Current Topics.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 995, 27 March 1891, Page 24

Current Topics.

Professor Anderson Stuart has been giving the University students at Adelaide a lecture on Dr Koch’s specific, as will be seen from our telegraphic columns, where the iec*ure is summarised. As the Professor studied the subject recently in Berlin, he is an authority. He seems to be much of the same opinion as Sir Morell Mackenzie, whose article in the January number of the “ Contemporary Review ” is being extensively read. Some of his remarks about the specific we will quote. Sir M. Mackenzie calls it “an element of tremendous power.” “Only those,” he

; says, “who have seen the effect of a minute quantity can have any conception of the physiological earthquake which it causes. It seems to run through the system searching out every nook and corner for tubercle, which it drags from its hiding place into the light of day. Dr Koch informed Sir Joseph Lister that the undiluted fluid probably contains only about a thousandth part of the really active ingredient.” A milligramme being the' usual dose at commencement, only one millionth of a gramme of the active principle enters the system. From the effects of this inconceivably minute quantity some idea may be formed of the

almost uncanny energy which the substance would display if let loose, so to speak, in the fulness of its untamed strength. The statement attributed to Pasteur that no venom from a snake, if administered in such small doses, could produce such effects, is no exaggeration.” Sir Morell Mackenzie’s summary is worth quoting in full. “I believe ” he says “ that Koch’s fluid is an agent of the highest possible value for the detection of tuberculosis, a palliative for some of the distressing systems of the severer forms of the disease, and a deadly

poison in advanced or unsuitable cases.” Sir Morell Mackenzie goes further chan Professor Stuart in predicting a very great perfection for the specific in the near future. What is more important is that both agree about the extremely dangerous nature of the specific. Sir Morell’s description of its power is one of the most terrible things we have read for a long time. It fully accounts for that grim death-list which came from Berlin the other day. It also accounts for the extreme suspicion with which the specific is regarded by the sanitary authorities in both Sydney and Melbourne. Professor Stuart points out that without the aid of surgery, to remove the dead tissue with the bacilli not killed by the specific, the use of the specific may produce serious aggravation of the disease instead of cure or even palliation. With this, Sir Morell Mackenzie, in the course of his article, thoroughly agrees. At present, he says, it may be of great use to surgery, provided great prudence is used in the selection of the part to be operated upon. His prediction, in fact, is that the specific may be a magnificent aid to brilliant surgery, but that at present there is no reason to hope for anything else. If that be taken in conjunction with the summary of his opinions which we have quoted, it will be seen that even he, who is the most favourable critic of the new system, admits its dangerous character. For diagnosis of tubercle the specific appears from all accounts to be infallible, and to be even then almost infallibly dangerous. So far two results have been achieved. The hopes of the afflicted have been unduly excited, and the doctors have been encouraged to experiment on the human body with a highly dangerous substance of the composition of which they know nothing.

The Hawaiian trouble coming so soon after the death of King Kalakaua has somewhat falsified the predictions of the American critics. When the King was lying dead at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco they were confident that his successor (his sister, Princess Lydia) would find no difficulty in carrying on the government. She succeeded in due course to the throne, with her husband, the Honourable John Dominis, formerly Governor of Oaku, as Prince Consort. Almost at once tbe r e was trouble between her and her Ministers, and the possibility of aid from the United States was mentioned. It may be that the transition from a Limited Monarchy to a Republic, which has been long predicted, is at hand. "When Kalakaua was elected in 1574, on the failure of the celebrated Kanieharnelia line the Monarchy had teen shorn of its prerogatives to some extent. In 1887 the Parliament forced the King to accept a new Constitution which still further reduced his power. It deprived him of the privilege of nominating the Upper House, which became elective on a property franchise, while universal suffrage with a slight educational qualification was made the electoral basis of the Lower House. The number of each Chamber was fixed at 24, and both sit together as one House. The Queen being in conflict with the Legislature (dominated by the Party of National Reform), and being it is said in danger of her life, it is possible that a Republic is at hand. That would be a more probable solution than American annexation, for the integrity cf Hawaii is guaranteed by Great Britain, the United States, and other Powers. The trade of the country, which is fast increasing, while the Native population is decreasing, is entirely in American hands.

