NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12281, 27 May 1903, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

the state in RELATION xo TRADE. Mr. Benjamin Kidd, at a recent meeting of the Royal Colonial Institute, read a paper on " The State in Relation to Trade," in the course of which he said it was tradejj and in particular British trade, which constituted the most important international facto* in the world at the present timeHe went on to deal with the British fiscal policy of the past 50 years, and said that if the trend of public opinion abroad was followed there might be notice'' a growing impression in other countries that a change was gradually taking place in the fiscal policy which the United Kingdom had followed during that period. If it were true,, in what direction was the change in progress carrying us? It could not be doubted that the standpoint of the State in relation to trade and industry in Great Britain had very considerably changed since the middle of the 19tb century. There was derided evidence from many quarters 01 » demand that, both nationally and iuternationally, the State should do a great 0 more in the interests of industry and com merce than in the past. These tendencies a been reinforced by another set of changes. The feeling as to the ultimate tendencies trade following its own devices, unc °" g trolled and unregulated, was not the 8 * M as 20 years ago. The rise of n ' . and still more so the rise of vast monopotf concerns, had introduced a new 111311

! ''' WI L, had undoubted begun to make the it ' «, m er feel uneosj. The operations of I jUt concerns tendei to overshadow even 1 ;V S of the State. Yet they were not | fe' t.olled, like the (Derations of the State, I I ff the electorate. Ihey were even some- : fLs practically Managed and directed J IT foreign counties. Mr. Kidd then • oke of the essenc> of English free trade I '!!jw .If they aialysed the free trade ' j Joveraeut of the part: they would find that Iv- represented, over and above everything else, vhe principle of antagonism to mono'J' -a trade and commerce. The question arose as to where this principle of antago- ■ JL to monopoly to industry and trade V-."' gS carrying us. K- turned their attenl ♦ion to the United Slates in regard to the v . question. If a neW and larger struggle % l»» opening before is in trade, a struggle v j. the same spirit of antagonism to Monopoly which forced the essence of the L. trade movement in England 111 the Srt was likely to become again engaged, If St wart in it were the States which comI led the British Empire destined to' play? 1 Ha future was with the big organised 1 State, and for the same reasons it would If he with the big organised industry ComM bines were monopolies, and there was only 1 one power in the background that would I eventually successfully meet them. It was 1 ♦hat of the consumer and the trader, them--1 ' selves organised in the interests of free 1 competition, in t-h only way in which 1 elective organisation was possiblethrough I : ; the state. .It wai organisation which 1 would eventually win in the world. Out 1 of the great development 01 trade in the 1 nineteenth century there were emerging I • *•; into sight three principal competitors in if the immediate future, _ In the foreground li- there was the world-wide system of British I trade which we had ourselves built up. On I one side of us there was in sight the system I which had now its real centre in the United I States. On the other side there was the 1 system of the German Empire. The pecu--1 liaritv of these two existing competitors I of British trade was that they each of 1 them represented organisation. Between I these two systems there lay now the I ifeatest nascent possibility -of the time— I that of the British Empire. Would it I achieve itself?. Would it learn the lesson 1 of organisation as the first and urgent re--1 qnirement to retain to us in the future I fruits of that policy of antagonism to these two systems there lay now the greatest nascent psssilulity of the time — thai- of the British Empire. Would it achieve itself? . Would it learn the lesson of organisation as the first a«d urgent reqnirement to retain to us in the future the fruits of that policy of antagonism to 1 monopoly which m*de us in the past? 1 The day might possibly come when we 1 might have a great trade without a great | KinV and a. great navy. The day would 1 \ never be when we should have a great I army and navy without a great trade. I This led up to a third matter. We had re- ! cently had the announcement, of the forma--1 tion in Great Britain of a. Council of Im- | periiil Defence. Besides such a council. I tad more than such a council, we wanted a I Conneil of Imperial Trade with far wider | powers and more effective representation I thin anything as yet attempted. We | - wanted a council trhicb would draw not 1 only on the nation, but on the Empire for I® Council of Imperial We ought far wider powers and more effective representation t<hm anything as yet attempted. We wanted a council which would draw not only on the nation, but on the Empire for its "best material. We ought to have a 1 : /V Council of Imperial Trade able to meet the 1 Pierpont Morgans of the world on some--1 thing like an equal footing. In conclusion, I i Mr. Kidd said that, if we were to carry . y the principles which had guided us in the past into the future, if we were to respond to the clear call upon us in the tendencies in economic and in political development, there was only one name for us all as there was only one policy. We must be the British Commonwealth.

