CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15558, 7 March 1911, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

Tho finger-print system of identification, which lias placed a new ..•capon of wondeiful efficiency in the hands of the law, was first introduced into Great Britain by Dr Henry Foulds, of Stoke-on-Trent. Dr Foulds, in referring to the matter recently, said that in 1573 ho went to Japan to give lectures to medical students. Ho was interested in tho subject of identification and his attention was drawn to some fragments of old pottory which had been ornamented until finger-prints. He noticed that one print repeated itself in the pattern and wondered whether the lines on a human finger remained always the same. Some experiments extending over a period of two years satisfied him that he had discovered an invaluable system of identification. “ I found, for instance,” he told an interviewer, “that even when tho patterns on one’s hand were rubbed away with sand paper, or shaved off with a razor, it was impossible to alter the impression, for tho same lines came up again. I came Home again in 1886, having meanwhile written an article which appoarei in ‘ Mature,’ and I immediately went round and explained my system of identification to the British Museum authorities, Scotland Yard and others. 11l tho following year I communicated with the Home Office, and in consequence had an interview with one of tho inspectors of the detective service.” Tho police were impressed at once by the possibilities of th'e new system, but wero inclined to believe that the difficulty of indexing many thousands of fingerprints, for purposes of reference, would be insuperable. Dr Foulds suggested a method of classification based on the conditions obtaining in a Japanese printing office, where the number of characters to be dealt with runs into several thousands. Then Sir William Horschel and Sir Francis Galton interested themselves in the subject, and in the early “nineties” finger-print cabinets came into use at Scotland Yard. To-day almost every police force in the world makes use of the finger-print system.

THE STORY OF A DISCOVERY.

Tho importance of

colour schemes in the planning of cities is emphasised in a refreshingly original article contributed by Mr S. D. Adshead to tho “Town Planning Roviow.” A great city, he says, has continuity in its character and a oneness in its many phases of expression. It is hero that it exemplifies the strength of its organisation. It is in its tono and colour that this is most clearly shown. All great cities aro either white or grey, and the white city has the greatest refinement and charm. Paris, which is considered the most beautiful modern city in the world, is known everywhere as a white city, “ a city of ivory, studded with pearly grey in a setting of green.” Regent Street, tho famous London thoroughfa.ro, is painted in white and cream, and this accounts for its popularity among tho fashionable people of tho metropolis. A white city, of course, derives its attractiveness very largely from its power of scintillating and reflecting tho light of tho sun. Grey cities suggest endurance, grandeur and romance. Of these, a typical example is Edinburgh, which is admirably adapted to tho climate of the northern country. Brighter coloured cities aro necessarily less businesslike in appcaranco than those to which tho sober British eye is accustomed. A mass of gaudily-painted buildings suggests at once easy existence and simplicity of life. Tho brilliant colours of

COLOUR SCHEMES FOR CITIES.

Oriental towns, glorified with gorgeous pennants, stencilled cornices, gilded domes and ivory facades, decorated in peacock hues, harmonise well with their natural surroundings, but they suggest neither tho solidity of tho grey nor the vivacity of tho white and cream. Mr -Adsheiul believes that the cities of tho workaday world need not bo less pleasing than those of the carefree Orient, for they can have a harmony of their own. “ The characteristics of a city expressed in its colour, its texture and its form,” he writes, •‘reflect on tho citizen himself. Its design, the grouping of its buildings, and its outward expression are matters of vital importance to his well-being.” Colour is one of tlio important factors in tho art of town-planning to which Now Zealand cities, now that they have grown out of their haphazard days, well may give attention.

A representative of the “ Daily Express ” uho visited the Royal Mint in London a few weeks ago., when the work of making the new George V. coins was being carried on at high pressure, was not nearly so enthusiastic ever what he saw as many people would expect. Tile huge masses of silver waiting to ho rolled and cut looked to him “ like bars of choeolato done up in dirty silver paper,” and the “fillets” of gold “like the long brass slats that are used for beds, and very unpolished at that.” Heaps of “dirty yellow counters,” ready to ho turned into sovereigns at one operation proved Quite unimpressive, but when the visitor saw around him countless large bowls filled until real sovereigns his enthusiasm at last began to bo stirred. It. is after the coins are cut and stamped that the most delicate and interesting operations of the mint begin. Behind a glass partition sits a young man who appears to while away his time by spinning coins in the air. He is the “ ringer,” who detects imperfect coins by the sound as they fall on a. plate of steel. The greatest marvel of the Mint is the weighing of the coins. There are twelve weighing machines, so sensitive that each is protected from the slightest draught by a glass case. If a coin is only one-hundredth part of a grain above or below the standard it is rejected by those machines, and not more than five per cent of the coins fail to pass this test, the metal being weighed verv carefully in each department through which it passes. The Mint obtains its profits from silver and bronze coins. At present sovereigns and half-sove-reigns arc intrinsically worth their face value. The metal value of a shilling is about fourpenc© and of a penny about a farthing. The profit on the silver coinage is very large, but against this the Mint has to set on average loss of £60,000 a year for worn silver. Last year 152,801,841 pieces of money *wgro struck at the Mint, 30,660,509 being for the oversea dominions. Sovereigns and half-sovereigns to the value of £25,300,000 were issued, and gold to the value, of £2,700,000 was withdrawn froiii circulation.

SECRETS OF THE MINT.