World News in Story and Picture

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 164, 13 July 1935, Page 3 (Supplement)

World News in Story and Picture

ARCTIC SUBMARINE VENTURE. Sir Hubert Wilkins, the famous explorer, is in London making plans for a 12-year task that will revolutionise the world's knowledge of the weather. Climatic conditions are largely regulated from the Poles. It is Sir Hubert's intention therefore to establish meteorological stations all over the Arctic and Antarctic, by means it will be possible to tell weeks in advance the kind of weather which is on the way. Together with Lincoln Ellsworth, the American explorer, Sir Hubert will leave the United States this autumn, on a third attempt to span the Antarctic by a non-stop aeroplane flight. On his return to America early next year he will bo ready for his North Pole submarine voyage. This meteorological chain system will mean the first accurate method of long-range forecasting the world has ever had. Sir Hubert claims that it will then be possible for countries to know the characteristics of each season for a year long before it arrives. Drought periods will, he says, be foretold weeks before their arrival, and suitable preparations made. Surpluses can be created to care for these periods, and similarly production can be curtailed to suit abnormal growing seasons. Sir Hubert's new submarine will be equipped with scientific instruments valued at £33,000. She will be

the first submarine ever designed for purposes other than naval use. The only machinery apart from the motors and the scientific apparatus will be ice-cutting equipment, so that the party can always reach the surface. THE "BACKWOODSMEN." In London recently Parliament saw one. of those rare musters of "backwoodsmen." This is the name given to peers who take little or no interest in politics and never go to Westminster except to vote on some question which touches them very closely. The question which brought them out of their country retreats was a bill to make steel rabbit traps illegal. The bill was defeated. Its opponents admitted that suffering was often caused to animals ca'uglit in steel traps, but argued that this kind of trapping was the only way agriculture could be protected from the depredations of rabbits. . Incidentally, this may be one of the last times that Westminster is invaded by the "backwoodsmen." Reform of the House of Lords, advocated by many influential Conservatives, may before long be accomplished. One aspcct of the reform would certainly be a much smaller Upper House, confined to peers taking an active part in politics. The "backswoodsmen" would disappear.

CONSTITUTION OF FRANCE. A fortnight ago, in these pages, we described the various constitutions and methods of elections observed in certain countries. To-day we explain the unusual system in operation in France. Since the overthrow of Napoleon 111. on September 4, 1870, France has been under a republican form of Government. The President is elected for seven years, by an absolute majority of votes, by the Senate and Chamber of Deputies united in a National Assembly, or Congress. He proclaims the laws valid by both chambers and ensures their execution. He selects a ministry from the two chambers, but may, and sometimes does, appoint Ministers who are not members of either chamber (i.e., a general as Minister of War, an admiral as Minister of Marine). He appoints to all civil and military posts, has the right of individual pardon, and is responsible only in case of high treason. The Ministers or Secretaries of State, the number of whom varies, are usually, but not necessarily, members of the Senate or Chamber of Deputies. Each Minister has the direction of one of the great administrative Departments, and each is responsible to the chambers for his acts, while the Ministry as a whole is responsible for the general policy

of the Government. The "scrutin de liste" under which each elector votes for as many Deputies as the entire Department has to elect, was introduced in 1871. This has been altered on several occasions since, and the scrutin d'arrondissement under which each Department is divided into a number of arrondissemente (electorates), each elector voting for one deputy only, is the system at present observed. The Senate is composed of 314 members elected for nine years from citizens 40 years old. The Senate and Chamber of Deputies assembles every year on the second Tuesday in January, unless a previous summons is made by the President of the Republic, and they must remain in ■ session for at least five months out of the twelve. JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS IN SAMOA. It is strange to read that the occasion of the King's Jubilee was marked by no special functions or celebrations in Apia, Western Samoa. There are those who remember well the splendid manner in which the present King's coronation was celebrated by the British residents of Apia in 1910, when the island was under German Administration. According to residents this celebration contrasted vividly with the poor show the New Zealand Administration made in this present year.