HERE AND THERE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 2094, 10 September 1901, Page 3

HERE AND THERE.

The righting spirit appears to have been fiercely aroused by the new Loungers Act that has recently come into operation in London. It provides, among other things, that " any jjerson who lounges, sits, or lies on the footway shall be liable to a penalty not exceeding 405." Several people have already been had up for "lounging," and now a man has got fined 20s, or seven days, for " lying on the pavement and refusing to move when requested." It is not stated that he was drunk or disorderly, and in till likelihood he was merely a pugnacious Briton, stung to annoyance by a new bylaw. " Lying on the footway" is a somewhat novel offence, which seems to have been created chiefly in the imagination of the peelers who got the by-law passed. But now that people are expressly forbidden to do it, says a writer in a contemporary, I shan't be surprised to find any number of 'em lying prone on the pavement in Ludgate Hill or the Strand, just to indicate the defiant protest of British pugnacity. Some amusing incongruities are cited in a report just issued by the English education authorities. The war is responsible for at: least one of them—that of the candidate who translated " cacumen" in a military passage from Livy as "kopje." The sentence " But I also take delight in occasional 'at homes' on account of the pleasure I feel at the conversation " scarcely suggests the manner or the sentiments of Cicero. An Irish candidate made Solon and Cato not only moderns, but fellowcountrymen of his own, thus: " Solon wished his wake to be attended with mourning and weeping, which Cato said was wrong." A suggestive observation by one of the examiners was to the effect thai, current events in South Africa prevented the papers from exhibiting a comprehensive view of the subject. In the retailing of cheap foods to the poorer classes the übiquitous newspaper is in universal demand as a wrapper, and the 'Lancet' has been pursuing investigations with a view to discovering whether any leproachable substances are thereby liable to be transferred from the wrapper to the food. The ' Lancet' has examined the penny newspapers and the halfpenny newspapers, the white newspapers and the colored newspapers, but in no case could even traces of substances that are regarded as injurious be found. And this result exonerates also the printing ink. although when operating upon printing ink in bulk"just the bare indication of arsenic was discovered ; but the quantity of printing ink operated upon would represent a whole iile of papers. With regard to the ' Globe' and other tinted papers, these, it is said, were found to contain innocent colorings in infinitesimal quantity, while no irritants could be found on analysis.

Elementary issues of very considerable daily importance are frequently debated nowadays in the courts, although one would imagine them to have been settled in the dark ages of the law. Thus the House of Lords a, few weeks ago was appealed to in order to determine whether or not a person can ratify a contract not made in his name, nor purporting to be entered into on teehalf of a principal at all. That is to say, if A makes a contract with B, professedly on his own behalf, but witli an undisclosed intention that it shall really be on behalf of C, although C has not authorised him to do any such thing, can C afterwards come upon the scene, declare, with A's assent, to B that he ratifies the contract, and seeks to hold B liable upon .it? The Court of Appeal lately said Yes; the House of Lords now finally answer No. In other words, if A agrees to buy a cow from B, thinking in his own mind that he will purchase it for (', but without any authority from G to do so, and without giving any intimation to 15 that he is not buying for himself, he cannot afterwards transfer the contract to 0, so as to enable C to sue for the non-delivery of the cow. But it has required the House of Lords to decide that G cannot sue.—'Argus.' The Paris correspondent of a. London paper wrote on June 23 : —" I believe that somewhere up in the Faubourg St. Honore there is an English .Embassy. Surely its duties extend slightly beyond the limits of the building, for it seems to me rather hard for an English lady in a- fashionable Montmarte concert —and I witnessed the incident the other night—to have reason to get up and protest against a dastardly attack on the King, and sweep out proudly with the remark : ' You could not attack the German Emperor—Sedan !' and then, as a final cry from the soul, ' Fashoda !' The Govern-ment-appointed policeman was sitting in the hall to check every word ; so that Sir Edmund Monson could apparently demand and read through it if he asked the censor."

