TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIV, Issue 9817, 28 August 1897, Page 7

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Tun news received during On the the past two or three InilUn days, from India, hardly Frontier, bears out the anticipations expressed by Lord Roberts last week as to the speedy settlement of the difficulty on the Northern frontier. The only really natisfactory information that hs9 come to hand is that dealing -with the ittitude of the Ameer. In a "durbar" attended by the native princes of AfghaniIton, and in a letter to the Viceroy of India, he has solemnly deolared his loyalty to Great Britain. If emphatic assurance goes for anything, the Ameer has at least not been guilty of treachery. Against this latisfactory news there has to be placed that relating to the Afridis, who appear to bo the most active of the insurgent tribes. The ferocious Afridis, as a London writer lately called them, now hold the Khyber Pass, and have closed that great military road between India and Afghanistan. This Pass is one of the most noted of its kind in the world, and one of the most important. It has, before now, been the scene 01 fierce fighting between British troope and native tribesmen. In the Afghan wars of the early years of the Queen's reign a British army traversed it twice. It was down the Khyber Pass that the fragments of the British force rotreated from {Kabul in January, 1842. When the army conimtnMd its retreat it numbered 16,500 men, including 12,000 camp followers. 11l supplied with provisions, and suffering from the severity of the season it fell a comparatively easy prey to tho tribes who Imrnssed it on all eides. Tho Ghilzais finnlly destroyed it in the Khyber Pass, »ml of the whole force only one Englishman, Dr, Bijdone, and one or two natives readied Jellalabad. The Pass was also the scene of the opening stages of the Afghan war of 1870-80. It is thirty-three miles long, winding between the spurs of two ranges of mount aitis. It is described »s merely the bed of a narrow wfcler-course, and varies in width from 160 yds to 20yds, and in one place it ie barely ten feet wide. It is liable at times to be suddenly flooded, and except here and there tho sides are too precipitous to be climbed. The Khyber Pass, it is said, has been the key of the adjacent regions in either direction since the days of Alexander the Great. The Afridis, who have nuw doeed it against the British, have been in the habit, probably for monetary considerations, ot keeping it open and providing for the safety on certain days in the week of ftose travellers and caravans who traversed it. It is not quite eaay to understand why, it, eeeUued, the British troops could " easily open the Pass," they do not do so, but doabtlese the military authorities have their plana laid.

There was one feature of the The Cost fleet which was recently reof a viewed by the Prince of Wales Fleet, at Spithoad which perhaps did not strike the average spectator, although ho waa really keenly interested in it. This was its cost. Those 16$ vessels represented an enormous sum of money, every penny of which had been paid, and in the majority of cases, cheerfully paid, by tho British taxpayer. Of the whole fleet gathered together on that hutorh occasion it is reckoned that 141 amid be treated as deserving a place on the "combatant" list. Thie total included 21 battle-ships, 13 first class cruisers, 26 of the woond class, 11 smaller cruisers, 20 torpedo gun-boats, 30 "destroyers" and 20 torpedo boat*. Of the battle-ships 11 have been built since 1886 at a coat of nine and a half millions, and the ten older ones cost about »ix tnd a quarter millions. The six vessels tt the Majestic class cost £900,000 each. They are bigger, faster, and more powerful fa defence and offence than the Inflexible, which was finished in 1881, though the latter coat £60,000 more. The thirteen first class cruisers cost £450,000 each, and of the second class cruisers twenty-three represented an «peuditure of five millions, while the smaller ones averaged about £140,000 each. Torpedo gun boats represented a trifle of £80,000 each, for which price two or three torpedo boats could be launched, while "destroyers," with their enormously powerfol engines, go about £40,000 each. For the Wl vessels, therefore, the aggrogate cost •Meeds thirty-one millions sterling, of which «mn, Oβ a writer in The Times points out, ww. twenty-one millions have been •pent'on ninety-nine vessels since 1886. "obably, says the same writer, with armaments and stores these vessels represent close on forty millions sterling. The estimate made by Sir William White for the total firet coat of the Royal Navy in 1813 BJay be put alongside these figures. He •toted that the fleet then contained between WfO end 490 vessels for eea service. About We-fourth were ships of the line, an equal number were frigates—the cruieere of that J*nod--and about one-half were post ships, °"88, eloops, &c. The total first cost, exiißding armaments, was about ten millions "erling. A first-class battle ship of eighty J**n ego oQgt igjg t, QMI a third-class "uieet iloea now—and would last, perhaps, »*e minutes if the third-class cruiser of to™y opened fire on her.

