THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13647, 15 January 1908, Page 9

THINGS IN GENERAL.

FIRST NEW ZEALAND STEAMER. Soke discussion has token place recently as to which was the first steamer built in New Zealand. A correspondent, 6igning himself "H.A.H.M.," writes: — "Among recent items of news, it was stated that the first steamer built in New Zealand was launched in December, 1863 This is certainly a mistake. A haudvj little steamer, built by a shipbuilder named Stone, was launched in Freeman's Bay in the fifties. On one occasion I took passage in her to Otahuhii, via the Tamaki. When the gold rush took place- to Victoria, this boat was sent across to Melbourne, where, [ believe, she did good eervice." Another correspondent, Mr. W. l\ Porter, says:—"l saw it stated that the first steamer built in New Zealand was launched on December 23, 1863. Now, this is not so, as the vessel •vas launched. in December, 1851. Her trial blip took place on January 19, 1852. I was present on the occasion, and remember her well. She was a vessel of 40 tons, and was christened the Governor Wynyard." The following account of the-launch-ing of the Governor Wynyard was published on January, 20, 1852: — " Yesterday pursuant to ' advertisement, the new steamer was off the Wynyard Pier in Official Bay a little afte* 11 a.m., with the twofold' object; of receiving her name and embarking her passengers for a- trial trip to the Tamaki. Unluckily the tide was too low to admit of her coming alongside the pier. She was consequently compelled to take off her passengers in her skiff so that the ceremony of naming, although prefaced by a neat address from His Worship the Mayor, was more a private than public affair. After some delay, the command, 'Turn ahead,' was issued about 12.30 p.m. With a fresh N.E. . breezeand a flood tide, with a jump of a sea, Ihe Governor Wynyard, with some 30 voyagers, commenced boring her watery way. It may be well to state the Governor Wynyard is a vessel of about 40 tons, and that she is fitted with two steeple engines of 4-h.p. each, the. vessel being designed and built by Messrs. Stone and Gardiner, ;.nd the engine constructed by Mr. Bourn. It must be obvious to everyone that in a colony of only 11 years' standing the turning out of even a small steamboat was no light or contemptible affair; and even after the boat had been got afloat and started on her maiden trip many tilings must needs have been left unfinished, many overlooked; and strange boat and strange crew must have had many difficulties to overcome. There was a doubt as to the success of the Governor Wynyard, as her tonnage was too great, her proportions too short, and her power much too little to enable her to buffet the current and breezes of the Waitemata. But to judge by her doings yesterday, with new, stiff machinery in new, unpractised hands, it is to be hoped that she will prove to- be a staunch, sterling acquisition to the port. With some delay and stoppages, and in the teeth of a foul wind, heavy sea, and adverse tide, she took but three hours and a-quarter. in her passage from the Wynyard Pier to Pansnore, and about the same time on the :«turn trip yesterday. This was no mere maimer sail, but a passage to test, in a considerable degree the capabilities of the boat. Judging from what we experienc:d, once in good working order and in ordinary weather, she will be able to accomplish from six to seven knots an hour. There will be a better opportunity to test Iter qualities on Thursday next, when tie same trip will be repeated. We ought; to'be "thankful*'for our day of" small' things, and wishing the proprietors of our Governor Wynyard every success it is to be hoped ere long the beautiful bights, bays, and estuaries of our water-girdled metropolis may be alive and thriving, even if defiled* by clouds of sooty penEants." The vessel was afterwards dismantled as a steamer, fitted with two masts as a schooner, and sent to Melbourne, where she plied on the Yarra when the goldfields were at their height, arid I believe she made a lot of money for-her owners. She was totally unfitted for the Auckland Harbour, having very little power, but on a river like the Yarra she got along all right.

THEN, AND NOW. " We are Ancients of the earth, anil in the- morning ,of the times," -wrote Tennyson in his "Day Dream;" find in a history that is to be counted in decades and not in centuries, tso far as colonisation is concerned, New Zealand is still, ■ one might say, in the morning of the times. She has made history already, it is true, but ' greater things are waiting. The building and launching of- the Governor Wynyard was counted a feat in the days when she Was turned out, but we have made enormous strides since '.hen, and the fleet of tine steamers which ply their way about the Waiteinata to-. jay are such that those who saw the Governor Wynyard launched— and some of ihem are still living little dreamed that in the year 1008 Auckland would be the busy, thriving port it is to-day. The progress made by this young country in loss than the ordinary span of a man's life is one of the wonders of the world, and as a feat of colonisation it stands without parallel. The tine steamers of the Union Company and other Australasian companies and the giant oversea liners that visit us, the running of the iron horse almost throughout the length and breadth of the land, the-wonderful wealth that comes from the soil, • our great mineral output, the magnitude of our dairying statistics these are things that no man dreamed of 60 years ago. But our pioneers of industry were men who knew no euoh word as fail ; they did not shrink from facing fearful odds, but battled on like heroes and made home* for themselves and reared families, and the men who have taken their places to-day are made of the same stuff, sturdy sons of sturdy fathers, and every day is adding to the wealth and prosperity of the people. Let ua not forget the men and women who came out from the Homehad did thdr work well, and have none to their vest; and whenever we flunk to tint prosperity of our country, let us also drink a silent toast to the brave old Pioneers! The morning of the ttees"—.\nd it is scarce yet noon with WHAT WAS IT? A meteor or not a meteor, that is the question—whether the great glare which suddenly lighted up the city and its surroundings on Monday night was due to ii meteor, a combination of , searchlights from the warship in the harbour and Fort, Takapuna, or to the correspondence which, it is understood, is now being carred on between Electrician Tesla and his friends on Mars. "There's little doubt About it in my mind," said His .Nibs emphatically, " but that it was a message h-om Mars. As it happened, I was out for a stroll. at the time, and I had the good fortune to get a very fine view ot •Ms so-called meteor. I have seen meteors before, but I never saw one like this one. ft seemed to be making signs to someMie. On passing me it stood still lor a moment— if 1 were Joshua an' it the uin—but the next moment it was gone, n-idently satisfied it had made a misike It's my belief it was lookin for lesla, an s I expect we'll have a cable -.bout it shortly. If he has had that eight uindred million horse-power apparatus ot lis despatchin' messages, it's quite provable they have been safely received and delivered by the wireless telegraphic department on Mars; an' in. that case this Mondav night busines would certainly be it reply. I may 'ave been mistaken, ot course, but I did see something that look- • cd like the word ' collect' attached to the

