NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9598, 24 August 1894, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The largo meeting in the City Hall yesterday evening to listen to addresses on what is now known as the Vaile railway system, and the hearty manner in which the audience applauded the speakers, are more significant than might at first strike a casual observer. They indicate that a great change has taken place in public opinion regarding Mr. Vaile's system, and that the splendid tenacity of purpose and remarkable perseverance he has displayed in its advocacy against a vast mass of prejudice, ignorance, and indifference are at last beginning to bear fruit. We hope that the Government will incline a favourable ear to the resolutions that were passed last night with so much enthusiasm and unanimity. It is true that experts differ as to the real value of Mr. Vaile's system. Bub these experts, it may be pointed out, are nob experts at all so far as this question is concerned. A professor of English may be never so competent, and still know little or nothing of shorthand. Mr. Vaile is the greatest expert in the colonies on his own system, and he has demonstrated over and over again with almost wearisome reiteration, no far as figures can demonstrate anything, thab ib is as sound as any problem in Euclid, and is as certain to bring about the results he sets forth as ib is certain that two and two make four. But the only way of putting his arguments and calculations to the test in by giving his system a practical trial on our railways. We see no reason why this should nob be done, why some section where it can be fairly and effectually tried should not be set aside for the purpose, and the experiment carefully and critically watched. All of us who have any stake in the country whatever are anxious to assist in advancing the real interests of the colony. One of the speediest and most effectual means of doing so is by cheap and rapid transit. The settlement of the land will go on at a snail's-pace so long as railway freights and passenger rates are so high as 1 to be practically prohibitive in the case of settlers situated at a long distance from cities and markets. Mr. Vaile says his system would settle the land by leaps and bounds, and bring progress and prosperity to the country. Well, leb us try it.

Everything connected with divorce is now of interest. It is the general notion that where a man sends his wife money for her

maintenance, he cannot be considered to have deserted her. la delivering jadgmenb in a case in divorce jurisdiction in Sydney on August 15, Mr. Justice Windeyer said ib was an erroneous notion that because a man, who had abandoned his wife for years, dent) her money regularly he was not guilty desertion. Bis Honor cited an English case in which the following decision was given : <• We have been considering whether the circumstance of a husband supplying a wife whom he has abandoned with an allowance is a good answer to a charge of wilful desertion, and we are of opinion that ib is not. .A wife is entitled to the protection and sooiety of her husband, and we think that he is nob to be permitted, after having refused her his society and protection, to turn round and say that he has not been guilty of wilful desertion merely because he has made her an allowance." Husbands had better keep this in mind if the new law is passed. ; The unhappy state of affairs in Victoria is thus commented on by the Argus :—" It is at once impossible and improper to bide from ourselves the gravity of the present position of the colony. In the language of soberness lb may be said that we have no modern reoord of a country suffering a reversal of fortune so sudden and so com* plete as thab which has befallen Victoria. In 1889-90 the Treasurer came down with a sum of £10,000,000 ab his disposal to spend. And the total revenue had dwindled by last year to £6,712,000. The British revenue in the first year in question was £89,600,000, and if the British revenue had dropped, in the Victorian proportion, to £59,000,000, instead of rising as ib has done to £100,000,000, there would be a sensation through the world indeed. And this drop of 33 per cent, has occurred despite of almost frantic efforts to increase the revenue by new taxation. We have sent up duties to a height which would have astounded the earlier protectionists. We have doubled nearly all fees, we have doubled the postal rates, we have increased railway freights and fares, and yet the shrinkage has continued and continues. On the other hand, we have reduced the public service outlay until the sufferers are now in mild revolt against any further savings at their expense. Our accumulated deficit is now over £3,000,000, and the bills floated by Sir Graham Berry and Mr. Shiels to tide over their miscalculations are about to fall due ab the rate of £250,000 per annum, thus adding gravely to the national burdens. And yet no one can say that the country is in a condition to bear new and oppressive taxes. The situation, bad as ib is, could be viewed with cheerfulness if only the causes that had brought ib about had ceased to operate, bub unfortunately some of them— and these the most important—are in full activity. It is admitted that our producers are at their wit's end to pay their way, and any man who has brains to grasp any problem must recognise thab so long as our greab national industries are sick the nation cannot be buoyanb and healthy. Here we come to the real difficulty which has to be faced and Bur. mounted."

