CORRESPONDENCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 11855, 6 January 1902, Page 7

CORRESPONDENCE.

RUSSIAN ANXIOUS INQUIRERS.

' ALARMIST PROPHETS. ' TO THE EDITOIt. Sir,—The alarmist prophet is generally a i 'religious crank, trying to frighten the simple j with "the end of the world" scare. Next •I to him comes the " ficientifio" prophet, engaged much. in the same sensational line: trying to frighten people. From time to 'time we hoar of. their scarecrow theories. and ■ prophecies, ' one of which appears in ' the Auckland Weekly News of December 26, 1901. This glacial alarm I have heard of before. They call our attention to a sudden disruption of a mass of ice at tho South Pole, but they appear to overlook the fact that this disruption is continually going on, both at the North and South Poles; hcnce wo have those institutions known ' as icebergs, which are tho same at the South as in the North. Wherever we find large . bodies of icc, wo find glaciers work, evi--1 dently ice sliding down by its own weight; . and what conditions we find at the North Pole will likely be repeated at the' South Pole, but the alarmist puts it otherwise. That one polar region could be colder . than the other, having different conditions,' and spreading out .towards the equator,' does not appear very credible; and from an astronomical point of view, wo fail to see how it could be, unless astronomers are very much out of their calculations. If such were the case then southern latitudes must be colder than the corresponding latitudes of the north.- Moreover, taking astronomy into consideration, a .glacial period could not . have spread out from one pole alone. Taking it altogether, his theory appears a little mixed. The " glacial periods" of the geologist were periods of long duration, and evidently the result of quite a different cause ! than the sudden cataclysm. of the alarmist. The glacial period has never beer, explained, : but it as more likely caused by a decline of the sun's heat, resulting in a contracted finow line, thus covering a. greater *part of the earth with a much expanded polar ice region. I have thought of other conditions, which might have produced a glacial period, ' but they involved suppositions which no astronomer would entertain. A cataclysm is generally interpreted as a great and sudden convulsion in nature, such as the end of the world or a great flood. ■ The "Great Ice Flood" which he predicts might be a cataclysm, but I do not believe that the glacial period he compounds with it over came by a sudden cataclysm. His ice flood involves a sudden great thaw at tho South Pole, and this again involves a sudden shifting of tho poles, or change of incline to the - stillsuppositions which no astronomer would entertain. The glacial period,, on the • contrary, proves itself an institution of long duration, by the evidence' of its work, in cutting down hills arid mountains, ana it evidently., did not originate in. a sudden cataclysm, but was of gradual growth ana decline. ' The cataclysm of a disrupted po-3, might produce a flood in low-lying districts, but it would not be a glacial period, for during that period the mountains of iearth ■ abounded in glaciers working to the sea. , The . idea of the south polar ice, es- * pecially, invading England (near the " Pole) is a little far-fetched for an ice yarn. " Anyway, I do not suppose thai these Antarctic polar expeditions were sent out on i> tho strength of this alarm to spy . danger in that particular spot opposite the Atlanticand to prop it up. A 'the pre sent time the sun is too hot and the . d line too high to allow of a ga .< 1 settling on the liabitab e world, jmd tho flood of icebergs scarcely come • New Zealand. Further on wo will hear from the returned polar-ologists about any • g to Now Zealand-! am, etc., stoke. ONGARUE OR ONGARUHE? . TO the editor. Sir—Ro the correct spelling of the name nf An river and township, Ongarue oi Onga- , i the Survey Department have spc t it h ?ho" nodSt but that tho M .J day, when I was at Un„ar .. rc some natives talking among. station the newly-erected name-boa d on tho■ etatio^ buildings, and saying, I.he paklv." at learnt to spoil Onga anj Mr . ted to them by, I believe, the lost; Olbco authorities, and they, like , i wevo una whom you referred matt 3 »., . m. to decide which was right, and . t w dmitli advises, to consult a local nauve. His repTy was- "Well, there are two ways ,of spel& that name. We always spelt it Ongarue, but the pakehas spell A with a h, and, as they know so much more than us, we think they must be righ; x ] ve now many of us spell it Ongaruhe. 