NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10834, 18 August 1898, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

We understand that yesterday Mi. Lev* of the Pcnsonby Schools S rmttee was favouring ' to obtain »'*w! , ° Children attend .rag the Olmrch-stree: school / against the proposal of the committee to remove a S. im of , the Present buildings on to some vacant.landadjacent/and-that'inseS ,n^ ces were.induced to S petition not knowing what they werS. jW Apart altogether from the ZZt , the question at issue between Mr. Leys an :

tne cumumco xv ,„ u =u ww every reasonable ," * person as a most reprehensible proc4di n *rf'P|fi for anyone.more particularly tor an ex-chain JMjl man of a school committee, to endeavour to' '■■ incite school children to agitate against the decisions of the constituted authority ■ sponsible for tho management of ".school-•.''' affairs. Such a course is calculated to pro. duce pernicious results, and to encourage ' - that spirit. of insubordination to authority'. > which is already a deplorable feature of ' ■ modern childhood. The matter in dispute K is one for the committee and the Board to r : decide, or in the last resort tho house. ' ; holders, not the boys and girls attending the school. Mr. Leys is, no doubt, con- .': vinced that his views are right and that the ' ■ J committee have come to a 'wrong-headed de. cision; but that does not justify his action in hawking about a petition among. the school children. : ■ Vj > jpfl We learn that the application of the New. .'■•• ton Borough Council to the Government tt have the name of the borough changed to "■', "Surrey" has elicited a reply from "the officer administering the Designation •ol Districts Office," Mr. Amelius Smith, ob- • jecting to the name proposed. It is stated that the Post Office Department considers "•:"- that the adoption oi the English name "Surrey," would lead to confusion in .the : ■ transmission, of letters, from their liability .' to be forwarded to England ; and it is further stated that the desire is, that, in every case of a change in the name of a place in tho colony, a native name should, whenever possible, be given. The name "Tokaroa" is .i£l suggested by Mr. Smith, that being the :" name of a famous deity (the Lord of .the'- 3 \ Ocean) in Polynesian mythology. Whether it was ever the native designation of the','V Newton district is not stated, but as any ■ ...'■'; native name, however desirable in ordinary . ' circumstances, and suitable for a township '■■ in the country, would certainly take away '■ the urban or metropolitan character of the : borough of Newton which it has, it is not ''"• likely to commend itself to the good sense of the people. The objection raised by tho ■' post office officials to the adoption of the .> name of Surrey is exceedingly far-fetched. • Although that is the name of ah English county, it is not, so far as we know, the > name of a single town either in England ■:, or any other country, therefore how, it ia -. likely to lead to confusion in the trans- " mission of letters, we are at a loss to con- ;'vfvi ceive. There are a dozen places named Wei o'*£ lington in different parts of the world—at :"■: least three of them being in England-but •••,1$ we are not aware that " the officer adminis tcring the Designation of Districts Office" . n has ever suggested that the name of the capi- i ;C; tal of the colony should be changed, and. 'M a Maori name substituted, or that the Posts :■ {€• Department has ever complained that it hai •".-$ led to confusion in the transmission of letters, . although it would be surprising if it had not. .?fc The adoption of the name of Surrey could ' not possibly lead to any confusion. It is ; v already in part the name of the district. " The only change is the deletion of the word r>'' Hills. We would advise the Newton Council to stick to the name they have selected, and endeavour to overcome the objection of - N ; ; the Postal Department, which seems to-;' have been raised somewhat frivolously and'-v without giving the matter proper considers . tion. ' * -1 ■ /--:■..,■! The members of the Press Gallery in the ;; ■ House of Representatives are a modest set .'-»- of men, who like to do their work without . ; the distracting influence which female ' :■■ V; society invariably exercises, hence they have -, in solemn conclave resolved that the galjerj ■•:•;'; shall remain, as it has done from the be- y. r . ginning, open to the sterner sex alone, foi the woman journalist, it appears, is eager ",'■; | ■ to invade the jealously - guarded domain. The pressman have no desire to exclude •<>'; women from the profession of journalism, ■'■'•' for some branches of which they are pecu> .