CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 13890, 26 October 1905, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

Even with our stocks in tho parlous condition described by Sir Allen, Nature is provid-

god’s OWN COUNTRY.

lug h«r ireavitahlo compensation. It has now been discovered that New Zealand is the ideal land for ifcho Seventh Day Adventist to reside in. Indeed, from t’ho point of view of worldly expediency it is tho only ono. Mi - Nield, for many years connected with the Seventh Day Adventist Mission «s a ship missionary in tho London docks, has ascertained “ that ’a day is dropped out of tho reckoning of days during the voyage from San Francisco to

Auckland, without Bible or Divine authority.” “ 1 concluded, therefore,” he explains, “ that by the sun's rule across the Pacific Ocean, without mam’s interruption, the Seventh Day Sabbath in New Zealand wo aid come oni the day called Sunday. The more I studied and thought upon this subject the more I was impressed with the obligation of going to New Zealand to preach through its length and breadth that the so-called Sunday was really Saturday, or the Bible Sabbath.” Mr Nield answered this moral call, and did preach up and down New Zealand before returning to London. Ho informed an interviewer in London that many people had taken advantage of this mistake in the count of the days of the week and have journeyed to New Zealand. He instances the case of one man who had lost one day ©very week in order to keep the Sabbath, in addition to Sunday. This man had ©■migrated to New Zealand, “ and,” ©ays Mr Nieid .proudly, “he is'now able to observe the Bible Sabbath, the same day as he kept in England, as the sun brings it to New Zealand, to earn twice as much money, and-to live in a much more comfortable way.” The' matter ia one of some importance to the sect, for it is reported that it has 1364 meanbens, who observe Saturday in England as ‘the Sabbath as well as keeping Sunday also sacred. There are 29 churches, 18 ministers and 17 probationers. Tliero are also 28 Bible workers and 195 canvassers at work spreading the fact that Saturday is the day to bo k©pt in England. Mr Nield combines business with his missionwork, and intends to represent an English firm at the Ohristchiirch Exhibition. Incidentally he also intends, he says, to bring “ quite a number of people ” back to New Zealand with him, and adds that there “ are many more who would like to go.”

santtobtA fob. WOr.KINO MEN.

The national movement for the establishment of self-supporting eaniteria for the treat-

ment of consumption among the working classes Is taking vigorous shape at Homo. People are aware, in a getteral way, of tbe ravages of tuberculosis, but it will com© aa a shook to most of -them to learn, on unimpeachable authority, that consumption kalis one victim in every five minutes in Great Britain. This is not wild guess work, hut the result of careful inquiry and minute diagnosis. “Of the working classes,” writes Dr Laithom, with startling plainness, “men, women and children, whom you meat in the streets of London to-day, at least on© in thirty-three will bo dead within five years from tuberculosis.” It is not suggested that treatment, even in the earliest stages of the disease, will extinguish this colossal death roll, but physicians are certain that a reduction of at least one-half, or even two-thirds, can bo effected, at a cost which would actually diminish the liabiMities of the Friendly Societies. The result of on investigation in connection with one of the most prominent sorieties showed that the average cost of pay. to a consumptive member of the Court was three times as great as that to any member suffering from other diseases. A man dying from consumption ocst the Lodge £2l, whilst & man dying from any other disease, cost only £7. In support of this statement, Dr Latham, in a public address in London,- quoted the action of the German insurance companies. In Germany the law demands that everybody with an income - of under £IOO a year shall insure against sickness, and the companies, aftei operating for some years, found that they were being heavily hit by deaths from consumption, at least one out of every three beneficiaries suffering from some form of tubercu-. lotfis. They sought expert advice, and were informed that seven out of ten oases could be arrested if treated properly and early enough. The chairman of one of the principal companies proved that if 140 out of 500 consumptives could be so far rostered to health as to do without sick-pay for a year it would more than recoup the company for building its own sanitoria and\ treating the oases itself. As a consequence the German companies proceeded to provide these institutions, and with such successful bust,ness results that they are mow widely extending the scheme. The present effort to establish an experimental saniteriura - In Kent is quit© as much an economic as a. charitable one, and it should have the warm support of the working man, Whose class is being mono than sdecimated by the terrible disoade.

FACT AND FICTION.

Mr Soton Mcrriman not very long ago wrote •a delightful sensational

, novel' dealing with the adventures of a daring mariner who “ ran ” a cargo of cartridges to the North Sea for a belligerent Power' and transhipped them in the teeth of a gale of wind. One is apt to regard such stories as pure excursions into the realm of imagination, hut the gun-run-ning adventures of the steamer John Grafton, in the Gulf of Finland, which have called for scare headings “in the latest London newspapers, suggest that if fiction does not sometimes inspire fact, fact at least inspires fiction. The John Grafton seems-to have been on a cruise very similar to that of the Minnie in Mr Momman’s story, but ehe met with a different fate. The vessel was wrecked within sight of her goal, grounding on. a sandbank in the Gulf of Finland during a gale and fog. The day after, the Customs’ officers went on hoard to examine her cargo. They were met at the gangway by some of tho crow, apparently British, who informed them that they could choose between being blown up or returning to land. The Customs officers returned to land. Shortly afterwards, when tho crew had left in tho ship’s boats, tho vessel blew up. “ There wore 5000 rifles on board,” says a Router’s cablegram from Helsingfors, “and watchmen have been posted on all the Skjold Islands in the vicinity of the wreck to prevent the stealing of weapons which are. being washed up for a long distance along tho coast owing to a storm. Many cases of revolvers have been thus picked up. The whole whereabouts of the crew, who took horse and made for tho interior of tho country, is still a mystery. The divers state that there are still 1000 rifles In the hold.” The John Grafton was a well-known London collier which traded between Shields and the Thames, but p-hich dis-

appeared from that trade early its July. On August 1 she was observed transferring cargo to’ a 5000-ton steamer off the island of Sark, outside the three-mile limit. Then she disappeared again, to emerge into the full light of publicity as a gun-runner stranded within sight of port. The owner of the vessel and the members of the crew are evidently “sitting tight” after the pattern of Captain Cable in Mr Merriman’s story. They, apparently deem it desirable', aa that worthy did, to hold their tongues.