A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 200, 21 May 1936, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Coal Mines Bill The British Government is described as having suffered humiliation in the House of Commons over the Coal Mines Bill. The fixing of miners’ wages in Great Britain is a complicated process, anil the present Bill aims to simplify it. A miner’s wage is really made up of two distinct parts—a basis wage and a percentage addition to that basis. The latter varies from district to district, but is rhe same for all collieries within a district. The basis is determined in accordance with the nature of the work tlie miner is required to do. As there are widely differing types of work, it follows that there is an enormous number of basis rates. They vary from pit to pit and even from seam to seam, according to working conditions in each place, and they may consist of piece rates or scales for day workers on a flat rate. Once fixed, they rarely alter, except in recognition of Some radical change, such as the introduction of machine mining. The percentage addition to the basis rate is fixed on a sliding scale based on the selling price of coal, and is intended to allow for the relative prosperity of the districts, but this method does not allow for reductions in the cost of production or changes in the cost of living. The miners are now demanding an increase of 2/- a shift for men and 1/for boys. Rabies.

The arrest of a member of a British Red Cross unit in Abyssinia by Italians is likely to endanger his chances of recovery from rabies. This disease is usually called hydrophobia when it affects human beings, and rabies when it occurs in the lower animals. Dogs, cats, horses and cattle may suffer from rabies, which is caused by a microorganism, not yet identified, contained in the saliva of a person or animal suffering from the disease and inoculated into a fresh subject by a bite. The infection passes up the nerves until it reaches the brain, when, sooner or later, symptoms make their appearance. The time elapsing between the bite and the manifestations of the disease is usually from one to three months, but it may be shorter or. it is stated, considerably longer. It varies with the distance of the site of tlie bite from tlie brain, so that the disease would be likely to appear much sooner, for example, after a bite on the face than after one on the leg.

The Lictors. Tlie Italians have started to enrol Abyssinian youths in a newly-founded organisation named the “Abyssinia of the Lictor.” A lictor was an officer who walked in front, of certain of the higher magistrates of ancient Rome. He ibore on ins left shoulder the fasces, a bundle of rods with an axe bound in the middle, which symbolised the magistrate’s power of corporal and capital punishment. The number of lictors varied from one to 24. The name is derived from ligare, to bind. The function of a lictor was to bind the hands and feet, of criminals before executing the sentence of th© law. Salvage Islands.

The captain of a steamer Jias advised Lloyd's that lie saw a ship answering to the description of the Girl Pat when passing tlie Salvage Islands. These islands are two separate groups of rocky islands in the North Atlantic. between the Canary and Madeira Islands, distant, from each other about eight miles. There is a safe passage between them. One group is formed of the Great. Salvage Island, with its surrounding rocks. It is high and rocky and may be seen at a distance of more than 20 miles. Tlie other group consists of Iwo islands called the Great and Little Piton, surrounded by rocks and reefs. Captain Kidd.

It is surmised that the captain and crew of the Girl Pat are searching for the hidden treasure of Captain Kidd. It will be 235 years on Saturday since Captain Kidd was hanged at Execution Dock, London, for piracy. He was born about 1645, at Greenock, Scotland. Up to the time he turned pirate, in 1695, he appears to have had a creditable career as a sailor. In that year he was appointed to the com mand of a privateer to hunt, out pirates in the Eastern seas. Arriving at Madagascar, the headquarters of the pirates, he not only made no attempt to deal with them, but actually joined them. It appears that he intended to coniine his attentions to capturing French ships only (he had been given a commission of reprisals against the French by the English Govern ment). When, however, he found none, he commenced to capture native trad ing vessels, and plundered on the coast of Malabar. He was arrested in July. ,169!) and was seal to England and tried first for the murder of one of his crew, and then, with others, for piracy, found guilty and executed. Many attempts have been made to find his treasure. Finland. The Republic of Finland, which has made a trade agreement, with the United States, js about one and a half times as large as New Zealand, ami has a population of nearly 4.000.00!). The capital is Helsingfors (population about 270,000). Finland was formerly an autonomous Grand Duchy of the Russian Empire. Lakes cover 11.5 per cent, of the total area,, and 73.1 per cent, of the total laud area is covered by forests of pine, spruce and birch. Lumbering is the most important: industry, and is scientifically carried on. Although extending far north into verv cold latitudes, with rugged climate ami topography, Finland is an agricultural country. Under a Land rureba.se Act of 1918-19, every farmer tenant "agiven the opportunity to own land through tlie payment of a redemption price in Government guaranteed bonds to the land-owners, and to-day about 300,009 farms, three-fifths of them loss than 25 acres in area, are owned undo'’ this scheme. Butter is exported in large quantities. In February. 1934, a most-favoured-nation treaty of friend ship, commerce and consular rights was signed between Finland and the United States. Finland is the only country that has paid its war debts to the Unified States as each instalment became due. Junta. Junta is a Spanish term for a small body of men acting in unison. It was applied to the committee that looked after various departments of State, and in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to informal bodies chosen in times of unrest. The Inquisition had its supreme junta, and the word has spread lo Spanish America. In England. in the form junto, it was applied generally in a disparaging sense to a small group of men who controlled the affairs of State.