A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 98, 20 January 1936, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Hurricane at Apia, 1889

The putting to sea of the steamer, Hauraki as a safety measure against a i gale raging at Apia, Samoa, recalls a famous occasion of -17 years ago, when the British warship Calliope was the only one of seven of various Hags that j was not blown to disaster by a hurricane which swept the dangerous bar-1 hour. And the usual tale of the incident gives emphasis to the fact that it was New Zealand coal which enabled the Calliope to get up a sufficient head of steam to withstand the storm and find safety in the open sea. Apia harbour is almost completely bordered by coral; the reef, which is carried far out at the bottle-necked entrance, bounds it to seaward, skirts the beach, and forms the bottom. In 1889 Samoa was experiencing troublous times, and America, Germany and England had

sent ships to Apia Bay. The Nipsie, the Vandalia and the Trenton carried the United States flag; the Adler, the Eber, and the Olga flew the German colours; and the Calliope represented Great Britain. Six merchantmen and a number of smaller craft took up other anchorages in what is not a very commodious harbour. The Vandalia and the Trenton were too late for inner berths and lay in the passage to the sea. The barometer fell on March 15. But the American admiral did not heed the sign; the Germans stayed jealously to watch him. The hurricane broke late in the evening. When day came the Eber had vanished. The Olga, the Adler and the Nipsie had been in collision but were not seriously harmed. As the hurricane continued, however, the ships one by one went to their fate. The Nipsie was fortunate enough to be beached on a patch of good sand. The Adler, through the daring of her captain, was east on the top of the reef, and only a tithe of the crew was lost. After some hair-raising moments with the Vandalia and the Olga, as well as with the seas and the reef just clear of her stern, the Calliope was pointed for the entrance and the open sea. How safety was achieved has been told many times. After the Calliope went out, the remaining vessels were beached or foundered. On the morning of March 17 no sail was afloat on the harbour. result of the hurricane 145 officers and men perished from the warships, and five lives were lost from the merchant vessels, of which only one small schooner escaped. Scythia.

Three battalions of English infantry have been landed at Alexandria by the Atlantic steamer Cythia. This ship takes its name from, an ancient State which ’sprawled around the top of the Black Sea; the Scythians, a nomad race of Asia and either of Mongolian or Iranian origin, controlled the vast treeless plain from the Danube to the Volga. The Scythians formed a ruling military caste, an aristocratic minority of the population. They kept herds of horses, cattle and sheep, lived in tentcovered wagons, wore coats, breeches and boots, fought with bows and arrows on horseback, made drinking cups of the skulls of their enemies, were filthy iu their habits and worshipped without images various gods like those of the Aryan Greeks. Their influence waxed considerably with the passing of the centuries before the birth of Christ until, in the third century, 8.C., their importance was superseded by the Sarmatians from the east and they ceased to count in European history. But the Scythians of Asia con-’ tinned to play an influential role in history. They overran Persia and extracted tribute from the Partian kings; they founded also in the east the kingdom of Sacastanc, so that for long this part of Asia was known as IndoScythia. Then, during the first century before and the first century after Christ, hordes of Scythians swept down into Northern India and established themselves as despots. They maintained themselves with varying fortunes for five centuries longer. Their kings were warm ’ supporters of northern Buddhism. Indeed, an attempt has been made to show that Buddha was of Scvthian origin. The Jats of India and the Rajputs were also assigned to the same ancestry. Greek influence told strongly on the Scythian conquerors; Greek was even used as the official language of several dynasties in Baetria and the Punjab. Politics in France.

Another rearrangement of the French Cabinet is likely as a result of the decision of M. Edouard Herriot to resign from the Government in order to become eligible for the presidency of the Radi-cal-Socialist party. To New Zealanders, used to a Cabinet selected from the party which commands a majority of the scats in the House, the French method of appointing Ministers might seem fantastic, though actually it Is the outcome of the multiple party system prevailing in France. The French politician appointed to form a Government has great liberty in the choice of Ministers, being under no obligation to take them only from his own party. For instance, there myy be perhaps a man of some following in the chamber whom it is desirable to attach to the Government, but for whom a portfolio cannot be found. He is therefore given a “demi-portfolio.” Such a man would be a disturbing force in the opposition, and he is accordingly included in the Government, even though actually he is not bound in any way to it. This explains many of the sudden resignations from the Cabinet. A man of contrary political view to the Government cannot. obtain much satisfaction from his inclusion unless he is doing a useful work, and probably he decides that there is more power and better prospects among his real associates again. Typhoid Fever.

'There has beeu an outbreak of typhoid fever in a North Island Maori pa. The name typhoid, though firmly rooted iu popular usage, is unfortunate, because it tends to associate what is really an enteric, or intestinal, fever, with typhus fever. Enteric fever is one of the most übiquitous of diseases, being probably present in all parts of the world, though it is less frequent in tropical countries. It is now proved to depend upon defective hygienic conditions, and infection is usually contracted from drinking water and milk which have accidentally become contaminated, generally from a previous case. Inoculation is now used as a preventive, especially in military campaigns, when typhoid is always a potential danger through the difficulties of hygienic conditions. In many wars the disease has been a very great cause of death, though in the Boer .war, the Russo-Japanese war. and the Great War, the British and Japanese have very notably effected a large improvement. in the mortality rate from this cause.