NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14808, 11 October 1911, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE DREAMS '' OF SCIENCE. In- another century and three-quarters the British -coal mines . will be so far exhausted that the people living then will stand face to face with famine and misery. Such" is* the "portentous warning ,of Sir William Ramsay, the.-. distinguished chemist. But -by that time who knows whatdreams of science may have been realised, and what new sources of energy may, have; been discovered to take the place of coal. Stephenson, it will be remembered,, defined coal as " "bottled sunshine "—bottled by Nature millions of years ago to drive, among other things, the New Zealand railways in ; the twentieth century of the Christian era. Suppose 'we should hazard the "audacious presumption that . before some of to-day's schoolboys are old men ■ liners > will ;be driven across the Atlantic by'" stored electricity? A hundred years ago a dreamer predicted 'that * ships would be propelled by steam, from - Britain. -to America. "Ridiculous !" ■ exclaimed 'DionysiuA Lardner, and many greater . authorities. And it was not mere sciolists, but •men, of the highest authority, who ridiculed. with that "scorn "which wisdom holds unlawful, ever" the idea, of electric light and still more elector traction. .('Michael Faraday will ;be held in the greatest esteem for his ' electrical "discoveries, yet Faraday classed "electric- light'*/; with table-rapping and other - similar -abs"urdi-| ties. What would he have said of electrif trains and tramways He died on August 25, 1867, and in less than 30 years *< ehjb-' trio light was everywhere, y and electric railways were in existence. How this great man would have stood ?-. amazed to hear of electric stations: with turbine engines of 15,000 horse-power! j How all, or nearly all, of even the .most farßfeeeing of -his contemporaries .would havtf . contemned absolutely the thought tjiat by electric ethereal waves we should talk with , people 2000 miles, ~ away? without uttering a 'sound ! .Strangely enough, in

one field of effort mankind • ha& ; been sanguine even from very ; early limps—namely, in the belief that some day man would- be able to fly. The sturdy faitji was sound,; though the facts seemed to be all against it. It stood for the ages as a beacon of presumption. v I£et the,! dreamers were right, though 3 the fulfilment "-'of their dreams came in a way they could not possibly anticipate. No man; dreamt of a steam-engine ere it" wis..invented, ,; and there (! .was no talk of internal combustion engines before the days of -gas and petrol, ft is not rash to be .very hopeful of what Science may accomplish; .the presumption is to place a* limit'and say what, she cannot do. * Nature ssella t her secrets at a price./ Great laws like Newton's, instruments of knowledge like the Calculus, do not'come unbidden; We must pay the 'price of research.' v 'That price we .must pay for the storage of electricity. It may be a long and arduous research;'but it will succeed. The inventive * engineer is on the way to success and not thus alone, but in nfany other unknown ways, the future Will be taken care of, and Britain will not be face to "face with famine and mißery c 'wifchin "the « next 'two, nor • within the next twenty, centuries. ' - " *

;, POLITICS AND HUMBUG. Recording to an eminent authority, the successful politician r must "be an "adept in humbug. Judged "by r this" standard, Mr. 'Lloyd ■ George may be regarded vas * the prince of humbugs. Some of our public men in New Zealand can fairly lay claim to some distinction in" that line, but they lag a long way behind the : British Chancellor of the Exchequer. Speaking recently' at the laying of the foundationstone of a new '■ Baptist--church at Neath, ho' said :—''We have members of Christian Churches, men who are '" well off,' and never • missed a delicacy, yet who : are angry when an effort is made by any class of the population to ' ameliorate its condition. I '?.; say let them examine the conditions under which hundreds of thou,sands, nay, millions, ; people seek to earn a living for themselves and their wives and children, / and ?if '-they '■ think thai, these conditions^are 'satisfactoryV: Iwould, advise them to follow the penance of' the Catholic practice .for six , months, and live :on the wages -of . the • people of this country, and try to keep their families on the pittance millions, of our workers are compelled to "five" upon. It would cure them of one 'of'the worst sins—the sin of uncharitableness." Why doesn't Mr. Lloyd George practice what* ho preaches ■'.'• He is "a-' member of a .Christian Church. He is well-off. His income must ■exceed £5000 "a year- Why; .doesn't he set an example to the backsliders, and for six months/' or six weeks, or even six days, follow the penance of the Catholic practice! If ,it did not cure him of i on© of the worst sins, it would, at least show that he ; was in earnest, ; and that he believed in the homely adage, that what was sauce for the goose wag sauce for the gander.