CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12573, 7 August 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

• “ 1 mean tto live as long

THE DOWAGEREMPRESS OP GEBMAXt.

ns I can; but when I die no one will be sorry, least of all myself.” These, says the Paris correspondent of

the KW York “Sun,' - ’ are the words of Victoria, Princess Royal of Great Britain and Dowager-Empress of Germany. Dying slowly, a disappointed mother, a widow, -and An ex-sovereign detested hy a people she served faithfully, her life- is- described as having been “a brilliant 1 misery,” and the death which is announced to-day can only have been a relief alike to herself and her : people. Happily.married As a girl of seventeen', an unfailing affection existed between, her and her Royal husband until the latter’s death. But from the very first she incurred the bitterest hatred arid animosity of the Iron Chancellor, to whom it was, a sore blow that the house of Efphenzollera should have made ah alliance with a princess of his enemy’s country. “ That English woman,” as he used to call her, “has," he'said, “poisoned the Hohenzollern blood at its source.” He denounced hen as a sraitor, and an interloping foreigner, and when, being An educated woman of strong intellect, she strove for an enlightened system of education for the women of Prussia, he stirred up Press aiid people against her. “The-English Woman,” said Bismarck, “is ■not only a rights-of-man woman ; she is also a rlghtsmf-woman Woman, which is worse. It is red revolution enthroned at .Berlin.” |sh6 was hissed in the streets of Berlin, stones were thrown at her carriage, and the only appeared 4t any public function at thi Hik of opeii insult She . fought Bismarck with wonderful intelligence and tenacity of purpose, find it was mainly owing to her efforts that her husband- inherited the crown for even the ninety days of his reign. After his death her portion became one of obtfiurity. * For,”- .cays • ihe writer from w'hom we quote,.'.“it is not cheerful at Groiisbeg-on-the-Mai®, where the most miserable of royal ladies is fighting with death. The. house, though called a s'chloss or castle, is a dismal, ugly building in the worst modern German style. The great cheerless rooms are almost bare and there is no sign of the domestic comfort.” Except in the graver crisis of her

incurable malady, the Empress spent mast of her time seated at a window in the big* bare salon, gazing listlessly at the chits* neys that made her view. They say sh* was very often found in- tears, -though, -sh* did not like to have it noticed. She tread little,'but “The Imitation of Christ” was always within, reach of her hand. Twice a rhAii a visit from her youngest daughter, the Princess cf Hesse, who, came over-from Frankfort to pass the afternoon, at the mournful scblcss. It.was.a pitiful 'evening to a life which dawned so brightly.

THE BLACK • PROBLEM IN'. SOUTH AFRICA.

The cablegram we put* 1 riiied yesterday stating that the. military authorities is South Africa had determined to remove a number of Kaffirs to refugee camps in

order to prevent them furnishing supplies to the enemy, shows that the natives are not all in sympathy with the British occupation of the new territories. Probably many of them have acted finder compulsion, but there are undoubtedly a certain number who are still unsatisfied that the change train one master to another will* be to their permanent advantage.- Many of these unfortunate people cannot realise, that, the: conditions which exist under martial law are altogether different frem those thatmight be expected under civil government. This "was obviously the case with an estimable cli lady who resisted with all th* tenacity of her race and sex an order by the Pretoria Council that no coloured servants should be allowed to dwell within the town in a building abutting on the street. Tho new authorities merely adopted the order as they found it when they assumed control of the peace, but the lady, who is a property-owner herself, strongly objected to, being brought under its operation. She contended that she was not a servant, and that the Boers, even in the case of the poorest menial, made only a -benevolent application of the order. They never thought of depriving respectable coloured people bf the right to live wherever they pleased. But the authorities were inexorable. They insisted that the circumstances of the lady’s case, including ownership and occupation for more than twenty years, made no difference, and that she would have to go. The matter was, however, carried to the Civil. I Court, and there the lady managed, t® establish her right to remain in occupation of her own premises. But, the Council, instead of accepting this result with a good grace, proceeded to pees an order prohibiting any- ownership by coloured people in the town except in the case of chiefs in trust for • their tribe. Of course, all this has considerably shaken the confidence of the native population in the advantages of British rule, and it is no wonder that some of the pro-Boer newspapers are drawing comparisons that are not exactly .gratifying to our national vanity. The danger is that military methods will be continued after tho need 1 for them has ceased, and .that both the dissatisfaction of the natives and the criticism of the disloyal Press will ■be justified 1 by the blunders of stupid officials.

THE VIPER.

... The destroyer,- Viper, which has just been wreck- ■ ed in the English Channel,

was' the most wonderful boat in the world. She was built on the Tyne in 1899, her length being 210 feet, width 21 feet, depth 12 feet 9 inches; and her displacement 550 tons. The indicated horse-power was : 11,000. ’ Her engines were of the turbine ’type,’ adopted originally by the Hon C. -. , Parsons, in the Turbinia. The., principle of the turbine boat is the placing pf several • i propelling blades on one shaft. In the • Turbinia three screws were placed on each shaft, and three shafts being in action, .the vessel was driven by nine propellers. ; The machinery is simple as compared with the \ details of an ordinary marine engine, the . steam. acting directly on turbines which set .' the propellers in motion. There' is an absence of vibration and noise inseparable from engines of the ordinary type, and the weight of the machinery is much less, so that it is possible to increase largely the relative size of the boilers. The Viper differed from the Turbinia in having four propeller, shafts, each with two. screws, and she had two distinct sets of engines. On short trials she maintained a, speed of 35£ ' knots, and subsequently she easily maintained a speed of 541x11013 101 three hours. A second torpedo destroyer of the .turbine type, the Cobra, was launched in the same year. A turbine steamer- has recently; been built for service on the Clyde, and it is contemplated to place similar boats on the . English Channel sendee. A few years ago the reduction of the time occupied in crossing from Dover to Calais to an hour would have been regarded as a veritable triumph* bub the new steamers should make the trip -from pier to pier in half-an-hour. From Channel steamers to Atlantic liners is but a step, and Mr Parsons has already pro- , pared designs for a great liner fitted .with turbine engines. The estimate works out with' a,, total reduction of engine-room weights of about one-half those of ordinary engines, and although the relative steam consumption may nob be reduced, a saving could be effected in staff-and in the. consumption of oil and stores. Moreover, the absence of vibration, would be a matter of the first importance with a passenger vessel," andi.it is nob too much to expect that turbine'steamers will shortly be crossing , the Atlantic. The principle is not likely to be dropped in the new building programme of the Navy.