HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4301, 9 March 1901, Page 7 (Supplement)

HOME AND FOREIGN NEWS

CORE UPTION IX JAPAN. It appears that, the Japanese Minister of Communications, Mr hioshi Torn, was compelled to resign. He was a member of the- Radical party, and a member of the Cabinet. The courts dismissed the charges brought against him of accepting bribes, hut public opiuioil was so strong that ho was forced to take this step. There has lately been a perfect epidemic of charges of corruption against politicians, naval men, and contractors. Mr Hoshi Torn recently cynically admitted that Japan was pacing through a necessary' stage of corruption like England did in the Walpole days. AMERICA’S POLICY IN CUBA. , A rash,, unwise rojuark made by General Fitziiiijdi Lee -in a speech at St. Louis is causing the Government great concern. He openly' declared that the American flag was going to stay in Cuba, thus intimating that tho promises of independence are not to he carried out. This assertion has already' been officially repudiated, :mu General Lee himself has since explained that he meant American control of Cuba would continue until a stable Government had been established.' The Cubans, however, are by no moans satisfied: with this explanation, and General Lee’s indiscretion is likely to make difficult the verydelicate negotiations now in progress between the United States authorities and Cuba. Cubans have been asked to assent to a plan by which Cuba- is to have its own government, but give the United States a, permanent foothold in tho island and a voice in its foreign affairs. The plan includes the establishment of American military- and naval stations at Havana;’ Santiago, and certain,, other points requisite for the future defence of tho Nicaragua Canal. Cubans are very- sensitive about American. interference with, the future government of the island. General Leo’s j untimely utterance ! is likely to cause j considerable embarrassment to the Qovi eminent. | THE STRIKE RIOTS IN ANTWERP. | The recent dockers’ .riots at Antwerp [ were punctuated with scenes of disi graceful bloodshed.. At various places ; iii the port a large number of men had accepted' the conditions of work,, and ; the strikers, irritated by this fact, attacked a goods train in- the expectation of finding a contingent of provincial “blacklegs.” They uncovered, however, that they- had been mistaken, and abandoned the attack. In, another placo a dozen workmen were beaten by strikers, and six had to be taken, to hospital. In the Rue des Poigncs a police officer was disarmed by!the mob, and was only rescued by a police charge. Three arrests-were made. On the Quai Ellin 1500 strikers raado. a demonstration -with weapons in the shape of iron bars, and hurled paving-blocks and drinking glasses at the police, while t.n tho Quai Cookorill ICOO more assailed a band of workmen who were protected by a force of fifty police. Tho burgomaster went aboard a, Grimsby ship, and reassured tho crew, who were preparing for a fight. The .strikers renewed their rioting, tho police drew their revolvers and charged. They- fired’ a volley of ball cartridge, and twenty' of the rioters were wounded. Six of the police were injured. Order was for the time restored by reinforcements of 1:15 gendarmes. OBJECTING TO BE SOLD. The proposed sale of the Danish West Indies to the United States. has met with such strenuous opposition in the islands that there is --..little .doubt the Danish Government, will, for the present at any rate, abandon the proposal. Tho, islands are, according to latest despatches,, much divided on the question, but the decision rests with tho population and tho anti-sale party is very' determined. The- only paper that lias advocated the .sale is the Government’s organ, the “St. Croix. Avis,” an article in, which, is , supposed to have been inspired.':by the Governor, Mr, Hedemann. ’ The official, has unintentionally given the anti-sale party a lift-. . He threatened Dio leader of the party to which he is opposed \toth dismissal from, his office as vice-president of the Colonial Council. Mr Lowaetz, the vice-president, published,, the Uii-cat in the Press, with the result of rallying the anti-sale party. NEW GUN MOUNTINGS. The six’new armoured cruisers, of the Cressey type are "to bo fitted with a mounting for their 9.2 in guns that is greatly superior, to the mountings at present used for weapons of this calibre. Tile first of the” new type has Imm made by Armstrong and Co., Elswick. It was tested lately at’Portsmouth, and gave”satisfactory results: Instead of manual power, hydraulic power has been utilised! for working ; the gun. This will “give 'greater, rapidity' of fire and make-the duties'of - the gun’s crew less- laborious,_ thus enabling them to continue fighting for a longer period. Another improvement- is that the-gnu’s breech- and the men. working it are protected by a thick hood of hard steel strong enough to resist almost any attack from projectiles' except at very' close range. Moreover, that part of the machinery beneath decks ,is I enclosed in a cylinder of Jinn our, and the ammunition passes direct from the magazines to the gun’ by means,, of a protected hoist. The 9’.2in gun .to be placed on this mounting is of tho’latest pattern. It is estimated to throw a 3801 b projectile a distance of fifteen miles- The gun and mounting complete weigh nearly 150 tons. By the new arrangement, all the advantages of a> battleship’s barbettes are secured for/the fore and aii guns of our now cruisers. Tho mounting tried goes into--the Crossy,, which is now! being completed. , . BOMBARDING THE CLOUDS. Hailstorms are the dire enemies of vine-yard owners, for the great stone-; spoil the crops, but it lias been made apparent’ that by modern scientific means these storms can be avoided. The “Illustration”’publishes pictures of new cannon to prevent hailstorms by bombarding the clouds. . 'A congress was held in Padna not long ago on the subject, called together by Signor Ottavi, an Italian Deputy, at which over a thousand French, Italian, and Austrian. members were present. The. congress reached the following conclusions; In order that the action of the bombardment he efficacious it is necessary—(l) That the surface protected by a can:aon should not be more than twenty-