The innocence, assumed or JjdgW oe genuine, of the Judges in the CriUce of higher courts of law in EngD , ***. land ac to matters of everyday life has frequently been "*4« the robject of humorous allusions in * c oomio papers. The latter, however, ™*«o such scope for their shafte of wit in **• Judges in the county courts, who are 6 P to all the clang of the day. The county *ourt Judge most commands the respect of *• "Uow-men when he site in judgment, as ~* frequently has to do, upon cases in which "•'Weiiakers and their customers are con*|*Wd. aud in which he has to decide ac to ~* fit of a garment. Judgo BacoD, of the ™ h >t«chapel County Court, lately had one «weee cases before him. A dressmaker •"*»» young woman for lie 6d as the price - 'H^™ 9 a J acket an<i waißfccoat. " Why t you pay?" demanded the judge. Jney don't nt," replied the defendant. lh « judge then told her to put them on, d the young woman, looking a trifle ynoMTOßeed, began to make preparations for £*g »o. The usher came to the Benoh'a reBl »i and led her to the counsels' robing room!

where, with the help of the plaintiff, she put on the garments in dispute. Blushing profusely she returned to the Court, and ! was invited by tho Judge to " come up I here " alongside him, where by his direction she turned slowly round, while he inspected the bodice. Having done so, says the report, his Honour remarked -" This does not fit. Does the waisleoat fit t" The defendant replied that it was much worse, whereupon she was told to take off the jacket und let the Judge sec. By this time the young woman would probably have paid the 11s 6d to be Allowed to get away, but she had Iα remove her jacket and appear in " evening dre3S." She gained her point, however, for tho Judge was so impressed by the b.'tdnc&s of the fit that the dvesamakev lost her money. A " bad fit" was also the cause of a case heard the same day in the Southward Court, when a young woman oned a dressmaker for 33 Btl value of materials, which it was alleged the latter had spoiled. The plaintih* said she had supplied the dressmaker with the materials for a blouee " just for the Jubilee " and now the thing was not fit to be seen. The dressmaker said it was all right. " Did you make the dress yon have on?" asked his Honour. " Yes," eaid the dressmaker. His Honour's opinion, then, was that she knew how to make dresses, and after the plaintiff had got into the offending blouse he proceeded to show her that she did not know how to drese. " That's what is known as getting into a dress, is it?" he remarked, " why don't you put it on properly ? Of course if you stick a thing on iv that manner it won't go right." By his direction the dressmaker improved the ''sit" of the garment. "There now, ,, 3ftid the Judge, " that's lovely. I know something about these things, you know," which was evident. "Just put a pretty little brooch in the neck and walk down the road ; you'll look quite charming, in fact, 'the cynosure of neighbouring eyes.'" Judgment went for the dressmaker in this instance. Generally, it must be said, the customer wins a case such as this. The hearing of such cases must be rather welcome interludes in the usual Court list of disputes. One of the first events to A be decided at the recent Useful Bisley meeting was the Competition. Evelyn Wood contest, tie" signed to test the efficiency of the firing of regular troops under such conditions as might be expected to occur in war. The contestants consisted of teams who had to march a distance of eleven miles in three hours, and then fire as in attack practice. Each team was required to consist of one officer, four non-commissioned officers, and twelve files (lance corporals or privates), all drawn from one company, and had to be equipped in marching order. No advantage was to be obtained in doing the march in less than the three hours allowed ; but from the total made five poiuts would be deducted for every minute in the march beyond the three hours. In reckoning up each team's score ten points could be allowed for the marching style, ten for fire discipline and control, and ten for drill, in addition to the percentage of hits made. The teams started from. Alderahot, and taking warning from last year's lesson, when the marching was done in the hottest part of one of the hottest days of the year, on this occasion an early start was made. The men, therefore, instead of arriving in an exliausted condition and with the loss o* some of their number on the road, came swinging into Bisley in fine form in the cool of a grey morning. It appears from the report of the competition that the number of rounds which could be fired by each team was 324, " the greater number in volleys at various distances whilst advancing by bugle sound from the 800-yard firing point towards the targets— of the special kind used for volley firing— and the remainder independently from the magazine during the space of one minute. In the advance the teams halted fifteen times to fire, the movement being made in quick time and in general line to about half way up the range, and thence to the finish by half company rushes. For the completion of the attack fifteen minutes wero allowed. ,. The contest is a practical all round test of a soldier's capabilities, and the event is onewhich could be introduced with advantage into the programmes of the New Zealand Rifle Association. The contests in which most of our shooting men take part are no doubt calculated to improve their rifle shooting, but hardly in bo practical a direction as the competition indicated above.