NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 11714, 25 July 1901, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

, The fact that the Sultan of Morocco has . sent a special embassy to England to cont gratulate King Edward on his accession to , the throne, has drawn public attention to ' the personality of that little-knowr potentate. Mulai Abdul Aziz is some 20 years I of age. He rides a bicycle, photographs, and enjoys the cinematograph. So lavish 1 has he been in obtaining all the newest in- • ventions and toys of Europe that one trad- '., ing Jew alone, who brought him a real circus to the capital, has received some £20,000 ol the country's revenue, drawn from the Customhouse of Mazagan. It is the custom • unfortunately, for Oriental monarchs to : hoard their private fortunes and to draw ■ upon the resources of their country for their private amusements. In appearance Mulai Abdul Aziz is tall and well-built, and he would be good-looking were it not for an unhealthy complexion, probably due to not taking sufficient exercise. • As yet hi is possessed of neither beard nor moustache--for the Moors never shave either. In bearing he is very dignified, and he appears to be a good rider. On public occasions, in his loose white robes, he looks, and is, a Sultan. His' life is one of great simplicity. He rises at dawn and prays a> the regular stated intervals throughout the day. His food is simple and eaten "according to the custom of his country, without knife or fork. He gives a certain number of hours a day to the affairs of his country, and he is, of course, very much married. The position of a Sultan of Morocco never allows him to come into actual touch with his subjects, and the principal power therefore rests with the Grand Vizier. It is a picturesque Court, that of the Sultan of Morocco. The great palace squares and courtyards, topped with the iridescent green tiled roofs, the miles of fortified gardens, the high windowless walls, all present an appearance of unfathomable mystery. Seldom, indeed, do men penetrate within, for the precincts are sacred to .the rule of women. . Even the Ministers of the Great Powers, on their periodical Embassies to the Moorish Court, see little more than the outside walls and the great green

gates. At private audiences with th a-, 'if' tan the visitor is led through tangly • "']■'. clad gardens to some little sum mer .W.*", W rich in exquisite plaster-work and tiles, L?' f mined, perhaps, and yet » gem, wW*. I ur.de.. a ceiling gorgeous in colours ana eju' I ing, sits the almost, pathetic figure ofJ,* '" Sultan. The Grand Vizier stands, by v* - \ master's side, and without the doorway' <A [' of sight of their Sovereign, are seated '&& ' I' a-dozen soldiers awaiting orders. And »'■ laround the tall dark cypresses shoot up fa-\ t pillar-like forms. l! ' |. In a biographical sketch of the late Lor* ' I', Wantage, whose death occurred last month f'\ the London Times says he was an extern' ' I landowner. He possessed about ;18 Oft! ~. 1 acres in Berkshire and 28,000 acres in >,* o ' rt i I amptonshhe, besides property in the' C oii a " I tics of Bucks, Oxon, and Huntingdon, n* > was also a large farmer, cultivating upwari* I of 4000 acres himself in Berkshire W» , * a generous landlord, and allowed his tenant. ' I several reductions of rent on account of ik P agricultural depression, whilst it was an -. ' known occurrence for him to dispossess '* tenant. He favoured small holdings, aid considered that they ought to be en'coi». ' aged as much as possible. Yearly tenancies and not leases, were the rule on his estates' 1 but there was an understanding that .' © ****** M I Sj long as tenants continued to pay their j en: they would not be disturbed. For his fare, of ovei 4000 acres he had one manager, why "(• superintended the whole and bought and sold everything; under him several ot the U. v' bourers acted as foremen over the others "i Lord Wantage thought that, on the whol/ '* > it is an advantage to the country to havj I areas of land fanned by landowners. H« contended that there is economy in farming on a large scale, as machinery can be nice advantageously used, whilst the numbers of horses and labourers can be reduced. :' Hjfgl I employed only 60 horses on his big farm'' whereas his predecessors on the same are} I ■ employed 90. Very large farms, on ths ft one hand, and very small farms, .on the I other, seemed to him to offer the best soh. !!