TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LVII, Issue 10760, 13 September 1900, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Will it be believed that the The Fatal number of people killed and Fourth. wounded on the Fourth of

July in the United States each year exceeds that of the casualties in many ba-t-t-es during the war iv South Africa? It sounds impossible, but it ia | nevertheless, not only true, but considerj ably under the mark. The death-roll of • the* fatal Fourth, when the entire youthful ! population of the States, and many of the i adults, celebrate the signing of tlie Declaration of Independence by making as much noise aa even small boys are capable of, is steadily mounting up, despite the protests of the Press, which annually presents the "butcher's bUI" of the day to an indifferent public. Last year thirty-three people were killed outright and 1730 injured, while damage to tbe amount of nearly £60,000 was caused by fires directly traceable to fireworks. This year even that painful record was beaten, when 59 persons were killed and 2857 injured, and the damage by fire amounted to £110,000. These figures relate to 254 cities, and are admittedly under-estimated, while no account at all is taken of innumerable villages and hamlets where "the Glorious Fourth" is celebrated with as much noise and explosion and relatively with as much bloodshed as in the cities. Apart from fires, the causes lof death and disablement, blinded eyes, I shattered hands, and an infinite variety of wounds, are toy pistols and cannons, gunI powder, firearms, sky-rockets, and giant crackers. The danger of the toy pistol is sometimes exemplified in more peaceful countries than America, and 4s a fruitful cause of accidents. The combination of a small boy and a tin of loose powder is full of possibilities, and provides plenty of work for the hospitals. The "Didn't-know-it-was-loaded fool" has a day out on the Fourth, and greatly to his surprise generally succeeds. in killing a few inoffensive persons. There is a potentiality of peril about the giant cracker which justifies the American editor who declares that it should be left to the Chinese, and the Chinese ex- j eluded. It explodes with force sufficient to smash the windows in its vicinity; at short range it can blow off a man's hand, sometimes his arm; and it has a habit of projecting into the human target particles which frequently set up lock-jaw, with idmost invariably fatal results. On the Fourth hcense ova*-rides all by-laws, and tho effect, apart altogether from the casualties we have mentioned, is the production of an immense amount of human suffering. The record of the anniversary is, as one writer says, not only appalling in itself, but a stern indictment of American sense.

The investigations conducted by Tutu. Professor Easterfield, of Victoria College, Wellington, and Mr Aston, Chemist to the Agricultural Department, into the properties of the tutu plant liave reached a stage at which certain definite results have been obtained. Whether they have established the possession by this plant of properties of either commercial or scientific value has yet to be proved, but the nature of its powerful poison, has been ascertained, and that is a long step towards finding out whether it can be brought into the service of man. This poison was extracted by the investigators from the juice of plants collected in Wellington and Otago. As the seeds are so dangerous to human life, it might have been expected that they would be found to contain a large percentage af poison, but this was not the case, the yield of "tufbin," as the new poison is termed, from this source being very simtll. The powerful effects of "tnfcin" were emphasised by experiments on animals, a full-grown cat succumbing to a dose of .06 grain, a pig to one of 2 grains, while a dose estimated at .01 grain made a full-grown man exceedingly unwell'for more than twenty-four hours. Samples have been sent to the University of St. Andrew's, so that' the aotion of the drug may be further investigated. "Tutin" belongs to the giucosides, which are almost wholly non-poisonous, and include such drugs as tannin, salicin, and the extracts from the indigo and madder plants. This fact alone is of some scientific interest, as it has alwaya been believed that the active principle of tutu was an alkaloid, claiming kinship with such deadly poisons, as strychnine and nicotine, and with such a useful drug as q-_jn__e. Professor Easterfiekl and his coadjutor have opened up an interesting field of research, one which, considering the great variety of New Zealand plants and the comparatively little that is known of their properties, may prove of great hteott-fit to science and to commerce,

