GENERAL EXTRACTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12696, 26 October 1904, Page 3 (Supplement)

GENERAL EXTRACTS.

THE JAPANESE AND CHRISTIANITY. That the educated classes in Japan, are very favourably disposed towards Christianity is generally known, but probably fewreaders are aware that some of the most prominent officers now leading tho Japanese forces have accepted the Christian faith. Chief among these is Admiral Togo, the hero of Port Arthur, the man whose resource and daring have given Japan command of the sea, thereby enabling her to transport her armies and supplies with freedom and safety.. Th« admiral is a very modest man, as shown by his despatches recording victories over the Russian fleet, and it is notieoable how systematically he attributes his success, to "the will of heaven.". ,

Admiral Togo is idolised by the officers and men of the Japanese navy, not only because they have faith in him as an able leader, but because his Christianity takes a' practical form, causing him to place the welfare and comfort of his subordinates before ms own. "When some luxuries were sent to mm recently for his own personal use ho handed these over for distribution first of all amongst tho men and then amongst tho minor officers of the fleet, and had none whatever himself. His rule, too, while, firm, is of the kindly order,' and the admiral is locfeed upon as tho father of those under his command. . Almost as distinguished a Japanese Christian is Admiral Uriu, a commander of tho squadron that sank the Russian warships vary eg arK Coreetz at Chemulpho. It was while in America that Uriu was converted to Christianity, and his faith was not of the passive order, for as soon as ho had believed tho Gospel for himself lie set to _ work to make it known to others. - He joined the Young Men's Christian Association at Annapolis.—The Sunday Magazine.

THE MAKING OF ENGLISH ROADS. With the exception of the Roman roads, there are really no straight roads in tho kingdom. The haugthy. Gauls, who first conquered the southernmost counties of Great Britain, or rather the whole of England and some Lowland shires of Scotland, went in a bee-line through the country. They knew, tho advantage of taking time by the forelock. Many of these roads are now beautifully tree'd avenues, while others, such as that from Warehom in the east to the old camp close to Bore Regis, lead through open and charming , moorland. There is no waste ground by the sides of these.

But many of even our very best English roads are so winding in character that L havo often wondered how they came to ho evolved. They no doubt date back to the earliest ages, long before the Romans made ! so free with the land of our sires.

They were but footpaths at first, leading from hamlet to hamlet or village to village, ■ and their trend was determined by many trivial oircumatauoes. Men walking, especially lovers and their lasses, would naturally j go a bit about to avoid a hog, a hill, a rock, - or stream. Not always the latter, though, for th» lover and his lass would think it great fun to wade the river at. its shallowest part. The path once formed would soon become a bridle path as well as a bridal path-, sheep and cattle- would be driven along it also, and as agriculture of a more refined sort began to make progress, and country people laid out claims for themselves, the rubbish and stones from the cleared land would be thrown up along the side of the path, and wild bushes, such as furze and bramble, grow thereon.—Dr. Gordon Stables in the Leisure Hour. j

RESULTS OF STANLEY'S ACHIEVE-. j MENTS. •' :■' : ! The* nrineinal geographical results of the . lato Sir 11. M. Stanley's achievements,' says \ Sir Harry Johnston in " Good Words," have been the definite solution of the last mysteries of Africa:—(l) Ho was the first to circumnavigate and approximately map tho great Lake Victoria Nyahza, the existence of which had been discovered by Speko; v but Speke made no .attempt to confirm hia ' guesses as to its shape and area by any actual exploration of its shores; conse- . quently the. very existence of the lake as a- I great undivided "sheet of water was called in question. (2) Stanley discovered at different • times Lake Albert Edward and its northern gulf. Lake Diveru; he also definitely established the existence of tho S»mliki or Albertine Nile. (3) He discovered (also on diffe- ■ rent occasions) the miehty snow range of Ruwenzori, the Mountains of the Moon of the Greek geographers and the highest point i of the African Continent. (*1 Though ' Schweinfurth and Miani had preceded him i in finding those wonderful forests in the north-eask-rn watershed of the Congo, | Stanley first drew public attention to the I area and density of this woodland, and ho : supplemented Sehweinftirth'a observations on the ...idea pygmies by showing that these dwarf races extended southwards and eastwards to the verge of Ueanda. He aso gave the first hint of the existence of th» Okapi, wheh enabled the present writer to definitely reveal the existence of that dwarf giraffe. (5) He als< discovered the course of the Congo from Nyiinsrwe- to Isangik. _ Prior to this discovery Livingstone had believed the Lualaba to be the TJnner Nile, and Cameron had given a guess without offering any proof that. it was the mighty Congo. Stanley furnished actual proof that the river which rises a few davs' journey from the north end of Lake Nyassa was the main stream of the Congo; "he completed the work of Livingstone on the east and Tuckey on the west. He also explored the course of the AruwimiIturi and o'ther affluents of the Congo. It is this last feat, the discovery of the Congo, which rives him a claim to tho first place on the roll of African explorers.