TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10381, 26 June 1899, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The editor of the puzzle page 'Names in -London "Truth" ranges the for the -world toj find pubjects j-whjere- - ''-FeJdeiSl with to" exercise his headers' - CaJfttaL itihids. Latdj b& asked for . -, suggestions fwr the name o£ the proposed Federal capital'of Australia, and he now publishes a number of the replies. The result of IMb plebiscite pi tip wit> of England shows iromensa ingenuity, and shockingly poor imagination and taste. Assuming that come of the meet extraordinary

waala suggested ira tAwnk to lj* taJfesS joenevidently' sent, in all ;.of. whicH, -if would blast" tba infant-.capita.i\at its birtk. Of course we are offered $,Mrg& choice of names Tinto which Australia has been worked, .;\TheW include Btich gems as lAustra-lpndon, Austrapol, Austranglia, tAiistraafedus. Vdcaustra Regia (thus' also suggesting; thY * Queen). The federation idea is embodied in Federal (very popular)/ Fedora, and Federal while the'«x« v pecteitionof the/ new capital becoming the metropoßeof the .south ia expressed: in such? names aa New" London and Southnrinster, while .one correspondent suggests plain McIfxwyoUs, or its latin equivalent, Mater* villa One could! Wdly hope to escape the suffix ( **ville,", and, /accordingly,, we have . also Australiaville, UnionvUle, VJoinville, cfid Fedetalville. Several favour ■ Southern Cross, some think the claims of.the kangaroo to notice should not be overlooked,, and evolve such' titled,as Kangaroon, Kang Kang, and Kangaroogia. The emu just squeezes in, in Emu Eang, but' the ■ ornithorhyncus has been passed over, and the- horse, the sheep, and the rabbit, all animals of considerable interest to Australians* have unaccountably escaped the attention of all the competitors. There is a section of tihe contributors who pin their fancy to the names of dead and living statesmen, , such \ as Glad : stone, Salisbury, Rosebery .' and BeaconsnefcL Others, again, go ■ in for extraordinary combinations 'of v letters, intended to represent toe different colo* naes, or their chief towns., These include JMesyadbripar (derived" -from Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide, Brisbane and Perth) and Melayddun. (embodying,, as the proud author explains, 4 *Thfr first syllable of Melbourne, JSyaney Wd Dtinediti, , ' The. fsiofc that Dunedin is not the capital of New Zealand, and t»hat this colony is not federating with the others, does not influence this genius in the least. Then there come a quantity of "freak" names. * Among. ,these we find Donlon (London reversed), Overton (does this conceal a reference to the Australian cricketers?), Austroline, sounding like a new sort of oil, Ap Britain, ttte son of Britain, Caput Australia, Kitchener, Omdurman, and Lpndinium Novum. We have not the faintest idea, what Jorres City refers to. Senaryton ' seems to us to he absolutely meaningless, and why Germane is suggested paases comprehension. The gentleman who tlhinks Austwin "would be very appropriate," because Australia is essentiejly a wine country, will probably not win the .twfc guineas offered by the puzzle editor for the best suggestion, in fact, so far as we can sea, the whole lot of names sent in-for competition would be very dear at that price. Mr Labouchere should have extended the time during which names could be sent in, so as to give colonists a. chance of competing. If AustrcJians could not suggest something better than appears in "Truth" they do not deserve to Wβ a, federal capital at all. The "Age's" correspondent The ' " with the' Australian erieAustraUans keters in England has a in England, good deal to say about; the pitch'provided by the Essex authorities for the match with the visitors. It will be remembered that in this, their first county match, the Australians were 1 defeated by 126 runs by a county that has not long, been counted in the first class. Much surprise was occasioned by this strange , proof of the proverbial glorious, uncertainty of the game, a-nd there were many surmises as to the sfote of the wicket, - We are now told what we had gathered from the cable' messages/, that it was a bowlers' wicket all Two days' before the match it had had an overdose of water, from which it had not recovered \fhen play began, and in addition "the turf was absolutely rotten andeaten I away by worms." "it is a