1' asked several of the leading Maoris at. Ongarue if they could give the meaning or .<. y how the name originated, but none could explain its meaning or origin.— December 30, 1901. , . . 1 : to the editor. ' v ' . —In the Herald of the 30th ult., under the heading of "The Spelling and Meaning of Maori Names," I noticed that although you have consulted some " supreme authorities" on the subject, your waders are left about as wise as over as regards the meaning of the name; Ongarue. Nevertheless, the.so-, lu'tion of the seeming puzzle is v y . 1 - • Ngarue means shaken, agitated, stirred, phy- ■ ' sically or mentally; e.g., 0 ngarue ana te awa—the stream or river is «S ltato <J; J f ngaruerue 110 ate iwi oto pa the pe i» _ the pa were easily excited. Again, rcrn , , the prefixed' particle To, : the forma: £ , • - and the affix c, which is a passive termin- - , ation, and the radix ru remains, indicating or signifying motion, quaking, heaving, G • ■ It is evidently of Semitic origin, .having an -- * affinity ■to the Aryan ru, in Latin mo >. .-k'M?" lish run, etc., etc. For the -rest, withoii x , knowing the - whereabouts of Ongarue, . should say that it. is the name of a stream Or the site of an old pa.—l am, etc., • ' : Chas. E. Nelson. •Vr T akarewa0a, January 2, 1902. I I i .

TO THE EDITOR." : " Sir, That - was a very , innocent-looking cable message in your paper a few days ago. It said that " Russian doctors have inquired regarding .the healthiness of 11 ormuz r and Kishm." I venture to say that no more ominous message has appeared in New Zealand papers for many a long day. It must be ; read in the light of another cablegram which came two days later, saying that Parisian newspapers reported " Russia has leased Bur.dar Abbas." ; , . V> Kishm and Hormuz are two islands in the Persian Gulf, near tne Strait of Hormuz, and opposite to Biindar Abbas. Kishm contains about 640 square miles and Hormuz about 60. The former has a population of about 5000. Both islands are coloured red, being under British protection. Colonel says Biindar Abbas will certainly bo included . in the telegraph system of the gulf. He was a special Indian borderland expert for 25 years, and ought to know. lie also says that Bundar Abbas, which the 41 doctors" are inquiring about, would be no good-to Russia without Kishm and Hormuz, and that the acquisition of these places by Russia " would constitute a distinct menace to British interests; either in the Persian Gulf or Indiawards." / • What are these '"doctors" after? Do they want to find. a health resort for invalid Asiatics, .so tenderly cared for by Russia? Or for any Russian subjects cooped up in 8,660,282 square miles of the earth's' surface, equalling half the European continent and a third of Asia, the largest of all the continent?? Hardly that. She wants to dominate Southern Persia as she does the northern portion, and thus get another strategical position for possible designs on Afghanistan or India. ,

And her " doctors'" are making these inquiries at a time when pro-Boers, who in Russia or Germany would be deservedly shot, are hampering the Government, and. its hands are full in South Africa. Russia generally does that. She seized.Merv when Britain's hands were full of Soudan difficulties in 1831-; she violated Britain's treaty rights in Manchuria and her interests in the Yangtse Valley while we are grappling with the Boers; and while we are still at it she is inquiring about Kishm and Hormuz. • Lord Cuizon, Viceroy of India, than whom few persons have studied the Eastern question better, said: "I should regard the concession of a port upon the Persian Gulf to Russia by any Power as a deliberate insult to Great Britain, as a wanton rupture of the status quo, and as an international provocation to war : and I should impeach the British Minister who was guilty of Acquiescing in such .'surrender as a. traitor to his country. ' Now, while Britain is at war, while proBoers arc troublesome, while a section in Ireland are talking of "a final struggle with England," while flic Hermans are making overtures to France, which latter Power refuses to prejudice Croat Britain; and while troubles between Marabc.uk of Koweyt and the Sultan of Turkey may lead to the massacre of Christians arid British intervention, Russia issues a 14 days' ultimatum over Manchuria. . , ■ _ Happily Australia, Canada, and New Zealand are showing at this juncture hat any foreign Power laying violent hands on the Mother of Nations must reckon also, with her vigorous children in far countries. I am, etc., I- 1 • G. in*ol OX. Cheltenham Beach, January 2, 1902.

