NOTES AND COMMENTS

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10968, 24 January 1899, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS

» ■ | " Ark Melbourne citizens to be given over to the terrorism of the city's savages?" asks the Melbourne Age. "The time has come when this question lias to be asked, and answered in all seriousness. The wave of criminality has of late surged so high as to terrify decent citizens, and to make every one feel that the streets are not safe for the peaceably disposed. What seems pretty certain is that police protection in Melbourne is insufficient to copo with the rising strength of the disorderly classes. The revelations made in the Age of late, of street brutality, indicate that we are passing through an epidemic of crime, and, what is most disturbing, of crime accompanied with violence to both men and women. Mr. Marshall Lyle lias taken the pains, in a letter published elsewhere, to compile a single week's record of these street offences. It reads more like the chronicle of what might transpire in an uncivilised community, than in ' the 'Queen City of the South.' We are /

! not Vwehavemou,-<l; n iethai semi-savages, as cruel « the use 355SStw= tion may not reacn ave no very reliable • centnge. Of that we frequency with which . data, because of the frequency with J- ><* | r'same criminal figures in the = But we do know that there at presejt lort of rou'h organisation amongst these so that the members i fa push' lend each other mutual asI lance against both the police and the I public. This co-operation in crime « - i L s the most dangerous element in A ! The reason why. in a lunatic asylum so few , warders are neccssar,-to control large numI bers of the insane is because lunatics are mI capable of mutual action. The growth of I the Melbourne 'push' » something abI normal, and is a thing to which the police I and police magistrates should give no quar!to" The Age urges the necessity of increasing the police force, and of a thorough reform of the present prison system. The news received by cable a few days »go, of the death of Mr. Frederick York i Wolselev, caused deep regret throughout Australia. Mr. Wolseley, who was born on March 16, 1837, was a brother of FieldMarshal Viscount Wolseley, Commander-in-Chief of the British Amy. For more than 40 years Mr. Wolseley was a well-known , figure in Australian pastoral and social life, j About the time when his brother was enterI ing upon the career of a soldier, in which | he achieved such great distinction, Mr. ! Wolseley turned his attention towards Australia, which was thin attracting the more venturesome spirits of the period. Soon after his arrival in Melbourne he went to Mr. Caldwell's station in Riverine, as a cadet, Mr Caldwell having some years before married Miss Wolseley. On his brother-in-law's death he became manager of the station, and subsequently part owner All through life he was noted for a strong natural genius in mechanics, and about 15 years ago he succeeded in inventing the wool-shearing machine which bears his name, and which has completely revolutionised this particular department of the pastoral industry. For a considerable lime past Mr. Wolseley has been an invalid, suffering from * serious malady. He underwent several operations, which gave him some degree of relief, and about five months ago he went to England to consult leading specialists there. The I news of his death did not come as a sur- ' prise to his friends in Australia, He leaves • a widow, but no family. I The work of laying a subterranean tele- ■ graph cable between Birmingham and Lon- ! don was commenced 18 months ago, and will ' be carried through within the next 12 j months. The Birmingham Post gives some 1 particulars of this great underground cable, by far the longest in Great Britain, for the ! longest underground telegraph lines now in ! use do not extend more than 30 to 35 miles. | The length of the line will be about 105 ■ miles. The old and inadequate plan of ' protecting a cable was to cover the copper ' wires with gutta-percha, and enclose the i whole in a wooden box of triangular shape. I Tho London-Birmingham cable will consist [ of 76 copper wires, each with a separate j wrapping of brown paper in place of the ! gutta-percha. Thus packed, the wires fit ! loosely into a lead tube of 2Jin in diameter, I and this in turn is drawn into '3in iron pip- ' ing, laid about 24ft below the surface of the j ground. At intervals of five miles the 1 wires are brought to the surface, and passed I through a testing chamber, presenting an apI pearanco externally not unlike a pillar- ; box. These give access to the wires either collectively or separately, so that faults may be more readily located and repaired. It is stated that the paper wrapping in which the wires are enclosed ensures infinitely better insulation than the gutta-percha envelope, and all tho details of the scheme have been submitted to searching technical and practical tests, which warrant the confidence of the authorities in the final result. It is predicted that the London-Birmingham cable will be the forerunner of many such lines of long-distance telegraphs on the various arterial routes throughout the country. The progress of events in the Soudan has been followed with great attention by the Pope, who proposed to entrust to the Coptic Catholics the work of spreading Catholicism in Egypt and the Soudan in connection with his scheme for the unification of the Eastern Churches. Mgr. Sogaro, who was Vicar Apostolic of the Soudan prior to the Mahdi's usurpation, and who enjoys His Holiness' full confidence, is designated to carry out the plans of the Vatican. »Mgr. Sogaro visited Egypt about two years ago, in order to make arrangements for the building of the new Coptic Catholic Seminary at Tata. The Pope and the Emperor of Austria, who is Protector of the Copts, provided the funds for the new seminar)-, and the Egyptian Government gave the ground on which the building was erected. The foimer Vicar Apostolic is about to return to Egypt to represent the Pope on the occasion of the opening of the seminary, and will be the guest of Mgr. Roveggio, the present Vicar Apostolic of the Soudan. It is stated, however, that Mgr. Sogaro will at the same time be entrusted with a more important task. The Pope's scheme for the re-establishment of Catholic missions in the Soudan provides for ,the employment of native Coptic missionaries, instead of Latin missionaries, and Mgr. Sogaro, who is on excellent terms with the Anglo-Egyptian authorities, is understood to have received instructions to enter into negotiations for the re-establishment of the missions. The Vatican hopes to receive support from the Egyptian Government, in addition to the funds provided by the Propaganda Fide and the Emperor of Austria, for the maintenance of the now seminary and the organisation { of missions in the Soudan. Mgr. Sogaro personally is, and always has been, favour- , able to the British regime in Egypt, and, in view of the serious difficulty which arose between Germany and the Vatican relative to the French protectorate over Catholics in the East, the lattet is deter- | mined to avoid a similar difficulty with Great Britain. Moreover, the work of the Coptic Catholic missions in the Soudan will be entirely favourable to the maintenance of British influence. The Vatican, therefore, counts upon the material ana moral support of the Egyptian Government to aid it in giving a fresh impulse to the spread of Catholicism in the interior of Africa. A cablegram published on Saturday lost states that the Anglican Church is taking steps to establish a bishopric in Egypt the understanding being (hat the Bishop'will co-operate with the Coptic Church. Some of the Copts are united with the Roman Catholic Church, and it is these who are referred to in the Pope's scheme. It is hardly to be expected (Bays the Bangkok correspondent of the Standard) that Frenchmen coming out to their little functionary-ridden colony in the Far East should not feel bitter towards England, whose flag flies over every port on the way out and over half the shipping encountered We are consequently-prepared for the foil lowing outburst, which is to be found in th'j Depeche Coloniale of September 30"When a Frenchman leaves hk count** or Tonquin, his nerves are irritated and his eyes offended the whole way out by that hateful flag of England, which seemito give

