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Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14658, 6 May 1913, Page 6

Tho public of Canterbury will bo gratified to loam from Captain Halsey's telegram to Mr Cyrus Williams tho Engineer to tho Harbour Board, that if tho weather is fino he intends to berth the ship alongside the wharf as Mr Williams suggested. This will mako a visit to tho warship easy as well as pleasant. If it had been decided to moor tho ship in tho harbour tho difficulty of getting children on board would liavo boon almost insuperablo, especially if tho weather had proved in .tho least degree unfavourable. With tho railway facilities offered by tho Government, the New Zealand is sure to bo thronged with visitors daring horVtay in port, and if tho experience of othor places is repeated the Canterbury public will bo lost in admiration at the unfailing good nature and innate courtesy of the British tar, to say nothing of tho thoroughly sterling characteristics of tho officers of tho ship.

Tho attempt to force a discussion at the Tramway Board yesterday on the finances before tho balance-sheet was brought down was obviously a mistake, and it was properly decided to defor further criticism of the accounts until tho accounts wero actually before the Board. , In the meantime Mr C- M. Gray's diverting and ingenious attempt to construct a "report of the directors" on "the satisfactory returns of the year" seems to belong rather to tho category of "joux d'esprit" than to that of jsober business criticism. At any rate if it was meant seriously we should not liko to hold shares in a company whose directors conjured up profits in this airy fashion.

The following message, which tho Xhinedin "Star" has received from ono of its correspondents, is redeemed from triviality by the last threo words in it:—"lt is a far cry yet to tho poetical elections of 1914, but one early bird is already out for tho Patea seat. It is .the first definite announcement of tho kind in the iVomieion. This is •Mr Train, a Waitotara storekeeper, who will stand as an accredited Liberal candidate." We confess to a littlo curiosity as to the Liberal leaden- who "accredited" him. But our curiosity must bo as nothing to that of the numerous "leaders" of the Self-Effac-ing Party. They will all be suspecting each other, and feeling sore about it.

Some interesting observations upon the effect upon roads of different kinds of traffic were made by Mr W. H. Morton, the Wellington City Engineer in giving evidence beforo the Commission set up to apportion tho cost of the Hutt road amongst tho contributing local bodies.. One witness ha<l said that a motor-car was as hard on a road as a lorry, and that motor-cycles were proportionately severe. Mr Morton, who is an exceptionally capable engineer, did not share this view. Motorcar traffic, ho declared, did no more damage- to a road than any other form of traffic. At some seasons, and on some occasions, to be sure, a motorcar might disturb the blinding, but '"tho pounding of a trotting horse's hoofs on a road catised more- breakage of the stone, and more attrition than any kind of motor vehicle.' . This is -v ■correction of'what/ wo believe, is tho general view ; or, at any rate, tho general view of those who do not use motor-ears.

The histoty of tho Hutt road, by the way, is a vary interesting one. At the enquiry we have mentioned some very strong opinions were expressed as to tho extravagance that had marked its construction. Mr Morton, indeed, said "the wholo work is one of such extravagance that it is impossible that the cost can be satisfactorily borne by the local bodies." When the first Bill was introduced in Parliament, tho Government asked for £100,000, and everybody was led to believe that that would be the total cost. The Leader of the Legislative Council at the time, the late Colonel Pitt, certainly thought so. But another Bill in a later session asked for another £100,000, and various members, notably Mr Henries, then in Opposition, protested strongly against the mislead-

ing of the House into voting such huge sums for this road and railway. The protests w«ro renewed when in another session another £100,000 was demanded. Altogether tho Government came to Parliament four or five times for authorisations, tho total sum required being £373,000, or nearly four times what everyone had been led to expect would bo required. Tho work is, of course, one of the classic instances of tho extravagance and waste, and also of the want of candour that prevailed under tho old '-Liberal" Administration. Ono cannot wonder that the loc«l bodies, which believed their liabilities would be £23,000. aro very soro at having to find £100.000 of the cost of construction.

