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NEWS, VIEWS and OPINIONS.

. respondent of an English daily i CO""*' v; a[)er gome interestCoDtri fabout the referendum in SwiUbf J Id several cases the Swiss Parer' „'t to« passed a bill almost unanimt or bv a very large majority and 110,1 • 1 the peopie have demanded a •""tan on that biil. and have reject«*rt a Taie majority. A notable cd in Doint was the law creating iW*? S Rank for Switzerland. The I*TL ft "ave the bank too much the 1< i. state monopolv; but they accepted anot'her and conmodified bill, and the National Srfta now been established for some Spa*. Similarly a State Sickness W -tnuslv bv the Swiss Parliament, ITS data referendum by a 200."S Lt passed after eleven years d»- ■ nr •» verv large majority, is also T lo t certain to be rejected by the i. should it come to a referendum, rf\ets likely to do. Nevertheless. !? Lj s s Parliament will not lose hpart, 2 irill iraft a third Sickness and Acciw Insurance Bill, which may perhaps Z favour with the people and thus Seinto force. It is usual y on bill. 5 as this, affecting every class of the iunity. rich and poor alike, thai referendum is demanded. The Swiss * ]e as mav be inferred, do not look .n their 'Parliamentary ropresen- £«« infallihlP: but the fact that tie svstem of representative government Z Switzerland remains unassailed, in mite of bills passed by Parliament being ton, time to time rejected by the people ,l referendums. should surely be a sufliaent answer to those who assert that (je introduction of the referendum mold destrov representative government. Referendums, hoth Cantonal and federal, are so common, the people take mem almost as matters of everyday life. Ihey do not upset the country as elections do; neither is their cost excessive.

At Inncn the Man-who-had-just-corne hick was telling of his experiences. At one of our possessions in China a lady had exhausted the European community with her missionary eil'orts, and purs.'jtriugs were tightly drawn. Mruck with the splendour of a sudden thought she went off to try the native comnmajtr, and called on a rk'h merchant, Mr ii Sing. She asked for Mrs Ah Sin:,'. Into the "Europe Drawing-room'' sailed i stately woman unmistakably English. •'I am airadd,'' said the lady with a mission, "there is some mistake; I asked for Mrs Ah Sing." "I am itrs Ah Sing," BiM the otfeer, with dignity. The collector of subscriptions gasped, but rose ;o the occasion brilliantly. "I am so ziad to meet you,"' she said, shaking lands warmly. "Do you know I have t sister that married a Scotsman!"

Speaking from no expert standpoint, we have nothing to say against tlio "hniu&n aura'' observed by Dr Patrick O'Donnell, of Chicago, and by Dr Kilner, of London, says the "Pall Mall Gazette." It comes to this: the observers have seen through certain screens a vivid radiation of light emanatimr from every portion of the human body, which apparently floats away and disappears when death comes. There is more in radioactivity, "magnetism," and many other little-known things than was dreamt ot in Ihe philosophy of earlier generation*, and we shall be surprised if the scientific mind receives these (statements witli ilank incredulity. The American doctor, however, certainly seems to go beyond what his observations warrant in declaring that this "aura" is "undoubtedly the guiding power or current of life." At the utmost what he can claim to have ascertained is that it is a phenomenon attending life and disappearing with death. "1 don't say," he remarks, "that this aura is the soul or spirit." But by the very fact of disclaiming any such confident assertion he is encouraging others to make it, and it will not conciliate respectful attention tc the scientific side of the matter to contaminate it with unwarranted suggestions borderlag on the bitter ground of religion.

