CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIX, Issue 14609, 17 February 1908, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

London's PAGEANT.

London is to have its pageant before the public become tired of historical parades. Mr

Frank Lascelles, who superintended tho great Oxford pageant, has the arrangements in hand, and if permission can bo obtained the great show will be held in Regent's Park in July. The site is an ideal one, providing a great expanse of excellent turf, with oaks and elms surrounding it. An expanse of twelve acres of lake, with wooded islands, will be available for the water display. Some 10,000 performers will be needed, and several special choirs will be organised. There will be eighteen " episodes." " I have some twenty-four subjects for episodes at present under consideration," said Mr Lascelles recently, " and from these eighteeu will be selected. The difficulty is that while there is so much material from which to choose so many of London's historical associations aro individual. Wo may, however, get over such a difficulty as presents itself, for instance, in- the case of the poets, by having a masque episode introducing London's poets from Chaucer and his pilgrims down, to recent times. Milton and his tercentenary would, of course, have to be included in the pageant, as well as familiar events of history, such as tho Death of Wat Tyler in Smithfield." Mr Bourchier has already offered his services, and if they are accepted he will organise the Tudor period episode, himself taking the part of Henry VIII. But other eminent actors, while they regard the proposal with keen interest, are dubious concerning the wisdom of participating. A pageant, it is considered, calls for ho great art from the performers, and offers no special scopo to great professional actors. It is a spectacle, not a play. Still, the theatrical managers will no doubt help in the organisation. There will be a great procession through London, and the citizens will be invited to decorate their houses for the occasion. The performers, of course, will be volunteers, and each will be expected to provide hie own costume, the design being furnished by the committee. The proceeds will go to the King's Hospital Fund.

SETTLEJIEfCT AUCKLAND.

A writer in the " New IK Zealand Herald" gives an interesting summary of the position in re-

gard to land settlement in the Auckland province. The total area under occupation in tho province is under 5,000,000 acres, as against over 8,000,000 acres in Canterbury, and nearly 11,000,000 acres in Otago. Auckland leads in the number of holdings, its total being over 18,000. Otago como* next with 14,500, and Canterbury third with 12,300. The deduction drawn by the Aucklander is that his province must receive the lion's share of attention from the Government for the next few years. "It is easily apparent," he writes, "that if Auckland is to receive anything like the treatment it is entitled to, and has every right to demand, the greatest movement in public works and land settlement will be centred in Auckland for some years to come. Too long the tide of progress has been breaking against the high and steep barriers of locked-up Crown and native lands, and to-day millions of acres of the very best land in the whole province are lying idle and useless under the shadow of Native ownership. Upwards of four million acres of land will have to bo thrown open to the man who wants to go on the land and make it bear harvest before this province can be said to bo properly settled." He goes on to add that during the present year lands with a total area of 557,000 acres are expected to be made available for selection, and that the Lands Depart> ment is proceeding with this work as fast as is possible with the survey staff available, but he is by no means satisfied. "The curious thing," he remarks, "is that Auckland, which is tho worst off as regards laud for settlement and railways in tho dominion, is not the smallest and poorest district, but the largest and richest, and its city has risen to the premier position amongst the centres of New Zealand." In spite of this he considers that Auckland is neglected.

FITJHTIXf; DEATH.

Professor Metchnikoff'« book on " I'het Prolongation, of Life"

has lately been transformed into English, and the publication of the volume has stimulated the discussion, of his theories. Metchnikoff regard* tho white corpuscles as tho scavengers of the body. Their function, ho says, is to devour the invading germs of disease, and so long as they are strong enough and numerous enough to do tliis work properly the body is healthy. But with advancing ago these white corpuscles become too vigorous, and attack the weakening tissues of the body, producing senility and death. Metchnikoff holds, however, that betaking precautions man may meet and resist these attacks of the little traitors within him. He points to the longevity of trees, fishes and birds, all of them aggregations of cells like ourselves, to strengthen his argument that deatli may be postponed. He had observed that in the Balkans there was an extremely largo proportion of centenarians, and set himself to study the conditions that produced such a marked longevity. Ho found the explanation in the fact that the staple food of Bulgarian peasants is "yahourth," a curdled milk. The. curdling o-f milk is tho work of microbes, which turn milk sugar into lactic acid. Tho Bulgarian "yahourth" is produced by the action of a certain microbe, dubbed the Bulgarian bacillus, "an extremely aotive producer of lactic acid." Milk, thus

sou rod, is believed by Metchnikoff to arrest putrefaction in the ' human large intestine, and so to deprive the white corpuscles of the encouragement to become traitors. Ajs the little fighters are thus left to continue their work as disease destroyers, the advance of death is stayed. Metchnikoff practises what he preaches in this matter. "For more than eight yeans." he says, " I took, as a regular part of iny di€>t, soured milk, at first prepared from boiled milk, inoculated with a lactic leaven. Sinco then I have changed the method of preparation, and have adopted, finally, the pure cultures I have been describing. Tam very well pleased with the result, and I think that my experiment has gone on Jong enough to justify my view." It seems a simplo way of avoiding death.