NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11629, 17 April 1901, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

According to the reports of foreign correspondents the trade prospects abroad are not encouraging. In Austria things are pictured in black colours. Never, we are told, since the fatal year 1873 after the World's Fair in Vienna —have the monetary conditions of the country been so wretched, and never has there been such a complete stagnation in all industrial branches as exists now. Austria has suffered the loss of some entire manufacturing branches which once were prosperous and employed thousands of people, like the boot and shoe factories and the mother-of-pearl button manufactories. The iron industry in Styria is unable to compete with the low prices in foreign countries, arid has practically ceased to export. The same refers to the tool and machine manufacturing concerns, while even the staple articles produced in Austria,— glassware, leather and fancy goods, and linen— ceased to be profitable to export. Business is practically at a standstill, and only the vague hope that an early peace in South Afrioa and China, and cheaper money, will bring about better conditions, encourages manufacturers not to entirely close their works. Agricultural branches are hardly in a more enviable position. In the larger cities of Austria-Hun-gary the number of unemployed people is alarmingly increasing. Disturbances and conflicts between these people and the police are everyday occurrences. There was such a crush at the opening of a free-soup establishment in Budapest that the people trampled on each other, one old man being actually killed on the spot by those passing over him in their wild rush for a plate of hot soup. In Germany, although the annual reports of the different banks, now being published, particularly that of the Deutsche Bank, take an optimist view of trade generally, the facts that are commonly current in the commercial world hardly seem to justify them. The stocks at the coal mines are rapidly accumulating, although the output has decreased by 10 per cent, since the opening of the year. The production of pig-iron is declining, and the demand is stagnant, necessitating compulsory auctions. Some of the ironworks in Upper Silesia have agreed to restrict their output, and at least nine furnaces are to be blown out. The Hubertus Steel Works have been stopped for six weeks, and the Bismarckkutto has been partly shut down. Railway carriagemakers complain of exceedingly bad trade, the boom of some little time back having created too many new firms, most of which are now being wound-up. In the cement trade dividends, which were formerly 13 per cent., have now fallen to 7 per cent. There is an enormous over-production of printing paper for newspapers, which is far in excess of the increase of consumption. In Southern Italy the economic, crisis becomes graver every day.'-. The condition of the peasantry is simply terrible, and the pinch

of hunger is being felt more and more keenly. The spectacle of bands of peasants marching )'■ to the nearest town and demanding bread is becoming increasingly frequent. Regiments of workless men are formed, and the police have to use force to prevent the entry into towns to these huiagry wretches impelled by want to commit all sorts >of destruction. When the opposing forces come into collision a great many are always wounded, and now and again some are killed. In order to put a stop to this species of civil war the Government has decided to pay the passage of all peasants who wish to emigrate to America. This has given an immense impulse to Italian emigration, which has always been large,' 500,000 persons having gone to America, in recent years. On the other hand the industrial situation in Italy is more satisfactory, thanks to the continual growth of the country's industries, which are gradually extending from the north to the south of the- peninsula.

Dr. Clouston submitted an interesting, and, in some respects, remarkable report at the annual meeting of the Corporation of the, Royal Edinburgh Asylum for the Insane. He pointed out that last year 472 persons had been admitted to. the institutiona record admission, being 38 over the average number for the last five years. He could not himself get over the conclusion that the excessive use of alcoholic stimulants during times of brisk trade and high wages had to a large extent been the cause of the undue amount of mental disease which they had been called on to treat during the year. They had, as a matter of fact, 115 cases, or about a quarter of their whole number of admissions, in whom drink was assigned as cither the sole or a contributory cause of the disease. If the admisions of men alone were looked at, 81, or about one-third of them, were alcoholic cases. He had never had experience of anything approaching this before, and he would fail in his duty if, seeing more of the terrible effects of excessive alcoholic drinking in destroying honour and reason and self-control than almost anyone else in Scotland, he did not strongly draw attention to a fact so disgraceful to thorn as a community. The mental doctor saw the very worst that alcohol could do. No bodily disease, no family ruin, no social catastrophe was so bad as the destruction of mind. It was certain that for every man in whom excessive drinking caused absolute insanity, there were 20 in whom it injured the brain, blunted the moral sense, and lessened the capacity for work in lesser degrees. The brain generally, and especially its mental functions, suffered first and suffered most from alcohol in excess. Ignorance of this fact, thoughtlessness, present enjoyment of its effects, the temptations of the possession of money, bad environments, dangerous social customs, and hereditary brain instability were the chief determining factors why men drank to such excess that they became insane. When in any community there was a large class to whom prosperity always meant excessive indulgence in drink and defiance of natural and moral law, it meant that a higher sort of education was needed or that . degeneration had set in. Convictions for being drunk and incapable steadily increased in Scotland; his alcoholic lunatics had risen from an average of 15£ per cent, in the years 18741888, to 214 per cent, in 1889-1898, to 22£ per cent, in 1899, and now to per cent, in 1900, all this apparently resulting from the prosperity of the country, and yet the politician cried "no possurmis." , The medical profession was unanimous in demanding some effective legislation on the matter. The national drink bill steadily went up, and the national degeneration progressed. He was convinced that they would have a big reckoning to pay some day. A consumptive race might conceivably be absolutely cured in two generations, or even in one by good conditions. He did not believe a drink-sod-den race could be fully cured in a hundred years.

A vivid account of De Wet's escape from Bethlehem last August just as the British cordon was closing in and his venturesome dash across Orange Colony into the Transvaal is contributed to the March number of the Contemporary Review by one of the burghers who took part in it. The article is signed "P. Pienar." On a bitter winter's night"4ooo horsemen, with guns and a waggon train four miles long, stole out of Retief's Nek, passing a British camp 1000 yds away, "evidently fast asleep and ripe for a surprise." But De Wet held his hand. The issues involved were too grave for' an attack, and the Boer column passed by in silence and secrecy. A night or two later they reached the railway with the British in pursuit. "De Wet galloped from column to column on his white horse, arranging, swearing, joking." A stationary train was sixty yards away. De Wet dismounted, stole forward, and placed a stone on the track. The train moved on, bumped against the stone, stopped for a breathless interval, and then resumed its journey. Again De Wet refrained from attacking. The trucks might have been full of soldiers and an attack might have spoiled everything. Fighting and trekking, frequently under heavy shell fire, the long column reached Oliphant's Nek, which was held by De la Rey, and vanished in the safe recesses of the Magaliesbergx Here Steyn left De Wet, who was going, to Waterval Onder to confer with Mr. Kruger. • De Wet's parting words are noteworthy :—" President, they say the blood now being and still to be shed will rest upon my head. Be it so! I prefer that to surrendering and thereby rendering useless all the sacrifices of the i past. Should peace negotiations be opened do not conclude them without my presence. I want no half-peace."

The news from South Africa this morning reports British successes both in the Transvaal and the Orange River Colony. In addition to inflicting losses on the Boers in killed and wounded, many prisoners were secured, and two guns and a considerable amount of supplies. Lord Kitchener is stated .to have now 60,000 mounted men. According to the London Daily Mail the failure of the peace negotiations last month was due to the fact that Botha believed the pro-Boers in England would be able to secure for the Boers the restoration of their independence. He has now discovered his mistake. Many Boers in the Orange River Colony are joining the British in hunting the marauding commandos. De Wet and Botha, have reported to have met on the 11th inst. It is not known what decision was arrived at. There appears to be some doubt as to the truth of the reported rebellion in Mongolia. Prince Ohing denies the report. Japan is urging China to send troops to Manchuria to restore order.