If all is realised that is promised on hehalf of the patent for a new automatic weaving loom bought up by a British syndicate, then the cotton trade of Lancashire — or that part of it concerned with weaving —is on the eve of brighter and most important developments. It is pointed out by Mr Richard Marsden, consulting examiner to the Gity and Guilds of London Institute, and editor of the ' Textile Mercury,' that by its application the weaver who now attends to four looms can easily attend to eight, and that, on the assumption that lie earns 5s per loom, he will now earn £2 a week for attending to the looms. Moreover, as each loom, by the obviating of stoppages, will produce 12j per cent. more cloth, the eight looms would bring the weaver's earnings up to £2 ss, as against £l, although it will be clear that some of this increase will go to benefit the employer and (he consumer. "This patent is the invention of a, young Burnley weaver named Bernard Crossley. It is capable of attachment, at a comparatively small cost, to existing single-box looms. There are 850,000 power looms in this country. Out of this number Crossley's invention will be capable of being applied to 600,000. Among the competitors for the favor of the trade, the Crossley loom, in my estimation, stands first because of its adaptibility to existing looms, the simplicity of its mechanism, the speed at which it can run, and the rapidity with which it effects the shuttle changes. There is no commercial limit to the speed of the loom of that adjustment. Assuming that the loom is working at 200 picks per minute, which is a good average rate, this loom, without any pause in its action, changes the shuttle in one four-hundredth part of a- minute—that is, half a. revolution of the first shaft. It effects this change and at the same time entirely avoids the faults made in looms as ordinarily constructed —that is, making what are termed thick and thin places in the cloth, either by putting too much or too little weft in. The loom, after a change of shuttle, itself resumes work in such a manner as to leave no vestige of the change having taken place, save, perhaps, a, broken pick, which might extend halfway across the shed. It thus makes a, superior cloth to the existing ordinary loom." The misuse of holidays is the theme on which the well-known Canon Burnett recently addresed the London 'Times,' and we extract (he leading points of his communication :—"Holidays take every year a larger place in life. 'Their misuse—hi frivolity

or in dissipation—means loss of wealth an« self-respect; their use—in increasing health, pleasure, and knowledge—is the best test of national progress. The misuse which is evident is, 1 would submit, largely due to the custom of giving day holidays. When men and women, driven by the many-voiced spirit of the times, have only one day in which to find their pleasure, they naturally plan to fill all its hours, and to get the greatest number of sensations. They are tempted to let go their usual habits of control, to indulge themselves, and to spend money freely and foolishly. They come to think that there is no pleasure but excitement, and many so frequently take ' days that the loss of time during the year often amounts to weeks. If, instead of the day holiday, a fortnight's holiday was the custom, workmen would have time to learn the real pleasures of rest —time to develop country tastes —time to travel —time to make friends. The clerk who has such a holiday does not, like the workman, take days off, nor does he find excitement so necessary. The misuse of holidays begins with the monster day treats in schols. in which children me given excitement for pleasure, marched through the streets with banners and shouts, crowded into carriages in which they struggle with one another and scream at passers-by, turned out on some field or beach,, where, with aimless energy, they run about, torment frogs or donkeys, buy unwholesome sweets and unlovely toys, or listen to vulgar songs until the evening, when, overwearied or overstrained, they return to their parents, having learned that enjoyment is dissipation. Such clay holidays' are wholly unnecessary when fortnight holidays may be arranged and cost little more money." Dean Fremantle contributes to Ihe Times' an interesting and important letter to show that "the causes of depopulation, which are exciting such dismay," are not peculiar to France, but that "all Europe, except Russia, is going in the same direction, and England is leading the way." He says if the present decline in the birth-rate continues, in the next twenty-five years it will have come down from 29 to 23 per 1,000; and in less than fifty years from this time it will have been reduced to 17, the lowest figure which we can imagine the death-rate to reach. There will then be no increase of the nation, but, as now in France, the prospect of actual diminution. He declares there is no reason to doubt that the limitation of families will go on beyond any assignable limits unless the conscience of'the nation awakes to its tremendous danger. The wish for ease and material enjoyment are indicated as the general cause of the evil.