stranga eight," comments the "Age's" . correspondent,, "to see a pitch riddled by holes, with a. little mound of earth, beside each one, and it causes the wicket to play treacherously." One can imagine it, especially when a, .dozen worms are all at work, on a spot ►tjie size of a man's hand. If the ball happened to pitch on ono of these soft places,, it .would do all sorts-of unexpected things, il. The Essex worms are evidently somethings out of the common, fiifst • cousins, one would think, to the giant worms forest, for it is asserted that 1 When, Kelly was keeping" wickets a worm fully,a foot ' long crawled over big boots. It as" narrated of an irascible golfer that being •drjtojeja to ! \desparatioD|by' a aeries of unaccountably bad "puts," and his inability to find a decent excuse for them, he looked up at the'«ky, after makin gan unusually bad shot, and exclaimed with fervour, "How can a man put with a dashed lark singing over his head?" Kelly might reasonably have asked ' how a man' was to keep wickets with footlong worms crawling, over him. It r would disturb a prohibitionist. On the top of this bs)d wicket,- the 'Australians had to contend with some very fine bowling, notably on the part of Young, who in the first innings took four of their wickets for 42, and in the second seven for 32. He is described as tall and loosely-built, with an easy natural swing, and, though left-handed, breaking in from the off, "the ball (repeatedly coming ■ across with his arm eight or nine inches 1 with great force." He used to be a sailor, but when home on furlough two years ago i showed such fine form as a bowler that the county executive, after some difficulty, bought his discharge from the Navy for i £21. The Australian writer admits that "wough the wicket undoubtedly helped Young considerably, it is a question whether there have ever been batsmen more completely at sea than were the Australians in their second, innings."- In returning thanks for ! the plaudits of,the spectators, who, though naturally much excited at the defeat of the tedoubtabte visitors, cheered them to the echo, Darling, the captain, particularly complimented Young on hie magnificent bowling. The team as a whole, however, may have ' been excused if they felt' towards him as Abel felt towards Howell, when in the match, with: Surrey the Australian > clean bowled the'little man. "Good-bye, Bobby," said HowelL "Good-bye, Bill," was the reply, "I don't want to see you again for some time." . Modern Hindoo editors seem to The enjoy a much easier time than Hindoo their predecessors, *who issued Editor. Court circulars ages ago among the faithful subjects of the native princes. At the present day the management <of an Indian country paper has quite a refreshing freedom and ease, and an absence of- all the harsh* restrictions imposed by European civilisation. If news is dull, or the editor doe 3 not feel quite up to the mark, ihe merely sends out a smaller sheet than innial, or pubuakes on one side only, or leavesHblank spaces,, according as the fancy takes him. x lf any difficulty arises be takes the public into hie confidence at once with,the intimacy of a valued friend. expect, w ! ,th Divine heho, to have.more reading suited to the .intelligence of'our subscribers in our next issue," fX» *3>landly states; while' another thus apologises for unusual brevity:—"This is only tfcet beginning of our paper. We were not sure ,, how much matter was required to- fill it/up, and thinking we had sufficient; we- did not <exert ourselves to get any more. Wβ therefore beg that our readers

'Will Excuse us this. £la)sw.and. promise to, .more -jtte finite issnetwo Wank columflsV"' ftnd 1 audacity? "A of 7 itttOTeeting, lefi'ont forwant. evidently not:quite.irach a.pressing" in the «s olsewhere, and'when want holiday they cheerfully suspend'gE^?> : licationifor the time being, with appeals like the oner—'-Wkrh. the cdhsent'of our r$ nww propose to take our annual are 'sure none of them will begrudge. relaxation." But, after all, these with the public ate not quite unknown lsßsu ( in 3STew Zealand, where, a North temporary recently suspended guJ»^^»for six weeks to enjoy a no' doubt dpu«> -?{s merited change 6f air. . So for as-Wk&nr no public calamity happened in either in the Indian village'or-in tKe-lf^r^- 1 land township. But, speaking the,-happy Hindoo is rather to be i than imitated. - '..7^v?-^: , . . j_j,, ; 'Vfj^rVV