CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIX, Issue 9943, 24 January 1893, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

What is known in Russia as the wolf season commences with the early autumn, and continues until late in the spring. The last year for which statistics of the depredations committed by the wolves are given are sufficiently remarkable. In one year alone, according to the data carefully collected by provincial Governors, the total loss of domestic animals by wolves amounted to 800,000 head, valued at 8,000,000 roubles, which is about equal to one year’s wolf tax revenue. As an evidence that the number of wolves does not appreciably decrease, the Government of Olonetz is cited, where wolves and bears destroyed in 1875 numbered 6785 head; in 1880, 5322; in 1835, 5156; and in 1889, 5600.

Sir Henry Bessemer proposes to substitute for the bank-note tokens made from the new metal, aluminium. They would be convenient to handle, and would not be destroyed by either fire or water. The specific gravity of this metal is 2’56, while that of silver is 10‘47, so that an aluminium edin of the exact size and thickness of a florin would weigh a minute fraction less than a silver sixpence; hence, if taken from the pocket in the dark it would be instantly recognised by its extreme lightness, and could not be mistaken for a gold or silver coin. The great weight of all lead or pewter alloys which are capable of being cast in plaster moulds would not admit of their being passed off as aluminium coins, however their surface might be coated or coloured in imitation of that metal. Sir Henry at great length points out the impossibility of forging these coins, and their superiority as a promise to payover the present paper promise. In Fane’s "History of the Bank of England” it is said :—“ In forty years, from 1892 to 1833, there were outstanding notes presumably lost or destroyed amounting to £1,335,000, every shilling of which was clear profit to the Bank.” . -;J-- , ..

Accor dins; to a Chicago telegram in the New York Tribune of Dec. 3, “ an army of criminals ” has been attracted to that city by the approaching World’s Fair. “ The lawbreakers have created a veritable panic that extends through every section of the city. The nightly depredations range from one hundred to three hundred, and the police confess themselves utterly unable to cope with the outbreak. Many of the burglaries and numerous assaults occur in broad daylight. Within the last week dozens of houses have been entered and robbed, and a number of residents have been held up in broad daylight, and at the point of revolvers bean compelled to give up their money. A Vigilance Committee, composed of 150 prominent citizens, nas been organised, and highwaymen and footpads are to be shot on sight. People in all localities are arming themselves, and it ve estimated at the gnn stores^ that over 75,000 firearms have been sold within the last week.” The record for tbe_ night of Dee. 1 was seven safe robberies in one building.

The London correspondent of the New York Times records the fact that very recently Egyptology has taken a new and curious turn. The centre of interest in excavations has shitted abruptly from the ancient Pharaohs to discoveries of early Christian documents being made in Upper Egypt, many of which reveal things supposed to have been irretrievably lost in the Moslem conquest. Iu the PreussiscUe Jahrbucli for January Professor Harnack prints an exhaustive account of three of these, the most striking of which will be the “Gospel According to St Peter,” a narrative which the Syrian churches were using in the second century as inspired thought, and which was afterwards condemned as Gnostic. It was ascribed to St Peter, as the other Gospels were imputed to his associates Matthew and John. Another is the “ Revelation of Pater,” much resembling the Apocalypse, which was also regarded as Scriptural in the second century, and quoted by Clement of Alexandria. These hoary monuments of the earliest Christian period, rejected when the Scripture canon was formoa and then lost, create the liveliest interest among scholars and historians.

The planet Jupiter is evidently going through the throes of important and powerful physical changes. We must not think of this huge world as being in anything like the same state as our earth, although the earth, many millions of years ago, doubtless passed through the same stages that Jupiter is now undergoing. Even since the recent “opposition” of Jupiter its surface has experienced many changes. The position and size of the “ great red spot ” (evidently a part of the planet which has not yet cooled down below the red-hot state) is the chief part studied. During the last month this red spot has changed its character, and seemed as if it were about to disappear. A conspicuous black spot has appeared on the northernmost edge of the northernmost “belt,” whose motions appear to be very similar to those of the " great red spot.”

On every ground, writes Mr Labouchere, I sympathise with one Archibald Lawrio, a farm servant, fourteen years of age, who was charged at Lanark Sheriff Court the other day with “disorderly conduct and breach of the peace.” Lawrie’s offence was that, after the minister began to preach, he left his seat, went up the pulpit stairs, and quietly, but firmly, “ demanded that the minister should give up his sermon or the paper from which he was preaching, as he had preached his trial sermon without notes.” For a farmer’s boy of fourteen .this protest has courage as well as originality to recommend it, and there seems to be a certain amount of reason in his request if it is a fact that at his “ trial ” the miuister had posed as an extempore preacher. However, in spite of legal objections, the Sheriff held that the boy bad committed a “breach of the peace,” and sentenced him to “ 20s, or fourteen days.” The punishment is a monstrous one.

The suitability o£ lightly and cheaplyconstructed railway lines is to receive a practical test iu Victoria, where, according to the Age, the first of the new mallee railways will shortly be opened for traffic. As the new season’s wheat is now coining in, it is expected that there will be a large business from the start. This lino is an extension of twenty - two miles from Warracknabeal to Beulah. The companion line of thirty-three miles, from Donald to Birchip, will be ready for work probably this month. The rapidity of construction of these lines by the department itself on the butty gang systein is a marked departure from the methods hitherto in force, and further reforms will be carried out in management. There will be a train on the Beulah line each way daily, connecting with the main lino at Murtoa, Economy in working will be a feature of the new malice lines in addition to cheap construction. The arrangements of the traffic branch will make the Beulah line un extension of the present Warracknabeal passenger service, and the same train will do the work, so that no additional expense will be involved in the passenger branch. At the four stations of Lab, Brim, Galaquil and Beulah the expense of passenger platforms has been dispensed with, as is the custom in Queensland and elsewhere in Australia under similar conditions. The converted American platform carriages facilitate this system, and. short stop-ladders will be provided for the passengers’ use. These cars are known as “ A B, a b,” or a.first and second class car in one, with a partition dividing them. This pattern ia adapted to railways with a small traffic, such as the Glen Iris line, where such carriages are now running, and seven of them have been altered for use on country linos. Two cheap portable station buildings have been placed at each station, and goods rd xtfoms only are erected at two of them, Brim ami Beulah. The economical equipment and working of the line is a practical experiment in the new railway policy that will ba watched with great interest.