TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LIX, Issue 11398, 8 October 1902, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The English papers reThe Military ceived by last night's Road Race, mail contain particulara

of the great -military hoTse-race from Brussels to Ostend, referred to in oar cable -messages some weeks ago. As an experiment in longdistance riding the race was -doubtless interesting and instructive, but as a trial of horseflesh it seems to have been a cruel and tmedifying performance. Thirteen horses were ridden to death, and one had to be shot by its rider to end its agony. The distance was eighty-two and a-half miles, over a roadi that waa bad almost throughout.; The competitors included French, Belgian, Dutch, Russian, and Swedish officers, and one English officer, a Lieutenant Gibbon. Up to the second stage—3? miles—the race is stated to have

been "a very brilliant and sucoe)_-f*_t affair." Fomr Belgians and a DutciunAa had given up owing to the exhaustion of their horses, but most of the other liders had made excellent time. In tlie thad also, some fine p-rfprma-tces were recorded, one Norwegian covering the <j_i miles in 4 hours -lmin. In the ]*& twenty miles, however, the race, acooiding to the "Daily Mail," developed into "a dreadfully cruel and sickening performance." Horse after 'horse feE to tha ground in the last stages of exhaustion, and panted out its life by the roadside. The winner of the race was a French officer, mounted on a Hungarian thoroughbred, who completed the 82_ miles bx. 6hrs 54min Slsec. The next three to arrive at Osten-d were also Frenchmen, co that the chief honours of the race fell to France. The English competitor was putout of the race by the death of his horse twenty miles from home, but a London; paper finds consolation in the fact that many of the French officei. were mounted on Irish horses. Lieutenant Medamet, the winner of the race, told an mteraewer that he was quite unable to see any cruelty in the performance. In his opinion the race proved that tlie winning horses wei.' those that had been well attended to and well trained; -secondly, that trained horse, will run tvntil the very last, not slackening speed tmt-il within a few yards of the point where they drop. Pubiic opinion in Eng. ■ land was inclined to take a very different view of the affair. Cavalry officers aad horse-owners characterised the race as a cruel and useless experiment, proving nothing except that of the sixty-one competitors, ..thirteen were bad horse masters. It is significant that the German Emperor is' reported to have forbidden officers of his army to compete in the race.

jPastoralists and wool «• ?- Wool porters, -who ore natorelly S Freights, deeply interested in the ratet ;■ of freight on wool, will'be •* grafafied by the ann-ouncemenb we are £ enabled to make in this issue. As last ';- year's rates -were the lowest on record, it ~ waa hardly to be expected that they woold • ** again be materially -reduced, but this is f ■ •what has ibappen-d, and the ratea -which : ( have been fix-d by the shipping companies for -be ensuing season are seventeen per cettb.- lower than tJhose for last year. This, it need not be pointed out, means so much clear profit to tihe exporter-, and assum-Qg that wool prices maintained the level realised at the -recent London sales, or continue to advance, tbe wool growera* proa. f peota axe "better than •fahey have been _w c* some time. These extremely lot*? ratei .; „ - of freights indicate at once t_je desire oi • 7'the direct shipping lines to treat the pro. |. duoers of the colony fairly, and at the same . f' time they awe evidence of the depressed ' }Z. etato of the freight market. One part of ' the oommunity, tberefoTe, benefits by a • . state of affairs which another portion can hardly contemplate with the same satdafaotion. At the same -time the fact that Buch low freight- permit of the direct li_-_ urunn-ig at a small profit and paying steady, If small dividends, is in itself striking tea- \ timony to the enormous advance wlhdoh -! . boa been made within the past fifteen or [,; twenty years in marine architecture. The .> . steamers that took our produce Home in J' those days could not have run at sucfh freights without in-cumng. ruinous losses, , -' but the huge vessels which are reaching ; and leaving our shores every week make the .* jiexport of our produce possible at rate*** ) %' 'once undreamed-of. . ■*

, - ; •• r ' Brief cable message* Closing the have outlined the riot* ; : French School., ous scenes -which have ?" accompanied the dog** - ing oi the religious schools in Brittwiy* ..- -'' The full -dwcriptiona of the ocourronoes are painful reading. The Gove**-_«_ent ; •was, of course, successful in closing every , institution which remained open in defiance Zfof the P-r*e_aier's drbular, but victory was k" only achieved at tihe coat of - •'"*.- ---ialmo-t like civil war. _*"bt___g oould hart > y . so enraged! the loyal Republicans of Brit* ;■;'■" tany as the expulsion of the .Sisters, and £ j the angry feelings that have been aroused ' i?'Z may bear bitter fruit. The officials who - |* executed the decree, and expelled the Sia- jj • tens, had to be assisted in some cases by |" hundreds of troops. Jb Douarneri«B ths ' | police commissaries were accompanied by a |- whole battalion of infantry, and tea |, brigades of gendarmes. -l-iey wwe met £. by an enormous crowd, and tihe up*o*r £"" and tumult that ensued is described Ml |j being something extraordinary. The gen* §Z dannes struggled in vain to drive hack the -s* infuriated people, and' two hour, elapsed j§ o before the commissaries reached the school. |~ The loolcsmith set to work to break open Uthe -door was drenched with dirty water *§■•• thrown on him from over the school waß. -¥i A sack full of burning straw' was alio rf •dropped on his head. Being unable to -jf Force the door, and being thus driven from '> it, the soldiers oommenoed demolishing the -.*'; wall'with pickaxes. Lite officer lost hk ■ £, temper, and t__*e_t_ne<_ to blow up the £_ oarrioadee, and the people behind them, T with dynamite. The tha-eat was answered 5 •with a defiant yell, and with violent coua- i|", te-tvt-0-.ats. After four hours' struggling* ■ ' &; a breach was made in the playground wail, - &., and the Sisters then capitulated. At ♦ jg r Audierne the gendarmes charged the crowd time after time, without avail, until th? p. - pressure became so severe that a stone wall $7 against which several hundred people wers ■££- wedged gave way with a crash, and mini- |f: bers of persons were injured. At Plan- ||-:- damiel the local Senator and the priests en* fj~p deavoured to effect a compromise, but t_» - ff,_ townspeople on whose behalf they wers §„ acting would not hear of it, and charge- jsthem with treachery and cowardice. A* !'■ St. Meen, however, after a charge by ffc. gendarmes with drawn sabres had been re- |£ - sisted by the peasants with their cudgels* g" the pariah priest induced both sides to ff _' lay down their weapons, As a rule, how- jj"; ever, riots and bloodshed occurred at j|r every centre in Brittany where a school |^ was closed. It is estimated that the effec* |j£ of the decrees ordering the closing of *H ||-* eohools governed by members of the v-ri* p^< ous religious denominations is that by this kj--month 180,000' school children in France p-7 are receiving no in_truction. Jgs-i