CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CV, Issue 12530, 18 June 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

It is a little strange to find Mr A. J. Balfour admitting in the House of Commons now, something

THE ROYAL YACHT.

that has been known to the whole world! for nine or ten months. Nobody seriously asked why the Duke and Duchess of York did' not make their Imperial tour in the new Royal yacht, Victoria and Albert, because everybody knew that, even in her altered shape, the Victoria and Albert would have to “ burn her inside out in. order to steam ten knots,” as one critic put it. After the boat was launched'last year at Pembroke dockyard by the Duchess of York, she very nearly turned turtle, and was with difficulty floated to Portsmouth. Here most of the work done at Pembroke had to be undone. Something like 400 tons of fittings had! to, be taken out of her ‘before she would float upright, bo gross were the errors in calculation. Even with these extensive and costly alterations the vessel did not give complete satisfaction. Her steam trials showed that she would have to be kept at home, because no voyage could be contemplated unless there were coaling stations every lew miles. Mr Balfour says now that the yacht is “ stable and seaworthy,” the inference being, of course, that formerly she was neither. The Government places the blame on th© shoulders of Sir W. H. White, who was its Director of Naval Construction. Sir William’s services were recompensed by a, grateful country with the income of £2500 a year and a K.C.8., and he was generally regarded as one of the greatest of living experts. How the errors came to be committed is a mystery that has yet to be solved. Sir William, it as true, had had 1 little experience cf yacht-building, and the naval dockyard was, perhaps, not the best place for work of this class ; but, even bo, the result should not have been’ so nearly disastrous. The “ Saturday Review ” declared that Messrs Borland and Wolfe, or Messrs Lairds Bros, would have turned' out the yacht at half the cost to the Government. “As it is,” it concluded, ■ “the Victoria and Albert will never be any tiling but an unsatisfactory compromise ; and as to her going to Australia—well, she may, but if so it will be in tow for most of the voyage.”

WHO WAS JEEBY?

Philologists’in the Mot herland have recently been searching for some trace of a gentleman named Jerry,

who was probably a building contractor. Ho gave bis name ifco a style of building much ini vogue in the colonics, and some o!mv Zealand towns ought to erect a statue to his memory. The trouble, however, is that he cannot be found'. The word “ jerrybuilt ” came into general use about .the close of the eighteenth century, and various explanations of its origin are offered. The most plausible supposes the existence of a Liverpool firm, called Jerry 'Brothers, notorious for the flimsy character of their buildings. This would satisfy the phiiologists if they could find any record of Such a firm in Liverpool or anywhere else. Jerry, os an abbreviation of Jeremiah, Was Said to be a itarm of contempt applied to Puritans, and it has been suggested' that the word hod an extended application. A third 1 suggestion is that Jerry-built iwiallis were really “Jericho walls,” a term used by bricklayers to moan walls that were not firm until they were. papered. The allusion, of course, is to the walls which fell down flat when the priests blew their trumpets. Whoever this Jerry may have been, he is not to be confused with the gentleman who gave his name to the elegant political process known as “ gerrymandering,” Moreover'’, in spite of colonial usage, the “g” in that word is hard. Rbridge Gerry, who died in the American Vice-Presidential chair in 1814, is generally credited with, having invented the system of manipulating the boundaries of electorates so as to give the party in power a majority of the polls, and although his friends declared that ho opposed the idea, it is certain that it was his party that first put it into practice in Massachusetts. Each decennial census in the United States is followed by a redistribution of seats, .and gerrymandering is recognised institution, ,

' PRO-BOER LITERATURE.

Mr W. T. Stead and hit friends seem at last to have set themselves seriously to work to counteract the mili-

tary spirit in New Zealand. The last mail brought 'to the colony a flood of their literature, chiefly broadsheets, such as “The Truth About the War,” and “Hell Let Loose,” that have been, doing duty ia Britain, since the commencement of hostilities. One of these, “ How we are Waging War,” gives what purports to be a further letter from the British officer at the front who was introduced to the public in “ Hell Let Loose.” The writer is said to bold a trusted command under Lord Kitchener, and to be a man of unblemished character, but the manner in which he maligns his superior officers Suggests that he has a very curious notion of personal loyalty and military discipline. He is not content with repeating the old fie that LordlKitchener gave secret instructions that no prisoners Should he taken—that is, that all surrenders should be shot—but he actually gloats over a shameful comparison between , the British and Boer methods of conducting war. «That we should,” he writes, “ enter int* a struggle proclaiming loudly our adhe&ios to the rules of civilised war ; that we should , beg for quarter ourselves, with a somewhat humiliating frequency, and accept the > generous terms that have been invariably offered, till the time came at last, when our enemies gathered together at our feet, asked for the mercy which, had been so often accorded by themselves, that we should then ruthlessly massacre these unfortunate men is an act, not only so cruel, but so menu and cowardly, that now as I write I have difficulty in convincing myself that it could ever have been contemplated by an English officer.”. He received 'this “monstrous order” himself, he says, and though he could not bring himself to obey it he was greatly concerned about the consequences of refusal. This moans, we suppose, that this precious soldier, .who takes his country’s pay while he abuses her through the Press, :s "afraid that ho may some day be found but and dismissed from tne Service. He probably has no existence outside-of Mr Stead’s prolific imagination', but if there is such an officer in the British Army his . promotion to a ’’trusted command is only another instance of the defective methods of the War Office. The gentleman who has described for 'Mr Stead, “ How We are Waging War,” has no right to be put over the neads of his loyal countrymen.