HOW AMERICA FATS FOP. ITS EDUCATION. Technical education in America originated largely from the Lard Act of 1862, 1 tie title of which runs :—" Ah Act donat- ' ing public lands to the several States and territories which may provide colleges for , the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic i art?." The amount of land given to each ' State was fixed at 30,000 acres for each ' lenator or representative in Congress. i New York State, for instance, became en- ] titled to 990.000 acres. There were certain ; conditions attached to the grant, the most j important being that the land thus granted ' to any State must be located in that State j done, and not in any other State. A , Stats in which there were no public lands : left would have been in a quandary had 1 the Act not provided that in such cases 80 equivalent in land scrip should be : issued by the Secretary of the Interior to the States so circumstanced. In this way each State became possessed of a large srnnunt of public land, or an equivalent in land scrip. Both the land and the scrip had to be sold by the terms of the Act, and the proceeds invested at not less than five per cent, per annum; the income so derived being devoted to the maintenance of at least one college, " where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach'such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and the mechanic arts." The income de"rived from this Act must be applied to the payment of teachers' salaries and to the purchase of scientific apparatus only. Every other item of expenditure, the erec- , tion and maintenance of building?, general % office . staff, etc., must be otherwise provided for, thus leaving a wide field for municipal grants and private munificence. Further assistance was given to technical education by the Federal Government through the Morrill Act of 1890, entitled, "An Act to apply a portion of the proceeds of the public lands to the more complete endowment and support of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts established under 'lie previous Acts of Congress, approved July 2, 1862." By this Act the United States Treasury was directed to pay £3000 to each State and territory in 1890, and to increase the amount annually by £200, until a maximum of £5000 was reached in 1900, after which the grant was to remain constant at £5000 per annum. The total grant from the Treasury under this Act m 1901 was £240.000, distributed between 48 States and territories. This grant is to be applied " only to the instruction in agriculture, the. mechanic arts, the English language, and the various branches of mathematical, physical, natural, and economic sciences." It is noteworthy that the Act specially directs that none of the money is to be granted to any college where a distinction of race or colour is made. THK NILE GRINDING awai ITS rocky CHANNEL. The erosive action of the Nile at one point in its long career through the desert has recently lormed the subject of an ex ceedingly interesting paper by Dr. John Ball, Ph.D., F.G.S. The author chose for investigation the Semna Cataract or rapid, » which is situated some 43 miles from Wady Haifa. At this point a ridge of hard gneiss forms a kind of natural barrier across the river, which is 1300 ft wide immediately above and below the ridge. The ancient temples of Kumna and Semna are built upon the ridge. At high Nile the river flows over the barrier without any lory considerable diminution of its width, but owing to the shallowness of the water .pu -he barrier the velocity of the stream is much increased, and violent eddies are often set up. At low Nile the gneiss bank entirely bars the stream, except for a narrow channel about 130 ft in width. Observing that this comparatively narrow opening was sufficiently large to allow the low Nile to pass through at a rate of two miles and a-lialf per hour, Dr. Ball surmised that it must be very deep. Upon making soundings, he found that it was ' JP°ut 65ft deep in the centre. The queswon, then, was how this gulch came to , formed. Di. Ball has found almost conclusive evidence that it has been carved ? An ie soc ' roc k by the Nile itself. •Ml the observations made by Dr. Ball appear to support the view that 36ft of solid gneiss has been removed by erosion - since b.c. 2300. That portion of the bar- ] tier which is laid bare at low Nile is honey-! : combed with large potholes ; frequently a s ,; '■', Dumber of potholes cut into one another, p. the result being that large fragments fall •, into the . holes to continue the grinding. .. « is estimated that the gneiss has been , , wora away at the rate of 500 tons per

annum. This represents a lowering of the bed at the rate of two millimetres per annum. Thus Dr. Ball estimates that the yearly discharge of the Nile past Semna is very nearly 100,000 jppHion tons of water, which flows at a <A£&n< velocity of 4£ kilometres per hour at high Nile and at 2A kilometres per hour at low Nile.

OUR CABLE NEWS.

Mr. Law, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Trade, states that the policy of preferential trade enunciated by Mr. Chamberlain in his Birmingham speech, was arranged by the Cabinet beforehand. The prime organiser of the revolutionary movement in Macedonia has been killed in a skirmish. His death, it is said, is likely to paralyse the revolt. In consequence of a warning from his Minister for Finance that a repetition of the Kishnieff outrages on the Jews would be disastrous to Russia's finance, the Tsar has ordered the suppression of Jewbaiting. The French are sending troops to the Morocco-Algerian frontier, which is being threatened by the followers of the Moorish pretender. Twenty-one persons were killed and two towns destroyed in Nebraska by a tornado. Two hundred thousand men are idle in Greater New York owing to strikes and lockouts. As a result of the famine in Southern China 30,000 women and children have .been sold into slavery since last February.