NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 14, Issue 301, 14 September 1921, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

On examination the number of unemployed in the city ‘seems to undergo a steady shrinkage. Last week there was talk of a grand total of 1200 or 1300. A statement by Colonel Mitchell published yesterday showed 525 registrations, 355 at the Labour Bureau and 170 at tho Repatriation Department. This morning wilf bo found n statement by the officer-in-ohargo of the ‘ Repatriation Department’s bureau, .from which it appears that of this number only 70 or 80 -would be available for relief work, and of the 70 or'Bo at least 20 are partially disabled men. Not more than 50 able-bodied men would be forthcoming from the Departmental list for tho city’s relief works. This brings us down on the basis of Mr. Mitchell’s figures to 405 men in all. The task of making financial provision to tide this number through should not be superhuman. Another aspect of the matter is tho case of the 20 partially disabled men on tho books of the Repatriation Department. Suitable employment is required for these, and as their disabilities arose in the course of service for their country, they have a special claim on our sympathy. As Mr. Morrison, of the Department, says, such jobs exist, and employers who have vacancies that can be filled by tho partially disabled would bo doing a public service by getting into touch with the Repatriation Department.

* * * -lilt is difficult to please some people, A little while ago the prospective tenants of the Government houses at Miramar were fuming at not being able to get into them, and on Monday evening they held an indignation meeting at which they did everything but threaten to leave. If they are dissatisfied with their bargains the obvious thing is to get out and leave the houses on the hands of the Housing Board. They assert that no working man can pay 30s. or 31$: for a five-roomed house, and talked of fighting against a rental of more than £1 Is. lid. a week. If this is their opinion they should pack up their goods without delay and take! their one pound one shilling and around the city and 'suburbs and see what they can get for them in;the way of modern cottages. If they prefer to stay where they are, they will Have to abandon the idea that the taxpayers built tho houses to- make the tenants a present of them.

Foremost in the Tanks of physics in •'the world is Sir Ernest Rutherford, a native of Nelson, and now professor of experimental physics at Cambridge University. As appeared from a recent message Sir Ernest Rutherford’s investigations into tho nature of the atom have been discussed at tbs’ British Association as opening up possibilities of an illimitable supply of power transcending anything hitherto known. In an address last year Professor Rutherford explained that the opinion now ■ generally accepted is that the atom consists of positive and negative particles held in equilibrium by electric or magnetic forces. The centre appears to be a positively charged nucleus surrounded by a distribution of electrons which/ make it electrically neutral. The electrical charge- on the., nucleus is the fundamental mart of the atom, for on it depend both Hie Member and arrangement of, tjie surrounding electrons. The atomic weight of the atoms of the ■ various elements corresponds with the number of units in tho nucleus charge. Thus hydrogen, the lightest element, has one unit of electricity and uranium, the heaviest, has 92 units. The nucleus rays of radium ore so active that they can penetrate freely into the structure to! atoms. In the lighter atoms they pass right through the nucleus, but with the heavier they are turned back by intense. vrepulsi<?n, and. Sir Ernest Rutherford estimates that the amounf of electricity stored in these is extraordinarily ,great. This conception presents the entire material world as composed of nothing but stored electricity —tret's, buildings, rocks, water, all living and dead substances. Everything is composed of the same elements, and everything could bo changed into anything else if one knew how. It would thus seem that it is a of nq consequence at all if the earth’s coal and oil measures give out, for Sir Ernest Rutherford has only to tell us n little more about things and the electrical energy out of a yard of road metal will run the entire country for a niontb.

Yesterday a message stated that the last vacancy in the personnel of the Shackelton Antarctic Expedition had been, filled. The expedition has been made possible by the generosity of Mr. John Quiller Rowett, of Frant, Sussex, who is well known by his endowment of the Rowett Institute for Agricultural Research. It is unusual in several respects. Its object is to solve several problems of geography us' they nffoct little-known islands in tha great oceans and also to penetrate a little-known portion of the Antarctic. Tbt; route laid down covers a distance of no less than 30,000 miles. This prolonged voyage will be made in a little vessel of about 200 tons net, and a remarkable feature will bo the absence of a crew. The scientific staff will sail the ship themselves. Air currents are to Ire charted, islands of the oceans lying in partial or complete oblivion are to be explored and examined' geologically, while the zoologist and biologist will investigate the bird and marine life; the magnetieian will \(ake his* observations nnd the camera and kinema men will picture all that goes on. The mere landing on some of these islands is 4n itself likely to be a matter of difficulty. Coming south, the little vessel, appropriately named the Quest, will proceed to the Euderby or African Quadrant of the Antarctic, the least-known of all portions of the South Polar regions, and unvisited by any expedition for ninety years. All that is known of the existence of land there is tho sighting of one rocky cliff. Capo Anne, in Enderby Lapd, and it is not

known whether it is part of tho Antarctic continent or merely an island. The Quest is to skirt the region for 3000 miles, exploring the coast line as fully as possible where she can reach it. A seaplane is Io be carried, and Sir Ernest ■Shackleton hopes to use it for discovering the best routes for navigating the ship through the pack ice, and so avoid the loss of time in seeking routes that ensues when j;ho range of vision is what can be seen from the masthead. It is a daring enterprise, and if all goes well New Zealand will see something of the Quest in the later stages of her peregrinations.

Native insurgents in the Spanish zone of Morocco have of late been having a good deal of their own way, but it is now reported thnV-the Spaniards are engaged in. an offensive which has been attended with encouraging initial success. The task undertaken is no light one. Spanish Morocco is a strip of mountainous country in North-Western Africa, about 200 miles long and witli an average depth of sixty miles. It contains a million native inhabitants, who are described as “many of them stout and well-armed fighting men.” Spanish colonists, numbering about 180,000, are located for tho most part in a few towns along the coast and in settlements established as troops forced their way slowly inland against the determined resistance of hostile tribesmen. Only a small paA: of the total territory has yet been brought under any kind of control, and in the early stages of the present insurrection the Spaniards lost a good deal of ground! that had been won by military efforts spread over years. The Spanish forces have been engaged in more or less continuous warfare against the Moorish tribesmeij during the past twelve yeaf-s, but their penetration of the inland country has been extremely slow. Advanced posts which had to bo .abandoned to the insurgents were situated at a distance of only about thirty miles from Melilla, tho principal coastal town of Spanish Morocco. A military effort on a very big scale would no doubt be needed to bring any considerable part of the territory- under effective /control, and the people of Spain have at all .times shown themselves disinclined to support or even countenance such an effort.