THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15325, 11 June 1913, Page 10

THINGS IN GENERAL.

STREET TRAFFIC. "I'm very glad to see the city's conscience has woke up," said the barber. " I can see we're in the midst of a great and glorious revival of the most toney kind. First of all, up comes Queen Street. That's a good sign. Operations is the mainstay of health. Ask a doctor. Then we have the realisation that, the street traffic wants regulating It's a good many months since I found that out; but my voice is only howliu' in a wilderness anyway. Never mind. Truth is magnificent, and shall prevail— bit, as the poet says. Thank goodness the only part of Queen Street that's got much traffic on it now is the footpaths; and they've wanted regulatin' with an axe for a long time. The way the leisured Maori gentlemen and the white Maoris lounge round the corners and spit is a fair disgrace. And it's always been a most amazin' thing to me to see the way people in Auckland carefully refrain from rememberin' that there's a proper side of the road to walk on. What with the numerous hoardins that block up half the width of the paths, and the win/some erraticalness of the crowd bobblin' from side to side, I got quite a pleasant half-hours scrummin' out of a walk down town. Sometimes I see a policeman move somebody on when he stops to borrow a match; but I ain't ever seen anybody give the kainga at -the corner a shove along. I -see a lot of swell people standin' about in the public way, impeding thereof; and seem" that they've had a fair education you might wonder at it. But why shouldn't they? If the poor people can lounge round at the Customs Street corner without fear or favour, it shows there ain't any Teal law about it. They can't say there's one law for the rich and another for the poor here, anyway. As far as this business goes, there: ain't been any for anybody. But as I says, all that is goin' to change. Followin' upon the health-giving upheaval of Queen Street, and the disturbance of the whole city, along comes notice boards. Six feet by four, in English and in Maori. Them that runs may read. Them' that only walks may read; and, if they're got time, even them that leans ; agains a telegraph pole may read in the intervals of, wonderin' what they're for, and why everybody else seems to be workin'. I can't say I like the idea o! such big boards, seem' the City Council ,; says it objects to hoardin's on principle; but there the law'll be. They're tryin' to ■ get the police to look after things. I hope they do. When the thing gets goin' I reckon the best way to start on first offenders will be to walk 'em up to one y of the signs and make 'em read it out ' , loud to an admirin' populace. Second 5- ?, time, I'd make 'em carry a couple of boards round town, .- sandwich fashion." '... j POETS LAUREATE. ; The v late Alfred Austin (poet laureate) ;./; was the poet "attached to the Royal : ;; i household." The term poet laureate arose, ; of course, from the association of eminence with the crown of laurel which, in the old ~ Greek days, was the honourable reward of victory in competitions. Ben Jonson was ;>.. . the first poet laureate in England, even if ,■;.■:, he did not carry that title in words. Charles I. created the position for him in , " 1617, but as every, schoolboy knows, there were royal poets and singers long before that. The custom of retaining court /nin- ;:■'.'■-'.; strels in the royal retinue was even than - L , ancient t in*' England. ■;The actual title of ..: poet laureate was conferred by letters patent on Dryden in 1670,. two years after Jonson's successor. Davenant, died. Dry- ."' den's emolument for the, office was a pension of £300 and a butt of Canary wine. :; , Since then the institution has been regularly carried on," the successive poets laureate .. being T. Shadwell (who first began the writing-of annual birthday and New Year •: odes), Nahum Tate, Nicholas Rowe, Laurence •' Eusden, ;, Colley s Gibber, t William t v.; Whitehead, Thomas I Wartoh; J. H. Pye, :)C' Southey, Wordsworth, Tennyson, and Austin. It was left to Southey to • elevate : ■.; . the office into true honour, from which his predecessors had allowed it to degenerate : v , and Wordsworth and Tennyson maintained ;,; its standard., As is well known there was \ much difficulty in ; finding a successor to '-'-'•.;''■ Lord Tennyson;l,but it- was felt to be in- • advisable to-let the post lapse,; severing ■■; . the only official link between literature '.'.": and the State. Austin was appointed [ ; four years after Lord Tennyson's death. "' It is i generally understood that the poet .; laureate ha 3 to produce complimentary and ■•" other formal verses in honour of . State -" events, but that is no longer an obligatory ■^ part of'the office. . ' ', _ t THE ' PLIMSOLL LINE. '■.'.': ...The appointment by the president of the Board of Trade of a Load-fine Committee s vto , advise him "as to the attitude which i > should be adopted :by the British representatives at the * coming International I Conference on the Load-lme, recalls one j of the most interesting and exciting controversies of the middle of last century. 3; ■'.. Samuel Plimsoll, a self-made merchant of ' -v.',' Sheffield, took up the cause of the mer- > chant sailors 'in . such a way -'as, to , earn ; for him the honourable title of " the Seaman's Friend." Plimsoll had a good cause, but he retarded its progress by the vio- " ; lence, and exaggeration of some of the .' charges against shipowners. Men were ; V; undoubtedly sent to sea in these days iu "coffin "—vessels that were never meant to reach any port, but go down, • whatever became of the crew, so that the owners might earn the insurance money. It was no uncommon thing for letters to be found in the pockets of drowned seamen , which proved that they had made their friends aware of the condition of the ship -that was meant to be their: coffin. Pliinfoll brought in' a Bill which, proposed, ■ among other things, the compulsory painting of a load-line, which should mark the flotation ."point of fully-laden vessels. The V; Bill came to the test of a division on June 24, 1874, and was rejected by a majority [ of only three, 170 voting for and 173 against. Tho Government, recognising from this the importance of tho subject, brought in a Merchant Shipping Bill of their own in 1875, but did not proceed ; with it. This so angered Plimsoll that he created one of the most amazing scenes .',:' ever witnessed in the House of Commons, '.- was suspended, returned in a week and apologised lor everything but his facts, and triumphed in the end. His name will always be associated with the " Plimsoll line," painted white on the side of every : sea-going vessel, to indicate that she must not be loaded below that point. A TALE OF THREE FISH. , The same veracious person who told me a horse story some time ago has evolved one about fish. Once upon a —that • is, on Sundaya man went to St. Heliers ji to catch piper. He left his rod on the \ .., wharf while he had an argument about 3 "where the Sydney steamer was likely to -show up first— or west of Tiri. When he had lo3t the argument, he pulled up his rod, and sure enough, there was a pakifri on the hook. He started to pull it in, and just as it was emerging from its native element, it was snapped bv a . kahawai. Plying his trusty rod, which bent like a peeled willow wand under-the ... tremendous strain, he gradually worked v the. monster to the wharf, and gaffed it. (The gaffing; I find, was merely a touch of paint, put in to add what my friend calls yV '"versimilitude.") - I was in hopes thai is .when the fish. was, or were, landed, it or - they would bo snapped by a Maori boy or " a dog ; but it was not so. The fisherman "■■-•■■ cut open .:: the.i' kahawai - to \ recover the i. iv; pakiti; then for some unexplained reason | he. cut open the pakiti; Inside it was a X\ '. sprat. The/ strong feature about this #•■■■ rather bathotic tale is that the man who ( '>- told it says it is true. FUNGUS, VERSUS FLIES. I ■■■-:■;: A 'writer'.in the Scientific American sets ; - forth: a terrible indictments of man's arch-, 1 '■'. enemy, the. house-fly. Mr. Heese is ini- i •, pressed very s fully with the ■ beastliness 'of J• < this' insect,. to whom ho ascribes habits <

