TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10264, 6 February 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The Czar's decree that all Russia the higher officials in Finland and are to speak Russian, implies' the Finns, a good deal more than appears on the surface. It is one outcome of the systematic attempt which has bsen going on for nearly a hundred years to destroy the identity of Finland, and mere© it in that of the Empire, and it has its exact counterpart in the recent Prussian attacks on the Danish language and education in Schleswig-Holstein. The Finns, in their customs, their religion, their laws, and their affections are strongly Swedish; far over five centuries they formed part of Sweden, .until in 1814, while Giistavus Adolphus IV. was at war with France, Napoleon aided his ally, the Czar Alexander, to a forcible annexation of the Baltic provinces. It was, however, expressly stipulated that the Finns .should keep their own constitution, should have a gjparate budget of expenses, and a separate militia, their troops to be used for service in their native land and nowhere else. These privileges have beem repeatedly confirmed and repeatedly disregarded. The Assembly of the States has been allowed to lapse, and the province is now ruled by a Governor-General and a Senate, under a Secretary of State, who is resident at St. Petersburg. Not only have Finns been forced to serve in the distant wars of Russia but their own towns, especially Helsingfors and Sveaborg have been garrisoned by Russian and even Cossack troops. In December they broke out in open revolt in consequence of an Imperial decree ordering out all their young men over 21 years of age for conscription—a strange decree from the Emperor of Peace! The Governor-General and the Finnish Minister have been summoned to St. Petersburg to cive a personal report to the Czar, who was to preside over a Conference with the object of determining the future of Finland. The first move has been towards! undermining the safeguard of their language, for air their laws at present belong to the Swedish code, translated into the Finnish tongue. This attempt is almost certain to cause fresh trouble, either now or in the future; for one of the Finnish characteristics is their devotion to old usages. From an ethnologist's point of view it would be a treat loss if the- : Finns were merged in their conquerors.' Except the Basques they, are the only non-Aryan people of' Europa ;' the languages of the Magyars and the Bulgarians being branches of the Finnic. They'are now regarded as a surviving fragment of' a primeval race, -crhioh once occupied, the greater part of Europe, and which, is allied both to the aborigines of North America and to some Siberian tribes, whose existence is traced partly by the ancient mounds or tumuli in the three continents. In Europe this raca was pushed into the corner of the Baltic provinces by the Slavic hordes, where they still keep aome of their original characteristics. New Zealandere are probably more familiar with their appearance than are the readenta of some European countries, for some of their peasantry have chosen thi* colony as a field for emigration, partly in the hope of wealth, partly to escape the Russian invasion.

The second of the statisThe •- tical reports for 1898 issued New Zealand from the Registrar-Gene-Birth Rate, ral's office, deals with the births, marriages, and deaths of the year, a comparison being drawn between the figures supplied and those of previous years. The total number of births during the twelve monthe— the population of the colony, exclusive of Maoris, being 743,463—was .18,955, an increase of 218 over the births in 1897. The birth rate for 1898, per 1000 of the mean population, was 25.74, compared with 25.96 in the previous year. It will be seen that the steady decline in the birth rate, which, has been going on since 1880, when it stood at 40.38 per 1000 of the mean population—the highest of all the Australasian colonies—still continues. In 1897 it had fallen lower than that of any of the other colonies, though only a trifle less than the rates in Victoria and New South Wales. The returns for 1898 from the other colonies are not yet available, but as, with slight exception, the New Zealand birth rate has been lower than any of them

since 1887, it is at least probable that it will again be found to occupy the same position wben the figures for nil the colonies come to hand. The exceptions re/erred to are the rates in Western Australia in 1895 and 1896 but this temporary decline may be accounted for by the influx into that colony of an almost exclusively male population at the time of the gold fever. In 1897 the Western Australian birth rate was again larger than that of New Zealand. At the same time it must be noted that the birth rates of all the colonies have exhibited a steady decline over tho whole period embraced by the last ten years and that tho decline in New Zealand is a trifle less marked than is the case with any of the others. It is of interest to compare tlie New Zealand birth rate with that of Great Britain and some European countries, according to the report of the RegistrarGeneral of England up to 1895. From these it is seen that the New Zealand rate of that year, 26.78 per 1000 of mean population, was beaten by that of England and Wales 30.4 Scotland 30.4, Germany 36.1, Belgium 28.5' Norway 30.5, Italy 35.1. Austria 38.6, Hungary 41.5: and was superior to that of Ire. land 25.2 and of France 21.9. U is also curious to observe that from 1891 to 18S5 during which period the New Zealand rate fell from 29.01 to 26.78. that of England and Wales actually rose from 30.2 to 30.4.

