CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCVIII, Issue 11424, 12 November 1897, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

What a little thing may get an Indian editor penal servitude for life is shown by the official translation of the article in the Satara Pratoda, which procured such a sentence for the gentleman who wrote it. The translation, as it appears in the Times of India, occupies about forty lines, and is the mildest sort of sedition that one can imagine. It starts with a description of the alleged state of affairs in Canada, where the people aresaid to be bent upon “ throwing off the English yoke and establishing a Government of their own.” It is news, indeed, to learn that the ultra-loyal Canadians “have appointed a committee to frame an independent Constitution for themselves,” and that “this committee has issued a notification of their aims, copies of which have been distributed even in India.” But false history and stupid error cannot be called sedition, and we must look to the close of the article for the comments which led to the editor being criminally prosecuted. Here are the sentiments —milk and watery enough, we should think—with which the seditious newspaper man tried to stir the mild Hindoos to mutiny. “ Spirited men,” he wrote, “ show by their actions what stuff they are made of. There are no people on the earth who are so effeminate and helpless as those cf India. We have become so callous and shameless that we do not feel humiliation while we are laughed at by all nations for losing such a vast and goldlike country as India. What manliness we can exhibit in such a condition is self-evident.” Only that, and nothing more, and for that there had to be a State trial, and a sentence of penal servitude for life. There was no evidence as to the circulation or influence of the Pratoda, and there was no allegation that any disaffection whatever was apparent in Satara or Islampore, where it is read. Hence, it seems fair to conclude that the prosecution was a “panic ” one, utterly unjustified by the circumstances, and that the sentence was inhumanly severe. As a London daily paper remarks, revolutions are not made by such drivel as we have just quoted, and it is a travesty of justice to deal so severely with “ the spluttering of some halfeducated native journalist.” The security of British rule in India rests admittedly upon justice and humanity, and it must be prejudicially affected by the infliction of extravagant punishments. An instance of the bad faith of the Boers, and of the manner in which they treat native races, comes from Swaziland, whose king recently sent Mr T. B. Eathbone and the Induna Umslippesa to lay the grievances of the Swazis before Mr Chamberlain. In the convention of December, 1894, between the British Government and the Government of the Transvaal, the Boers undertook to do certain things agreed upon as essential to the well-being of the Swazis. Generally, the complaint of the Swazis is that justice is denied them by the Boers, and that the Convention of December, 1894, is ignored in -respect of the section which provides that the natives shall govern themselves according to their own laws, and in regard to Article 11, which says: “The Government of the South African Republic agrees to prohibit the sale or supply of intoxicating liquor to Swazi natives in Swaziland!” Moreover, the Swazis are desirous of remaining under British rule, and are anxious that they should not be handed over to the mercy of the Transvaal at the expiration of the Convention, which takes place in December next. A diary kept at the King’s kraal at Bremensdorp from December, 1895, to May of the present year, shows how the Boers keep faith with the British Government and treat the natives. In extracts from the diary instances are given of Swazi natives having been deprived of property by Boers without any redress, and of other natives having been beaten by Boer officials. Many of the extracts describe scenes' of depravity at the canteens where raw spirits are sold to men, women and children, and it is stated that liquor is even sold wholesale under license from the Boer Administrator. It is easy to see what a pandemonium the Boers would make of South Africa if it were not for the restraining influence of the British Government. Niagara, one of the great wonders of the world, is doomed to transformation if not destruction. Lord Kelvin, who has been visiting the falls and their neighbourhood, has been speaking of the coming change, which, according to him, has even now begun. “ We already see,” he says, “thebeginning of what is destined to grow into a great industrial district around Niagara Falls, within ten or twenty miles of Niagara, both on the United States side and on the Canadian side.” Lord Kelvin anticipates that, industry will advance, on both Sides of the border, and that the power of Niagara will be taken advantage of to any extent we may imagine. The originators of the work so far carried out and now in progress hold concessions for the development of 450,000 horse-power from the Niagara River. Lord Kelvin himself, however, does not believe that any such limit will bind the use of that great natural gift, and he looks forward to the time when the whole water from Lake Erie will find its way to the lower level of Lake Ontario through machinery doing more good for the world than that great benefit which we now possess in the contemplation of the splendid scene which we have presented before us at the present time by the waterfall of Niagara. In fact he hopes that such use will be made of the motive-power of Niagara for industrial purposes that there will bo no cataract left for our children’s children to soo. Should this come .to pass -a glory will indeed have passed.

SEDITION IN INDIA.

BOEB BAD FAITH.

THE DOOM OF NIAGARA.

away from the earth, but if prosperity ami, happiness amongst men and women am. proportionately increased, civilisation will be a gainer, and nature will perhaps be able to survive the destruction of her sublime handiwork. At least, those who feel that the Falls are doomed should derive what comfort they can from this way of looking at the facts. The intense yearning- of some blind people for sight is finely portrayed in a story told by a missionary in India of an old woman of eighty, who offered to give him all she possessed, and bear any pain, if he would only restore her eyesight for a single moment. Being asked why she was 80 anxious on this point, she replied • “ Since I became blind a little grandson has been born to me. He is the only one I have, and I have never seen his face. I mrut die, and then I shall become a oat or a dog or a frog. We must be born 84,000,000 times, and the lad will become a cow or a hen or a crow. After this life he is mute i and lam his no more. If I don’t see him now I shall never see him again, for, through all eternity our lives will never again touch.” For centuries the restbration of sight to the blind has baffled all scientific skill; but if what we find narrated in an English paper is even approximately true, there would seem to be hope for the sightless. A Dr Astudillo, of Havana, is credited with having successfully experimented' with Rbntgen rays on a blind man in that city. The man who ban been cured was originally a resident of Madrid, and was suddenly stricken Wind twelve years ago. Eventually he went to Cuba, where he gradually got poorer and poorer, until finally he was reduced to begging. It was while soliciting alms that he came across Dr Astudillo, an oculist, who invited him to hie house in order to see if anything could be done in his case. After various experiments with the X-rays the patient was able to see different objects which were placed in the light. After further treatment he became able to differentiate between black and white in the daylight, and gradually to see and describe the machinery of the apparatus, as well as count the hashes of the incandescent lamps in the physician’s study. It is difficult to conceive of anyone being so- heartless as to raise false hopes by circulating an untrue or exaggerated report on such a matter as this, and therefore we may anticipate hearing ere long of other casei of blindness cured by the new and powerful light discovered by Professor Eontgen,

X BATS AND BLINDNESS.