thing. Do you know/ General, it was only the night previous I whs dreamin' about Mars, an' I believe there's many a dream that's true, just as we know there's many a true word spoken in jest. Well, I dreamt the newspapers there were always preachin' a Yellow Mars, an' harpin' on what they called the White Peril, just as on Earth we talk about a White Australia and White New Zealand, and write articles on the Yellow Peril. As far as I could make out in my dream, the inhabitants of Mars are mostly yellow in colour and approach more closely to the Chinese of Earth than any other race we know of. You've heard of those canals of Mars; well, in my dream the true explanation was vouchsafed to me, an' now that 1 have mentioned that -the people are like the Chinese it should readily occur to you. ft lias been long held that those canals had been constructed for irrigation purposes and for carrying water from the fertile regions to the desert places; but 1 saw that this, though partly true, was" not quite correct. On Mars there is no meat eaten, but all are vegetarians, an' it may be that this is why the people there are giants compared to us. Where everybody lives on fruit an' vegetables, it is only natural that there should be enormous areas of land under cultivation; an' when 1 tell you that the so-called canals simply correspond to the ordinary drains you see.in a Chinese garden on Earth you will have some idea of the magnitude of I lie vegetable gardens there. Another tiling that I was struck with was the wonderful enthusiasm displayed by the people for all kinds of pyrotechnics, and nothing seemed to give them greater pleasure than letting off fireworks. I never saw so many fireworks in "my life as I did during this brief and singular visit of mine, though, of course, it may just have happened to be King's Birthday with them. At all events, they have reduced this business to a fine art, and it is quite feasible to assume that Tesla has at last succeeded in attracting their attention and that the glare in the sky on Monday night was caused by a huge Catherine-wheel from Mars with a written message pinned on to the stick part of it. I remember, too, that while I was on Mars I saw a, tremendons electrical disturbance in the atmosphere— flashes of lightning every second or two—and it has just occurred to me that it might have come from Tesla. They say there was a noise like thunder after this thing went by, but it was not thunder. It was simply a kind of speaking rocket going oft' an' saying ' where's Tesla?' I think I ought to know. I heard it."

"THE THINKING MACHINE." Somebody has recently written a book called "The Thinking "Machine." The "thinking machine," Professor van Dusen, is nothing but a machine with a yellow shock or hair, which the reader is never allowed to forget, and a habit of being continually' irritated when* anyone says that a thing is impossible. As if anything were impossible ! These are his only human —the yellow hair and the capacity for being irritated. In all other respects he is just a machine. Not that there aren't plenty of other human machines in the world, for we know there are; but the trouble is they're anything but "thinking" machines. You can get plenty of non-thinking machines cheap, but you've got to pay a big price for your "thinking" ones. The tendency of mod-ern-day life is to make human beings machines; and it is true that, just as it is done with men's bodies it can also be done with their brains. A man gets into a groove; he does things mechanically; he does the same thing in the same way every time, just like a machine; he becomes painfully accurate, painfully monotonous, and makes one long for a change. He may go a. little slow* at times, like a machine when it needs oiling, and he may go along pretty fast at times, like the machine that has been oiled; but for the most part his, life is the same dull, ordinary humdrum round, the same to-day, as yesterday and the same again to-mor- ; tow*. Man from being a thinking person is rapidly becoming a machine pure and simple. The rich man like Rockefeller pays another man to do his thinking for him, and the man .ho pays is a fraud, because lie is tired of thinking, : and either invents a machine or buys one to do it for him. Why should he bother to think out a sum when he has a lightning calculator to do the work for him? What we have done in the way of inventing machines to save the labour of our hands we are now doing to obviate the necessity for using our brains and thinking. What will the end of.it be? It is hard to say, but it is not impossible that one day we shall find the thinking part of us has simply died out for want of exercise, and though we may desire to invent machines to do our work for us we shall be unable to think how to do it. . >. Tub Gknekax,.