Tho imprisonment of .Mr Kotert Scmple for failing to pay a tine for refusing to give information required of him under the Defence Act, will no doubt set tho nnti-niilitarist tongues and pons going furiously. H o can got out of gaol, of course, as soon as ho likes by paying the fine; and if he prefers to remain in gaol, that is his own affair. If ho is sensible he will pay np and bohavo himself, for nothing is more certain than that public opinion does not intend that any obstinate or wrong-headed individual shall sot himself abovo tho law. Tho object of Mr Seraplo and the other anti-militarists in going to gaol, in tho belief that they aro martyrs, is, of course, tho arousin**of public opinion against the dol'enoe system. But when it is a question of maintaining tho system or obliging .Mr Scmplc, the public will chooso tho hrst alternative. Mr Sernplo in gaol as a voluntary prisoner is not a sufficiently inspiring object to induce tho public to repeal anything.

Tho prices realised by the manuscripts aro extraordinarily high. Tbo purchaser who gave £1130 for the manuscript of tho "Sonnets from the Portuguese" will bo exceedingly lucky, we should say, if he ever sees his money again. It is possible, of course, that these high prices, and especially the £GSOO paid for the love-lettera, aro not genuine market rates, but gilts, rather, from Browning enthusiasts. When the letters were announced ior sale, there was an incomprehensible uproar in the correspondence columns of "Tho Times." Lord Tennyson, in one of the many indignant letters of protest, wrote: "Cannot .Robert Browning's nearest relatives stop this infamy of tho sale of tho Browning loveletters?" Browning himself was quoted by tho opponents of the sale. What mado all tho fuss so unnecessary, was tho fact that Browning authorised his son to publish tho letters after his death, which his son duly did. All tho letters have long been in print. It may be, of course, that the actual manuscript is none tho less a sacred thing— that tho actual letters should he venerated as relics. But tho purchaser of them is likely to treat them with as much- reverence as anyone.

Mr Thomas Cawthron's generous offer of £10,000 or £12,000 "to build, , equip, and endow" a solar physics observatory in tho vicinity of Nelson, has served a subsidiary purpose in attracting attention to Nelson's climate. No place in the Dominion is more suitable than Nelson for the erection of an.observatory for tho study of the aun, for the simple reason that nowhere elso is more sunshine enjoyed. There aro many places in New Zealand with an average annual sunshine.which would make tho fortune of an English watering-place. Christchurch alone can boast of an average of something like 20C0 hours a year, and a proper recording station in the Malvern district or at New Brighton would no doubt yield a still better result. But Napier, for live or six years past, can point to an average of 2511' hours a year, and Nelson'e record is oven better .than this, tho yearly average during the period ICO9-11 being 2547 hours. In a few weeks Nelson's pre-eminence in the matter of blue skies and golden daye will bo widely known at Home and elsewhere, when tho details of Mr Cawthron's offer aro published, and the pleasant little city will receive an advertisement which she could never have hoped to secure by any other means.

Tb,o Hon. R. H. Rhodes, in his telegram to Mr Cawthron, after the announcement, at Miss Proctor's lecture, of his gift, remarked:—"Nelson is to be congratulated on this further evidence of the public-spiritcdness of its citizens." Among these, Mr Cawthron himself is ono of the most prominent in good works. Ho is at present defraying, tho cost (£2000) of a hno flight of granite steps up Church Hill. The ornamental chains and iron standards along the sea wall on the Rocks road cost him £800, his benefactions to the Nelson Library amount to about £1000. and to tho School of Music ho has given several thousand pounds and an organ costing some £3000. Hβ has lived many years in Nelson, and he apparently delights to spond his money in benefiting the community and tho city. His example is one which might bo followed by other old settlers in othe*r cities with great satisfaction to their fellow-citizens.

With tho projected solar observatory in working order Nelson, and through it New Zealand, will come prominently on to the stage of astronomical research- "We are now finding," said Professor Archibold, in speaking of Mr Cawthron's offer, "that there are oscillations of weather distinctly connected with the small, as well as with the larger periods of solar phenomena, including tho magnetism of the sun nnd tho surface spots." The Xclson observatory will form the necessary link between the observatories in Ceylon and California, and by thus enabling continuous observations of the sun to be taken, it should be of material assistance in the elucidation of tho problems that still await solution. "It will be work," added the Professor, will he valuable- not only to Nelson and New Zealand, but to the wide world, and it will be distinctly to tho honour of New Zealand to take a prominent part in an investigation that is daily brooming more and more of world-wido interest and importance "