NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 166, 13 July 1907, Page 9

NEWS, VIEWS, AND OPINIONS.

Tf+ook'the modern utilitarian mind Tceive the idea of turning a glacier I °L* this immense mass at so much I stl |in = , rt-he Alpine glaciers have not, ■•SrSJfIT, bJeh looked at from a ?!Lrrial point of view, except m so I ' ?fS £ Ive -brought tourists to the ft During the past -ew years, how- • a more practical idea has been deve!Ter i fnd the Glacier dv Casset, near jopea, » regularly operated as Sna^thehlocks;b e 4cutout jwmveyed over an overhead cableway place for shipment by •TV Paris to be consumed in the for ice is a. simple mat- !' The glacier, when, cleared, reveals a ■"-..ili ffont of ice twenty or thirty f??, leMit and about one hundred •Mn dear width. Vertical grooves six Ifj top and about eight feet apart are t rthis wall of ice, extending from 2,'Wto the top, and a similar chan-j-fewt downward behind the ice the , rat *oing only about one-third of Z wav'down. A small excavation is Zn Made under the foot of one of the Sn!i. Pillars, and a light Wast of ■\Liais sufficient to bring down the V- usually in three or four large tS weighing from two to three hund■fpfjoand?. The ice is sent down the ZaAxn. side, a distance of nearly a Siri a-half, without the use of any force-except its own weight. At the lowerplatform it is unloaded from the Zl/ S into carts, and taken to the Railway station at Briancon, ten miles l; distant,, whence- it is shipped to Paris. i lie daily cost of the operation of the i aitiie plafit, employing fifty men. is somewhere "in the neighbourhood of £10. uthe output is nearly one hundred tons of ice a day, the cost is about eighteenMnce a ton at the lower platform of fte cableway. The cost of conveying to Briancon is six francs a ton, making a total cost of about six shillings a ton at {he railway.

' In tne United States an unusual degree of absent-mindedness has been ascribed ,to two distingTndffid professors whose names it woiiia'-peihaps be unkind to publish ia'this connection, as they are still alive. One of them, an eminent mathematician, .was walking one -day in tie gutter instead of on the pavAnent, wiefl iis way' Has blocked by a carriage standing in front of a shop. The polished back of the Tenicie "suggested a* blackboard to his mind, so he took a piece of ch.'l'r out of his pocket and began to work out an-abstruse problem that was j,j't then occupying his attention. PreK'tJy the carriage started off. The mathematician followed, still working at the problem, until the pace became too tot for "him". - Then he looked about him in •*■ surprised "way, pocketed his chalk, sad rafted home. The other professor, rtlc is an ornament of Yale University, irapted an engagement to lecture in a dtj some distance away. His train' arflved la.te, so he jumped quickly into a sb, handed the driver two dollars, and Crated ''Drive fast." The horse started sitka plunge, and kept going for a rapid I hi? for haU-an : hojir, np one street and kw^ajitiiher;'":Finally t&e nrofessor, *ft*ae meanwhile concentrating his Siajits upon the forthcoming lecture, fiz»"his head out of the window and inSsrai, "Are you nearly there, cabby?" 'Blessed ior otherwise) if I know. isifer," was the astonishing reply. "Wine did you want to go?"

1 The difficulty of enforcing sote\Jaty by .-•] i« of Parliament is" illustrated by the course of-events in Kansas, U.&A. It ws enacted'that alcoholic beverages staH only he sold by druggists, and w purchasers should be required to ffls certificates specifying the ailments toth&cure of which the medicine was to le There has resulted an epidemic of insomnia for which beer is popularly regarded as the most appropriate remedy. Fourteen thousand _eiSi-eases &a.ye been recorded in a single aqaQt-i.. -heavy total, but hardly leayier than those who have studied inmaaaatm-e- in thirsty countries would Savfe expected. Evidently the Kansas legislature -will have to go a step further >l.it.Trishes its temperance laws to do more-than change the "habitat" of the teer drinkers, and the next step should wto. sebedule the diseases for which *«r may T)e Tield to be "'indicated." If a-were only allowed, say, in cases of peal paralysis of the insane, the most tardenea -toper might hesitate to demand te.pmi on the ground that that malady And yet one dares to-be sure-, for a coach-and-four can ways he driven" through any Act of toUament that is too»far in advance ethe public-opinion of the day.

*is stated that Mr..Carnegie is now «_nch as ever le was. if not richer:— He Las achieved great success in the waree-pf his long life., but he has never Weja more dismal failure than in the «*mpt to disembarrass himself of his ™Dons. It. S eems almost incredible £" anqefce sold out his interest in the and steel works for sixty millions although he has been giving mc ry%the shovelful in the old to™ ?*s*■**"> he has utterly failed Jm£i c tallest indent upon the which he started."" At indeed, succeed in makTsmVK nC hole in the mass of tis tion? j',- as lf to mock his ambi£kffi; ,oa - his efforts ' the value of iS"-** m which his money kffiK V- 6 10 per «»*■• so tWt poorer tV four mfllioll P°™ d3 CfLf?. he was he started, 4 S r^ sd{ ■* tt e beginning of tian •£* r ° Dulll oii pounds richer ■ - **<&> began his distribution.