According to thab usually well-informed and gOßsipj London correspondent, Mr. Lucy, since the assassination of President Carnofi the attention of Scotland Yard has been turned from Her Majesty's Ministers to Her Majesty and her family. The other day (he writes) the Queen was to have gone to the garden party given by the Duke and Duchess of Coburg. When she did nob put in an appearance rumour accounted for the changed intention by a circumstantial story of discovery of a plot against her life. This was a weak invention, bub it illustrates the uneasiness that has naturally followed on the murder of the blameless Carnot. The unrest of the hour has been deepened by the fact that shortly after the assassination of the President London was visited by an unusual galaxy of Royalty At the State ball given at Buckingham Palace the otber night there were gathered together a rare cluster for Anarchy to pluck at. The Royal House of Austria was represented by the Archduke Franz Ferdinand, that of Spain by the Infanta Donna Eulalie, that of Italy by the Duke of Abruzzi, thab of Japan by the Prince Komatsu; whilst the Czar, ab whom the assassin's pistol or poignard is ever pointed, was represented by his son and heir the Czarewitch. In addition, there were present the Prince and Princess of Wales, with the innumerable army of the Queen's children, their wives and husbands, sons and daughters. A bomb striking! the polished floor of the ball-room at Buckingham Palace would have made a terrible gap in Kings' houses.

The Royal visitors are thinning off now, continues Mr. Lucy, and the police will have some resb from their labours. Bub there remains for the present) in full force the special arrangements for protection for the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York. Wherever they go there stand close ab hand two men from Scotland Yard, specially selected on account of their extensive and peculiar acquaintance with European rascaldom. Of late years, ever since the Fenian outbreaks, the Queen has taken kindly, even gratefully, to these precautions. She has developed an irresistible dread of crowds. On the rare occasions, before and since the death of Lord Beaconstield, when she went to open Parliament in person her progress more resembled thab of an invader passing through a subdued city than the journey along her own streets of a muchbeloved Queen. The foot soldiers who lined the route, and the Life Guards who clattered before and behind her carriage, may have been designed for spectacular purposes. Not so were the police, who filled up every gap along the line, making ib impossible for one of the public, with whatever loyal intent, to approach the Royal carriage. The Prince, of Wales has no such vague or definite fears. Before the assassination of Carnob he was accustomed to go aboub London, if on foot, accompanied by a single member of his suite; if in a carriage, by the coachman and groom. I have often seen him driving along Pall Mall thus attended, and with no weapon more substantial than a stout cigar held between his teeth. He is obliged to submit to the precautions imposed upon the police, bub may be depended upon as early as possible to dismiss his escort, and go aboub as heretofore, guarded only by his personal popularity.

Dr. Talmage's lectures have been attracting very large audiences in Australia, bub there, as here, his sermons—admission gratis— drawn the greatesb crowds. On Sunday, August 12, he preached in the Sydney Town Hall,' and was accorded a reception which, the Herald says, was little short of remarkable. The hour fixed for the commencement of the proceedings was three p.m. As early as half-past eleven a.m. the audience began to arrive. By noon the attendance was already large. A considerable number of people brought their lunch— a light, substitute for the midday meal— them, and took it alfresco. By one o'clock the crowd had assumed great proportions. By half-past one the hall was more than comfortably filled. By two p. m. every available inch of floor and gallery apace was occupied. All the seats ware occupied, and in many cases sociable people -shared the chairs. The aisles i were blocked with people, who stood [patiently waiting, and made no mar-

