TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10294, 14 March 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The information which we Russian published yesterday telling Immigration of the settlement-in Canada to Canada, of 4000 Dukhobortsi, is a detail of one of the largest" fmmigratians from political causes whicli bas taken place in modern times ' These Dukhobortsi belong to a Protestant sect in Russia which for some years has been exposed to the persecutions of the Holy Synod and its Procurator-General, M. Pobyedonostzeff. They are chiefly of tho peasant class, and believe in a simpler and TO(_ro austere religion than tbe orthodox Greek Church, one of their tenets being the passive endurance of evil. It is this doctrine which leads them to refuse obedience to th. Russian national law of conscription, and on this point especially they are in agreement with Tolstoi the novelist and also with the English Society of Friends, to .whom conjointly their present escape from persecution is mainly owing. Tolstoi went a_nc_gst them, and afterwards published booklets drawing attention to their wrongs. Then the Dowager Empress, who was visiting an invalid son in the Caucasus, where their homes are situated, had ber sympathies aroused, and undertook to plead their cause with the Czar. The. result was. that last spring. he. granted their petition to immigrate, and to judge by subsequent reports, nearly the whole of their district must have been gradually Last December an agreement was signed at Ottawa by the Canadian Government for the transfer of 2000 of .them to the North* West. Territory, They left Batoum under charge of Tolstoi's son, Count Serge. The business was tran-, sacted by the English Society of Friends, who, with extraoidinary' generosity, accepted tho whole financial responsibility. This party was followed, ten days afterwards, by another one, also of 2000, and, it "was ex-, pectet. that before•<___} summer- 7000 would be settled in their adopted country. The Cable message apparently refers to a fresh • body of 4000 whose destination is to be further East. These people are not only pious and peaceable,.but also fragarand.industrious, and they may greatly, promote the opening up of Canada's large tracts of uncultivated land. Russia, in casting out the flower of her children, is acting as France did when she expelled the Huguenots, and she may in the future suffer the same heavy penalty of losing the most moral, the most.useful, and the most stable ' element of her nationality. - Englishmen have no conception of the systematic; persecutions of the Hbly Synod. The Czar,, whose own wife was a Protestant before marriage, can have little sympathy with its intolerance, but he is not strong , enough to act openly against it, and has probably com- 1 promised by agreeing, to,the,wholesale immigration of the sect. The Americans ' may Electioneering bungle over their war adinthe ministration, but in the United States, management of an electioneering campaign they could give Enghshmen a -good "Many points. The last election for.a Governor' in New York is, a. specimen of how they' work the political machine. The. great party leader does not do all the fighting. Wherever possible he tries conciliation, on -the principle that more flies can be caught with molasses than with vinegar, but when' driven to. fight, he'must make certain of. crushing his opponent.' 'His chief active, function is travelling about and making' speeches. "Teddy" Roosevelt went over' some 13,000 miles, and spoke 300 times, be-* fore he was returned. But the man who sits in the centre and organises the whole army is the <____rman of the State Committee, whose staff occupy nine or ten rooms at headquarters', and comprise chairman ot executive committee, secretary, treasurer, chiefs of speakers' and literary bureaux, assistants, clerks, stenographers, typewriters, secretaries, and messengers. In one day the State Chairman has had as many as 2000 letters, besides receiving reporters and interviewers. The means employed for attracting votes are canvassing, distributing literature, making speeches, and advertising the candidate in every conceivable way. The canvassers go from house to house, entering in a book the names and sentiments of each; voter, which are then sent on to headquarters where they are tabulated. Tons of literature, millions of leaflets, speeches, and pamphlets are distributed b- the "literary bureau," in the language of every race in !the State, from German , and Italian to Servian and Armenian. There is a whole reserve force of volunteer speakers. These are now generally kri6wn as "spell-binders." A Republican leader recently, drew a subtle distinction. "A spell-binder," said he, "draws people to a meeting, a speaker drives them away." The special method of attracting is by betting on the candidates. To those whose chief aim is to be on the winning side a ten-do Ear bet is a- strong argument, and a thousand dollar bet a triumph of logic. Another method of advertising is by cartoons, and thousands of lithographs of Roosevelt were scattered broadcast through the State. But'the most irresistible argument is the campaign button bearing the candidate's image, surmounted by some national emblem. Enough of these were sent out to supply every family in the State. Then there are the lime-light lanterns, wliich flashed out Republican or Democratic sentiments at every street corner, amidst the cheer of partisan crowds. "Teddy , .will twist .Tiger's tail." and "Tioga Tom has tamed the-turbulent Teddy," are gems of election humour which smack so strongly o. the nursery as to suggest that with all his arts and wiles, the American has still the sportiveness of his early youth. The fact that Queens-Mother-of-Pearl, land possesses an extensive industry in her pearl fisheries has lately been brought more prominently under __• notice of these colonies by

the fearful disaster wliich has just overtaken ■* one of the pearling fleets. Queensland, it 'v, appears, is the only place where the peari "'.} oyster,.is cultivated; at all other fisheries, ~ i says- a recent writer on the subject, ''the .\; i shells iuft collected.from the banks formed «■' [by tho wild oyster."; x The ''wild" oyster is p V, 1 good; no wonder descriptive writers revel in the dangers of the diver's trade. How- '' ever,. Queensland is threatened with com- / petition in cultivated pearl shell, which. '"" may have a disastrous effect upon the pearl- : • '- ing industry. It is far away from the pria- i cipal rcuukets for the mother-of-pearl, which,:/ is tho chief object of these fisheries, and an Italian scientist who has made the pearl ■ } oyster his special study, has come to the ". -v. concluaon' that it can be cultivated aa well" in the Mediterranean as in foreign part's, ' % Prolonged investigations with diving ?■ ratus have convinced him that the south • '* ' coast of Calabria would be a suitable spot - Ifor the experiment, and the Italian Govern* V' meht has done much to help him to start -' what it is hoped will be a most profitable \ industry One of our Consuls, reporting ' on this new departure, says that 10,000 pear} -*,' oysters of the "Meleagrina Margaritifesa'*' * * species, found in the South Seas and distill- * - guished for the extreme iridescence of its/"'-' shell, are to be obtained, and 500 of them '-< are to be set aside in tanks for breeding,p_rposes. It has been computed that each oyster produces something like twelve million I eggs, most of which, of course, are very • soon destroyed from various-cause**" It-]*-' not thought that the tank oysters will be any '--" less prolific, but even allowing only one. "." twentieth of the eggs from each oyster- to - „ survive the first year, the same proportion "'" reach their second year, and only one-haa" s*'5*'- - of the survivors to attain the age of three V." years, that allows of seven and a half mjlUon ,■-. shells being laid down in the open saa,. At'- '• the end of seven years half the shells could ' be fished up, and should, at the lowest prion, *; - yield an" annual return of £300,000 besides" "-'< the value of the pearls either found naturally' ' or produced artificially. For Signor Combiv,' the Italian . scientist referred to, has dis- - - covered -how to make the oyster produce-' pearls, and out of oysters which he has kept ■'"'.■ and treated in aquaria he has obtained round ' 7 and pear-shaped pearls. But he evidently -.. has greater hopes' of big profits from pearl shell than from artificially produced pearls, - and though his speculations are rather in tfoe' .' vein of Alnasohar, he will probably succeed in inducing British capitalists to act on the ;"- British Consul's suggestion, and invest in - **' the Company which will command the vea-""',-ture. ■ . , ~