CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CVI, Issue 12620, 1 October 1901, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

INSTJEINO fIOVALTIES.

The death of the Empress Frederick has directed renewed attention to the fact that

it is quite a common practice at Home for private individuals to. take out insurance policies on the lives of members of the Royal Family. This is not usually done, as many people imagine, for the purpose of speculation, but for the protection c.f sortie interest that may depend' upon the life of the person insured.- In Devonshire, for instance, a good deal of land is held under leases which are determinable at the expiration of a life nominated by the tenant. It is often: considered desirable to nominate in these leases a Royal life, because such a life is generally taken great care of, and there is never any difficulty in proving death. On the death of this nominee, a considerable “ fine” is due from the tenant before he can niake another noinifiation, • arid it is in order to ensure this- payment that a policy to cover its amount is effected. The majority of these policies are, comparatively speaking, not large, and, in the absence of any special circumstances, insurance companies usually dispense with all inquiries as to the life insured in this way. Probably the record number of policies taken out at one time -6n Royal life occurred on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee. Seat syndicates, .firms of caterers and otters who hud invested large sums of money iix anticipation of the festivities had an obviously insurable interest in the life of Queen Victoria until after the great event. Consequently most of them took out policies on the Queen’s life t 6 cover themselves against any possibility of loss. No doubt the life of King Edward will be equally well insured by people who are embarking upon expensive, enterprises •in connection with the forthcoming Coronation. An insuring 'on a Rcyal life would be, under ordinary circumstances, anything but a remunerative investment, British- Kings and Queens, like bishops and mothers-in-law, having acquired the habit of living to a good eld age. And it would be, strictly speaking, contrary to law. In order that ah insurance taken out by One person oh the life of another may be legal, the holder must be able to show that lie has an insurable interest on the life; or, in other words, that he would lose something in the event of death, ■ There are hot, of course, a great many people who have an insurable interest' 1 in Royal - lives, but some of the insurance companies are net very particular about -this condition, -and occasionally allow a speculator to gamble on the mere chance of death.

Koweit is ai small semi-in-dependent district at the

KOWEIX.

: head of the Persian Gulf,on the Arabian side-, but in reality it consists of little more than the picturesque town of twenty ‘thousand inhabitants on the shore of the long bay which was the scene of tb£ incident -described in oar. cable messaged yesterday. The coast-line takes a long, curving sweep westwards before it' runs north again, and 'the bay' thus formed is thirty miles long and tendeep, an open, though safe, harbour, where a whole fleet could lie comfortably at anchor. On the southern shore is Koweit-, an imposing town, -one of the largest ini the gulf. Tbs houses are -of stone and sun-dried bricks, all substantially built, and on the encircling -stone wall are several ruined towers, to remind visiters of the days when the Arabian coast was not so peaceful. Without the wall are the maifc-hut-s of fishermen and Bedouin t'radtrt. The people -axe a handsome, hardy-looking race, Arabs to the backbone, and fiercely contemptuous towards mere Turks-. The surrounding country is on© vast desert of White sand. Here and there a lofiely clump of trees serves -only to emphasise the general absence of vegetation. The in-h-abitafi-t-s are entirely -dependent upon tra-do for their support, and the hundred or two hundred vessels in the bay show that Koweit is a port of seme wealth. The pearl fisheries employ many boats, and the larger ships carry horses to Mahotoerah, on the Euphrates, for transhipment . to India-, inid even sail a-s far as Indian ports with'dates from- Basra, returning with timber and rice. Koweit ba-galahs, indeed, carry a fair proportion of the trade of the gulf, paying frequent, if irregular, visits to Bush-ire, Bahrein and Basra. 1 , Inland a. considerable trade is carried on by caravan, the Bedouins finding a ready market at Koweit for their cattle, horses and sheep, and in exchange receive rice, dates, clothing and arms. The town has been selected as the t-ermimis of the projected Bagdad railway, and may, therefore, be of increased importance in a few years. Occasional visits are paid by the British Resident - at Bushire, Colonel Kemball, and by the Vice-Consul at Bahrein, and British’-in-terests hr the neighbourhood are watched by the war Ship-s which patrol Che gulf.

XOF.DEXSKJOLD.

In spit© of his many voyages to Arctic climes

Baron Von Nordenskjold was close to his seventieth year when he died at Stockholm a few weeks ago. Ho was one of the most indefatigable of Arctic explorers in his day. Three pre- ’ liminary trips to the neighbourhood: of Spitsbergen.brought 'him experience in icetravelling, and incidentally he seems to have surveyed- most of the lard in the region. Then the Swedish Government, lent him a steamer for a longer expedition,, and in 1868 he reached 81deg 42min dSortli, a latitude that still commands respect,, in spite of Nansen’s 86deg 14min, and the Due d’Abruzzi’s 86deg 33min. In 1672 he was again at Spitsbergen, making his first serious attempt to penetrate 111© ice, ; rhis expedition being especially rich in scientific results. Some of Nord'enskjold’s biographers have credited him with the accomplishment of the North-west Passage. Id is, of course, the North-east Passage with which his name in connected. In 1875 he sailed through the Kara Sea to the

Yenisei, and descended,the Siberian rivet in a small boat, returning home overland. In 1878 he started in the Vega with a well-eqtdpjied expedition, and was the first to double Cape Ghelinskin, the northernmost point of the Old World. Wintering near'Behring’s Straits, he escaped from the ice in July, 1879, and reached Japan on Sept. 2. For three centuries, attacks, more or less persistent, bad been made on this North-east Passage. In 1553, Sir Hugh Willoughby sighted Nova Zembla, but he rind his men perished on the coast of Lapland. Burroughs, in 1556, Pet and Jackman in 1580, and Hudson in 1608, explored Spitsbergen, and 1 reached Nova Zembla, oil the coast of which Barentz, a Dutchman, wintered in 1596. Hudson achieved a “Farthest North” of Sldeg 30min in 1607. In the eighteenth century Behring mad© an attack from the other side of Asia, and another Russian expedition from Europe reached Cape Chelinskin. Early , in. last century the northern coast of Siberia , was mapped, chiefly by Russian explorers, but British adventurers were not idle. A prize of £SOOO was offered by George HI. to any crew that should reach 89deg north, but . Sldeg 30miii was ; the highest point reached. Parry achieved a farthest north with 82deg 40min, in 1827, and no notable advances were made until No rdtriskj old's voyage of 1878. The Swedish explorer laid plans for a great Antarctic expedition a decade ago, but he was really already too old for such a campaign.