THE EXPORT OF AMERICAN DOMESTIC PRODUCTS. TO : THE EDITOR. Sir,—lit your issue of the Herald for the first of the New Year you give a most instructive table showing the progressiveness of American exports. • ' - The fact tint the' United States has miring 1901 surpassed England hands down 111 (he export. of domestic products should set all but" narrow-minded, dollar-grasping merchants thinking how best this modern octopus can have the absorptive tendency of its far-reaching trade tentacle; combated against ill order that the country that buys our produce. and whence this colony lias drawn its vitality through borrowed capital, shall not be cut out of the running. _ Wo have been told lately by. Ministers and the press that the new President of the United States, if approached on the subject of trade reciprocity, would undoubtedly alter the tariff in favour of New Zealand wool. _ The lately m'oposed Argentine treaty with North ■ America provided, among other things, for a reduction of 20 per cent, in the duty ,on wool. The average import cost I of lino Argentine wool in 1900 was 8d per lb, and the same wool last October fetched cn the New York market 4d; on the latter value a -reduction of tho duty by 20 per cent. This, it was feared, would so flood the market, to the detriment of the Homegrown wool, as to interfere seriously with an important American industry, therefore the Argentine treaty lias not been ratified by the Senate, and as Argentine is a far larger customer for 'American notions than New Zealand, is it likely that tho voice of our Siren, charm lie ever so sweetly, will have more effect on the case-hardened protective policy of the Stars and Stripes? President Roosevelt has indeed declared him- j self in favour of reciprocity in these words: I " The end in view always to be the opening up of new markets for the products of other lands that we need and cannot produce ourselves, and which do not involve any loss in labour to our own people, but tend to promote their employment." , The increase . in , the population of the United States, reported by the census of 1900, was 21 per cent., while that in tho gross value of manufactures was 60 per cent. That is to say, the gross value of manufactured products in the States for 1900' will be in the region of 13,000,000,000 dollars, equivalent to about £2,600,000,000 sterling money. These prodigious figures must prove to Britishers that, financially speaking, peril from the States obliterates the yellow danger of which so much has been made. The above tail of cyphers proves that consumption in the States must' be far behind - the increase in the products, hence the pressing need for exploiting the outsider. As for tho Americans reducing their tariff to increase the foreign trade of their country, wo need not imagine that they will again attempt it, for it has before now proved itself a disastrous experiment, arid it has been found that the passage of the Dingley law increasing duties led to an enormous increase in the production and in the exports. The late President defined reciprocity in these words : "It is to afford new markets for our surplus agricultural and manufactured products, without loss to the American labourer of a single .(.lay's work, that ho might otherwise 1 procure." ' Can Now Zealand offer and accept any items of produce that will fit in with this definition-— is, exchange articles that will neither interfere with American labour or tend to shut down the sprouting industries of this colony? i The States can free list gum, hemp, hides, horns, and sulphur; New Zealand can return the compliment through kerosene and mineral phosphates. As the foreign policy of England will: not allow of a preferential tariff it must be left to the good sense arid patriotism of the Britisher to favour Imperial branded goods, though the price of " foreign manufactures" may,' for cutting purposes, be somewhat less. - With this object, an Imperial Purchasing League should be/formed, having in view the retention of our Empire's trade. Considering your shipping news reports, that no less than nine vessels are shortly expected to arrive at this port from North America, it is- refreshing to notice that the Auckland Chamber of Commerce has awakened to the fact that it will be well not to pull the British lion's trade leg to straining point. It is disappointing, however, to read that the Auckland apostle of free trade is holding a brief for the most protective nation on earth.—l am, etc., H. JOHNSON.