A lonj-eipected blow has fallen upon the Lutherans of Prussia. The famous Cologne pastor, Karl Jatho, whose combined esiguitv of creed, power of intellect, and nobility of life have for years past rendered him not only one of the most notable, but also one of the most notorious, figures in Prussian life, has at last been formally adjudged a heretic, and deprived of his spiritual functions. As a result, an agitation in his favour is rising all over Germany; and the interesting negation known "as the Liberal Theology is receiving the biggest advertisement it has had for vears. Pastor Jatho's views are certainlv a little peculiar in the ease of a Christian minister. He repudiates all belief in the wpernatural. A person.il Ood and a wvine Redeemer do not exist for Pastor Jatho, and the prospect of a future life ■» » uncertain that he savs ven- little about it. In short, he goes a good deal -arther in his Liberalism than a good lI ™ T Unitarians; and reallv the most '"mark-able thing about the condemnation which has now befallen him is that " was not pronounced venrs aw One '""It of it will be a ne~!ed rectification "the worthy pastor's position. The •«W of thought is free, and a man mav «Wpt whatever cree-I suits him best: *t to use the pulpit of one faith for fading the doctrines of another is, '«" all, not the work for honest men. The rector of Bathwick (England) has »«d the question why men no longer »* to church. It » ;hi|.flv because 01 « toe of the women's hats, he told his *bop at the Church of England Men , bociey at Bath. One man at lea* has cmplamed to the rector that these bats P'pent him from seeing or hearing anv«™g, and announced that he will not P1 to church again until a reform takes Pih- 1 " *u "' 5 familiar enough, unhapL V the nui!? aufe in the iheatrp; ™ the trouble in church is in some y ohodv in the th qt . p ever complained that the matinee ,7 obstructed his ears, aim ulu < J tent, ritual prevails? Besides, the mir,n g l wouW seem t0 afford adH 0 » C ° Ver for a na P m sernl °n time. DQHl Ver ' ' f thl9 P lea is generally supenf S ? me \ hin ? will l»"r to be done, PoLih, C r hUr fortunately, it is fan' g"*ki for the clergy to appeal to woB'rL r K mOVe their hnts wh " n the ■ice is about to begin, since an uncov- =« woman is against ecclesiasti-al role. Cest'l n ° thiDg f ° r H but eith " t° small w° men t0 come in tinfashionably sdelrt* 'r Which mi S ht only exchange to nrn , WOmen for one of me n, or Provide special church caps which JJ" be substituted for the outdoor »*«.Wlaak.r. ?m in tne ciuxch gorch.

Since Dr Frederick A. Kraft, the Socialist HeaJth Commissioner of Milwaukee, made his recent announcement that eating onion 3 in olive oil is preventive of scarlet fever and diphtheria, he Bias been showing the merits of his theory so successfully that the oil and onion cure is attracting widespread attention among medical men. Dr Kraft has investigated every real case of scarlet fever and diphtheria that he could reach, and he has found that in no family where a case of either disease broke out were onions or olive oil used. He calls attention to the fact that districts where onions are largely u.°d are free of scarlet fever and diphtheiX Consequently, he urged people everywhere to overcome whatever dislike they may have to the much maligned onion, and to eat it freely. You can slice it and boil it in olive oil. You can eat it raw with a little olive oil poured over it. The addition qf olive oil he considers important and the best way of all is to eat a raw onion with oil at night immediately before retiring. Do you know how to distinguish a good cigar from a bad one without smoking it? If you think that you dr> you are labouring under a delusion, according to Sydney Brooks, who has been studying the cigar, its manufacture, andj cigar fallacies at Havana for the London "Times." "The best of all my experiences in Havana." he writes, "has been to | talk with the expert heads of the great! factories, and to find them poking a! scornfully good-humoured finger through! nearly all of the average smoker's most I cherished theories. The average smoker believes that a dark wrapper means a strong cigar and a light wrapper a mild one. and he is absolutely wrong. There is no connection whatever between colour and strength. Squeezing cigars and smelling them are equally fallacious as tests of quality. So, too, is the colour and firmness of the ash; the notion that the whiter the ash and the longer it stays on the better the cigar is altogether erroneous. There are virtually no outward indications that can be relied upon in choosing a cigar, and for the average man, anxious to find out whether a given Havana is of good quality throughout and will burn well, the only real test is to smoke it." An interesting experiment in settlement has been started by the extremely wealthy Duke of Sutherland. He has acquired about 2000 acres in C.P.R. Irrigation Block at Brooks, Alberta. The estate is being divided up into sixteen farms, each with an area varying from SO to 100 acres. The Duke is retaining one of the farms in the centre of the settlement as a kind of model or demonstration farm. The other farms are ibeing prepared, so that by rte time hi 3 Grace's settlers arrive in the spring next year they will, it is hoped, find them fenced, equipped with houses, farm buildings, and water supply, and ihe first crop just about ready for harvest. A great many applications have already been received from men who are desirous of possessing one of these "ready-made farms," but care will be taken to choose the right men. Though it is not correct to say that "no English need apply" —they will be welcomed if they possess the qualifications that promise success —it is no secret that the Duke looks with an especially favourable eve on the Scotsman with a good-sized family. Some capital is required—from £3OO to £SOO, according to the size of the farm —and selected settlers may, if they desire, become owners of their farms by payment in instalments. Other estates held by the Duke in Canada are to be developed as time goes on on somewhat similar lines to the one at Brooks.