| Thtfr paHr of the pl abfonn X ib had been the intention S rfve, for clergymen was cashed, and nfcefs of minuter* who were earlv e%h, or fortunate enoueh, to geb i n L 4irab.ll had to take their J£% po|on with the lay spectators. Ab2«s theater gates th building were closed awarders being given to the police that n ° feon, in any circumstances, was to k . still they came. At 2.13 th disa&jnted -crowd outside mighb haw oeeolßoted in its thousands. Many I tbose| 0 composed ib had come miles to hear I famous orator. Bub the poii were dfoj-ate, and the gates-despite the fact tn|the Rev. Rainsford Bavin and numero| other ministers of the Gospel were a% g the importunate-remained fast closd| Admission was even refused to the memf, 0 f the press, who only gob i„ ultimately|, roU gh the good offices of Dr Talmage h^ e i f> who arrived ab five mi* a tea to thre Happy pressmen I lb is perha, notl knoffn a 8 widely __ deserves to b*_ a t sugar is a valuable foodstuff. Mosb ,opi o aro apb( no doubfc> regard it as a re BWeebeaillK condiment while nob a few,te rn economists, believing ib to be a •ybar^i uxur , ) have banished it altogether fromthe fragrant cop thai cheers. Bub acting to Dr. Stuart, Pro feasor of Physiolcy in the Sydney riversity, "experienceiaa ehown thab it is no longer a mere luxry." Vaughan Harley has just shown, upon himself, that sugar ta m as a food is a musclefood. The appiatus he employed « the " ergograph" of Professor Mono, of Turin, and Haey performed his ei' periments in Profeor Mosso's laboratory. By this instrumec a definite group 0 muscles can be braghb into play, and, as anyone group is lis all the other musclei of the body so fans the experiments ar« concerned, what Mound to be true for j part, is true for tb whole. Thus an accurate record can beobtained of the effect of any given set of caditions on the muscular work of the bod; generally. In his own case, seventeen and a-half ounces of sugar taken on fasting day, increased the work done (by 61-76 per cent; seven ounces aded to a small m«&l increased the mecle work by 6-30 pet cent. ; with eigli and a-half ounces added to a full meal thsinerease of work was 8-16 per cent., and tie same amount of sugar increased th« total work done in eight hours by 22-3 i f*r cent. Finally, he found thab sugar, taken as a food about half-put three in the arernoon, obliterates that daily fall in the mjscular power common to us all, and usual? happening about half-past five p.m. Theje are interesting results, and, taken with pretenb prices of meat, bread, and sugar, important, for, says Professor Stuart, assuming thai one hundred and thirty -m pounds of breal contain seventy pounds of carbohydrates, acd thab bread is one penny farthing per pound, carbohydrate foods, which are absolutely indispensable in some form or other, are now at cheap in the form of sugar as in that of brad. Ib is true that bread contains also fchj nitrogenous elements of food, but these in Australia are generally preferred in thi form of batcher's meat, which is cheap enoigh and copiously indulged in. This new position of sugar in the dietary of the people Is of far-reaching importance, and quite a thing of oar own times. The Chinese fleet has teen ordered to mobilise, and we may sxpecb bo hear of a naval engagement taking place in a few days. Ib is said that in bhe battle, last week, 50,000 troops look part. The report that the Chinese nflicted a defeat upon the Japanese is not i>eb confirmed. A Presbyterian minister las been maltreated and killed by the Jhinese. The Czar has pub his veto ipon the King of Servia's proposed indication in favour of his father. Milan is nob a persona gr&ta at 3b. Petersburg. After settling the Swaziland difficulty Sir H. Loch will leave :he Cape for good. There is greab distress in Illinois among the families of the railway men recently on strike. The jovernor of the State is appealing for aid. rhe Czar is ill. A hostile motion against she House of Lords moved by the Radical party in the House of Commons was dafeated by a majority of 31.