CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14170, 19 September 1906, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

The London County r Council’s official publioai. tions give statistics, it seems, on almost every

y LONDON FIGURES.

conceivable feature of life in the great metropolis. From “London Statistics,” for example, one can learn that there are some 2500 places registered for the manufacture of ice-cream. The common lodging-houses number 454, and provide accommodation for 29,000 persons. Or one can learn - that in tw r ©nty years there have been 2748 cremations at Woking and 635 in three years at Gblder’s Green. There are 8819 beds in the London hospitals, and the daily average number occupied is 7144. The in-patients numbered 104,687 in 1904,> the latest year for Which the figures are available, and the outpatients 1,480,920. The 45 public bathing establishments were used hy over three million persons in the year -ended March 31, 1905, and the swimming baths by 3,277,160, of whom 383,401 were females. In the washhouses, 899,492 washers spent 2,434,751 hours, or 2.98 hours per washer. The theatres of the metropolis can seat 71,015 people, the Coliseum seating 2939 and Drury Lane 2516. The total number of places licensed for all kinds of entertainment, including drill halls, exhibitions, restaurants, skating rinks and mission halls, is 346, and they have seating accommodation for at least 312,000. The list does not include the Albert Hall. A glass of liquor may bo bought for immediate consumption in any one of 7506 licensed houses. There are 16,846 policemen to patrol- the streets, as well as 1144 city constables, and they arrest about 130,000 persons a- year. The property stolen in .1904 was valued at £163,800, and about a quarter of it was recovered. The police, however, found occupation in seizing 38,500 stray dogs, stopping 216 runaway horses, shutting 30,000 windows and doors left inadvertently open, summoning 10,000 drivers for offences and finding 15,823 lost persons. Of the 52,131 articles left absent-mindedly in public conveyances 22,602 were umbrellas. ’

a president’ FERQTJISITES.

The democratic senti’s ment of the American !. people has broadened a good deal in recent

years. No one could complain when the Americans declined to provide uniforms for their diplomatists abroad, hut there were many bitter complaints of the “stinginess” of the United States towards important officials. Tho accepted theory, apparently, was that a live democrat could be sufficiently dignified in a sac suit, and the newspapers used to- boast that the leading men of tile Republic had no privileges not possessed by the humblest citizen. When Mr Cleveland was President, lie sometimes borrowed a “ wretched tub ” of a lighthouse tender for his shooting and fishing excursions, and paid out of his own pocket the living expenses of himself and his companions. Yet ho used to bo violently abused for illegally using Government property, and even hiq own supporters regarded his use of the tender as irregular and perhaps corrupt. But- times have changed. Mr Roosevelt hos at his command one of the finest yachts in American waters. Bought- at the time of tho Spanish War. and officially classed as a

despatch, boat, it is placed, at the disposal of the President for his sole use, and is practically a “royal yacht.” And this disposition of a naval vessel excites now no adverse criticism. Mr M’Kinley once, os President, crossed the continent on a pleasure trip, and Mr Maurice Low recalls that he travelled in special trains. Every penny of the expense was borne by the railway' companies, who not only paid the cost of the train service, but also furnished free the meals and wines on the diningcars for the President and Mrs M’Kinley, several members of the Cabinet and their wives, the official staff of secretaries, newspaper correspondents and servants. Yet there was scarcely a word of adverse comment, a fact that is especially curious in the light of the story of Mr Cleveland and the tender tug. When President Roosevelt attacked the great railway companies, he was reproached for ingratitude, and only then did the nation see the absurdity of allowing the President to accept favours from the corporations. Congress has since sensibly voted £SOOO a year for the President’s travelling expenses.

APPLIED CHEMISTRY.

it is hardly, perhaps,

in a company of distinguished chemists that the layman would ex-

pect to obtain practical advice as to the best methods of developing the resources of the colonial possessions of the Empire, and thus placing them on a self-supporting basis with as little delay as possible. But a recent lecture delivered by Professor Wyndham Dunstan, president of the chemical section of the Association, was devoted almost exclusively to a demonstration of the claims of scientific investigation to be regarded as the pioneer instrument in the work of determining how the raw materials and economic products of the colonies might be utilised to the greatest advantage. The problem, stripped of all its externals, h© regarded as a very simple one. Great Britain bad acquired certain oversea possessions, and taking only those for which she was directly responsible, the Crown colonies and protectorates'; she had some two and half million square miles of the earth’s surface to deal with. At present this large area involves a heavy charge on the taxpayer, and the reduction and ultimate extinction of this charge is desirable. What Professor Dunstan pleaded for in his address was that “ the scientific method of experimental research should be systematically applied in each division of the sciences concerned.” “In the case of raw materials, whether vegetable or mineral, their commercial value must,” be maintained, “depend chiefly, if not entirely, upon their -composition, and sooner or later the method of chemistry must, therefore, be applied.” , Whatever may have been the secret of Britain’s success as a coloniser in the past, the necessity of developing her oversea resources admittedly cannot be overlooked. Science and scientific, methods are amoug the means* most readily to hand, and Professor Dunstan has done good service in interesting both his colleagues of the chemical section and the general public in some of the Imperial aspects of applied chemistry.