TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 10062, 14 June 1898, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Tds Premier really deserves the An .thanks of the public. Hβ has Hist eric accomplished what we thought Event, was impossible by adding-to the •ft-repeated story of the first hoisting of the British flag at Akaroa a new point of interest. Hitherto we, in common with almost everyone else, have always believed that Captain Stanley slipped away from Auckland in the Britomart while Commodore Lavaud and the officers and crew of the French frigate L'Auhe, which had called in at Auckland on the voyage from France to Akaroa, were enjoying the hospitality of Captain Hobson and the Aucklanders generally. We now learn from Mr Seddon that what really delayed the Frenchmer who" had been sent out by the Nanto-Bordelaise Company to take possession of Akaroa was the fact that they were making bread for the " Governor's lady." If this is true —and it is within the bounds of possibility, for the frigate's cook was probably equal to turning out French bread of a superior quality to anything that could be got in those days in Auckland—it was one of the most expensive batches of bread of which history holds record, for it cost France the South Island of New Zealand. It is curious to note, by the way, that the purchase of the greater part of Bank's Peninsula from the natives in 1838 by Captain L'Anglois, the French whaler, who subsequently sold four-fifths of his share to the Nanto-Bordelaise Company, was not the first transaction of the kind. Eighteen months previously a German whaler named Hempleman, who afterwards became a British subject, bought practically the whole of the Peninsula <s from the natives, represented by one " Bloody Jack," the price being a large sailing boat. When the Canterbury Association took over the Peninsula with the rest of the province Hempleman was offered a large block in satisfaction of all his claims, but 'he would not take it, and, we believe, impoverished himself in prosecuting his claim to his original purchase, which would have been a very nice little estate by this time. There is no part of the province which is of such historical interest as the Peninsula, and few parts, we are afraid, of which less is known. To-day's festivities, however, will remind many of the most striking incident in our local history. They will, we believe, be witnessed, by at least one of the French settlers who, as. they came upthe harbour in the Comte de Paris, on that August morning fifty-eight, years ago, skw fluttering from a fiag-poje, not the flag they hoped to see, but the Union Jack which had been hoisted just four days previously by Captain Stanley. The original flag, we notice, is said by a correspondent of the Akaroa paper, to be in the possession of Mr R. Clough, a resident of the Chathams, and he suggests-'that Mr Clough, who is stated to be quite ready to hand it over if requested, should be asked to do so, so that the flag may find a fitting resting place in the Christchurch Museum. Our contemporary understands that the Mayor of "Akaroa has written co this effect to Mr Clough. It does not seem to think very much of the probability cf the flag being the genuine article, but if .-ts authenticity can be proved there is no doubt that so interesting a relic of the event Akaroa is now commemorating should be secured and placed in the Museum. The war between America Where Some and Spain has not yet of the lasted two months. Some Money Goes, week or ten days ago, however, we were told it had already cost America more than sixty millions sterling, and by far the biggest patt of the work has yet to be done, so that what the total cost of the campaign will be can hardly be imagined. One can barely conceive how much, money could be spent in the time, but a considerable amount has undoubtedly gone in shot and shell and powder. The Americans have done a good deal of miscellaneous bombarding, and bombarding is an expensive recreation, as it is carried out nowadays. How;! expensive few people probably have an idea. Take- the 13-inch guns which form the most formidable weapons on the American warship* Alabama. Indiana, lowa, Massachusetts, Oregon, and others. They are huge affairs, 33ft long, weighing; 70 tons apiece, and with a charge of 5001b of powder! they can throw a shot weighing 10001b a distance of twelve miles. Each gun costs .£12,000, and can only be used about two hundred times. The powder for each shot costs £35 and the projectile £70. The 12-inch guns throw a projectile weighing 9001b, -and each shot costs little less than those mentioned above, "fhe 10----inch gun fires a shot weighing 5001b, and is consequently cheaper to use, though, as it can be discharged foui times an hour as against the twice an hour of the larger weapons, the cost is probably as great in the long run. The battleship Indiana carries four 13-inch, eight 8-inch, and foiu 6-inch guns, besides twenty-six smaller weapons and four Maxims, and when she fires, the whole of them one round the operation costs Uncle Sam £1200. The bombardment of the feeble little forts in Cuba, in which the American ships have been indulging of late, has, therefore, added an appreciable amount to the total expense of the war. If it were true, as the Spaniards swear, that the bombardment of Matanzas only resulted in the deatk of one unfortunate mule, the affair cost the United States rather more than it was worth. But one can hardly accept the Spanish account of the incident in view of the undoubted good gunnery of the Americans, and the fact that the forts, such as they were, were completely demolished. It will come as a surprise to many Ellen who have seen or heard of EjigTerry. land's most charming actress to know that she is not only fifty years of age but a fond and proud grandmother. On February 27th she celebrated her fiftieth birthday, in audacious defiance of the fact that women, like music, should never be dated. Austin Brereton, the dramatic critic, who will be best remembered in Christchurch as the husband of Hiss Edith Blande, contributes on the occasion an interesting resume of her career to one of the magazines. Miss Terry need not be ashamed of her fifty years, for they have been filled full with, honest work and honourable sueI cess. She tv only tight when the toad*

" her first appearance on this or any stage," as Mamilius in "A Winter's Tale." Before she was ten she Had played Puck in " A Midsummer Night's Dream," and a page in "The Merchant of Venice," and had earned eulogies in all the leading papers. Her taste and capacity for " the legitimate," thus early acquired, never left her. Twenty years in'the Provinces and at London theatres was a goodschooling for the place she was ultimately to take. In 1878, just twenty years ago, she made her first appearance under Irving's management at the Lyceum, playing Ophelia in his famous " Hamlet" revival. And since then her connection with the Lyceum has gone on with scarcely -an interruption. Daring that time she has.played in thirtytwo characters with Sir Henry Irving—no less than eleven of these being Shakesperian roles. Taking her stage career as a whole she has probably represented more of Shakespeare's women for the English public than any other actress in the history of the stage. Two of hei representations, at. least —her Portia and her Beatrice—deserve to make her famous. Yet the secret of her hold on the affections of English play-goers is as much a mystery as the source ef Bernhardt's indescribable power. Charles Reade, who had good reason to admire the actress who created Dora in " Susan Merton," and ether heroines in plays, once made an attempt to analyse his own appreciation of her. It is in his most characteristic vein: —" Ellen Terry is an enigma. Hei eyes are pale, her nose rather long, her mouth nothing particular, her hair like tow. Yet somehow she is beautiful. Her figure is lean and bony, her hand masculine in size and form, yet she is a pattern of fawn-like grace, whethei in movement oi repose—grace pervades the hussy! In character impulsive, intelligent, weak, hysterical; in short all that is most most abominable and charming in woman. As an actress I see through and through her. Yet she pleases mc all the same. Little duck!"