NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14806, 9 October 1911, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

SIC TRANSIT GLORIA.

Auckland is not the only art centre where artists are at present perturbed. In Berlin they are suffering from a severe fit of the blues. 4 of pessimism has swept- over their souls, and to their despondent vision art is in the throes of death, strangled by the democratic and utilitarian spirit of the age. This is" what one of them says:—"Art is dying because the soil it needs has been built over —the soil of simplicity and superstition. I believe firmly that in 200 years we shall have no more artists and no more poets. On the other hand, we shall surely have machines, duly patented, by which may be" turned out sixty plaster copies of the Apollo di Belvedere in a single minute." All that is "considered undesirable to-day is necessary, he adds, for the maintenance of art: " Contradiction, conflict, disorder, the undignified love of the soft-hearted, deceit arsd robbery ; and ambush, stupid peasant beliefs in cobolds and glistening —these form the soil whence art and poetry draw their nourishment, ", their power. And my mind is made up: if you abolish those things, if you arrange the world with regard to nothing but comfort and equality, then you will abolish art, too The arts are so many parasites. And this does not offend anybody who knows that the earth's most wonderful flowers, the orchids, are also parasite growths." ..The . drama proper, we are told, is also fast decaying —" How can people who have lived all day in the noise and haste of business give their nightly leisure to the delicate nuances of psychological analysis?" Musical come dies, variety entertainments, and cinematographs are supplanting the drama. . "I quake before the electrical greatness of coming generations, and I shall spurn them even out of the pineboard box in which, by the time of their coming, I shall have been nailed. . New culture. : But an artless culture. The vision of Nature's secrets stirs, deeply, but it" will never stir man to that divine insanity

which we have at various times < named ' The Dome of St. Marks,* or ' The Hermes of Praxiteles,' or ' Orlando Furioso.' All that is gone. It is dying between our hands, or it is already dead, and wiL.no ; longer stand in the way of the laudably perfect arrangements for hygiene and comfort in the best of all coming worlds."—, Si" 1 transit gloria mundi. A LEVIATHAN OF THE DEEP. ~ To build a vessel like the Olympic costs the capital of a bank, and to launch it after it is built swallows up a fortune. It cost the Belfast Harbour Board, which draws no share of the Olympic's earnirgs, £58,400 to get ready for the launching. Of this sum much went to deepen the channel to 32ft. Opposite the berth a pit 50ft deep had to be dredged in the bottom of the harbour to make room for the plunge of the stern before the bow left the ways. Then Messrs. Harlaad and Wolff the builder:;, had to spend £9734" to strengthen Victoria Wharf opposite the berth lest the terrific commotion kicked up when tho monster struck the water would cause the wharf to collapse. Still, that was but a beginning. Three of the largest slips they had were converted into two for the Olympic and Titanic. £ Over (he berth a double gantry had to be erected 840 ft long; 105 ft wide, and 220 ft high, and equipped with travellers and cranes capable of lifting from five to 40 tons. Besides this, there was a floating crane to be provided at great cost to transfer the boilers to the ships after they were 1 afloat. More than 600 steers died merely to make her path into the water smooth, for 22 tons of tallow were used to grease the ways.

THE BRITISH AND uj£RMAN \ NAVIES.'

.. Id. seeking to arrive at a true estimate of the comparative strength of the British and German destroyer flotillas, Mr. McKenna's recent statements in the House of 'Commons, says a London paper, are most .helpful.. He was, for instance, compelled to admit that, whereas in the seven years from 1894 to 1900, inclusive, Great Britain launched 106 destroyers to Germany's 11, the figures for the sevan years from .1904 to 1910 were, for Great Britain 68, and for Germany 67, the latter, figure excluding four vessels recently sold to Turkey,, which will doubtless be Replaced by faster and more powerful craft. In these seven years, therefore, Germany's output of destroyers was actually greater than our own, in spite of the fact that the North Sea is universally held to be particularly suited to torpedo warfare, and in spite also of the fact that in his memorable invasion memorandum the First Sea Lord, Sir Arthur Wik<m, based his opti- ; mistic outlook very largely upon our 'superior destroyer' I strength'. ! That we possess a superiority is -indeed patent from the official papers; but it'is equally apparent that that superiority is wholly dependent upon obsolescent craft, which; are already being removed from the effective list in considerable batches. , .In answer to another ' question, •; the First Lord-, announced that the number of destroyers provided for in British ; and German programmes from 1901-2 :to 1910-11, inclusive,: was 132 and' 90 respectively. The accuracy of the German figure .is not questioned, but the result would have been interesting if some well-informed member had challenged the British total. , The number of destroyers actually provided for and voted by Parliament in these ten years was 120; but the Admiralty :in its wisdom . cancelled "the whole of the 14 voted in 1904-5, and three cf the five voted in 1906-7, - so . that the number, actually, laid down was not 132,'.as'stated, , by .Mr. £McKenna.' or even 120, as £voted ; by . the House of . Commons; but only, 103. -1 That, is to say;" in 10 years we- laid down \ only 13 destroyers more than Germany. 3 j It is true that in 'same period four "replace*! vessels were purchased as v substitutes for.others lost at sea; but, as the total lost in the 10 years was nice, we were' still five behind on balance.' : Another point; that has to be .. taken into . consideration in this connection is that of the respective totals' 49 German and - only 18 British boats have a designed speed of 30 knots or more, Such unvarnished - facts as these are incontrovertible testimony to the manner in which our naval supremacy has been allowed to dwindle * away in one >of the most important of its departments.'