NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9720, 16 January 1895, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

I Throughout Australia at the present time almost all other subjects dwindle into insignificance when compared with that great question of absorbing interest—the international crickeb match jusb concluded at Adelaide. As an Australian writer puts it, the colonies have almost forgotten their politics and their finances in watching the crickeb champions of England and Australia waging their mimic battle. The question of Victorian taxation does nob kindle debate half so eager at every streeb corner as do all the vexed questions of the great game i Turner's attack and Stoddarb's defence; whether Giffen did or did nob keep himself on too long; whether Darling can hit harder than Brockwell, or " Bid " Gregory has an equal in the variety of his ways of scoring. These are the greab themes over which disputants throughout seven colonies wax emphatic. Nor is ib merely that coven colonies are ]

watching with breathless interest the scow* of rival player*. Great Britain it M j^? 1 absorbed as Australia in all the tee matches which Stoddart's team is to nL? againsb the picked skill of • AoatrSi? Great London, dailies blossom oat i„TI column leading articles over the result a each match, and ambitious evening journals spend fabulous sums in lengthy ca bj grams on the play. When England hZ Australia by ten runs in Sydney, winning perhaps the most dramatic victory et ° achieved since cricket was played, London clubs rejoiced. The event was no doubt celebrated in Homeric libations in ever? publicboase in Great Britain, and from The Times downwards the English journal} treated the incident with triumphant rhetoric as a sort of national victory.

Daring the present tour the coloaUti have on two occasions—the first at Sydney and then again at Melbourne— to stand by and sadly witness the downfall of their champions before the representatives of the old land, which, at any rate, is not effete at far as cricket is concerned ; but now at last they can glory in a really brilliant victory over their doughty opponents by no less than 382 rr.ns. The experience of the great match as Sydney, where the Australians, after a magnificent opening innings which produced 586, failed in their second venture to put together the 177 required to win, made the colonists savft their exultation until the numbers of the Adelaide match were actually up. But nowtbe pent-up enthusiasm has buret forth over a well-earned victory. However, though we, as colonists, may well rejoice with our Australian friends, we must in justice admit that the Englishmen must be subjected to several more reverse* before the record of these famous test matches can be balanced. Up to date 41 matches have been played, England winning 22, and Australia 13, while 6 hari been drawn. Two more test matches havj yet to bo played before the Englishmen return, and the result of the Adelaide match will make them all the more interest) ing.

We have become so accustomed to hear oar harbour spoken of in each flattering terms that it gives as quite a shock to be bluntly told that "Auckland is behind Wellington as far as every convenience connected with shipping ie concerned." However, these words were deliberately uttered by Mr. Napier at the meeting of the Harbour Board yesterday, and such an expression of opinion ought to be worthy of careful consideration, inasmuch as MrNapier states that he is personally acquainted with the accommodation and mechanical appliances of the twc ports. [ Everything in Wellington, he says, ii splendid, and an excellent spirit presides over all in the person of the engineer, Mr. Ferguson, to the manifest satisfaction of the shipping world. Mr. Niccol, however, would not admit that Auckland suffers by a comparison with the Empire City as far as harbour accommodation is concerned. He has no patience with those people wh< are forever casting longing eyes at other places, and who refuse to see any good ai home. However, we fear that even Mr. Niccol would not deny that Wellington is a splendidly-equipped port, and considering the strong and persistent efforts that are being made to divert a great deal of the shipping hitherto belonging to ourselves to that city, it behoves as to at least keep pace with the times, and to see that the conveniences of oar port are at least equal to those of any other port in the colony.

There is matter for the moralist to philosophise upon in a table of statistics just published, giving the number of suicides that hare been com mitted in France since 1539. In four years no fewer than 26,000 men and women have taken their own lives in the " happy land of France." This formidable total makes an average of 6500 suicides a year. Significant as a sign of these practical and unromantic days is the fact that oat of this yearly average only 300 suicides— than a twentieth part can be ascribed to disappointed love. Poverty or disgrace mast presumably be held responsible for the great majority of suicides in France, bat statistics are silent on this point. It is noteworthy that th« abovementioned table of statistics show, that almost as many women as men die by their own hand every year in France.

General Lew Wallace, the celebrated author of " Ben Har " and " The Prince of India," has lately been giving his opinions on two very important questions at the present time—the rule of the Turk and the war in the East. He is of opinion that the Eastern Question is fall of complications, but as a matter of fact the question is very simple, as it has been the same since the Crimean war and, indeed, since it has been a question ab all. The Turk is in Constantinople because the Great Powers do not know what disposition should be made of Constantinople should he be ejected. The Sultan is the ablest diplomatist in Europe. He holds his place by reason of the equilibrium ho maintains among the Great Powers. His whole business is to play off one of his covetous neighbours against the other, to soothe the susceptibilities of one and excite those of another, so as to maintain himself through their rivalries and their jealousies. The Sulbanship is in consequence an unstable and precarious office, and demands the very highest order of diplomatic skill on the part of the man who fills ib. The present Sultan possesses that skill in an eminent degree. He " teeters " in the balance, with the consciousness that a solitary error would be fatal to him* Bub he makes no mistakes.

General Wallace has been following the events of the war between China and Japan, and he has some very positive opinions on the subject of the Oriental controversy which he does nob hesitate to express. " There is a grave question in my mind," be said, **. whether the threatened division of the great Chinese nation should not be discouraged by the other Powers of the earth. The impetus given to civilisation in China if Japan should prove victorious in the war now being waged, might result in the . commercial ruin of the whole world. It is well enough for the missionaries to pray for such a result, bub I think it is time for some of us who

are nob Christian missionaries, to pray for the perpetuation of Chinese exclusiveness. Think of the great possibilities that lie in store for the imitative Chinese when they awake from their lethargy to the necessity of adopting the garb of western civilisation. They could do the manufacturing for the whole world, and with labour obtainable at 10 cents a day, or, probably more correctly, 5 cents a day, the Chinese could so far undersell us that our manufactories would be reined. From a humanitarian standpoint, civilisation in China may be a thing to be desired, bub my own opinion is that the present) exclusiveness of the Chinese should be perpetuated through the influence of all civilised nations. Let) the missionary still hang,on the ragged edge. The Japanese should nob be permitted to take Pekin. Such an event, more than anything else, would give a great impetus to the growth of modern civilisation in China, and I do nob think that the other nations can afford to see each a , consummation."

The FrencUinistry have refed. ■> xne Nation in hris is regardedhth grave o„; e rn. It feared that > sen « oopular outburst is impendirf in the Cement at Kaiping the line* were Sy routed, and are now/full retrea Swards The Britisfequadron at Shanghai have .ailed for Jaj- A biscuit tin filled with gunpowder i exploded in b6 Rue Morcey, in Pf. near the esidence of the judge who/ed Ravachol lmmeDS damage was/one to the buildings in the neighboured, but no one ff as hurt. The French/e reported to have captured a Hova rfwr. The Russian army is to be incre/d. The Italian garrison at Kassala i« pged. A sortie was repulsed. Several /ominent Servian politicians have been serfneed to imprisonment for participation the plot to dethrone the King. Pe stent rumours are afloat thab Sir W. Vtlarcourb intends to resign. The Loon Times says j»ew Zealand finances regarded with profound distrust, ong apparently to its experimental chara jr. Two hundred and fifty miners in colliery in Staffordshire were entoasd by a sudden inrush of water, but th majority of them have been rescued.