■:'■ lion tc existing difficulties, for he though * that the man of capital and the man of • ?'■ labour were the only ones who could mass ! farming pay. In 1887 he started a systtnj !• of profit-sharing with his farm labourers 11 to whom he distributed the first bonus in i', the following year. The number oi pecpi»: [ employed on the farm ranged from 154 to 178, including women, and, roughly speak- ; ing, about 100 men ..eceived the bonus, as it was limited to thos who had worked at-; least two years on the farm, new mei not being qualified till after two years' service, U The bonus consisted of one-fourth of tht pro. fits, after providing for rent and interest on 1 capital, and to allow for varying seasons, it was found desirable to calculate the bonus K upon the average of period., of six fears, The bonus ranged in different years from 60s I to 10s per man. It was quite a voluntary step on the part of Lord Wantage, but lie ' considered the bonus had a good effect, as | it associated the labourer with the profits \ of the farm and stimulated him to do his i best to assist in creating a profit. Believ* £ ! ing that a good cottage and a garden art; I a great inducement to married labourers to p. remain on the land instead of migrating to pi the towns, he built many cottages and \ restored yet more. ■■"■ By the ..offer or prizes! 1 and other means he did much to encourage f \ the breeding of carthorses : among his ten- IB ants. His stud of Shire horses at Lockings : i; was one of the best in the '■ country, and f several successful sales were held there dot* "'■ %j ing the last half-dozen years. He was s || frequent exhibitor and won many prizes, \fi notably in 1888, when he secured the chain- s. pionship of the London Shire Horse Show .'&. with the celebrated stallion Prince William, * |;i He was a warm supporter of the Shire Horn j ': ! Society, of which he was president in 1889^ ■■: '■ Lord Wantage, like nearly all the Lindsays, was a man of cultivated intelligence, and no j man was better qualified to enjoy and appre- >: ciate the opportunities which great wealth 1 . ; gavefor instance, the splendid collection '•! of pictures which came to him and lady; | Wantage from ber father, and to which they, had made noble additions in recent years. Tur- I ner's "Sheerness" and ''Walton Bridges,".";'' and the pair of pictures of Pesellino from the Torrigiani Palace in Florence, are among ' the chief of Lord Wantage's purchases. His ;; taste was fine, and his knowledge consider' j able. He will be widely and sincerely re- , ',| gretted. He leaves no child, and the peer i ' age becomes extinct. ' ! . , i According to a, return just laid on :- the; table of the House of Commons, the punish- ' ment of flogging was inflicted last year in.; England and Wales in 15 cases for offences" | against section 43 of the Larceny Act of' 1861. In three instances the convictions; were for robbery with violence, and , in the remaining 12 for robbery with violence by; persons in company. In every case it was ordered that the punishment should be in- ■ jj flicted with the " cat." Six offenders were : jj condemned to bo flogged once and nine "twice. Six of the sentences were passed at the § Leeds Assizes, three at the Liverpool Assizes, three at the Durham Assizes, one atV the Newcastle-on-Tyne Assizes, and two at the Central Criminal Court. In point of severity Mr. Justice Day heads the list,;as,,' in each of the three cases where he was the presiding judge, two of these being at the Durham Assizes and one at Leeds, he ordered 40 lashes. The largest number of flogging sentences were passed by Mi. Justice Bigham, who, at Newcastle-on-Tyne on February 23, 1900, sentenced a criminal to 40 lashes, and at Leeds on March 15 ordered five men to be flogged, one of these to receive 24 lashes and the other four 20 ' ; lashes each. In the remaining six cases p* Mr. Justice Phillimore passed two sentences of 25 lashes each, Mr. Justice Buck; nill one of 25 lashes, Mr. Justice Bruce one of 24 lashes, the Common Serjeant one of 15 lashes, and the Recorder of Loudon one of 12 lashes. ' ' • ..;