CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13889, 25 October 1905, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

The man in the moon the man - in has had his nose put abthe moon, eolutely out of joint. ' Professor Maier, of Lorraoh, has discovered that the shadows visible on the moon’s surface really form the head “ of a beautiful woman.’.’ This is a decided improvement on the old theory of an old man carrying a bundle of sticks, to which modern Europe has hitherto been committed, but it is rather marvellous that’ this particular suggestion should not have' been made before. The Professor, in his Bavarian fastness, has probably only seen the sight that caused the ancients with one accord to describe the moon as feminine. Cynthia, Diana, Astarte, Selene and Phcebe are among the names of the’lady whom Professor Maier has managed to distinguish. Speaking of the ancients,- of course, means only those persons commonly indicated by the term. The ancient Hindus and the ancient Mexicans, contrary to the principles of “the ancients,” had a masculine moon. And so had all our Teutonic forefathers before they came into contact with the Reman civilisation, The Arabian moon, by the way, is masculine even to this day. What is to be seen in the moon, however, matters but little.’■ Even the cow that in the nursery rhyme “jumped over the moon ” in the face of the little dog’s ribald laughter, if she ever came back to earth, failed to relate what she saw in her marvellous jump. Sir Paul Neal, in the seventeenth century, saw an elephant there, but tins gigantic discovery was afterwards discounted by the - appearance of a mouse in one of the tubes of the telescope. It was this incident which gave Samuel Butler the chance to write his celebrated satirical poem. What really matters is what is actually there, and this point, as selenologists know, was settled by Astoipho, who, as related in “ Orlando Furioso,” journeyed to the moon and found there all the things which had been wasted on earth, such as unfulfilled desires, misspent time, squandered money, broken pledges, misapplied talent and so forth. Upon these lines a good many millions of British money and a good many thousand British lives have gone there in recent years. But the old fiction that the principal inhabitant of the moon is a man must die hard. Possibly Professor Maier has been misled, as Sir Paul Neal was, by a, woman being concealed in one of the tubes of his telescope.

Undaunted by previous failures to secure a universal postage, Mr Henniker Heaton has

BB.OTHEIUIOOD BY i’OST.

thrown his energies into a new movement to bring about' this desirable object. Incidentally, he has addressed a letter to the principal British news agency outlining his desires. It is intended, this document sets forth, to form a League, for the establishment or universal penny postage, so that any inhabitant of the earth may be enabled, for the sum of one penny, to communicate with any other, at the lowest possible rate, and with the highest ' possible speed. Under this scheme, he urges, when one soul has something to say to another, neither colour, nor religion, nor creed, nor diplomacy, nor national antipathy, nor latitude, ner longitude, nor poverty, nor any other barrier will stand between them. Since 1898, when Imperial penny postage was inaugurated, the British outward mails have nearly doubled. Every Friday some 250,000 British. 1 -letters pass through France and Italy for India, Hong Kong and Australasia. The postage on each of these letters is one penny, and they travel any distance up to 12,000 miles. By the same boat a few British letter’s are carried to Calais, a distance of twenty-one miles, at a rate of .“ By what perverse ingenuity can such a. distinction is justifiedP” asks Mr Heaton.. “ Or why should a letter to

New York cost 2sd and another in tha same bag be carried 1000 miles further into Canada for a penny?” That the moment for action has arrived, Mr Heaton considers is proved by the fact that Sir Joseph Ward has given notice to move in the direction of establishing a universal penny postage when the Postal Union Congress meets in Roma nest year. “It cannot,” he adds, “be too soon or too clearly shown that thi* doughty reformer is speaking with.the publio opinion of, the Mother Country behind him.” The circular concludes by saying that “ without venturing to introduce the Sovereign’s name' ifito the appeal, we may confidently assume that no movement which aims at bringing the peoples of the earth into more frequent and closer correspondence and friendly intercourse, can be indifferent to King Edward Vll., and; that w© have his Majesty’s silent good wishes.” Mr Henniker Heaton has already accomplished a great deal in the way of postal reform, and New Zealand, which has,' under the guidance of Sir Joseph Ward, given him more assistance than any other portion of the Empire, will wish him .well in. his renewed efforts. / t

nelson’s successob.

Curiously, little was heard of the present Earl Nelson during the cele-

brations that were held last week in honour of his great ancestor. Horatio Nelson, the third earl, is an unpretentious country gentleman, living at Trafalgar, in the ancient Saxon village of Down ton, on the borders of Salisbury Plain, where he devotes himself principally to the collection of Nelson relics. His descent from the national hero is direct enough, though it ia not, perhaps, generally remembered. Kelson himself was a viscount, not an earl. The "title he won at Trafalgar was first borne fay his brother William—the Ilev William Nelson. This gentleman had no male issue, and the title and the family estates descended to the present earl’s father, who was a eon of Mrs Holton, on© of the famous Admiral’s sisters, He changed his surname to Nelson, and, dying in 1835, was succeeded by the present earl, who-was barn in 1823. His lordship was/ by the way, one of the little band of prominent church workers who assembled at tho docks in London to bid God speed to the pilgrims as they sat out in the “ first four ships,” fifty-five years ago, to establish Christchurch and settle the province of Canterbury. The connection between Nelson and this incident in our history is a rather remote one, but it is etrangs that it was not mentioned at the local celebration the other day. ’ One of the present earl’s sons married, in 1887, Miss Ellen Petty, of Melbourne, but the lady died some months later, and her husband survived her only two or three years. A recent visitor to Trafalgar, the family mansion at Downton, describes the eai’l as “ a genial, upright, bearded figure, singularly youthful for his weight of years.” Volumes' of manuscript, of newspaper cuttings, of printe and photographs, of “ memorabilia,” testify to the master passion of his life. For seventy years the process of accumulation has been going oh, until Trafalgar has rightly oom© to be regarded as the Mecca of all the biographers, of Nelson. '|’he old gentleman has, of course, a great fund of Nelson stories, grave and gay, and he seems, to retell them with increasing interest and enthusiasm. In his youth he talked with Hardy, his great uncle’s favourite captain, and with Pasco, the lieutenant who hoisted the famous signal. Since then he has read ©very scrap of literature concerning “the saviour of bis country,” and has made the whole story essentially his own.