NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13702, 19 March 1908, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE NEW CAPE MINISTRY.

It is nearly 40 years sinew Mr. John Xavier Merriman, the new Premier of the Capo Colony, entered the Capo Parliament, and during that time lie lias had a seat in the Cabinet, in the capacity first of Commissioner for Crown Lands, and afterwards of Treasurer- I, a portfolio which lie held from 1899 to 1900. Mi. Merriman is a Somerset man, who has retained throughout his long career in South Africa many of the characteristics which distinguish the representatives of that county. It has been said that his mind is the product of asceticism and democracy, but he possesses a quickness of intellect which is almost as incompatible with the one as it is elevating to the other. He is the son of a former Bishop of Grahamstown, and after receiving his early education at Rondebosch he went to Oxford. At one time he managed the Langlaagte Estate for Mi. J. 15. Robinson. Mi-. Kauer, who becomes Minister for Public Works in the new Cabinet, might be described as the understudy of the new Premier, and lie has been mentioned more than once as the man who would be entrusted with the formation of a Ministry should Mi. Merriinan retire at any time from the leadership of the South African party. He has spent all his life in Cape Colony, where he has practised as an attorney. He entered the Cape Parliament for Aliwal North, a constituency for which he was re-elected over and over again. Ho was associated at one time with Sir Gordon Sprigg, but broke with him in 1876 on a questi< nof native policy. From 1881 to 1886 ho was a member of the Seanlen Ministry, as Secretary for Native Affairs, and he was chosen as Colonial Secretary in the Rhodes Cabinet of 1890, only to become one of those who wrecked it three years later. He was Commissioner of Public Works in the Schreinei Ministry. Mr. Malan was born in the Paarl district in 1871. He is descended from a Huguenot family which settled in South Africa towards the end of the seventeenth century. He graduated in science in tho Cape University, and afterwards took the LL.B. at Cambridge. After being admitted a;, an advocate of the Supreme Court of Cape Colony he turned to journalism, becoming the editor of Ons Land, one of the leading Dutch newspapers of the colony, in 1895. He was convicted during the Boer war of having published a libel on General French, and after serving a period of imprisonment be made a visit to England. He is one of the most eminent politicians in the South African party, and commands a large following among the Dutch. The new Colonial Secretary, Mr. De Waal, has long been associated with the Bond. He was elected to the Legislative Assembly for the province of Colesburg in February, 1904. Mr. Henry Burton was returned in the Bond interest unopposed, to the Cape Legislative Assembly, in November, 1902, and again in February, 1904. Mr. L. Currey is also a notable figure in the South African party. He has been returned unopposed more than once for the constituency of George. He is an advocate by profession.

RAILWAYS IN RUSSIA.

The Russian railway lines now cover collectively a distance of 40,670 miles, having increased 1172 miles since the year 1906. '.["his increase is chiefly thanks to the construction by the State of the northern line from St. Petersburg to Vologda. The whole network consists of three, groups— miles belonging to the State, 11,440 miles worked by private companies, and the rest of narrow-gauge line. In the course of the last year the construction of an additional 1430 miles was begun, including 555 miles of second gauge upon the Siberian line, 119 miles uniting Trans-Caucasia with Persia, and 220 miles in the confines of Finland. During the present year it is intended to construct 1336 new miles of railway. The State purposes to build a line from Perm over the Ural, and from St. Petersburg to Petrozavodsk, while private companies are asking for a concession to construct the Kachetinskaya line, and to connect by line the stations Liubcrtzy and Arzamas. The most extensive project is, of course, the construction of the immense line from Nerchinsk to Kharbarovsk, in order to unite the Far East with European Russia by a railway constructed within the confines of the Empire.

ON READING ALOUD

It is no uncommon saying that reading aloud, like good manners or plain sewing, is a lost art; that it is one of those things which belonged to a. past and gone generationto a generation infinitely superior to our own, and possessed of a standard of excellence to aspire to which were nothing short of presumption. In a sense this is true, but against it must lie remembered that this past and gone generation exists, has always existed, and, paradoxically enough, always will exist. Reading aloud, moreover, in its best sense, will always belong to an elder generation, since it implies magnify and superiority on the part, of the reader. Perhaps more women than men ate good readers, partly because of their natural versatility, and greater average power of voice expression, but chiefly because of their motherhood. It is the small nursery tyrant who teaches the mother to read, who insists from an early date on "Jack and Jill" some twenty times over, or the "Three Little Pigs," or "Red Riding Hood." She is subject to the severest criticism and correctionnot so much on account of her voice production, but for the slightest deviation from time-honoured and -established precedent. "Jack and Jill" is soonit is incredible how soon— replaced by Grimm or Hans Andersen, and by the time the exploits of the bold D'Artagnan are reached, or those of the good Denis, with his "Courage, mon ami ! Le diable est mort," the maternal postulant has been educated into a fairly good reader, and, incidentally, relegated, once and for all, to the past generation. To read aloud well, fluency and a pleasant voice are, of course, essential, and many people are satisfied with these two very important assets. But real reading aloud, which is a fine art, must interpret as well, and just as the number of good musicians is limited, so it is with really good readers. Many can read the words, just as many can play the notes, with facility, with rhythm, with everything, perhaps, except feeling, and thus to read aloud well the reader must either have already made the book part of himself the prerogative of years and experience— or must have an instinctive power both of discrimination and interpretation.