CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15717, 9 September 1911, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS.

taming a horse.

Some of the principals of the ‘ Wild Australia” entertainment a t the Festival of Emoire sot

... , , —‘uyue gou themselves into trouble recently through tlioir methods of handling the “ buokjumper” horses •which provided the main portion of their programme. Two inspectors of the British Society for the Prevention of CWieltv to Animals attended one 0 f theperformances and took strong exooptiw to the treatment of a

very wild horse by ono of the men employed in saddling it. They took action against this man for biting the horses ear and against the manager of the entertainment for permitting cruelty. The story told by the inspectors was that the animal was dragged into the arena and tied to the rails in order that it might bo saddled. During the operation a man named Waite held tho animal’s head, and apparently as a means of diverting its attention from the tightening of tho girths he twisted tho horse’s ears and bit one of them severely. One of the inspectors stated that Waite held the horse’s head down for some considerable time, twisting tho ears with groat force and keening his t.eeth in one of them for a full minute. The manager admitted the biting, but declared thatr it was an unavoidable feature of the performance. The horse was a noted “outlaw” in Australia, a wild, untamable animal. A few days before the occurrence of which the inspectors complained it had thrown its rider right out of tho arena, and on another occasion it had thrown a man and rolled on him, injuring him severely. It was customary in Australia, he added, to subdue such horses by- tho means which had been employed in London. Tho magistrates who heard the case Examined the horse and stated that there was no evidence of serious injury having been dono by the biting, but they marked their sense of the cruel and disgusting nature of the practice by fining each of the defendants. The “buckjumping” entertainment has gained some popularity, but it is at best a very poor form of “ sport,” - end the wholo business is necessarily brutal and repugnant.

In the last number of tho ‘ ‘ Geographical Jour- . nal,” Dr Douglas Maw-

THE MYSTERY O Tf THE SOUTH.

son speculates regarding the configuration of the Antarctic Continent. The Australian scientist is disposed to believe, in the light of the knowledge already available, that one great Antarctic continent stretches from the Pacific side, south of New Zealand, across the polar area to tho Atlantic, its dominant feature being a high range of mountains continuous from Cape Adare to Graham Land. Extending from the range is a vast lofty plateau, ending in a sudden scarp on the Pacific side, but sloping more gradually towards tho Atlantic. “ Tho evidence is conclusive,” writes Dr Mawson, “ that in the not long (geologically) past there existed a habitable Antarctic continent, with rays stretching up to meet what are now Tasmania, South America, New Zealand and South Africa. With regard to the relativo epochs at which these countries became severed from the southern continent, the evidence show's that the connection with South Africa was tho earliest and loosest. New Zealand, though possessing many of the features of Antarctic flora, and fauna, never received a marsupial population, and its final separation is thereby allocated to the early Tertiary times.” South of Australia, adds Dr Mawßon, there existed at one stage of Pacific history a great area of high country, and South Australia is composed very largely of the debris that was swept down by rivers and glaciers. . Volcanic activity assisted tp sink these high lands beueath the ocean, and finally an ice age, one of the many that have afflicted the earth, swept every trace of life from tho isolated Antarctic continent. It may be that some day, when the world is a few thousand years older, a change of climate will restore fertility and fruitfulness to the frozen land that Captain Scott and Captain Amundsen are now r occupying.

I XT, AND AUSTRALIA.

Tho secrets of Australia’s unknown country are being revealed very quickly, and it

will not bo long before the white man will have penetrated into its remotest fastnesses. During the past few months a very largo portion of the Northern Territory has beon explored systematically, and new country has beon opened in Western Australia. It is the opinion of men who have spent many years in the exploration of Australia that the comparatively small areas which still have to be examined will disclose no new secrets. Mr David Lindsay, who during thirty years has tramped through the deserts and over the mountains of inland Australia with numerous expeditions, has been telling his countrymen that the only unknown territory is not worth troubling about at present. He believes that there is a vast field for expansion in the Northern Territory, which, he undoubtedly is a white man’s country. Only a small proportion of it is really tropical. Over an area of 75,000,000 acres there is an annual rainfall varying from forty to sixty inches, and a large part of this area is euitable for the cultivation of upland rice, cotton and wheat, while pigs could be reared profitably. Li tho tropical belt there are metalliferous aroas, producing gold, silver, copper, lead, tin and wolfram. Tableland country is reached about 200 miles from the coast, at an elevation of 500 ft. Tho rainfall varies between 18in and 40in, and Mr Lindsay says that the tablelands are equal to the best downs country of Queensland. With adequate railway facilities, this portion of the Territory could bo made to carry 40,000,000 sheep. Wheat also might be grown, and near the middle of the Territory and towards the southern boundary stock of all kinds might be raised. There are a number of gold-bearing belts to be exploited, but little can be done with them until a railway passes through the middle of the Northern Territory. There is room for hundreds of thousands of white settlors in the oountry. Happily the Commonwealth Government appears to be keenly alive to tho desirability of opening up this promised land.