TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXIV, Issue 13103, 30 April 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

A remarkable test case Cruelty came before the Ilfraon tho combe Magistrates reConger, cently, when tho Society

for tho Prevention, of Cruelty to Animals proceeded against a fish hawker for outtLng up and selling a live conger eel without first killing it. Tho case was one of the first, i:f not the first, in which cruelty to a cold-blood animal was the subject of j English legal proceedings. The facts were that the hawker bought a thirtypound oanger which had v been landed alive, and hawked it about tho streets in his barrow. Hβ sold five pounds of it in tho evening, and cut it off from the tail end. There was a second sale of three pounds, and. while these portions were , being severed, the conger straggled and snapped at the eides of tho cart. A veterinary surgeon said that as the nerve centre had not been destroyed, tho eel was sensitive to pain. The hawker admitted that he had not killed the conger, buit argued that the severance of tho spino would make it immune from pain. The Magistrates decided that there had b&m cruelty to a wild aniimal in a state of captivity, and convicted the hawker. It is difficult to understand how the animal could liave been cut across without l>oing immediately killed. Tho practice of the trade, it sooms, is io krlt these eels by severing tho spine jiist at the back of the head, which brings about instantaneous death, and Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, secretary of the Zoological Society, gives it as his opinion that life becomes extinct when the spine is cut through. The weird movement of portions of eels after they havebeen cut in two is merely reflex action, but; has given rise to the belief that they remain alive after such treatment. A correspondent of the "Daily Mail" quotes instances of tho amazing vitality, or reflex action, whichever it is. of the conger eel. "I have, often seen congers hammered on tho head with a heavy inarlinspike, enough -to kill a tiger, and after several hours lying on tfeo beach in a blazing sun wake up again and bite furiously. I romember a case at Lulworth when a big conger was brought ashore in the early morning, as dead as ordinary killing could make him, and was thrown on the beach., where ho remained dead in tho blaming August sun until 4.30 pjn., when, a little boy going to handle him, ho promptly bit off three of the child's fingers."

Powerful -is the "A Momrm«n* Irish Land League of is, it is not always Folly." successful. Mr

Charles Hands, the "Daily Mail" correspondent, after a visit to Old and Now Tipperary, describes what ho calls ''the greatest memorial which exists of the Irish Nationalist movement-." Seventeen years ago 'Mr Smith-Barry, now Lord Barrymoro, the principal property-owner in Tipperary, came into collision vri&h. tie Land League, and the League hit upon tihe idea of punishing him by destroying the trade of the town, which was one of ihe most prosperous market towns in Ireland. It was decreed that a new town should be built adjoining tho old, and that to -Lt tab.© trad© and commerce and prosperity of Tipperary should b© removed. A site for tho new town, -was purchased from, another landlord, streets of shops and houses, with a

big market place, wero built upon, it, and when all was ready the word was given for tho shopkeepers of Tipperary to vacate tho premises in which bheir businee&os had developed and move across to the new town. The i shopkeepers required some persuasion, for they had tio grievance against tiheir landlord, and were quite comfortable wliere th-ey were. But the League has extremely persuasive ways with members who dispute its authority, and tho shopkeepers, with, a few exceptions, moved into tho .new town, and provided striking testimony to tho discipline of the League. The enterprise lasted but two years. The League provided shops and market, men, and goods, but it could not provide business, and business refused to come to the now town. Some of the shopkeepers woiLt bankrupt, some died, some became dvranged. At last tho tradesmen had so little to lose tlwafc tihey resolved to defy tihe League and go back to the old town. Some of them had paid tho rents of their old premises during the two years. So there was. another migration, and today New Tippor-ary is dtserted —"a monument of futility and folly." The enterprise cost £100,000, besides losses that oan never bo either estimated or recovered. Tipporary is prosperous again, but it suffers to this day from the consequences of the two years' derangement of its commercial organisation. Limerick got a good deal of its business, and will n<»t let it go. But- tho greatest loser by the enterprise was the Land League.

In his speech on tho From Unemployed Bill, by j tho which every man out ot Shoulder, work was to have work provided for him, or in default, maintenance for himself and his dependants, Mr John Burns' went in for somo pretty ha I'd hitting. No one on tho'Treasury Bench could have smashed tho measure so effectively, for Mt Burns has tho subject at his fingers' ends, and can reel off an overwhelming mass of figures to show that farm colonies and other such measures to reliovo unemployment have been a failure. ''Personally, ,, said he, ''I have brought every hour I could to tho consideration of this subject. I have been tho Derby dog running down the Parliamentary racecourse, with all sorts of members throwing sticks and stones at mc." Members of tho Labour party had complained of his tone-. ''Fancy,"' he said, ''revolutionaries talking about tone!" Then ho proceeded to deal ■w.no deadly blows at tho Socialism in tho Bill. Tho Hollesley Bay colony, ho s-aid, as an estate under a bailiff and oightve-n farm hands, had resulted in a small profit or -a email loss each year. As a colony employing 250 workmen, there had been a loss of £22,000 a year, i "This Bill," he exclaimed, ''wouldplace upon mo tho responsibility of dotting every county and every district of England -with relief -works of "this kind." "It's not truo," shouted Mr Will Crooks. Cries of "Order" camo from tho Government benches. "I repeat it," said tho Labour member, "even it I am suspended. It's not true." A good boxer never loses his temper. "That is a typo of interruption," said Mr Burns, "which I had better ignore." Ho wont on to speak of tho J/aindon colony, in tho neighbourhood of ivhicli he found a typical old labourer, between, sixty and sixty-five, digging in a field. "I asked him how Jong it would take him to dig an acre," said Mt Burns, "and ho said a fortnight. 1 crossed tho lino (to tho colony), and found that it took sixty-seven men ten days in ■which to dig an aero and a half." At tho Ockenden colony 790 had passed tlirough, yet tkoro was not a single recorded instance of a colonist going back to tho land. "Mr Speaker," said,Mr Burns, in conclusion, li it is because you cannot make a good overcoat out of a bad pair of trousers that I ask tho Houso to reject this Bill." Tho Houso took his advice. His speech •widened still more tho breach between him and tho Labour party. Before he was "the right honourable renegade," now tho English language seems to bo inadequate to describe his sins.