\ liarly fitted, nor do they object to w/omen act- ;-'i;V ing as Parliamentary reporters. What they do ;:?;<-". protest against, and will not have on any account, is the presence of a woman in their ' ■ own particular gallery. This aversion, as we have said, no doubt arises from theij ;;. extreme modesty. A pretty woman in tin " ; '.' gallery would focus the attention of ; the whole House upon that part of it devoted : : ; to the newspaper correspondents, besides >. leading to innumerable embarrassments. At ;,£|| the same time, their action seems somewhat \J\ unchivalrous. ;-\'P It has been stated more than once thai" the Queen is resolved that England shall 'Jf\ not be involved in another war with a Euro- .-v. pean Power during her lifetime, and it had : : been hinted that, acting on this determina' tion of Her Majesty, foreign Governments -.•;•>- have not hesitated to venture further in their ; . opposition to British interests than they.. . ;; would otherwise have deemed it prudent to ; go. How this resolve has acted in the . ... case of Russia is boldly stated by a con-,; f: ■■ tributor to a London journalist, who, in the ' course of a sketch of the Russian Chancellor, says:—"Mouravieff heard, at the' psycho- ',■'■..■' logical moment in the negotiations, of X;,J Queen Victoria's avowed determination never T;-.-: to sign another declaration of wai. Witl this knowledge at command he held the key of the situation in the Far East. He knei . that Great Britain would not ' risk a war,'?. ;; and, therefore, lie read the brave talk about the ' open door' with a smile, and received;. Lord Salisbury's protests thereby as signify- ?/£ ing so many pretty phrases, and his veiled ■'.'.;;'■' threats as simple 'bluff'—as, I believe, / empty intimidation is called." Sir Herbert Kitchener and his men art _; ; now on the way to Khartoum, and its restoration to the civilised world is only a matter ■ of a few weeks. The element of romance ; never entered more strongly into any expedi- > ;•': tion. On January 28, 1885, Sir Charles Wil- \ r; son's steamers reached- Tuti Island, above ; the confluence of the two Niles, under a heavy '. ■ fire. The fact that they received no sup-. ■ porting fire from Khartoum was proof of H; the place having fallen, and confirmed the ac- - counts of natives on the way up. The crowd : ; of women shrieking on the bank, "Mat lil • ; . Ingleez" ("Death to the English"), was ad-; '_ ditional evidence. But two day. before . Gordon was alive. The 20 men of the Sus- . sex Regiment, with Captain Stuart Worthy -'•; of the 60th Rifles, Gascoigne of the 4th Hus- '.-, sars, and Trafford and two naval artificers '. were the last Englishmen to gaze oil the • ; : place which had held out for 317 days. Since' . then Khartoum has been a sealed book.. : , Father Ohrwalder has told us since that the European prisoners saw the approach and , j|;. retreat of the steamers. A more poignant '£ situation cannot be imagined, nor can the- &0 intense emotion be easily realised of those ;., who in a short time will set loot on that : j fateful peninsula which divides the White ■:']:■ and the Blue Nile. The scene that awaits them is almost certainly one of desolation. ■%, We know now that most of the houses were ' pulled down, and the wood carried over to • Omduranan. Will any survivors of the , . whites be round? We know that L«pt° ■ died in 1888, but Charier Neufeld was still ;.' alive, employed in making poWer, whenOlu'walder escaped. t\'\ From later particulars of the fall of Manila, ' ■ which we publish to-day, we learn that the . ;■/' bombardment lasted for two hours. % .The. . American troops were then ordered to storm : . the Spanish trenches. The Spaniards offered only a feeble resistance, and retreat- ... ing within the walls of the city surrendered. • The casualties are stated to be small.',■ TM/ American troops in Cuba are returningSantiago is described as being in a fee' l , " : condition. A number of dead bodies found. . 1 in the streets were collected in a heaep, «« ; . ■'■■'.'"' ; --'W&M

oared" over tlieni, and the ghastly pile get ■ fire. ; General Blanco is to remain in Cuba at U the evacuation is completed. The igbin insurgents have,agreed to disband.' According to a Russian newspaper England as assumed a protectorate over Southern irabia, extending from the Strait of Bab-el-[andeb to the Gulf of Oman, in other words, jjjjjj the Red Sea to the Persian Gulf. The 'jpanese have secured a contract for buildj,g a railway in l nrea. Twenty-four per--03 have lost their lives in Poland by a ter„fic hurricane which swept over a part of lie country. Fighting between Orangemen jnd Nationalists has again occurred in Belfast- __________