Since the burning of the “Cospatriek” and the loss of the “ Captain ” there has been no such disaster at sea as the collision ofl’Gibraltar the other day. In this case the loss of life is heavier. “How did it occur?” is a question asked in every collision, and never satisfactorily answered. We can imagine that on board of a vessel of 2700 tons, carrying 850 passengers, there may have been a good deal of confusion. A large fleet of men of-war at anchor showing electric lights, the passengers of the merchantman crowding her decks to enjoy the sight—there you have the elements of confusion. The “Anson” and the “Rodney,” great ships 330 feet long, lying in the line of the steamer’s course, their great central masses looming black ; their low sharp unarmoured ends projecting almost invisible, with ponderous rams extended below the surface of the sea ; a very slight miscalculation of distance, if the steamer was trying to pass close, would account for the accident. What we do know is that the accident did occur. We sail imagine the scene : the wild terror of the 850 people ; the almost immediate disappearance of the steamer ; the silence broken by voices calling for help ; the electric lights making brightness on the dark waters ; the multitude of boats from the fleet in eager search among the wreckage What their work wa3 like we may judge from the fact that they recovered 300 people from the Sea ; the hurry of it fatal to some of the brave workers —it was an awful tragedy. For the whole fleet, it had its lesson no doubt; giving them an idea of what may happen in the first great sea fight of the npxt war. What it was that kFlled the 570, whether carelessness or pure accident, we do not know. We do know that promptitude, discipline, courage, and skill saved the three hundred.

Mr Bruce’s banquet on Thursday night was more than a demonstration of his late constituents. It was a demonstration of the Opposition party, in whose intei*est Mr Bruce fought the two most spirited election fights of the last half-year. He was the hope of his party against Mr Hutchison in the Waitotara, and afterwards he was relied upon to win the first bye election for them. He won on neither occasion, but he fought so well that the the adversary had to work might and main on each occasion. On the seconditis questionable whether Mr Bruce might not have won if his Party had come to'his assistance with the same energy, and in the same numbers as Mr McGuire found on his side. For example if they had gone into the field with even half the energy they displayed at the Consolation banquet, they might have reversed the verdict. Be that as it may, they gave Mr Bruce a compliment which he thoroughly deserved. The ovation ho received showed how much he will be missed from the House ; and is a guarantee that one of these days he will be taking hi 3 seat there again.

The Otago Education Board has been reduced to order by the Minister of Lands. There is stifl apparently an irreconcilable minority, but the majority have at last been induced to see two things of which they ought never to have lest sight (1) that it is not necessary to take offence where none is intended, and (2) that civility and courtesy can never be abandoned in the course of public business on any provocation whatever. On the face of the documents, no offence was intended or conveyed. A simple matter was brought to the Board’s notice by the Minister whose business it was to do so. As Mr Mackenzie properly told che Board, the explanation they made to him during the discussion ought to have been made to the memorandum from the Minister’s office. An Education Board is of course one of the very greatest and most august bodies on the face of the earth. But it is not above ti e rules of common sense or the requirements of common politene-s.

The Duke of Bedford, whose suicide was astonishing the world when the last San Francisco mail left London for the Colony, was the celebrated Duke of Mudford who was for so many years the butt for Mr Punch’s pungent wit. But he continued to take his pound of flesh just as that arch-cormorant, the founder of his house, would have done had he been in the same case. The said founder was ono John Russell, who began life in the Court of Henry VII. as a toady, became a harpy in the time of Henry VIII., and died in the odour of wealth and an earldom in the reign of Edward VI. The list of the pickings that ho got out of the monasteries would, says a recent chronicler, fill several volumes ; the revehues of the Slid property amounting to L 70,000 a year of our money. The next remarkable figure m the history of the House, and one of the noblest in the history of England, was that of Lord William Russell (son of the fourih Earl) beheaded for complicity in the Rye House Plot in 1683. As a solace the old Earl was made Marquis of Tavistock and Duke of Bedford. The next figure of mark is Earl Russell, the famous Lord John whose career is too well known to require any mention in detail. The last Duke, whose suicide was the talk of the town the other day, had a distinguished political career as a hereditary legislator, which may be summed up in the statement that he never missed the opening of Parliament for forty years, and never once opened his mouth in the House of Lords during

