ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12833, 5 April 1905, Page 1 (Supplement)

ON THINGS IN GENERAL.

• NOT A HAH'Y FAMILY. According to the mfcrestiu*- reports of the : Herald corresponded with the Land Commission, tho Commisioners do not form a very happy family. In Friday's paper wc were told of a "bitted passage-al-arms" between two ot the Commissioners, in spite of the chairman's atenipt to pour oil on the troubled waters:. 1 If the chairman does not. make it a rule to ."it in the middle, with the freeholder) ' «n his right and the leaseholders on his left, something worse may happen. Then again the members are evidently not goinj to allow their constitutions to be wrecks! in wrestling with the freehold v. leasehold problem. I don't blame them for objecting to being "niggerdriven." for 110 serious' purpose. Everyone knows that the uiole thing is a huge bit of humbug, devsed for the purpose of enabling the Premier to postpone a troublesome question infthe hope that something may turn'up to relieve the situation. It is an* expensive game, no doubt, but when Mr. Seddon gets an idea in his head, money is no object. It is shocking to think that thousands ofi pounds will be wasted in taking dawn in shorthand evidence by the yard of nil and sundry on all sorts of subjects more'or less connected with the land, ami hi getting it all printed' in a. huge volume that no sane* man will ever read. And while, all this reckless waste of time and money is going on, the settlers in the black blocks are crying out for roads and bridges, suid sufficient assistance from the Stat© to mitigate the hardships of pioneer settlement. The time is certainly t ipe for a political change, and the opportunity will be given at the coming general election. BRITISH'RULE ABROAD. In an interview published in the Herald last week, Jlr. ■Tisdall, a missionary from Persia, declared that a British liar was unknown ia- that; country ■, and a recent cablegram announced that during the past seven rears -taxation to , the amount of £13.000,000(sterling had been remitted in India. All the world knows what British ride has done for Egypt. It is a great record of whioh any nation might be proud. The British Government has been very fortuuate in th* high character of its representatives abroad. 'Among Eastern peoples they may not always be loved, bub they are certainly respected and trusted. The word 'of a British 'official can always be relied on. .. A -writer who knows India, thoroughly lias recently put it on record that "never/perhaps. in the history of the world, has there existed so grand a bureaucracy as that which administers India incorruptible," devoted to duty, maintaining before the eyes of the natives an official standard of conscientiousness, to praise which were, almost an impertinence. And this, be it, remembered, among a people whose notion of equity in a judge is accepting bribes from both sides, to be returned in the case of the loser. So incomprehensible, indeed, to the average native mind is British incorruptibility, tha it may come to the knowledge of a judge that delay in the settlement of a case will be taken by the suitors in his Court to mean that he is waiting to be bribed; and that, pending the factual settlement, sums of money are paid to bis native subordinates, which are supposed to. pass on. to Ins hands." LORD KELVIN. A* cablegram in Monday's Herald announced that Lord Kelvin, "the great natural philosopher, had undergone a serious operation, and the whole civilised world will be glad when the neirs comes that it has been entirely successful, and that this grand old man of science is himself again. Lord Kelvin was electrician tor the Atlantic cables, the story of which. is one of the most/fascinating chapters in the history of science. Of his famous sounding machine an amusing story is told in connection with the celebrated Dr. Joule, of equivalence of heat fame, who entered a scientific apparatus shop one day where the new machine was being constructed. , Seeing what he took to be a bundle of pianoforte wire. Joule asked Lord Kelvin (then Sir W. Thomson) what if was for, and received the reply that it was designed for " sounding purposes." " What . note?" innocently inquired Dr. Joule, to receive the prompt aud.witty reply, " The deep C." Though a .hard worker all hi.