NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9480, 9 April 1894, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

This day thirty-four years ago—that is on April 9, 1860—what was known as the " Pony Express" was established in the United States. This was a method of mail communication between the Eastern and Western States by means of ponies— rather strong and reliable —travelling on the stage system and when we consider the wonderful travelling and postal facilities which exisb in that country to-day, the developments which have been crammed into the last thirty-four years are decidedly astonishing. Previous to the " sixties," in the absence of canals, railways, or even good roads, the carrying of a letter to the Western Coast across some 2000 miles of prairie, mountain, and forest was a big contract; but the introduction of the "Pony Express," primitive and tedious though it may appear to-day, was at the time regarded as one of the greatest triumphs of commercial enterprise. It was the work of a private firm, which determined to inaugurate a kind of express mail by which letters might be carried to the extreme points— St. Joseph's on the Missouri to San Francisco a week. : Stations were built all along the line of | route, and plentifully stocked, and 600 ponies with trustworthy riders, armed with rifles and revolvers, were got ready. On the 9th of April, 1860, the service commenced, two pony couriers starting on the same day, one from St. Joseph's to the West, and the other from San Francisco to the East. When each pony had done his twelve-mile stage another was provided, and the riders were replaced at longer intervals, the mails thus travelling incessantly at the rate of twelve miles an hour. Each mail accomplished the distance, 1900 miles, in about seven and a-half days. This was looked upon as a great feat, and the system soon became comparatively consolidated. The men suffered from fatigue, cold, heat, hunger, and the attacks of the Indians, bat they persevered. The system did excellent service

i its time, but; its sphere of operations »» radually reduced by the progressive coo brucbion of the railroads and the adopbi f more modern means of comtaunicatio 011 itttii the occupation of the pony court*! Ims completely gone, and the system w a inally abandoned. ! One Of the most peculiar of the many omances of crime which the present sentury has produced has recently been Drought to light in Switzerland, where a jurious action has been brought by jonvict against a newspaper. It ap peaM ;hab a couple of years ago a man named Maradan Was found guilty of attempting to murder his wife, under circumstances which 3bruck a French novelist, M. Edouard Rod as sufficiently interesting to warrant him in throwing the facts into literary orm Maradan was sentenced to eight years' i m prisonmenb, which he is still underline the great interest in the case "being croated by the conspiracy with a mistress and a stranger to do the deed and the suggestion that the accused had Committed other crimes, including the murder of his first wife. M. Rod was delighted to alight upon a ready-made and exciting plot, not an easy thing to discover m these days when there is " nothing new %ider the sun," and he in due time pro''iced his story, preserving all the incidents g fid localities of the crime. The names j file were altered. lb is not to be sup. g fad that the convicts in Swiss prisons i tallowed to wile away their leisure hourg '% the latest novels, nor that the piison 3 c |als discuss with them the most recent ? Gf s in the literary world ; so it is nob f fliffco see how this fact became known to 3 t%nvict in his prison cell. However, he drn of ib, and is bringing an action for Ittfgainsb a paper which published the 3 tal| serial form. This convict, sentenced a or| emp ting to murder his wife, has not 3 yet|b his self-respect, for he values his s "fi| reputation" at 3000 francs, the t am<|j; 0 f damages claimed. It will be 1 * nte |ing to see how much the Court con- ', eidelrthe character of such a convict 1 worti 1 A r irn has just been presented to the I Parlia % of New South Wales showing I bhe nuif of inquests that have taken ! pl ace in at coon during the past twelve 3 months. |he total was 1257. The total 3 number o»,q ues t ß j n tf ew Zealand in 1895 > was 604 fa and 160 WO men, in all, 764 fc The total l a tion 0 New South Wales was 1,181,11 aIK of Now Zealand 642.246, so that the is about the same. In commenting), the record in New Sooth Wales, the Si e y Morning Herald says:- " lb may, pei ps> be bub a coincidence, 3 bub it is a sii^] ar thing that, in a perusal E of the list of vlenb deaths in this record, - the two nationalies, Scotch and Irish, that 3 are accepted as laracteristically represent--3 ing caution and'lrelessness, appear among ; the victims near! as one to two. As we . have said, this m| be but a coincidence; i bub it is one that (ems to lend itself to the j idea that fatalitiesjre nob entirely dissoci--5 abed from the efracber for prudence or r imprudence of thje who unhappily may . become the victim! In other respects, the ■ number of accident or violent deaths bears i a fair ratio to the dreral nationalities that > are represented in «r population." i ■ -1 There are still j good many cases of . typhoid in this Icaliby, although the ' weather is now cool aid clear, and favouri able for general goo<health. No examina- ' tion has been mad! as to causes, but we I think that there ca; be very little doubt. ■ Most of the cases thg we have heard of are ! in the suburban dstricts where water • supply and drainagure absent or defective. . It has generally beetunderstood that it is k much more healthyto live on scoria soil, j where there is a natural drainage than .. on clay soil, whee there is none. [ No doubt this i so, bub many of - the typhoid cases ave occurred where 5 the persons are livingon scoria. But even I this kind of soil camot absorb all the drainage for ever, and then the water used * may contain the gerra of disease. About k Sydney, at the preseit time, typhoid is [ prevalent, and the circlmstanccs are simil lar. The disease is especially severe in St. t Peters and some of the localities outside of t the sphere of the sewerage and water 3 system. In the Botany district the people ■ are dependent on local supplies of water 3 for drinking and cnlin&ry purposes. The 1 heavy rains which hare lately been ex- ~ perienced about Sydney increase the water supply, bub bhen bhey also caus* the over--5 flow of stagnanb water and sewage r deposit to the contamination of wells and ) other sources of supply of water for l drinking and household purposes. The 1 outbreak at Footscray, near Melbourne, k is attributed so the facb that a considerable J proportion of the volume of the ordinary " drinking water consists of organic r matter supposed to be sewage. Polr luted water is the main cause of con--3 tagion, and an eminent medical man in . Sydney declares that there is no case of . typhoid on record which cannot be traced , to the use of water milk— contamiL ' nated by an inflow of impure matter. On ' this subject Dr. W. C. Wilkinson, a recognised aubhoriby on bacteriology, emphatically declares that all typhoid » traceable to the use of water or milk, ant* with regard to the latter fluid, the causes of contamination are dependable on the water. This is now so generally recognised j as the source of spreading typhoid that in } England and Germany, and in fact in other 3 parts of the Continent, an outbreak of 1 typhoid in any locality is followed by the I despatch of a bacteriologist to the neighf bourhood with instructions to investigate the water supply. I We have heard a good deal lately about r the travelling expenses of members of the , Board of Education, and it may be useful to 3 state the facts brought out in a Parliamen--3 tary paper. Tho return embraces a period of three years. The figures affecting Auck- % land were :— Buckhursb, 28 meetings, £46 , 4s; Theo. Cooper, 59 meetings, £1 4s 6d; b A. Grant, 56 meetings, £77 l«s ; S. Luke. 125, £36 7s ; W. P. Moat, 73, £28 15s ; W. I Motion, 38, £36 19s ; J. Muir, 86, £3 Is W ; j R. Udy, 132, £80 lis 9d : total, £310 13s. , The totals of the other Boards were ; - Tar *' , naki, £194 0s 6d ; Whanganui, £488 14s W i Wellington, £70 3s 4d; Hawke's Bay, ml, I Marlboroagh, nil ; Nelson, £431 133 T Mi Grey, £195 2s 6d ; Westland, £7* 1 to ortti Canterbmy, £666 10s 8d ; South Canter- ' bury, £116 17s; Otago, £492 5s 5d ; Southi land, £139 8a lid. The contrasts are curious. Why should there be so mucu difference between Auckland and Wellington? _________- - A recent occurrence in Melbourne shows , that too great care cannot well be exercwK , in connection with committals to Mi lunatic asylums, notwithsbanding all m , safeguards of modern legislation. *« , Collingwood magistrates were the other daj , called upon to adjudicate upon an extra • ordinary case. A husband accused b»w« of being a dangerous lunatic. He stated ,; that she had threatened to kill him. »J , generally told a melancholy tale. He a . called a doctor to testify as »*""** , condition. On the strength of »»«^* , was arrested. She expressed no .i«J«J but stated thab she had an inkling that her husband was going to take this stop,* she had chanced bo find a letter j» wjjj^ had told * friend that be I**™