which, according to his descriptions, make the fly an even more efficient carrier of disease than is commonly supposed. It is well known that the fly can only take food in a liquid form, so that when ho tries to eat anything dry he has first to moisten it. According to Mr. Hesse, the fly has a "crop" in which he keeps a reserve store of food, put «side for a lean day; and it is this that he spits upon fresh victuals. The writer claims that" he has made use of this habit of the fly for its undoing. In 1885 one Varley discovered a fungus which is parasitic in the fly; and since then many vain attempts have been made to cultivate and us* it for the extermination of the insects. Mr. . Hesse claims that he has made a culture of the spores of the fungus, and has fed it to flies with marked success. The spores were mixed with syrup spread upon paper. Such flies as had their crops more or less empty filled them with the syrup. The spores germinated, and the flies infallibly * died; but a less success attended when the syrup was swallowed directly into the "working stomach." The writer* does not express himself as being wildly enthusiastic about the process, but suggests that the considerable success of his experiments promises greater results if the spores were used by the public in large quantities.

THE STARVATION WEAPON. A correspondent of the London Times has. pointed out that the "hunger strikes" of the suffragettes represent in a form a very old and widespread custom, known in the East as "dharna baithna," or "sitting dharna," once very common in India, but now almost obsolete. It was chiefly resorted to in order to force the payment of a debt. The debtor would sit at the creditor's door and taste no food till his claims were ~ satisfied. If tho debtor allowed the creditor to starve, it was believed that he laid himself liable to supernatural punishment, especially if the starrer happened to be a Brahmin. The custom was, the writer continues, much abused, being used to levy blackmail upon persons who were not debtors at all. It also gave rise to various analogous practices— instance, that of certain beggars in the Punjaub, known as "strap-riggers." who would twist a leather strap about their necks and throw themselves on the ground. in a state of incipient strangulation as a means for securing alms. Similar in principle was the threat to commit suicide or to murder a child, in order to secure compliance with some demand. The Gexebal.