Chicago in l|^ c Hotel, to which vite£ £ ? d "rfer-do-weds were in- : {easfc fas organised by a ■l^^:« s the Brotherhood Wel*4 *t ? T With tHe ide *'"of get- - 3" a P art from to:; Wr\£- Eec wWt ' COU M be ' done tt°S- ttelr «»<Jitfon. The inten-d-to*iwt , ° U !' but the tram P s > ®& PrivL™ of '«*«> abused of -tHe P S^ the progress ■poK& ?o £ Sfr "d-ftaioas that in, and the '■*****^lei1 ci v Lon S after the esNttlcea ed .*e bum/ , who l h :• •Jβ^™ 4 nnder the- table

A capital method of "commanding attention" has been devised by a violinist at Queen's Hall_ who ordered' the lights in the auditorium to be extinguished while he was playing. There being no possibility of criticising the dresses, the entire faculties of his audience were concentrated upon the player. The plan will doubtless commend itself to public speakers.and entertainers of every description. Whether you are preaching a sermon, singing a comic song, reciting "The Charge of the Light Brigade," or playing a symphony, the general turning of heads when a fascinating frock sweeps down the aisle is highly annoying. Envelop your listeners in darkness and you protect yourself from these distractions. Xor should audiences object. The philosonhic mind can discover compensation in any inconvenience. At a concert quite a nice nap could be snatched, undisturbed by wretched glare of lights or reproving eyes of shocked neighbours. Fjr political meetings, again, the plan offers unique possibilities to audiences. 13bwn go the lights and out from thsir places steals the opposition element. .Up goes the gas, and behold, the** platform is taken by a brilliant flank attack. Uproar.

A doctor makes' the somewhat strange but probably practical suggestion that mathematics should be used as an antidote to gambling. The ordinary gambler, he states, speculates in order to win, and the prospect of "winning is the incentive which does the greatest harm. He forms a clear mental picture of his prize, and the odds ■do not present the same picture to his mind. Consequently he exaggerates his prospects. Schoolboys ought to learn to calculate probabilities, so that when they grow up they should think as clearly and form as strong mental pictures of the odds against them in a game of chance as they do of the value of the prizes, and that they should learn to calculate expectations and to think of these rather than of the prizes. If nobody gambled except for the amusement, and if everybody before doing so made a calculation beforehand as to how much they were prepared to pay for that amusement, realising that their expectation in every <ase was a loss (if playing against a bank), the worst evil of gambling would be eliminated. The old difficulty would he the psychological one of preventing a man from being carried awsy by his excitement.

Many burlesque, amendments to a bill for the restriction of motoring in the State of Illinois Have been introduced by Mr. J. R. Robinson, a farmer, -who is considered the humorist of the State Legislature at Spriiigfield. Two of the amendments read as follows:— "When a farmer's cart is sighted coming in the opposite direction, the chauffeur will stop the car- half a mile distant, and approach with cigars, a bottle of spirits, and a white flag. In case the driver of the cart -will not permit the motor-car to pass, the chauffeur is to come forward with presents for the farmer's wife and children. If this does not avail, the chauffeur is to have the right to wreck the cart and kill the driver. All touring cars must change colour with vegetation, according to the season, in order to be rendered as inconspicuous as possible. Carts to be green in the spring, the colour of golden wheat in June, dust colour in July and August- red in October, yellow in and Wliiteiif' December/ One of the boldest attempts at importing forbidden Japanese into California, says a San Francisco paper, is reported from Port Townsend, Washington. The steamer Oanfa, of the China Mutual Navigation Company, arrived on a Sunday afternoon from Yokohama, and on Monday the health officers proceeded to fumigate-the .vessel. .- While -this process was going on, the officials heard sneezing repeated many times, apparently among the cargo.. Investigation was made, and several large packing cases were discovered to contain each a Japauese.girl. They were amply supplied with food and water for the voyage, and beyond being a little cramped for room, fairly comfortable. The cases had been placed on fhe main deck, where- plenty of air was circulating, and some of those connected with the vessel must have been in the secret. They were consigned to a merchant at Seattle. The authorities will make investigation into the matter at once. Meanwfiile the women will be deported, the steamship company being obliged to give bonds of £200 for each girl until she is sent back.

At Sunderland, England, some .weeks ago, the "send-off" of a happy pair who had just assumed the easy bond of matrimony was given by a crowd of factory workers, cheering them on the way to gaol. They had been fined for a, freak of wilful damage, committed under the excitement of the wedding day and the influence of liquor. This mast be thought an inauspicious beginning; for, strange as the vagaries of taste may be, it is hardly to be supposed that they had deliberately choS-en to spend ths honeymoon apart. But there is a rather worse ease reported from' Leytocstone. John Wilkinson, charged with being very drunk on Tuesday morning, offareu the excuse that he could not help it. "I ought to have got married," he said, "but I met some pals as I was going to church." "A lucky escape for tap girl," said the magistrate. "No fear,"' replied the egregious Wilkinson; "it will come off all right." It is not only marriages made in haste that promise to be repeated at leisure.

By the decision of a Divisional Court in England, it would seem that the owner of a hen which causes injury on the highway to a passing bicyclist is not liable for damages. The judgment is of interest to cyclists, more especially as its result, it is to be feared, may be that fowl -keepers will .exert themselves less strennouly to prevent straying than they would have done had the decision gone against the hen. The case, was; an appeal by the .cyclist from -a .County. Court judgment, wherein the judge had based his decision on two grounds— that there was no evidence to show it to be the common practice of hens to fly against bicycles, and that, in any event, there was no evidence that such was the disposition of (he particular fowl in question. Experience would argue against this that it is the common practice 'of every hen in an emergency to do the most foolish thing possible. The law as framed,- however,- was bound to uphold the intelligence of the hen, and. the sole consolation for cyclists must lie in the fact that, -a precedent havingbeen, createdj that intelligence is under grave suspicion. If a few more hens throw--away- their lives and- characters in this reckless 'fashion the trich may come to be established as "a common practice," and their owners made liable accordingly..