that period. He is said to have been charitable at Tavistock and his other places, and he was not backward in finding money for educational and church purposes. He held 86,000 acres of land in eight counties, with a rent roll of L 141,000 a year, besides the valuable London property of the Bedford family, the most valuable portion being Covent Garden. The rents of these properties made him, it was said, the richest peer in England. He leaves behind the reputation of a liberal landlord, which he did not deserve, and his successor enjoys life, probably as much undisturbed by any sense of duty or responsibility, as any of his “illustrious” predecessors.

When ho was “polishing up the handle of the big front door” Mr W. H. Smith had not time for much study. Therefore in his hour of power which that polishing operation has earned for him, he descends to the meanness cf outflanking the position of a colony by smuggling a Bill through che Commons. A Bill, to give supreme authority to commanding officers in the Navy on the coast of a colony, avowedly introduced to enable the British Government to come to an understanding with a Foreign Govern ment—that is the plain English of Mr Smith’s policy. It is in the the eyes of Newfoundlanders the most startling policy ever enunciated since the tea was thrown into Boston harbour. There is a treaty which Great Britain is bound to uphold. At the same time Great Britain is not bound to coerce any colony which is anxious to obtain the integrity of its territory. A maritime right which has survived more than two centuries of a history fruitful in such maritime disasters as the defeats of the Count de Grasse at Dominica and of Villeneuve at Trafalgar, must have a large vitality. It is probably not easy to get its owners to exchange it for anything else in the world. Still an English Minister ought not to ask Parliament to alter the law relating to colonial territory in order to enable him to coerce any colony. The position of Newfoundland is unique. The attitude of the Mother Country ought to be considerate. Her policy as formed by Mr W. H. Smith is enough to startle every Colony in the Empire.

The Limpopo incident i 3 over its first stage, the Portuguese having released the Countess of Carnarvon, which does not appear to have been smuggling arms into the country. Possibly she was only engaged in smuggling whiskey, which, though in reality more deadly, is in appearance less murderous. The moral Portuguese, who has taken four centuries to do nothing, acknowledges the mastery of the Briton, who wants to do something at once. At all events, the Portuguese authorities have admitted, by the release of the steamer, that they were wrong. While these foreigners are wrangling over the country, it is interesting to observe the attitude of the great chiefs Lobengula and Guganhama who own so much of it, and have powerful armies to protect their ownership. The latter of these is given to negociating with both British and Portuguese, while the former steadily refuses to allow any concession to be named in bis presence. A special interest is given to the situations by recent rumours that he is getting alarmed by the operations in Mashonaland which he permitted, and that ho is beginning to show his teeth. According to Mr Labouchere, the South African Company is doomed to an early death between the valuelessness of its shares and the hostility * f Lobengula. But the fireworks of ihat brilliant politician and journalist are not usually taken seriously. Still, as Gambetta used to say sometimes, when discussing the doctrines of a hereafter. What if there should be some truth in them ?

Much has been said by the Canadian politicians about the tactics of the Opposition Party during the late elections. “Traitors” they were called; anxious for annexation by the United States, they were said to be. It turns out that annexation was not the issue at all. The elections turned upon the question of trade reciprocity. Both sides wanted to reciprocate with America ; the Government. holding that reciprocity should be confined to natural products, the Opposition insisting on complete freedom of exchange with the States, and the McKin'ey Tariff against the rest of the world. The issue was Trade Partnership with America, or merely easier business. It is interesting, in view of the Australian Federation proceedings, to note that the Canadian peoplo preferred the policy which will not take them gradually out of the Empire.

We are not surprised that the Welling-ton-Manaivatu Company have declared a dividend ; it has been for weeks matter of notoriety that a dividend would be declared. It is a small dividend, truly ; per cent, on the paid up capital. But oii the other hand the amount, L 6135, paid for rates and taxes is large. If the late Government had got Parliament to take the advice of the Parliamentary Committee, the dividend would have been larger and the taxes less. The railway is a fine going concern, but that is no reason why it should suffer an injustice. We congratulate the Company on its good year, and hope it will get speedy redress of its most intolerable and improper grievance.