A young student was recently looking over an old manuscript in the library at Viennr when suddenly his eyes fell on a passage which startled him considerably. Over and over again he read it, and finally he took out his note book and copied it word for word. In this passage the writer of the manuscript, who was apparently an old monk, said that a large treasure of gold and silver had been hidden in a convent in Galicia. He described the location of the convent, and told in what part of it the treasure had been concealed. He wrote, indeed, as though he himself had been an eye-witness of the occurrence. Confident that the old monk had not told a fairy tale, but the actual truth, the young student went at once to the Cardinal Archbishop of Lemberg and asked him if he would be legally entitled to half of the treasure in case he should be so fortunate as to find it. The Cardinal replied that he would, and that evening the young man started for Galicia. In due time he arrived at the convent and after a brief search he found the treasure. It consisted of a large pile of n-old and silver, and it is said to be worth at least 2,500,000fr, or £104,167. Half of it, it is claimed, belongs by right to the church, but the other half will surely be awarded to the luckv student. A healthy little 'suburb of New York, called New'Koehelle, is to be credited with the latest and most ingenious method devised to make burglarious entries into the homes of the inhabitants. Gentlemen of the marauding persuasion* enter ordinary telephone pay stations, and call up the house of some wealthy citizen. If the calls are answered, the callers state they have made a mistake as to the numbers, and ring off. When no answers are given the predatory gang conclude that the houses called up are empty, and immediately go around and start operations. Numbers of burglaries have been perpetrated in this way, and the police seem quite helpless in the matter, the only information at their command being that'the thieves "are welldressed and gentlemanly in appearance." In the course of the last decade (says a writer in 'M.A.P.') Sir Harry Johnston has had many little tribal wars to pilot to success, and I believe he holds the record for laconic despatches. On one occasion he advanced against a slave-trader who had given a lot of trouble, and he subsequently announced his success to Lord Salisbury in the following terms: —''Advanced against Tmose; defeated, captured, hanged him.— Johnston." This Tmose was a redoubtable slave-trader, with a large following, and quite a battle raged round the kraal. Before hostilities Johnston asked Tmose to come in to a parley. He sat on a biscuit tin and Tmose sat on the ground. Johnston, in relating the adventure, said: "I told him I should have to fight him. and that when I had caught him I should hang him : but he wouldn't surrender there and then and save himself." So the battle began, and Tmose was defeated and led before Johnston. " I said : ' Tmose, you were foolish to fight. I said I should win, and I have. You shall have a good dinner and the best bottle of champagne I have now, and at seven to-morrow morning we shall hang you.'" And hanged the slave-trader was, with unerring punctuality.

A decidedly interesting question is now before the Procurator Eoyal at Bonn. ])oes it constitute a crime of lese majeste for an amateur photographer to take a snapshot of a member of the Royal Family without permission and to distribute copies thereof among his friends ? The circumstances of the 'crime" are so unusual as to render decision difficult. The Crown Prince of Germany, taking advantage of the free and easy life which he lives as a student at Bonn, attended a student picnic in the environs of the town. Unluckily that indiscreet photographer met and recognised him as he cycled leisurely along on a tandem, with a pretty barmaid in front ! Of course, the photographer leaped to instant popularity, and earned the attention of the police. Once again (he English War Office has been showing itself impervious to new ideas, to the great cost of the country. At the beginning of the war Lord Frederick Brudenell-Bruce and Dr E. Kingscote invented a, nosebag designed to 1 prevent the " horse-sickness" which carries off about 75 per cent, of imported horses. The disease is said to be acquired by breathing the veldt air at night and eating the grass at a certain season of the year. The invention was a combined nosebag, waterbucket, and antiseptic muzzle, and weighed only 12oz. But the Veterinary Department and the War Office both refused it. Now. when returning officers are stating that its use would have saved thousands of horses and thousands of pounds, the War Office is asking for it again. Mr .Miller, one of the Irfouth Australian legislators who was deputed by his Government to report on the labor and land legislation of this colony, was very much impressed with the working of the Land for Settlements Acts. The following are the concluding pussies of his report-

" The lands of New Zealand are fertile. So are ours. They use large quantities of fertilisers as well as ourselves. Their rainfall is abundant and certain; ours is uncertain and scanty. Under Professor Lowrie we learned to'conserve the water from one winter to supplement the next. If we spent as much on the utilisation of our water supplies in such districts as Laura, Caltowie, Jamestown, Clare, and many other districts between Mount Remarkable and Miking as the people of New Zealand spend on drainage per acre on some of their best lands, there would be profitable employment for thousands of hands, and the increased production would mean new life to the townships all along the line. One condition seems to me to be essential to the success of rural industries. That is, that a fairly proportionate rate of pay should be obtainable, as compared with rates obtaining in the Government and city employments, otherwise all the best hands are drawn away, the industries languish, and, the unemployed difficulty recurs. We can grow as good sheep, cattle, and horses as can be grown anywhere under natural conditions. As to our meat, the quality of our best lambs is said by competent judges to be equal to the best Canterbury."