' ws to the entire globe. You hardly vuM • with any other flag on the sea. You fc(fg I at Alexandria and at Port Said, in this land v of BgyP l ' which IICS im<ler that hy P° crit Kal S protectorate which the English Foreign Office is about to transform into a definitive-. ; conquest. Then again you come across itf| at l'erim in the Bed Sea, and at Aden, which' § commands the entrance of the Indian Ocean.'] Cdombo comes into view) and, heavens! v' it is the same old rag over again! At Sing,. pore you have come to regard the Union ' lack as a matter of course; and you begin 1 'to speculate on how long it will take to Byl from Singapore to Bangkok. One can hardly'imagine, till lie has experienced it, the relief felt°bv the arrival at Saigon and by the \y sc.und'of French bogles and the sight of oral beloved tricolour." J| Sir J. Goi-st, M.P.. recently delivered an If address to agriculturists at Cambridge on § "Education in Agricultural Districts." He referred to reports which proved that the i'' chief reason for the prosperity of agricul- i Hire in foreign countries was the education % of the people in all technical knowledge per. *; taining to their industries. If efforts we» , d be made to raise agricultural education % in England to something like the level of •■.'.;• Denmark, France, or Switzerland, they had "' ft very difficult task before them. El* * mentary education was the bed-rock upon which the whole of their superstructure auntbe built. There was no use attempting »\ national system of technical instruction un- . til they had a sound system of elementary' instruction upon which that could be based. '.'. . Another essential was that there must bo \ some local authority. The question was very difficult; but he thought the techni-: cal' instruction committees of the county councils might bo developod ino a very ' satisfactory local authority. In his opinion, : though there were exceptions, the best managers of schools were the rural clergy. Rural education had exceptional difficulties,' *' of its own. After pointing out some ol these difficulties, and insisting on the importance of regularity of school attendance, "■ especially after 12 years of age, Sir John Gorst Raid the organisation of a proper system of continuation of higher-grade agricultural schools and of technical school? all over the country was also needed. But they would never get any of these things until public opinion opinion of men like, those he was addressing— • and obliged such a system. If the country were to wake up to the danger of our present position, then, and not till then, would a satisfactory system of agricultural education be established. | It is expected that the Nicaragua Canal , will be finished in six years. The work will . cost 115,000,000 dollars, which sum will be supplied by the American Treasury. All nations will pay the same tolls, and the ' neutrality of the canal will be guaranteed. The President has been requested to secure the abrogation of the Clayton-Bulwer concession. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs denies the existence of a letter relating to the Dreyfus case, either from, or . to the Kaiser, forged or unforged. Information which has been placed before the Court of Cassation reveals persistent treachery in 1894, though Dreyfus is not concerned in any way. It is stated that the delivery ol documents to foreign Powers will probably necessitate a change in mobilisation plans, Referring to the expulsion of the Danes from Schleswig, Dt. Von Miguel says Prussia only interfered when the agitation against Germany had steadily grown in strength and boldness. If the action attributed to the German Consul at Apia and Dr. Raffel L ' confirmed, it will, according to a statement made by the German Ambassador at Wash-.:'., ington, be disavowed. The German pres»..'-J suggests that the question should be settled -'; by the British and American Ambassadors '•• at Betlin, and the German Minister for • Foreipji Affairs. The Porte has been in- :•; formed that Russia and Austria will prevent the Balkan States from interfering aggres- . sively for the purpose of securing . autonomy for Macedonia. The United States Coinage Committee has .reported favourably on the Gold Standard Bill In order to secure uniformity of 1 ritual the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have decided, when a bishop is in doubt upon any point referred to him, to jointly interpret the Rubrics. Parties hav-' ing grievances will also be allowed a hearing before the Archbishops. The Pope is recovering from his lecent illness, though he is still weak.