A patent has been taken out in London for roller, or wheel skating machines, or roundabouts, for fair grounds, rinks, and recreative amusement places, by means of which anyone, by stepping upon the platform of the machine, taking hold of the supporting handrails, and placing the feet in the hollow tops of the skates, may enjoy the pleasure of roller, or wheel skating, without exertion or danger of falling. The machines have a rotatable platform, with a number of narrow slots, arranged in pairs, and in rows, through which pass the central bodies of the skates or foot carnages, carrvine hollow foot-shaped top pieces, in which the feet are placed, being retained therein by the riders' own weight, the slots being long enough to allow the skates to have forward or backward movements under the control of the riders, independent of the general forward skating caused by the rotation of t'i" machine. Handrails are provided for row of skaters. The wheels of th" skates run on a fixed platform, or skating surface below, which may be either level or undulating, the latter giving a rising and falling movement to the skates as thev travel round the continuous track, or the whole machine mav be built upon the undulating or switchback principle. The machines can oarrv large numbers of people with safety, and being low-built and accessible all round, riders can step on and off quickly. Electrical or other motive power is used. Chicago deserves credit for starting a great campaign—wheih has now extended throughout America —against the domestic bouse fly. The newspapers give valuable assistance daily by reproducing magnified photographs of the house fly in the act of wiping its germ- ! iden feet on articles of food, and by ■lublishing timely articles showing that the house fly is chiefly responsible during the summer for spreading all kinds of disease. Householders everywhere are enrolling themselves in a big army for the destruction of the house fly, with "Swat the fly." as its battlecry. To "swat" is an Americanism, meaning assault, endanger, annihilate, and, in accordance with custom, many respectable citizens are* now wearing badges inscribed "Swat the Fly." To annihilate the pest entirely seems to be impossible; but much is being done in the way of •'swatting." by diseminating information regarding the best methods of prevention and destruction of the house fly. Intelligent public opinion has been excited, and you may therefore depend upon it that the house fly in America will be duly "swatted." Most effective work for the extermination of flies can be accomplished during the winter by scientific means, but even small boys in the summer can render valuable assistance, as is proved by the anti-fly crusade which began at Worcester, Massachusetts, on June 22, and terminated four weeks' later. Over ten barrels of flies were gathered by 232 contestants. The winner, who gets a prize of £2O. turned in ninety-five quarts, or a total of 1,219,000 flies, captured in traps of his own construction, and he claims the world's championship. He is Earl Bousquet, 12 years old. The entire collection of flies will be placed on exhibition at Clark University, Worcester. Other towns have promoted similar competitions with equally good results, and in some place flies are becoming as extinct as mosquitoes, j

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/AS19110902.2.76

Bibliographic details

Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 13

Word Count
2,306

NEWS, VIEWS and OPINIONS. Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 13

NEWS, VIEWS and OPINIONS. Auckland Star, Volume XLII, Issue 209, 2 September 1911, Page 13

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