerce,

Pans, for all her modernity — and "Nat is more modern than the modern- . of -Paris?—retains, here and there, ertain quaint, and one might say. pathetic relics of centuries ago. "One of isthe annual "Scrap Iron and £?_. Whicll takes P lace annually. m, before Easter, on the Boulevard £chard-__ oir and the Boulevard de la .7_. - The -"Skriag-* of this anu- « -narket would be found, if we could •mw-j-t them, in the Middle Ages, for ■-ranaan chronicler of the seventeenth witary (Sauval) declares that "its oriPis lost in the night of time." _- *»«*■*_• to a writer in a Parisian conwnpoiary, the scene of the fair has r_ ™ a ?? ed ton the precincts of the meted of Xotre Dame to the present ■ate. But how came about the curious gmhmation of scrap iron and ham? %s&* a marketable article in its own •3*2 but there is no obvious connection wween the two. However that may ft-'-. . v i S°es on year after year, and nK*_ ai — t "* at in g ell ious but impecuni- !_• . Sans are ' m the hanit of o1 "" **™ng free luncheons front the samples "Jigmeat whi_ are offered gratis by awdauit. to the public Possibly that ¥o?2 tit." th ° *"*"* P ° PUlar -

h_,t _. , pkn " or •''" !ls th <- following BgaUe elephant story: - "On one S__ J Wellt after a h «d o£ eight After .talking I got a feZ_ at -_ l< - h '"Z est of thfi ' llcrd - alld i _T it at the first shot. About fat;T s _ acnrar, * J -* had and > cut off and taken to the bungalow. '.to. n T onmiS l Tent tho spot, ' _r ■ _? nse found no tra< * °f the 'tkt'ii, sT , searching round, I saw _hl t 6r ? hai been back duril "? the _7 Soon dis a track -•Wv* ._. emed t0 have "tired in m*h\ n r °" ow, »g «iis up, I eventually 8.2. tie dead cle P ha »t- Iving at m tt T t of • a ™ k >- *»■» 'tiiUh \ T, lfc was -l uitc evident «nfal*n ~y _ d not been roUed . but S2_ ta " take » through the long \m _+tt . , nel S hDol "rs were incredujfctattt, . 7 ed them wbt " rc tbe ele * a nd S_2_,i°_ feet had been cut off. Wo"l that by some *&kt _w the bod - v had been s ot & is diffi. v e " mg s P aces in the night. Wt w_*. -° ■"derstand how __ _? Clr trml! - £ a* l -! feet could ■kkmlf-a sUpport the dead bod y of a l°T c - r ' the y seemed *» ■Kto?W_ It " Md jt -* Pity no

According to ihe St. Petersburg Press, the higher prison authorities have appointed a committee to consider the question of giodowki, cr hunger strikes, which political prisoners of the past de-i-acle have indulged in as a protest against various abuses. Several prison governors have reported that these hunger strikes arc becoming so frequent that something shornd be done to prevent them. The committee think otherwise. " The glodowka in itself is not dangerous,"' they report. " The. majorwbo are kept in separate cells, eat theii food on the fourth or fifth day. Many, who are kept in separate cells, eat their food in set-ret and tell their neighbours that they have not touched it." The report ends with tha remark that no special treatment is necessary for this form of insubordination, as the movement dies a natural death and nature g.iins the victory over the strikers' obstinacy. Nevertheless, prison governors do not like a glodowka. The news of it may get into the foreign Press, who like to paint the "Russian official a.s black as possible. The prisoners know this, and resort to giodowki as often as they dare. The other day 200 political prisoners in PiatskoiT organised a glodowka, demanding that those condemned to exile should be sent oil without further delay. The next day their demands were acceded to, and sixty-six of them were sent, much to the satisfaction of the strikers, who evidently think a Siberian c.tape is better than an overcrowded orison. s

The end of the great Ferris wheel at j Earl's Court, of which we have all se':n pictures if not the original, was rather more impressive than its erection was. If it is not unkind to say so, nothing so becomes the monstrous toy as its sensational demolition. Tlie axle, which weighs sixty tons, was dropped from a height of ISOft to the ground, and though it fell no faster than a cricket bill, the catch was one that only Mother Earth could bring off steadily. There was even some doubt about this, and the District Bailway between Earl's Court and West Kensington was closed during the six or seven hours that it took to dislodge the great cylinder. Taking three and a-half seconds to fall, the axle struck the ground at the rate of 74 miles an hour, to the great satisfaction of a shuddering crowd. It had been calculated by the engineer in charge of operations that the blow was equal to a suddeu deposition of 10.SC0 tons upon a circle Oft. 9in in diameter. The Kquator remained where it was., and that is. a fact which warns.usance again. never to speak disrespectfully of the Equator.

Hcrr Tafel. the German explorer, has been favoured with an interview with that mysterious personage the Dalai Lama, and was allowed to witness his methods of examination of candidates for the priesthood. The ceremony took place at the Thibetan monasters- of Gumbum, not far from the Chinese frontier, where the Dalai Lama has taken refuge. To the western mind the proceedings border on the ludicrous, though the canelidates find them a severe ordeal. The Lama examined three candidates, w-ho lay on their faces before him. Each candidate raised his head and replied when a question was asked, then immediately buried his face in his mat again. If a stupid reply was being given the Dalai Lama stooped and pressed his hand lightly over the candidate's mouth. This, it was explained, was done to prevent ridicule falling on the student making the answer. When the latter was very bad indeed the Lama waved his hand in a circle over the offender's Lead as an expression of contempt. Hcrr Tafel, who' is said to be the first, European who has ever been face to fate with the Lama, describes him as a squat, sturdy man with a heavy black moustache.

A writer in an American paper attributes to lamps the decay in the art of conversation. "Wheu evening had to be passed by the light of flickering candles, reading, he says, was difficult, and ple-asant discussion wherewith to spin out the hour before bedtime was the rule in every household. ' The coining of lamps brought a change, and gas and electric light have made the change yet. more radical. To-day Aye bury our noses in our books, and the would-be talktaive person is discouraged by those grunts which arc the only form of reply absorbed readers will .-ouchsafe. Grunts do not make" for sparkling chatter. But lamps and gas have iutreidacsd a yet further change in our evenings. They have considerably extended them. "Not only were candles difficult 'to read by. 'hut. the constant attention they nee_ed, andtheirexpense, did not invite the late hours; which mo., people now keep. One feels that even the brightest talker would grow a little annoyed and ready for bed if constantly, in the midst of his most sparkling or most impressive periods, he had to get up and snuff the candies!

The Indian correspondent of the "National Review" provides some interesting notes on the thoroughgoing pleasure which the Ameer reaped of his late visit. His Majesty enjoyed dining out above all things, and fell into the setting of a tea-party as gracefully as an English curate. He also attempted waltzing, played "'a remarkably good game of bridge," and called for an "'exposed card"' with the promptness of one who knew the rules and gave nothing away. As a racegoer his Majesty justified his title by attending on .he sport of kings" at every possible opportunity, and a lasting impression was left upon the Indian Turf by the spectacle of an Afghan attendant who walked gravely behind him '"'carrying a vast cash-box full of notes with which he makes his bets." The Ameer, indeed, paid for everything "on the nail,"' and departed from India without leaving an unsettled bet or bill behind him. His Majesty will be sure of a welcome on his return visit next year, but nowhere may he expect a heartier cheer than when the Royal cash-box is seen entering lattersall's. Enclosure!,