A TRADE TIRADE. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Year by year the struggle for trade supremacy becomes more intense.; So eminent an authority as Mr. Andrew Carnegie has stated as his opinion that British trade does not follow the flag, but this unsettling dictum is not borne out by official statistics. Britain supplies by far the largest requirements of Egypt, and although in a few British colonies a small section of the people purchase German gimcracks and Yankee •flimsies, Still the great bulk of solid, substantial manufactured articles comes from Britain. In New Zealand we have practically no export of manufactures, restrictive legislation, in the interest of trades' unions, having effectually destroyed our budding manufactures, and thus played directly into the hands of oversea manufacturers. But these same trades unions have mercifully omitted agriculture in their baneful crusade against the welfare of the colony, and to the overlooked and overworked agriculturist we must look, in the impending lean period, for the financial salvation of the community. The large reduction in the prices of some of our agricultural products throws a somewhat sombre shade on the farmer s prospects, still a recent report furnished by the Australasian Chamber of Commerce in London, supplies a silver lining to the cloud. - It is conclusively shown that Britain buys less cheese from the United States and' Holland, and more from Canada and New tularin. As regards butter, New Zealand and yanacla are forcing down the imports from German} and France, although' Denmark more than maintains its lead, and Russia is a growing source of supp.V. At the present time British importing firms are making inquiries in the Argentine Republic as to the prospects of success in establishing . butter and cheese factories in that ' country. J The reputation which' Now Zealand produce has established

in the Home markets, our farmers are straining every nerve to maintain, and as the quantity is oractieally without limit, every eft or ought to be made by those in authority to open up fresh markets. , , : Credit is due to the Government for its attempt to open up a trade in produce wit" ; South Africa, but the attempt so far has been a failure, and according to the testimony o people acquainted with that country, is never likely to be a success, as when the war is over it is contended that South Africa will itself be an exporter of produce. I lie west coast of South America is said to otter a fair prospect for exploitation. India includes in its population a large number o wealthy European and native residents, who already appreciate our produce, South-east Asia and the Eastern Archipelago are well worth cultivating. China and Japan take largo shipments of foodstuffs from Australia, the volume of trade steadily increasing. There are, three steamship companies trading between Sydney, Hongkong, "Yokohama, ana intermediate ports, and the steamers of these lines rarely leave Port Jackson without full or two-thirds cargo, and this in the face of the fact that the number of trips has been quadrupled within the last few years. Surely New Zealand might have a slice of this trade, the more so as we import the products of Cathijv and its progressive neighbour, it the prognostications of those who predict a period of restricted prosperity be verified, it is the neglected agriculturist to whom wc must look to pull us on- or the mire. Government lias been particularly solicitous that- the city unionist should not be overworked nor underpaid. Let us hope that a modicum of its tireless energy may be expended in attempting to find markets for the products of those to whom it lias not provided an eight hours day a lavish pay, and a weekly half-holiday. — am, etc., James Muir. THE ANGLICAN CHURCH. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln a letter signed "A. M. Zero," your correspondent makes the statement that Christianity was established in England long before St. Augustine's mission. That the faith was preached by the monks of the Catholic Church may be correct. We know it was in Ireland. But it was St. Augustine who first established tho Christian Church, and all the churches and cathedrals, in England. before the fifteenth century, were built by the Church of Rome. Where then was this Church of England that your correspondent says existed? We can find no trace of it. The footprints of the Catholic' Church we can trace to the Apostles. Further, your correspondent tells us that there was a" Bishop of Lincoln in the year A.D. 314. Now, the first Bishop of Lincoln was St. Hugo, who, in the twelfth century, de- ,1 signed that most beautiful cathedral, and j it was built by the Pope, who sent 300 skilled workmen from Rome. My authority is Froude. the historian, from his essay, entitled "A Bishop of the Twelfth Century." Let us give honour to whom honour is due. Let us remember that we owe the debt of debts to the Catholic Church. Whatever sect we may belong to, we owe our Christianity, our spiritual life, to the Church that kept tho faith through . the dark ages. In remembering this, I think we tako a more . honourable place by calling ourselves Protesters, than by denying - our Mother Church, who gave us life.