Wk have shown that in 1880 Marriages our birth rate, 40.73. was the and highest of any of the AustraDeaths. lian colonies, though not so

high, it way be mentioned, as it had been in Xew Zealand in previous years. In the same yen - tin; proportion of marriages to every tlwn.*ni;d of tlie colony's mean population was 6.71, tho lowest for the past ten years. Since then it has fluctuated a good deal, but it is ntvw higher than it was then, being estimated for last year to stand at 6.82, as compared with 6.85 for the preceding twelve months, 6.85 for 1896. and 5.94 for 1895. The proportion for .1897. we may add. was higher lliau in any colony except West Australia. The figures are not available by which a comparison may be drawn with the marriage rate in England and on the Continent for the same year, but in 1895 the marriages per thousand of the population of Germany were 7.9, of Belgium 7.7, of England and Wales 7.5, of France 7.1, of Scotland 6.8, of Ireland 5.0. The deaths in New Zealand last year numbered 7244, against 6595 in 1897, an increase of 649. Our colony; has always enjoyed » low death rate, and though last year's rate wua not so good ns that of the previous year, bsing 9.84 against 9.14, it is by far the lowest of the rates for the Australian colonies, while there is, of course, no comparison at all between the rate of mortality in New Zealand and that of the Old Country or the countries of Europe. In 1895, when our death rate was 9.91, that of England and Wales was 18.7, of Scotland 19.7, of Ireland 18.4, of Germany 22.2, and of France 22.3,'. while in the other colonies it ranged froJD South Australia's 11.25 to West Australia*! 17.32. v. v

Mr Kipling's schoolboy Kipling's stories, in which he describes Boyhood, the exploits of that trio of

inoorrigibles, "Stalky," "McTurk," and "lipctle," promise to be among the most popular of his recent writings, awl readers of them will, no doubt, be interes.cd / to learn that they are, to. some extent, fuunded on fact. We have it on the authority of Mr M. G. White, (in old schoolfellow «f Mr Kipling'a at "Westward Ho" United Service College in North Devon, that ' '''Beetle" is none other than the novelist himself, though at l school he "went by the name of "Gigs," an abbreviation of "Giglamps," from the enormous spectacles Mr Kipling had to wear. "Stalky" and "McTurk" were two of Ids inseparable friends, and between them they must have sorely taxed tho patience of the school authorities. Mr Kipling was hardly a hero to the majority of his schoolmates. His extremely short sight prevented him taking an active part or interest in sports. On the other liand, ho did not apply himself *tx> his books with a sufficient degree of diligence to call forth the ecorn of his fellows; he seems'to have hovered about the middle of his classes, though before he left he took the first prize in English literature. But we are told he could solve in ten minuteip a problem which would have occupied another boy an hour. "He was chiefly noticeable in his school-fellows' eyes for ft keen wit and a flow of language that would only be suppressed by depriving him of hil spectacles." His story-telling abilities were however, fully recognised by at least one person in the school, the prefect, or monitor, of his dormitory, a great admirer of the "Arabian Nights," who conceived the bril--liant idea of making each of the boys in the room tell a story in turn. He found Kipling's stories so greatly superior to those of any of the. other boys that he often called for him out of his turn. Something like the following would therefore take place when the lights went out: •— "The voice of the prafect would be heard, 'Now, then, Gigs, a yarn. . There would come no response from the bed in the corner. 'Gigs! You hear; a yarn.' Still no answer, 'Look here, Gigs, if you don't wake up I'll .' An expostulating voice from un- , derneath the clothing: 'Oh, what is it?' 'A yarn, a yarn.' Protestingly: 'But, I it's not. my burn.' Dictsttorially: 'I don't care if it isn't—a yarn. , " Kipling would remain obstinate until bombarded with boots or soap. Then, wide awake, he would declare he didn't know any yarns. "Ohi yes, ybu do," replied the prefect, " but, anyway, I!ll i give you_a skeleton. Onceupon a time there was a man who went to sea, killed the captain, turned pirate, got wrecked on an island, where Vie fought a battle against a lot' of savages, married the chief's daughter, died, and lived happily ever afterwards. Now, go on." Kipling would tiben begin, with a grunt of dissatisfaction, and would take, hit revenge by making the prefect the villein of the story. One favourite trick of "Bestle" and hie companions was to exasperate the classical master, who had a hatred of foppery, by the liberal uee of cheap ecent „ and a great display of patent leather shoes. The master crushed both these habits, ba* the trio promptly went co far in the other direction that the master wait glad to let, his orders fall into abeyance.