NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12071, 15 September 1902, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SOME FACTS ABOUT FINLAND. Foil the past 23 years the Finnish Statistical Central Bureau Las published " The Statistical Year Book of Finland." The year book for 1902 has just appeared, and it contains the following interesting details:—Finland owes its high state of civilisation to its excellently organised school system. With regard to its popular education, Finland is far in advance of Russia, with the sole exception of the Baltic provinces. In the school year 1899-1900, Finland pos- | sessed altogether 1757 elementary schools, i of which 285 were Swedish, 1455 Finnish, 16 Swede-Finnish, and one Finnish-Ger-man ; in 1433 schools, boys and girls received instruction in common. To the middle schools for ordinary education belong the lyceums, classical and modern, the modern schools, the town schools, the socalled elementary schools, and the girls' schools. There are 50 lyceums, 20 of which have an incomplete course of instruction, 20 elementary, modem and town schools, and 38 girls' schools; to these must be added 36 private preparatory schools. Moreover, Finland has seven training colleges for both sexes, with 10-19 students. In the first semester of 1901 the University of Helsingfors had 50 professors and 73 assistant professors, lecturers, and tutors. The matriculated students amounted to 2355, of whom 1196 were in residence. The budget of the university amounted to £60,000. Technical education in Finland stands on a very high level. To the 46 technical schools proper, including the great central school at Helsingfors, must be added the industrial schools, agricultural schools, commercial schools, and the polytechnic institute at Helsingfors, with 372 students. Tins institute has five departments—those of engineering, machine construction, architecture, chemistry, and mensuration. In spite of the fact that the climate and the soil are alike comparatively unfavourable, agriculture in Finland has been brought to a high state of development. Finland's most important source of revenue is its timbei, from which the State alone has a gross revenue of nearly £120,000. In 1898 there were 550 sawmills in Finland, of which 302 were driven by steam and 248 by water power. These 550 sawmills, the production of which represented a value of about £2,520,000, employed altogether 19,000 persons of both sexes. Finland possesses to-day 19 canals,, of which the Saima Canal, the most important of them, was used by 5873 vessels in 1900. The total length of the Finnish railways in 1900 was 2932 kilometres, as compared with 2424 kilometres in 1395, and 1928 kilometres in 1890. The total revenues of the Finnish State railways amounted to £824,800. The banking system of Finland is well developed. On December 31, 1900, there were in the Grand Duchy 12 joint stock banks, of which seven were founded during the last 10 years: the total of the original capital and of the reserve funds of these 12 banks amounts to about £5,600,000, of which sum the oldest, the " Finland's Bank," founded in 1811, claims £1,560,000. The flourishing state of the country is also attested by the great growth of the savings bank system. The number of depositors was 141,000, and the amount of the deposits was £3,104,680. I

j OUP. GREATEST CAVALRY LEADER. 1 Sir John French has earned the title of [ our greatest cavalry leader. Of his services in South Africa it is impossible to speak too highly. He won success .all along the line, his "bags" of prisoners were so large as to be almost inconvenient, and ■ he was one of the few generals whom the Boers really feared. They were afraid of him ; not by reason of his astounding courage, 1 but principally because of his restlessness, and the remarkable manner in which he divined and thwarted their best laid and most secret plans. In peace as well as in war General French never gives himself a single idle moment. He is out with the lark, when lie is at home, and when he is in command of his " Tommies" no one knows when ho sleeps. Certain it is that if he does allow himself the luxury of a nap his periods of unconsciousness are of the briefest description. His passion for work and his exhaustless energy remind one of nobody so much as the German Emperor. A fighting man every inch of him, he was, and is, adored by officers and " Tommies" alike. He works his men—gets every ounce out of them — no one has ever heard a whisper against him. li was General French who was in command at Elaadslaagte, when he achieved one of the most brilliant victories of the war. His resource, however, was never better demonstrated than when the Boers were surrounding Ladysmith. Ordered by General White to carry despatches to Sir Kedvers Biiller. with characteristic pluck he boarded the last train that left Ladysmith before tho siege, determined to carry out his mission, .or, die. in the attempt.. It was ao .

worry to him tithe line was studded with Boers-, jo Diftch were watch ing im despatch-Its. As a matter of fact they searcher* train in which the general was travel, but failed to find him. Slim as thejfcc, John French w as slimmer. He peri Id the journey lyfeflat down under tlat. The despatch*, he concealed bene! the cushions, thus making tolerably I that if he was so unfortunate as to iaptured, hi 9 paper, would remain Liddlintll their contents would be of no fu* value. Sir John trench is a fliort.lkset man, with a somewhat pugnaciolcountenance Ex tremely audacious, Able to make up hi, mind on a matter -lie and death at * moment's notice, hi nevertheless of a really cautious natulHe appears to do things in a hum-, biA point of fact this is not the case. He I deep thinker, but Ins bran is such that lias little difficulty in deciding what, is feasible plan and what is a bad one. "■*.- of hu . i. winch resulted in tl defeat of Boers greatly outnumbering l own force, were actually thought out iU e sarfdie> His favourite hero in histl is Napoleon from the life or whomfe has gained a large portion of the fawkdg* which h*, won for him one of 11 most enviable posts in the British Arm J

GtTARDIXG THE MIX' WEALTH. The average visitor to 5 London Mini cudgels his brain in vain { inderstand how a check can be kept on a its wealth, for there is scarcely any wa>, and theft is unknown. The expiation is simple However, for, contrary u ener&l supposi! tion, nobody is searches when he goes home at night, and ther 5 no system of espionage ; but no emp ee engaged i a the making of money is lowed to leave the building until the dajjwork is donethe men must take their finer on the premises—and until every rticle of metal has been weighed. If aJaJuable piece of metal is missing from auldepartment, the employees in tint deparfent have to' find it before they jo horn Several other precautionary riles had to be observed, not because then is an) doubt as to the honesty of the workers, frho bear tin, best of characters-tie greeiM gold is not for them, familiarity with fie precious metal having removed all tnptatio&—but is order to proven the ijgots from going astray. Each dpartmejt is kept locked throughout the ay, and no man can visit a room other tan his own without the sanction of the officer tho is over him. Further, the mtal is Weighed as it is passed from root to rocni. The head of each departmentknows by his books the weight of metal not was given out to hint in the morning, md consequently has no; difficulty when work ceases for the; day in ascertaiing the exact amount of gold and silver after allowing for waste,,; that should be i his hands. Even the dust on the floor's taken into calculation.] Before the bells found for the nightly! exodus each roonis carefully swept, and the particles that .ave accumulated during the day having ten collected, they areput into water, w,h the result that any; gold or silver tha may be present soon* separates itself fror. the dust by dropping to the bottom of th.pan. It is interesting also to observe tha the gold pieces are counted as well assveighed as they are carried from room ti room. It is important to notice that mae of the gold in the Royal Mint belongs to the Government. It is the property for'fche time being of the directors of the. Bink of England, who, whenever they rccmiti an addition to their stock of sovereigns and half-sovereigns, send a supply ot bullion to the Mint, where it is turned into coin! at the expense of the Government. The Sank pays nothing for the manufacture of is gold money.