NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18703, 8 May 1924, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

FAILURE OF ITALIAN DAM.

Expert explanations are now available regarding the cause of the collapse on December 1 of the Gleno dam, erected on the Dezzo River, some 30 miles northeast of Bergamo, North Italy. In places the flood wave reached 100 ft. in height, 500 lives were lost, and property was destroyed to the value of 150,000,000 lire. Some particulars of the structure and of the causes which occasioned the catastrophe are given in the Engineering News Record, as the result of an inquiry conducted by Mr. A. de Martini, an engineer of Genoa, assisted by Mr. A. C. Janni, of New York- It would appear that from the pufrely technical standpoint, the disaster serves to emphasise the dangerous character of badly-made reinforced concrete. The Gleno dam was a reinforced concrete' structure of the multiple arch type, which rested on a gravity base of masonry. It was 143 ft. high above stream level and retained 190,000,000 cubic feet of water. In plan it comprised a central curved section of nine seraicircular arches, each of about 26ft. 3in. span, flanked by straight end sections of which one comprised 12 arches and the other four. The arches had axes inclined at 53deg. to Jhe horizontal. Of the nine arches over the central section, eight failed, as well as an adjacent arch on one of the straight sections. The masonry base largely remained in place. According to the report, the masonry of the gravity base was built in lime mortar, although the specification called for cement. The gravel used as aggregate was unwashed, and the concrete was porous. It was mixed by hand, and was not rammed into the forms;. The reinforcement was scrap netting, which had bean used during the war for protection against hand grenades. The original plan provided for a gravity dam, but the concessionaires subsequently sought authority to replace this by the multiple arch typo. Permission for the change was not granted, but the work was proceeded with in spite of government orders to stop construction till the plans had been approved. i

HUMANITY'S PROGRESS. To whatever aspect of life we turn for comparison, it is undeniable that in those humanities which are the real test, not of civilisation only, but of practical Christianity, the present tim.a is incredibly in advance of any earlier period in the world's history, writes Mr. A. G. Gardiner in the London Star. There is more justice, more kindliness, a deeper sense of social relationship, in the highest meaning of the word, more true religion than ever before. The case of the children alone is enough to sustain a thousand times over the argument that we are on the up-grade. Turn to the Hammonds' great work on the Industrial Revolution, and read of the incredible barbarities to which the child life of this country was subjected a century ago, and it will be impossible to doubt that the spirit of Christianity has changed the whole face of society. Or take the iniquities practised in the name of law a few generations ago, and contrast them with the spirit of to-day, and it will be apparent that the whole conception of social justice has undergone & startling and beneficent change. Or turn to that wonderful passage in the speech. of Sir William Meredith " On Frequent Executions," delivered in Parliament in 1777, and dealing with the execution of Mary Jones, and you will thank God that you have the privilege of living in these days instead of those. I would stake the claim that the world is on the up-grade on that thrilling story of the hideout) past alone. "When I read history, whatever the period and whatever the country to which it refera, the one overwhelming thought borne in upon me is the enormous development in the humanities of life that we are privileged to enjoy.. Children have been emancipated, women have been emancipated, the burden of the poor has been lightened, the path of the sufferer has been smoothed, flairey Gamp and liWle work'us " alike .have become memories of the evil past, and the world is a cleaner, juster, better place to live in than, it has ever been since the story 0 £ man began,

THE COLONIAL SECRETARY. . M l"u J * ; E - Thomas > Secretary of State lor the Colonies, is unquestionably the cleverest politician yet produced from the ranks of the . Labour Party. That is the opinion expressed by Lord Birkenhead in an article in the Sunday Times. He briefly sketches Mr. Thomas' career, recalling the courage with which he competed the cessation of the unofficial railway strike in Wales in 1918 and his patriotic services during the war. "He is a very unusual man," Lord Birkenhead proceeds. "He is sane, sagacious, balanced patriotic. In opinion he is no more Socialist than, .say, Lord Parmoor or Mr. Winston Churchill. " I am persuaded that whatever he oncc believed he knows now that for this country* to socialise the means of production, distribution, and exchange, while other countries adhere to individualist systems, would at once involve us in devastating ruin. And like the Roman augurs, I suspect that Mr. Thomas must sometimes smile at the programmes and the promises with which some of his colleagues (particularly at election times) are so profuse." Turning to Mr. Thomas' individual characteristics, Lord Birkenhead says: "He is affable and not bashful. He is a warm friend, and a clean opponent. He is an adventurer precisely in the sense in which I am myself willing to be called an adventurer. And the great Disraeli did not disdain the name. Life is, in fact, an adventure, and he who (starting from nothing) fights hard while conceiving ambitiously, must be an adventurer. Mr. Thomas knows, several dukes by their Christian names. He has a mastery of the more robust vernacular beloved by our forefathers beside which Sir Robert Walpole would have paled his ineffectual fires. He enjoys all that is enjoyable in life with an unconcealed and rather attractive zest. He is an extremely agreeable, if not over-silent companion, and in the merry company which the genius of Rabelais imagined h e would, I think, have found himself, in almost all respects well equipped and at his ease. He could, for instance, have talked without much risk of mutual misunderstanding with Friar John. Nor do I believe that in the moon-bathed gardens of Boccaccio's romances he would have been embarrassed by the company, the narratives, or even by the nightingales. Whether his fellowrevellers would have been embarrassed when it fell to him, in his turn, to propose his own conte I cannot tell. But the standard of that delightful company was admittedly relaxed. Enough has perhaps been said to make it plain that a draper's boy does not rise to be Secretary of State for the Colonies by accident, and that Mr. Thomaa' dazzling success is the reward of extraordinary talent, energy, and variety of character."