- life. Lord Kelvin was no ascetic bookworm student. He was one of the bes' oarsmen ot" his day at Cambridge, and an immense favourite with his brotftei' Undergraduates. His taste for the water, indeed, has never left him. Foi 20 years he went yachting every slimmer. The recent election of Lord Kelvin to the Chancellorship of Glasgow University put into circulation <• number of anecdotes. Most Kelvin stories which obtain in Glasgow (says the Manchester Guardian) are founded upomthe occasional inability ot the great man who lisped it. logarithms '•« . bring his mind to ii childish sum. On his blackboard he mads two and; two five, an i, hearing the- chuckles of his delighted class, altered if hastily,to..three. He was once . heard to say. in his characteristic slow way, with his beautiful u-e. of the soft Irish r, "Seven times nine/Mi. Mac-far-lane, are a hundred and what'' (Pause.) But. no: sevc-v. times nine cannot' be a hundred and anything. Mr. Mac-far-lane. for the square ot "a hundred is tern" . Lord Kelvin's inaptitude for simple arithmetic may account for his taking the wrong side, in the contraver.sy as to when the 19th century ended. MiYSTERYVJDF TWO MOONS. . A paragraph; appeared in the Hkkald the other day explaining why, although this year there was a full Boon on March 21, Easter Day does not fall till April 23. A little further information as to how the dale of Faster.Day is fixed by the Church will be of interest. r TSe Prayer Book rule does nob apparently yield the actual dale given by the almanacs this year, and main people have been sadly puzzled to understand the discrepancy. Dr. Downing explained the mystery at a recent meeting ot the British Astronomical Association. He quoted the ecclesiastical rule as follows: —"Faster Day is always the first-Sunday after the full moon which happens upon, or next after, March 21; and if the full moon happens upon a Sunday, Easter Day is the Sunday after.'' But, according to the almanacs (said Dr. Downing), the union would be full at 4h. 56m. Greenwich mean time, on the morning of March 21, 1905. -Why, then, was not Easter Day m 1905 the following Sunday, namely, Marcl 26, instead of April 23, the date given ir the almanacs? Was the Prayer Book wroiir,, or was the Nautical Alnlanae wrong? He was happy to he able to give an assurance tha' neither of the authorities referred-ifo was wrong. The explanation of tliejijprmioot contradict ion was simply that 'J different ".moor" was referred to in the two cafes. The "moon" of the - eclesiastical calendar was an imaginary body, which was.so controlled by specially - constructed tables as to be " full'' on a day not differing by tr) ji< than two or three days i at most from the, date on which the actual moon was full. ..The adoption oi the calendar moon for such a purpose as fixing the date ot Eastr-r hid certain practical advantages, "such us applicability to every terrestrial longitude, that would not be present in the cast ot the.'actual moon. • v SMITH." People have often wondered where all the Smiths come Win. South Australia, it appears, is a laigij contributor to this honoured and extensive i-nnily. In one family alone there are over,6o. * A correspondent, writing to the Adelaide Register, supplies some I''. interesting particulars. Be says:--"Mr. |- James Smith, Yankalilla, who will be '60 | years old on June 1, 1905, came from Ayri£ ■ shire, Scotland, and landed in South Austraf. lia in December, 1848. He went to live at Yankalill? ii|#lß49, and with the exception '. of 16 months spoil* on the Victorian goldI : . fields it- 185l|md 1852 and two or three fly- : :-. ing visits [Broken Hill, ha- never left the K :;''. State. He/has 61 living descendants, made |; up as toting : --Hr had •> family of eight j children, of whom five were, sons and thine ..' daughters. | Four sons and the three daughters married. One daughter died at the age ot 43, living 14 children. At present i ;',. there are five eons and two daughters with i- . - ' !' • " - • tkrrV '■:.;'-. - .':' ■-~',•'' H■' •' ';•■'■' : ■;'•.■.'.'" fc,,,, I' '- ' t ' I

families livingl4; 11, 8, 6, 4, 4, and 3, or a total of 50 grandchildren. Their ages range from 28 years down to six months. Of the grandchildren, 29 are males and 21 females. There are also font great-grand-children, of whom two are males and two females, so that at present James Smith can account for seven children, 50 grandchildren, four great-grandchildren, all living, or 61 with himself, a grand total of 62. There have been 13 deaths. Mr. Smith himself and 57 live in South Australia, whilst five arc at Broken Hill." Tin; General.