DEAD RAT'S FEAT.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13410, 30 April 1909, Page 7

DEAD RAT'S FEAT.

Rats have been responsible for many things lately—plague, Police Court prosecutions,, and such like. Yesterday one of them, and a dead one at that (says the "Sydney Morning Herald"), called out two fire-engines and a dozen men—indirectly, of course. Hβ had been found at a residence in George street north, near Dawes Point, and with a wholesome fear of the deadly bubonic an inmate decided to offer the rat as a burnt sacrifice at the shrine of hygiene. Accordingly tho rat was placed on a tuft of dried grass at the side of the house, and a light put to the funeral pyre. But in a twinkling a large patch of grass was all ablaze, and matters were commencing to look serious for the house. To save all risks the fire station was rung up, and Circular quay and Cumberland etreot turned out, and in a trico put out the flames. Whether tho rat that caused the bother was completely incinerated or only comfortably baked, the official records do not state. ADMIRAL EVANS SPEAKS. "We need a battleship fleet of twenty vessels oh this coast," said Admiral Evans, otherwise 'Fighting Bob," in a speech at Tacoma recently (writes our San Francisco correspondent), "and after we acquire that number there is no fear of attack. . . . The Atlantic coast is amply protected, and the same protection should be given to you people on the Pacific slope." The possibility of war with Japan was toucned on. "Oriental fleets/ said the Admiral, _"will never wage a war outside the Orient. They could uever afford to cross the ocean so far from their base, for .their line of communication would soon be cut. I don't think that Japan ever dreamed of fighting tbe United States. The Anglo-Japanese alliance is a guarantee of peace. England is •Japan's banker, and the United States virtually feeds England. Just figure that out. However, it is duly a question of time before Japan and Russia fight it out again." That there could be only one outcome of a naval war between Britain and Germany is another of tho opinions the Admiral expressed. "To an outsider, it looked," he said, "as if England gave Germany a great opportunity when the Lords of the Admiralty abandoned the building of certain types of warships and started the Dreadnought clnss. It enabled the Germans to start out on a more even footing in the shipbuilding race. I have no fears about Britain maintaining the lead." He said also, "It iscertain that Germany is not building her new navy for her health's sake."