OUR YOUNG FOLKS' COLUMN

Mataura Ensign, 26 January 1911, Page 7

OUR YOUNG FOLKS' COLUMN

OUR MOTTO: "Whatever thy hand findeth to do. do with all thy migtit." RUIZES: 1. All letters for the week's publication should reach the office not later than Monday afternoon. 2- Correspondents should write on only one side of the paper. •3. All correspondents must send their reul names, not necessarily for pub- j lication. 4. All letters should be addressed thoa: — Press MSS. UNCLE PHIL, 'Ensign' Office, Gore Dear Boys and Girls, —Tennyson tells us of a young man almost heart broken because owing to his lack of wealth -and social standing his young lady jilted him. His first impulse was to flee from England, seek a home where never oomes a European flag; and, marrying a native woman, spend his days in Summer isles of Eden Lying in dark purple spheres of sea. But soon saner views asserted themselves, not because he might yet get | Margaret or Mary Or Kate or Caroline, but because his mind took a new departure. Henceforth he would seek knowledge and watch science as it slowly creeps from point to point. It is of the claim of a scientist that I wish to say a few words to-day. He asserts that his discovery has solved the problem of those northern and Southern lights, called the aurora, that I age-long mystery of Arctic and Antarctic regions. For centuries that awe-in-spiring pageant of light, that paints the frozen wastes around the Poles, and sends its streamers into temperate * .skies, has baffled explanation. We watch the quivering skies, glowing with splendor, and ask, Whence comes it? Hitherto no one has broken the silence to give us a reply. Dr Dudley, of Vanderbilt University, America, says the whole thing is quite easy of explanation, and hastens to do it. In the ordinary air there is, in exceedingly minute quantities, a gas called neon. And to the scientist this gas, or rather its use, has been as great an enigma as the aurora itself. The ordinary component gases of the atmosphere, viz., oxygen, nitrogen and carbondioxide, have certain well-known duties to perform. What line of busi-. ness is neon in P Unfriendly and unfriended it is entirely independent. When forced into the presence of other gases it turns its back upon them and refuses to recognise their existence. It goes its own way. It refuses all companionship. It enters into no combination, and the American asks, W 7 hat is it for, anyway ? Since to get a pint of it the scientist has to ransack a hundred tons of air, it ought to be worth a good deal when secured. Having obtained and put a small quantity of neon into a Crookes' tube Dr Dudley, after many tests, placed it at last near a wireless telegraph coil. This unfriendly gas immediately became luminous. He %r" had made a "young" aurora. The sec- | ret was out. Neon and electricity, these I two, form the aurora, f But now let us turn from the chemist's laboratory to the aurora itself. There is nobody in Polar regions with an electric battery and a Crookes' tube of neon. But you will remember that the magnetic poles of the earth are there; so is noon, for it it diffused throughout the whole atmosphere. And you naturally ask why, therefore, there is not a continuous display of the auroa. Because, roughly speaking, the earth's magnetic electricity is not of itself sufficient to illuminate the neon. But when the sun magnifies it to great activity, and sun spots appear, then the aurora bursts forth with brilliant splendor. The incoming streams of electricity from these sun spots encounter the lines of magnetic force flowing round the earth between the magnetic poles. Then the electrical supply is sufficient to illumine the neon, thus forming vast arches, curtains and waving streamers that produce those celestial spectacles. The electric waves then from the sun, specially attracted towards the earth's magnetic poles, find the othewise inert, unsociable neon ready to leap out to meet it, and become transformed from an invisible gas into that hitherto mysterious light which men call an aurora. One more secret wrung from nature by the scientist. He may pigeon-hole it now: Aurora—electrical waves, playing on the neon of the atmosphere. What do we gain by this information? Exact knowledge. And what do we lose? An aweinspiring stimulus to the imagination. UNCLE PHIL. WHO IS IT ? A (With acknowledgments to "My • Mother.") By Ricardo. Who is it who doth never shirk His daily grind of real hard work, To buy for us our Christmas turk. ? That's father. Who is it with a frenzied look Bids us poor poor kiddies take our hook, Because it's up to her to cook? Our mother.. Who is it tries to make the cake, Who-turns out pastry she calls "flake," While we expect the stomach-ache ? That's sissie. W T ho is it makes us tough mince-pies, Crowned with a crust that fails to rise, 'Which we consume with many sighs? ' 4 Our auntie. Who is it says "Good-night" to mummy And goes to bye-bye feeling rummy, With such a tight pain in the tummy ? That's me. Who is it next day cures our ill. With salts and medicine and pill, And then lets father have the bill? The doctor.

Dear T'ncle Pliil, —I am writing you these few lines as I would very much like to become one of your little nieces. I am ten and a-half years old and will be in the fourth standard this year. I like school very much and will be quite glad when it takes up again. I went to Port Molyneux for my holidays, where I had a most enjoyable time, but the sandflies were very troublesome. One day we walked to the lighthouse, which was three miles from where we were staying. The keeper told us that there is £BOO worth of glass in the lamp. We had only two and a-lialf wet days and were there for two weeks. Dear Uncle, I will now close, wishing all IT.P.N.'s and yourself a very happy New Year.— I remain, yours truly, LITTLE MEG. Gore. [You are very welcome as a correspondent. I shall expect you to write regularly. You write a pleasing hand. The holiday would do your health good and the sights expand your mind. I had no idea that lighthouse glass was so exceedingly costly. Of course it has to stand an immense strain.—U.P.] Dear Uncle Phil, —I suppose you will think that I.have faded away like all other rosebuds. I have been asleep long enough, and the least I can do is to write you a letter. I have neglected the page long enough, and I must try and make this page interesting. I am taking special care not to let it go into the fire as the others have done. I was at a picnic here a while ago and I saw Cream Jug and Silver Teapot there. It is a good while since they last wrote to the page. We had our examination before the holidays; and, if I have passed, I shall be in the fourth standard. lam looking forward to the excursjon to Riverton. I will now conclude, with love to all the U.P.N.'s, not forgetting yourself.—Yours truly, ROSEBUD. Wendonside. [You will know on Monday whether you are promoted to Standard IV. or not, for that is the day all the schools under our Board open. One hardly realises the fact that over ten thousand children are under our Board's control. The two correspondents you name will probably follow your good example.— U.P.]