The vote of confidence passed by the Italian Deputies by such a large majority in Signor Crispi’s successor is a very important sign that Signor Crispi’s star ha 3 set. The ex-Premier, three months ago, was written of in every journal in Europe as certain to rule Italy for years to come. But he fell in spite of his majority of 200, given him at the general elections, and it is now proved that his fall was not the result of any political accident. The Crispi policy of expensive armaments, the Triple Alliance, and hostility to Finance, is finally discarded, and the face of European policy will be different.

The Federal Constitution is taking a definite shape, suggestive of pleasant discussion and practical agreement among the Committees. Ono vexed question, that of the composition of the Serin te and its functions seems to ha\ e presented no difficulty at all. Another, that of payment of members, is said to have been settled off hand. About that we may say that if truly described the settlement removes one great objection to Federation, viz., that it would throw all the representation in the hands of men of leisure and independent means. But LSOO a year—in America every member in Congress byfche way draws Llooo—is not open to that objection. While giving Congressmen half the American amount, the Australians are ready to pay the GovernorGeneral the same salary as the President of the United States. They could hardly have offered him lest, than the Governors of New South Wales and Victoria. The most important of the points of settlement, however, is the agreement that the Victorian tariff is to be the basis for the Federal tariff of the future. That being the case, the trade of New Zealand with Australia will bo threatened with serious diminution. The upspringing of factories outside of Victoria may also draw off our population. We shall have to make up our mind liow to face the position.

We wonder who advised Mr H. M. Stanley to turn his steps towards these colonies. He is not aware, evidently, that the public is sick of his egotism and his disputes with his subordinates. It does not want to hear anything more about the Pigmies of Herodotus ; it is disposed to fly from an evening with Stanley as from the pestilence. A lecturer without any chance of the sympathy of his audiences, without literary style or oratorical graces, talking about things in which nobody is interested except when it hears about travellers who have travelled in Africa without killing and flogging their black people, and abusing their white subordinates—how can such a combination hope for success ? If Mr Stanley made any money in Africa, he will infallibly lose some of it here. If he has lost some reputation in England he is not likely to get back any of it in these countries.

Every pressman in New Zealand, and many other friends beside, will be sorry to read the news of Vesey Hamilton’s death. Poor Vesey! He has been failing for years, so that his death is not a surprise to any of us. Our regret is not the less keen on that account.. He was an honour to the craft. He took to it from choice, and he had a high ideal of its duties,which he studied with reverence from his boyhood. Kindly he was, generous too, and inflexibly just, in his conception of his work. His college course o?er, lie travelled to open his mind, seeing men and cities, and he learned very soon to describe them well. When he returned from Europe he was well equipped, but as lie settled to work his bud of promise was touched with the canker of failing health. His first post was in the Press Gallery of the House of Representatives, from which he sent many a descriptive sketch to his paper, bright a id vigorous, with no unkindly word to a living soul. After that he did what work his pen could compass. No man ever described a landscape better or a great gathering of men, none was so successful in interviewing, no pressman was more careful of his facts, not one had a higher ideal of | duty. Installed in the editorial chair he was zealous and painstaking and conscientious in a high degree. But for his ill-health he would have made a mark in his profession. About a yearago that ill-hea’th drove him to less laborious methods, but the respite came too late. We chronicle with deep regret to-day the death of one of the kindliest, most devoted, highest soulod journalists that New Zealand has produced.

The news from Queensland is the most serious that has been sent away from Australia since the time of the Eureka Stockade. If the accounts cabled over are true the chances are that blood will flow as it flowed on that memorable oc casion. But if it does, the similarity will be confined to the bloodshed ; it will not spread to the cause. The diggers who took up arms and manned the celebrated stockade, from which they werer dislodged by storm, were fighting for their rights. The authorities recognised the fact, for after they had put down the armed resistance, they punished nobody and they redressed all the grievances complained of. The shearers of Queeensland have much cause of complaint ; they are badly housed, as everybody who has seen their quarters declares, and not well fed. But they get good wages, and they have not to work longer or harder than shearers anywhere else. There is nothing in their condition to justify violence, or rather to make any kind of palliation, for

violence can never be justified. They are described as drilling in one place to the number of 1200, they are represented as having armed themselves. Grass fires are said to be their handiwork, the burning of one woolshed is attributed to them, and a township is at this moment in their hands. There does not seem to be much exaggeration in the accounts, and there does not appear to be any desire on the part of Labour in Australia to make common cause. That is the only gleam of light in an uncommonly dark situation.

