TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12904, 9 September 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Pethaps no more

Edison the fervent tribute has Enemy of Man! been paid to Edi-

son's powers than that which is to be found in an "open letter" addressed by a German, pastor to President. Roosevelt. In thia letter, which is written in excellent German, the pastor beseeches President 'Roosevelt to put a check upon the business operations of Mr Edison, who, he asserts, is a "danger to all mankind in spite of, or rather because of, "hie wonderful genius." Hβ proceeds to declare that Mr Edison is responsible for all the shipwrecks, collisions at sea, and railway accidents throughout the world. The destruction of San Francisco, and the eruption of Vesuvius, were both caused by Mr Edison, by utilising magnetic and electrical forces. The revolutionary situation in Russia, the-unrest* among the Poles, tho sharp differences between Greece and Roumania and the other Balkan States, the illness of the Sultan and of the Shah of Persia, the troubles in Spain, the strikes in England, the mutiny in Portsmouth, all these have been caused by Mr Edison. The superiority of Mr Edison's electrical system is due to the fact that he baa a "medium," a Miae Steele, whom lie has cast into a magnetic sleep, and through whose aid he oan command storms and all natural phenomena. Mr Edison alone, our German friend thinks, could be easily cnurhed, but be hae helpers in every land. He is aiming at nothing less than the financial and economic conquest of the whole world. Probably the key to these remarkable statements is to be found in the further assertion:—"l myself have been electnwnagnitiaed for three years continuously by Mr Edison and his electricians." It unfortunately "happens not infrequently that ideas or this sort take possession of a man who has become overwrought, and a case is usually fought not in an electrician's laboratory, but in a mental hospital. Tho poor pastor evidently thinks that President Roosevelt Js proof even against the strongest batteries that Edison oan bring to bear. "I have 'asked you for your help," he "because you possess an influence chic to something more than tbs office you hold." Is this an allusion to President Roosevelt's personal magnetism, or which we have heard so muchP

An interesting page of An Old New Zealand history is Question, recalled by extracts,

printed in the "New Zealand Times," of the evidence given before the Commission which fortythreo years ago selected Wellington as the capital city of the colony. Some of the original documents have just been acquired by a well-known. JSew Zealand collector from the family of the late Mr R. C. Gunn, of Tasmania, one of tho Commissioners. One of tne motions of the Legislative Council on the question is interesting, as showing the discontent caused by the Beat of Government being at Auckland. Tho Council was "impressed with the conviction that continued delay in the settlement of this question will only tend to keep alive those feelings of rivalry and jealousy between different parte of the colony which seriously impede the action of responsible Government, and which threaten at no distant period the dismemberment of the colony." The Commissioners were drawn from Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales, and thoir instructions, were to select a site somewhere on the shores of Cook Strait. It will surprise—and, wo think, amuse—most people to learn that Wanganui put in a claim, it being contended that Cook Strait extended to Cape Egmont. The Commission was informed that Wanganui was the centre of the principal coal-bed of the North Island, that the bar could be moved, and that a waterway could be opened up to the Manukau by following a tributary of the Wanganui river to within thirteen miles of the Waipa and cutting a canal through. Evidence was taken at Nelson, Blenheim and Pic ton. One witness at Nelson said that Port Waikato was the worst port in New Zea-

land, Napier the.next, and Nelson the third. Of the Wellington quoted by the "Times," there was only one who did <not think a change advisable. This was the Collector of Customs, who said no inconvenience arose through his having to transmit documents to Auckland. Dr. Johnston, Port Health Officer, and surgeon to ttie provincial hospital, gave the town a eplendid character for healthiness. The hospital cases were, he said, principally the result of old ago. "There are three medical men in the town of Wellington for a population of about 5000, and from £1200 to £1500 is the very most that they together receive from their profession.." It is a pity that these valuable manuscripts do not belong to the public. Perhaps this collector will, like the late Mr Hittftell, of New South Wales, leave his collection to his country.

The August "Koyal," in Street an article upon "The Spirit Crowds, of the Crowd/ makes the

inevitable comment upon the loss of individuality when merged in multitude; "the single being is for the time as much liko hie fellows as one sneep is like all the other sheep of the flock." Having got over this com- ■ parison in the first paragraph, the essayist is left free to discuss in rather interesting! if debateable iashion, come characteristics of crowds. Professor John Adams lately instructed Londonera that "in the crowd there is an extension of the universal element," and quoted as illustrating the effects produced St. Paul's record that for the space of two hours the Ephesiens, gathered in a crowd, kept shouting "Great is Diana of the Kphesians," No single member of that crowd, we are to reflect, "standing alone, could have kept up that cry for two hours on end I" It does not, however, seem to occur, either to the Professor or the "Royal," that the apparently continuous roar is yet produced in paroxisms. Critical analysis of the crowd, during any given five minutes, might have found so many shouting, so many at rest between vociferous attacks, without detriment to the general impression throughout of crying "all -with one voice," to drown any heretical stranger's speech. Crowds are full of mystery, is another remark, and nothing is more mysterious than the way in which, on occasion, they can suddenly oollect. A French writer has described it ac a sort of impulse affecting the Paris streets. "Voila," says the individual, "all the world is gathering itself together. I will do as the world is doing." But we fail to see any special conundrum in the affair. The street assemblage collects on any promise of an excitement to diversify the common course of the day —life in general being rather barren of spectacular zest. If the small crowd at any spot invariably attracts the large, why find mystery in what is really a sound individual inference, "anything so interesting to my neighbours will probably be interesting to mc." That British crowds are amiable is a pleasant truth, though the crowd alone may be all that makes many great occasions memorable to some people. Scores of those present at great football matches have hardly a glimpse of the players. Queen Victoria's funeral procession passed thousands upon thousands of people waiting patiently in positions from which they could not nee so much as the pennant of a soldier's lance. They were there on an hietorio occasion; they shared tho spirit of the crowd; and to souls gregarious either in joy or sorrow, this can be enough.