The dangerous effects of tutu A Plant upon animal life have long to be been known to New Zealand Avoided., settlers, and many a colonist ' has had reason to regret his cattle or sheep being allowed to eat a plant which is apparently as tempting to their eyes as it is pleasing to ours. In the pamphlet just issued by the Department of Agriculture it is pointed out that the mysterious deaths of the stock brought here by Captain Cook on both his voyages were doubtless due to tutu poisoning. In some parts of the colony it has at times during the early settlement days almost prohibited tho raising of stock. Yet an old Canterbury man, Mr Jas. G. Thomson, whose recollections of Christchurch date back to the early fifties, declares in a letter to the "Otago Daily Times" that in his opinion the dangerous nature of tutu has been greatly exaggerated. Only to newly-landed or starved stock was it particularly harmful, and careful drovers in tbe old days expressed their belief in this theory by giving their animals a good feed before attempting to drive them through a '»elt of tutu country. In tliirtyfive years' -experience Mr Thomson himself only lost one beast from tutu, "and that was a poor waster." He asserts that the young shoots are most dangerous to cattle, whereis many people firmly believe that these parts are the least noxious. At all events his own experience was most fortunate, for on the cattle run which he and liis brother

rented in 1854, on the Halswell river, near

Christchurch, there was a bed of tutu some chains wide, "but the cattle," he says, "not only did not die, but got fat, and the cows gave a large quantity of very rich milk." He mentions the curious fact that an elephant was killed by tutu on the Waitaki in 1860. What was an elephant doing in that part of

the country then? Tutu "wine" was an oldtime drink of which many degenerate and town-living descendant- of tlie pioneers know little- or nothing. Not all the pioneers, by the way, took to it kindly at first. "I can well remember," says Mr Thomson, "the doubtful looks which passed between the late Bishop Harper and the Rev. Mr Stack before drinking some <£ it at the station; but they found it very good, being like elderberry wine, only richer. It- was a common practice in the early days to pull a large handful of the fruit, -train it through a piece o. maslin, and -drink tha juice."

Possibly a taste for tutu wine w_P?T W spring up before the echoes of the J",?*? 1 * X celebrations have entirely died ' 1 It is to be regrett*,} -t i§ Representatives ex-President Cle t 1 of Peace. hm nofc p^ t j*_*i f self to be enrolled, i __' li Court of International Arbitration Ti- 1 be that at tli* I the Hague Conference, eaah of the sh a«- §1 Powers undertook to nominate tJ*T*b tives who should hold themselves in P ne*3 to act whenever neceswitv arcsT? I ompanelling the Arbitration Court tw, I ever we may think of the sincerity Sf I Czars rescript, Russia has spam*,. L 7 s 1 to appear as consistent as possible \r 1 than two the § as his representatives four of the ablest ? I most, dfatinguwhed of __» subjects m*f 1 M-w.rt.ns, t;h ? great jurist, p, pularlv £** I as the Chief Justice of Europe I*TM more experience than onv other hvm. R i! pe.tn in cases involving arbitration i? I points of international law. His __* 1 cass a., President of the Venezuela t turn Tribunal should make him hi«_iJ"*" 1 ceptable to English tastes. M PobedM* I! zeff, the Procurator of the Holy Synod ? I a lawyer before he became Gn_nd \ n(i H ?d though | alleged modern "progress" h mostly <k I generation, it cannot be dienied that fc,' Ij a remarkably talented and I frtatesman. M. de Mouravieff, broth** *' ! tile late Foreign Minister, k now *;: of Justice at St. Petersburg; and _■_ ■' ' Frisch, the fourth nominee, is' PresiJt*'t ,i '' the Legislative Department of t.» G»- n _n ' l - of the Russian Empire. There can be'ri I doubt that the Czar has dona his best t. ■' give the views of Russia adequate ***■-.(,'. 1 sentation on the International Tribunal 1 The question of the English members of th 3 1 Council has yet to be decided. Lo T( j j„ J sohaU and Lord Russell of Killoww, | l*ave played both useful and hooouftß, I parts in its d._ib.iut-ions. But in 6p fe | of their loss, such experienced and ace.--,, - pHshied representatives as Lord Pauncj-fot*' * Sir Edward Clarke, and Sir Robert f0,,-,'. f ail likely to be chosen—will worthily -m, i hold the national traditions. Ameika _«■ I done her best to identify h.r own digtyjv I with the credit of Intel-national ArbiU*ati__ ! by selecting two of her ei-Puskfcnhi for enrolment. In spite of the generally K . \ pressed opinion that tlie Hague \ was futile, Russia and America at least sp. j pear to bo talcing it in earnest, and no dewfe I England will accept her respoa MiUm ia | the same spirit. j