The work of the Committees of the Convention not being quite finished, the Convention has given them another week. But it would have been surprising if the work had been got through in the limited time allowed the Committees. It is very surprising that the Committees have got so far as the agreements recorded in the reports sent over. VS e publish this morning a very interesting letter from our correspondent at Sydney, which gives the situation as it was on March 16. But the rapidity of agreement among the delegates has answered many of the points noticed by our correspondent. To return to the cable message about the publication of the Committee reports. One or two of the members objected to the publication as premature, but no one pronounced them to be incorrect. The only regret then that we can feel is that the public, as Sir George Grey put it, was not taken into the confidence of the Committees. There are many things which strike the most careless reader at once as right and proper for Federal control, and there are others about which there seems a good deal of uncertainty. For instance, in the matter of defenceNew Zealandis interested in knowing whether the Federal control really implies that the land forces of this Colony may in time of war be diverted to Australia ; whether there can not be a delegation of most of the controlling Federal power over navigation ; what the uniformity of taxation really means ; how quarantine can be arranged between Colony and Colony; what will be the use made of the credit of the general Commonwealth in relation to borrowing ; in what way the Federal Judiciary system is to work. Upon these and many others subjects the public mind of every Colony requires to be educated—and there is no education like the education which is acquired by reading the pros and cons of great living subjects as propounded by the first minds of a country. While we must admire the rapidity with which the work has been done, and the good will as well as businesslike aptitude that rapidity evinces, we cannot help regretting that much of the benefit has been lost to our people by the lack of public discussion. There must be in conseqence a certain backwardness and hesitation in the public mind of New Zealand. Statesmen ought to bear in mind that unless they take the public into their confidence, they cannot hope to lead them.

The break down of the boilers of the new cruisers for Australia 13 a grave scandal. The great Department of the Navy, which costs the nation thirteen or fourteen millions a year for the ordinary services, and is entrusted with many millions besides for the work of construction, appears actually unable to design a boiler that will stand the strain produced by a forced draught. It is a serious thing for the colonies, whose contributions have defrayed a portion of the cost of these ships. There is here an argument in favour of a Federal Legislature which could on behalf of a Commonwealth make a protest inestimably more effectual than anything that the separate colonies could do for themselves.

S'ksTY writing, it has been well said, makes slow reading. If Mr Tregear's “ Maori-Po'ynesian Comparative Die tionary,” just brought out in most excellent style by Messrs Lyon and Biair, proves slow reading it will not be by reason of the haste with which it was put together. The book is a monument of careful research aud most minutely painstaking labour. As the work of a busy man’s leisure, it is amazing ; as a classic authority on the languages of the South Seas it will live and grow apace in the appreciation of scholars, adding loudly to the already high reputation of the scientific workers of New Zealand. Mr Tregear treats the Maori language as one of a group of related dialects spoken throughout the islands of the South Seas. He has gathered words together and meanings common to the Maori and the Polynesians, noted their agreements and their differences, and shown what differences (if any) have taken place since the dispersion of the tribes. The result is a most interesting work of comparative philology, showing keen insight, strong critical grasp in every line, and sustained power to the end. The mythology and folk lore make a very, interesting feature which will fascinate ordinary readers with accounts of the. gods, demons, and heroes of the Polynesian and Maori mythologies, with the best legends graphically told, and numerous references to ancient traditions. The proof of the vast extent of ground covered by these legends of nesia gives a special value to a record which has for the first time assembled all this information in a singlepublication. Natural science also hasbeen uncommonly well handled throughout the pages of the book. No library should be without the Dictionary, nostudent can afford to neglect it, and tlie= public is sure to find instruction in it.