—l am, etc., • M.B. TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—ln answer to "Anti-Ritualist," there should be little doubt as to the at least nominal and legal Protestant character of the Anglican Church. The Coronation Oath is explicit on this point. There is a passage in the oath, framed in conformity with the "Act for Securing the Church of England as by Law Established," where the Sovereign swears, in reply to the question of tho Archbishop' of Canterbury, that lie will, to the utmost of his power, " maintaingthe Protestant reformed religion established by law." It would appear also- that in various . Acts since the Revolution the protestantism of the Anglican Church is expressly declared. It is referred to as the "Protestant religion" and also as the "Protestant Episcopal : Church." " Anti-ritualist" ought to know better than to suppose that the -Church formed in England during the Saxon period of our history "continued as such ever since." That Church became corrupt, and it was reformed by men who protested against Romanistic errors. There is nothing to bo ashamed of in the name or fact of Protestantism. It is in historical accord with purity of worship, political liberty, and general progress.—l am, etc., H. MR. JUSTICE COOPER'S STATEMENT. > TO THE EDITOR. Sir, Allow me to' thank you for directing public attention, vide paragraph in your issue of January 1, embodying the plain views of "Largo .Employer of—Labour," from a Canterbury paper, "to certain gratuitous, unwarrantable, illogical, and unjudge-like utterances. by Mr. Justice Cooper; in a recent Arbitration Court award deliverance. In hearty agreement with the views expressed by "Large Employer of Labour," I must first of all join him in deploring the ignorance displayed, which is the only intelligible interpretation of Mr. Justice Cooper's unfortunate lapse. It is a serious mistake, indeed, for lie or anyone to affirm that New ZeaI land employers are. "with only a few exI captions," " satisfied with existing legislative facilities," by which the industries they have been conducting are being exploited and devoured by tho ravens of labour unionism. Far from being satisfied," employers throughout this colony are being paralysed so completely by the anxieties of their position that language cannot express _ the extent of their dissatisfaction. Satisfaction, indeed! Injury enough is being done without their being subjected to the mockery of Judge . Cooper's references to "benefits" (?) which employers arc now receiving from labour combinations. It is ludicrously absurd, if not criminally wrong, to evade the uncompromising fact that labour unions have never either suggested, or shown any desire or inclination whatsoever to confer any benefits of any kind upon anybody at all outside of their own fraternal circles. The bo all and end all of their very existence under all circumstances has been to enforce against employers and tho public at large " benefits," _ privileges, and increments, in a monopolistic way, for merely themselves. " 'The .measures taken by unions always have included more pay. more privilege, and never larger returns of work done,- never greater care, never more responsibility. Wherever "unionism" asserts itself "minimum wage" agitations have arisen, and crusades have been organised against men who, perhaps, have been benefiting " tho employer" by superior skill and productivity. With the minimum wage, it is clear that competency must be set upon the very lowest scale of results. ' Unionist policy demands that no more than a minimum output should be permitted. Who then, amongst employers, could fail of being satisfied" to preferentially employ union labour in order to enjoy its natural benefits (?) of retarded industry, and naturally diminishing ability to compete in the world's markets? The end is not yet, and Mr. Justice Cooper may discover that the labour policy of " Seddonian" New Zealand has been (as it must be) fatal alike to its moral and material development. —I am, etc.. An Unsatisfied Employer. Mount Eden, January 3, 1902. \ \ Medical-