TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10238, 6 January 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

> The latest number of the Home Work "English Woman's Review" in is much taken up with the London. question of home-work regulations. Its criticism of several Factory Act clauses, under the heading "Golden Rule or Iron?", prepares one to find the womanly view inclining against the tendency to "drive all work into big factories," and prohibit the outside home industries. The principle underlying such regulation has /to be set against the individual hardship, of widowed mothers with rail families, for instance, who by taking work might earn their keep and their children's without leaving the household miserably to shift for itself. At the same time an analysis of last year's Report on Home.lndustries of Women in London does not altogether enlist the reader's sympathy with this view. The number of cases dealt with in the report was about 400, but the homes described come only to a little over half. These are classified first, under the general head, "Bad,'' Good," or "Medium" ; next, under various adjectives more particularly describing their condition. Thus amongst the bad list, "Awful,'' "Horrible," "Filthy," stand at one extreme, while "Dirty," "Badly Ventilated," "Untidy, uncomfortable," are the last of eleven divisions. The medium homes are described according to circumstances as "Poor Care." "Clean, but untidy," and "Fair"; and the good range from merely "dean," or "Respectable" to a triumphant "Bright, airy and pleasant." A hundred of the homes are classed as good, medium describes 48, and bad 58. Distributing ' these again into trades, we find card box-makers, match boxmakers and fur-pullers show the lowest proportion of good homes. Tailoring also is unsatisfactory in its surroundings, though out of the ten homes where boots and shoes were made, nine were good', and the tenth classed as medium. A number of miscellaneous trades give varying results. The fact remains, however, that, of the homes inspected, while half appear to have been perfectly suitable for piece-work to be carried on in them, the other half were both miserable in themselves, and likely to be a considerable danger to the community. The "Good Haroun AlrasToo Well chitt' and our own Richard I. Prepared, are not the only monarchs who

have rebelled at tinfes against the State penalty of never being able to look upon things and places as they present themselves to ordinary people; and this especial disability of rank can seldom have been more provoking than during the German Emperor's tour in Palestine. - Things came to a crisis on the way from Jaffa to Jerusalem. The Guards of the Sultan, handsome, blackbearded men, in richly braided dress and turbans of green and crimson, attended the party, but for reasons best known to themselves the Turkish authorities strove to keap out of sight the people of town and village. For miles and,miles the Imperial cavalcade travelled apparently through dessrted lands. If a solitary figure did appear in the distance, off darted a soldier, whip in hand, to warn off the intruder. The Emperor began to murmur. Where were all the inhabitants of this interesting country? Where were the picturesque nomads he had expected to meet? The Turk amiably promised they should arrive directly, but still continued the driving-

off system. At last the determined William ordered a halt, and positively refused to proceed without Bedouins. Under these circumstances Turkish etiquette gave way, and a company of dark-skinned men, with flowing robes and gleaming lances, wore allowed to make the time-honoured charge of welcome into the party, and thus satisfy the Emperor's sense of the fitness of things. After adding four of these picturesque persons to his escort, the visitor was contented to go on. In the Holy City, matters were still more hopelessly wrong. "The long trains of tawny camels, led by Arabs in shawl head-dress and cloak of chocolate and red; the ass with his burden, followed by a shrieking, gesticulating, bare-legged boy ; the stalls where greybeards bargain with urchins and grave patriarchs over fruit and bilious-looking cakes; the beggar in picturesque rags with staff in hand and invocation to the merciful Allah ; groups of all nations, all colours, and all costumes, that fill the artist with longing and despair— these were wanting when the Empsror made his entry into Jerusalem." Since the first intelligence of the visit reached Palestine, the authorities had had but one idea, to reduce to conformity and order all the motley confusion of an Eastern town. They insisted upon the very fronts of the shops being of one material, size and colour; they whitewashed the bazaars, and even emptied the magazines of their wares, so that there mif*ht be as little diversity as possible. The Emperor passed through streets as empty as at noon, when everyone takes refuge from the sun. The only relief was that windows were filled, and roofs fringed, with spectators, whose costumes no amount of official regulation could subdue to sameness; but the adventurous monarch would probably at that moment have given up a good many royal privileges just to have seen, like a common traveller, the every-day stir of life and colour that surges through a Jerusalem street.