St'wi""' and S§ "to P afc mes ;of the doctorS - ? who course. < veovidence to warrant thiacoure^ * uld the case to be heard : busba irtbe Bench decided; on the •fi^ 6 ' nf the woman's friends, to pro.. '■ «f*C.W They rejected to two ccedi" open v by the husband, and had doctor* ixamined by two independent the tfoman « xa Her {rien dg informed ; the medicalI mei • movement was a base conCo-" 1 th * rive a citizen of liberty, and ,piracy Ww * . hfc have been hustled off S*BT?* «■*« thß »■" «° *jw ~ The independent medical men * ork S they found no trace of insanity 5 4t f e woman, and she was discharged to tnß , The Bench expressed .the **. ° hit it was nob right that .-the. Should pay the costs in such a case, i t mressed their determination to make pay. The settlers in the district in Hawked that has been recently flooded are M L alarmed at tbe ' dangerous pod-; beC ° eyVein. lb '» urged thai, a com""h nSe scheme must be entered into to Security to the large amount of valuaS Jooertv-that now lies at the mercy of ble pf . era. The Napier News, referring to the rive . f s ., va —" The public bodies are ►he =übiect, for the dram upon their-re-J' -id for the dram upon their reTrees from the destruction of roads and l L mast have been very considerable S" the past few months. We really S* understand the apathy of the landholders in the flood threatened area, for Ire may, at any time, come a flood that "ill cause the three rivers to burst their binks and that would mean ruin, black 5, to every settler on the Plains. It m to us that an agitation should be gob ap and that the question of a big: scheme should no be allowed to drop until the Sympathy and assistance of public bodies and 'settlers alike ha 3 been manifested. Once the interest of all is aroused, we do not fear any further hesitancy." '

The Liberal party under the leadership el Lord Rosebery i? at present in a very critical state, and is being weakened to an alarming degree by the defection of several of the incompatible elements of which it is composed. The Parnellite split, is causing the .Ministry serious anxiety,, and the , dissensions among the sect which recognises tie leadership of Mr. Justin McCarthy are becoming more acute. Besides this, the Radical members are incensed, and are on the of revolt. The meeting of the Emperor of Germany and the King of Italy in Venice called forth a great display of popular enthusiasm. The monarch? vrereaccordedabrilliantreception. The disturbance in South Carolina over the enforcement of the liquor law of that. State is quietening down, and the proclamation declaring martial law has been withdrawn. The position in the , coke regions of Pennsylvania is, however, still critical, though there are said to bo signs of submission on the part of the rioters. The citizens in the neighbouring towns are arming, and the police hare! arrested 150 of the miners on charges of murder and rioting. News has been received from Brussels of the discovery of a dynamite plot to destroy public (wildings. A number of bombs were seized. - ..... . • '