TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13614, 24 December 1909, Page 8

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The cable news toThe Waratah. day relates that a

further effort is to b; made, by Australian enterprise, to discover the whereabouts of the missing Waiatah. The opinion is strongly held by many sea captains that the vessel is still afloat, and they have contrived to so infect the general public with their beliefs that a substantial sum has been raised in Melbourne towards ntting out a second search expedition. The chief ground for the faith that is in those who are convinced that the Waiatah is still above water is the absence of any indication of wreckage, in itply to those who point to the fruitless queßt of the Sabine, it is stated that her search was of a most inadequate description. Captain Mitchell, late of the Port Phillip sea pilot service; especially, has never swerved from the conviction of the extreme likelihood that the Waratah's 300 passengers arc still praying for the succour from which the waste and unvisited places cf a vast ocean are keeping them. Captain Mitchell furnishes a weighty answer to the fact that so many vessels | have kept a look-out for the missing steamer to no purpose. He states that the course of the thirty-two ships mentioned may be divided into two sections or "roads," with an immense waste of unvisited water between them. With one or two exceptions none of these steamers Eig-zagged. They all kept to the regular ocean beats, isome of the tracks have unvisited spaces 60 and 70 miles wide and hundreds of miles long, between them, while be-

tween the two almost equal divisions tl.ere is a length of 2000 miles of open ocean, by 175 miles wide. The Sabine, it is shown &tearaed acioss the 175 miles on an angle, crossing in all 500 miles of this area. The action of the Sabine's captain in not searching the five islands comprising tho Crozets group is sharply criticised by Captain Mitchell, who declares that the Waratah's passengers may have taken refuge at Hog Island, on which there is a provision depot. "Are we," he asks, "as

Australians, and particularly as Victorians —natives of the State from which so many of this unlucky steamers passengers hail—to sit down and be satisfied with such a .rarch? Common humanity says No I' Duty says 'No!' The search mado has been insufficient, ard the time has come when efforts must be made here in Australia to fit oat an expedition to satisfy our consciences, and perhaps save those SOO poor suffering ceratures, who hay© been drifting, and still iiay dritt lor months." A ready answer to the sfirring appeal has been leturned. and iv tho course of a few weeks another s-.'arch will U» instituted, wliich, it is to be sincerely hoped will be sufficiently thciough to satisfy the last lingering suggestion- of doutt.

Like Christchurch, MclThe bourne has had for many Grit years to pay the penalty of Fiend, civic greatness by tolerating

with the best grace possible the vagaries of the dust fiend. The names of the different methods for the extirpation of the nuisance that have been tried are legion, and none so far has been even partially successful in affording relief. A period of blank despair supervened upon demonstration of tho futility of the best laid plans of the past, and the conviction gradually dawned upon the leal citizens of Melbourne town that tlie dust, like the poor, was destined ever to be with them. As far back as 1908, the City Council adopted a resolution inviting the other municipal bodies in and around Melbourne to send delegates to a conference to consider the. most effecth'e means of checking the dust nuisance. The first meeting of the conference, which was largely attended, was held on December 9th last year. The proceeding, lasted less than half an hour, a sub-committee being appointed to go into the matter and report later. The weighty question having thus been disposed of, the conference adjourned for afternoon tea at the invitation of the Lord Mayor, and promptly dismissed a distressing consideration from its municipal mind. The weeks lengthened into months, summer gave place to winter; spring was born anew, ond. finally summer came again. A year had passed, and still no report was furnished. At length, stung into activity by th© caustic jibes of anonymous newspaper correspondents, and the angry vituperations of business people, the sub-committee hastily summoned the conference to learn the result of its lengthy deliberations. Tree plant ing and ttir spreading were suggested as being, in the opinion of the committee, the most suitable methods of checking the dust. And already practical steps have been taken by the various municipalities to give effect to the recommendations. With so excellent an example as that of one of the largest cities in the world to influence its activities, the municipal authorities of Christchurch cannot err very disastrously by pursuing the policy of tarring the principal thoroughfares that has recently been adopted. Apparently there is no royal road to scotching the dust fiend—no waving of a fairy's wand, no chemical miracles to bfe wrought. He must be stifled with good honest tar, and be kept in tarry subjection.

So far as the lower aniFcod for mals in captivity are Reflection, concerned', a vegetarian

diet distinctly does not tend to longevity. This was demonstrated recently by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, secretary to the • Zoological Society, in the course of a lecture on the feeding of animals. Tho add.ess was regarded as being particularly interesting to owners of pet snakes, lien tamers, and warders of Holloway Prison, where the suffragettes have been going to in an almost •unbroken procession for the paist couple of years. "It is possible," said tho lecturer drily, "to feed even human beings by artificial means, as many of you have doubtless heard', and in the cases of certain animals this means is occasionally necessary." He told of a young seal— "presumably of the suffragist persuasion"—which instituted' a hungerstrike at the Zoological Gardens, and had to be fed by force. With some of the large snakes, such as pythons and boas, forcible feeding is notably necessary on a good many occasions. Dealing with the difference between vegetarian and carnivorous animals, he pointed out that the former need a complicated cigesrtive system, are very liable to tubercular diseases, require a disproportionately great bul!k of food, and die early in proportion to their size. Conversely the carnivorous creatures possess a simple digestive system, are very resistant to tuberculosis, need comparatively slight nourishment, and live long in jproportion to their size. The doily menus of two representative animals were quoted: Elephants—6 stone of clover, hay, etc., 6 stone of straw, roots large quantities, biscuits large quantities. Large lions —121b horse or goat flesh daily, inducing bone. Dr. Mitchell did not press home the obvious inference that habitual vegetarianism in human beings might possibly be cumbered with some of the fiamo disadvantages as were to be noted in its practice by tlie lower orders of creation. He merely pointed to the prodigkrosneas of the quantity of material necessary to yield sustenance to the elephant as compared with the hancy cold chop upon which the king of beasts fared sumptuously every day, and left it with the individual lords of creation to decide for themselves which was tbe better gastronomic part.