TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9176, 6 August 1895, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

_a.ccobm.ng to the report of S mc the Minister for Railways Railway further reductions are conl'rop.sals. templated in the freights on

dairy produce, which will be good news for thoso most iutimately connected with the important dairy industry. Improvements are also to be made in respect to workmen's trains and holiday trains at Christmas, Easter, and other principal holidays. With regard to the latter we learn that cheap cxteuded excursion tickets are to be issued from the centres of population to the country, and from the country to the towns at a uniform rate oi Id per mile for the return journey, second class, with a minimum fare of 2s. A proportiouately higher rate will be charged for first class tickets. Railway travellers will be sincerely glad to hear that an alteration is to be made in the system of lighting railway carriages at night. The oil lamps used iv I\ew Zealand for this purpose are a considerable improvement ou the apologies for lamps which just, made darkness visible on English railways, but they by no means ufford a good light to read by. The proposed introduction of the Pintsch system of compressed gas, which is now in operation oa the English lines, is a decided step in the right direction. Under this system the compressed gas is contained in a metal cylinder, which is carried in the guard's van, whence the g»3 is distributed into the carriages by means of pipes. Apart from a much better light beine* thu3 obtained than the oil lamps afford, the cost is much les-, being estimated at one farthing per hour per light, as against three farthings per hour per light, the cost of the preseut unsatisfactory method. The drat live to be so lighted will be the Hurunui-Bluff line. There are also indications that the time at pre3eut occupied by the express iv travelling betweeu Christchurch aud Dunedin, ten hours, will be reduced. One heavy engiue has just been built at Addington, aud five others are in hand. Three of theso are for the ChristchurcnDunedin express, but they are too heavy for tho present light rails which still form some p_rt of the line, and none of them could at present run further south than Ashburton. At the present rate ot relaying heavier rails and strengtheuiug bridges, it will be two years before the engines can run through. Wheu they do come iuto use the express will, no doubt, deserve its name rather better than it does at present.

Although it is some time " Professor " siuce that volatile "electric .Richard. healer," who called himself Professor Richard, was in Christchurch, he is by no means forgotten It saems that the " Professor" recently took a prominent, though rather undignified position, in a street fracas in Bendigo. He had been lecturing and performing "cures" in the town, and had in some instances fallen foul of a " Dr." Stanley and his wife, who were in the same line of business. Advertisements appearing n the local papets showed that the relations between the parties were very strained, and at last the situation became too acute to be expressed in words. When, therefore, Stanley met Richard in the Btreet one night he Ml up:>u him, and a considerauls amount of as__Ult and battery ensued, of which the aggressor appsared to get the worst. Mrs Stanley, however, had to be reckoned with. That indomitable lady, seeiug her husband waa in ueei of jassistauce, took a hand in the affair to the extent of giving our late visitor a severe horsewhipping, cutting his head and hand. Police court proceedings followed in due course. For the assault Stanley was fined half-a-crown. Richard did not ask for costs, neither did he give evidence, a fact which was commented on by counsel. Stanley was then charged with conspiring with some person unknown to injure Richard by issuing a circular containing injurious statements. This circular was a reprint from a We3t Australian paper and professed to give the history of Richard's career. In this case also tho pl»intiff did not go into the box, but Mr Maloaey, M.L.A., gave evidence on his behalf. He said that he (Maloney) had studied electricity as a remedy under Dr Armand De Wattevillo, one of the greatest authorities in the world, but found more benefit from studies under Richard than under any system. In cross-examination he said he had known Richard for three years. He had seen it stated that he was Geismardo, a fraudulent insolvent, who had been in Pentridge Gaol, and as far as he knew no actions were brought against the papers for making these assertions. In the end the case was. dismissed. It will be remembered that when he was in Christchurch Professor Richard was very severely handled by a contemporary. Apparently since that time he has beoome more thin-

We are all interested in

The earthquakes just now, Latest Theory the little incident of Snnof day evening having Earthquakes. freshened up our ac-

quaintance with these rather unpleasant phenomena. The latest theory as to the cause of these manifestations comes therefore very apropos. It is contained in a work on the nature of the earth's surface =by Dr. Penck, Professor of Geology in the University of Vienna. The hook represents, so we are told, the work of ten years, and according to Professor Lapworth, who writes about it in the Geographical Journal, it is an encyclopaedia, of f_ct3 and conclusions. In Dr.'Penck's opinion most < { the known facts and phenomena point in the direction of the theory that the cooled earth-crust rests upon a soft cushionlike stratum of latent plastic matter. " According to this view, the earth is a globe of gas enveloped by an inner magma (viscous) layer and an outer solid crust. Proceeding from the surface inwards we should probably meet wi f .h a succession of uncertainly-bounded states of matter which might be conveniently typified by glass, shellac, pitch, molasses, oil, water and gas, each passing insensibly into the next below, and each downward liyer being marked by a farther increase of temperature." We agree that if these views are correct the wonder is not that earthquakes should happen as often as they do, but that their occurrence should be so comparatively restricted. But we cannot altogether coincide with the conclusions of an Australian critic, who writes:—"lf, as is generally believed, the thickness of the crust bears about the same proportion to the bnlk of the globe, as tbe rind of a very thin-skinned orange bears to the fruit itself, and if, by the gradual cooling of tbe surface of the earth, a steadily increasing pressure is being exerted upon the viscous ana fluid masses beneath, there is no reason to go outside of these facte for an explanation of those stupendous convulsions which have occurred of late years in Java, in Japan, the Island of lschia and New Zealand, for these must be regarded as the safety valves of the globe in general." We must firmly protest against New Zealand being classed as one of the " safety valves" of the globe. Such a position 13 an hononr unto which she was not bora. Besides, what is the matter with South America, that land of volcanoes aud earthquakes, that it should be omitted frcm such a list t