Lv August last Mr The Appointment Guinness, M.H.R., of Teachers. asked for a return to be laid on the table of the House showing the manner in which each Education' Board in the colony, under section 4o of the Education Act, consulted the School Conunittee of any district before appointing any teacher. Tne return was interesting and instructive, showing as it did the want of uniformity of system among the various Education Boards of the colony. This is another matter which the Educational Institute did not include among the multifarious questions set down for consideration at the Conference. One or two Boards may be said to strain the section of tlie Act which lays it down that no* appointments shall take place until the committee interested lias been first consulted. While the North Canterbury Board, for instance, sends the names of the six applicants considered ' most suitable to the School Committee, the Wellington Board, on the other hand, selects one applicant for appointment and sends the whole of the names to the Committee, with a notification that the Board has selected to the position. If the Committee concurs the appointment s is then made, but if the Committee refuse to accept the Board's selection a conference is held. The South Canterbury Board, in the same majiner, intimates its preference for a certain candidate, while Marlborough sends all the applications, with the attached testimonials, to the Committee, and allows it to do the work of selecting the most suitable teaoher. Auckland sends one, two, or three names to tlie Committee, and in the case of appointments of the vnlue of J3200 a year five or six names, according to merit, are sent to the Committee. The Wanganui Board takes the law into its own handß, apparently, and promotes its own teachers from one school to another, while keeping in view seniority and efficiency. When vacancies occur, however, tlie Board selects a certain number of suitable teachers and sends their names to the Committee for selection. The Taranaki, Nelson, Westland, Grey, Otago, and Southland Boards all consult their Committees by sending them the names of several or all the candidates and their qualifications. It will be seen that there are wide differences in the modes of dealing with applications, and that while some Boards give their Committees the option of electing any one of the candidates, others again practically make the appointments themselves.

Fhom time to time reThe Mystery ference has been made to of a work of considerable Coral scientific interest, which has been proceeding for some time at the island of Funafuti, in the Pacific. Three expeditions have the year 1896 visited this obscure spot, charged with the duty of testing by boring the origin y and growth of a typical coral atoll/ in order to settle if possible the problem revealed by soundings and dredgings that coral rock occurs at depths far below those at which the reef-building corals can live. For the first of these expeditions, s_,*vt out in 1896, the -Royal Society of London provided nearly all the funds required, the Government of New South Wales giving the use of a diamond drill, while the Admiralty conveyed the expsdition to and from the'atoll in H.M.S. Penguin. Though a good deal of scientific information of value was obtained, in its main object—the work of boring—the expedition atttained a depth of only 107 ft, whereas Darwin, who investigated this question, was of opinion that a bore 500 or 600 ft deep was necessary to determine the correctness or otherwise of his theory that coral rock, now deep in the ocean, had been formed near the surface, and had then slowly subsided. In -oaf another attempt was made I *to bore, the funds having been supplied by two residents of New South Wales, the Government of that 'colony, the Royal Society of London, the Admiralty and the London Missionary Society also giving important assistance. This expedition, organised by Professors Anderson Stuart and David (of the Sydney University), and led partly by Professor David and parti"-- by Mr G. Sweet, F.G.S/, of Melbourne, bored to a depth of 698 ft, when a portion of the driil plant cracked. As the diamond drill plant could not be removed for a considerable period, advantage was taken of the opportunity to send down another expedition last year, and news has just been received in Sydney by Professor David that this party has s bored to a depth of 1114 ft. A letter from the leader, Alfred E. Finckb, late Zoologist of the Technological Museum in Sydney, appears to be exceedingly hopeful in tone, as to the results of this latest attempt. An excellent core has been obtained, a/together over 350 ft long, formed of large massive types of coral, like those found in shallow water, a fact which is regarded as confirmatory of Dar- j win's theory on the subject. Letters from j Professors Bonney and Judd likewise describe this year's expedition as brilliantly J ■successful. . Fuller iriformation as to its results, 'and the Hght which may be thrown upon the - coral question thereby will be awaited with the greatest interest. A large section of the core secured has been sent to the British Museum and upon the detailed examination which will be made there much will, of courea, depend. • -