j five hectares i <2)’.tliafc £ »..;lj»itery. should consist of eight to ten cannons to-;as3«re protection for from- 200 to 250: hectares of vineyards; (3) that- the greater -number of cannons should •bo -pointed • towards the direction whence the storm comes; (4) that during the first few minutes of the attack two or three shots to be fired per minute, and then:gradually slackened to - one shot every three minutes: (5) that a charge of eighty grammes of powder per shot is sufficient. An exhibition, of the cannons was' held during-the congress. . Among them was the. monster cannon: or Signor-'A. Cruzzi, of Padua, and tho’ acetylene gnu of Signor Ma-j'ora ' Blanchi, of 'Flu-in. Another congress will be held this year at Lyons. GREAT FIN'D AT BANNOCKBURN. Samuel McMichan, ploughman, of Closeburn, Dumfriesshire, . Iras . .just brought to light a. potful of silver pennies that, were buried , probably’. 587 years ago, or thereabouts. Samuel McMichan,' being a■■ plough-. 'man who takes-a pride in his furrow, rested his horses at the end- - of ; tho field lie fvas working a few. days ago' and cast his eye back along the lino r he had followed to- see that it was straight. ■"

It was not. His critical eye noticed an unevenness in the ground, •‘arid -Samuel McMichan ,‘stepped - back dVdP'thri' clods, of that high-lyiug : -fi6id to-.ascer-tain the' cause. ■ Ho found that his plough had broken open an earthenwarepot, and before "him Thy 'scattered I .hup?-, dfedg of pieces'of, what, iiv his hbmelj 1 ,. Lowland way called “tin'.” With-a capful of '“tin” tlife McMichan went, off and consulted'the farmer,: and. ! most of the “tin’’ turned out to he silver pennies of the reigns of .Edward 1., who-annexed Scotland, arid Edward II who lost it. There wore over', .2000. of them, all in good preservation, each measuring three-quarters -of : an . inch across. They weighed 51$ in bulk. . . . The oldest of the are those of King Alexander of Scotland, who..ruled from 1249 to 1285."..There are -also,, a few bearing the mint mark of ..Waterford, in Ireland. The latest are those of Edward 11, whom the Scots cheer-,; fully thrashed : at‘- Bannockburn in * 1814. In 1313 Edward Bruos drove trie .English oppressor out of Nithsda-le, and it is suggested that some,Englishman; ing in a hurry‘to reach‘the border, put his 2000" silver pennies in, a potsherd and hid it in the ground. , It would b’e interesting to know the name of the man who ■-.thus lost what Samuel McMichah, 500 years later,-, formal Pei-- - Imps an'antiquary 'will.'' tell -us. : But,' at any rate, trie, Crown is claiming the pennies as treasure-trove,"' so they will probably find their way into : a'Scottish’ museum for English visitors to look at. EXTRAORDINARY TRIPLE STHCIDE. The dead bodies' of three girls lashed together with strips of flannel rind’ with their arms round.: each ’ other's-/ iiecliswere found in ‘ the River Trent at Nottingham recently. ■ . -. . There is no doubt that tho girls de-

iiberately committed suicide.' 1 Their names are Ann Ethel Mason, aged "fourteen, Ethel Mary Dilkes, aged ' seventeen, raid Mary Bielder, aged sixteen. About nine o’clock, oil the day the bodies were discovered a letter," two hats, and a-cloth cap were , found on the river bank.' The Ifetter, to '■'which wore attached two silver brooches, one marked “Baby,” contained the 'simple and- tragic words, “Wo have’’'drowned ourselves,”'and,'it was signed 'by Mdsou and Dilkes. ’ Jit .eapli hat was' a purse. One contained three rings "and a farthing; in the cap were two' pennies. The police immediately dragged the river, and at one o’clock the three bodies were recovered near the spot where, the hats were found. The girls’ ninis were clasped roundi’eacli' other’s 1 nocks.* .The hair, of the youngest’girl'was arranged in curling pins. The girls were bid friends, and they lived in Sneinton,' a suburb of Nottingham. Why they deliberately planned their self-destruction is nut known. Oh the previous night Bickley and Dilkes were out. together, and their parents had no cause, to suspect that they contemplated the crime. Mason had threatened to commit suicide, but her mother, who heard her, did not attach any,importance to the throat. Dilkes was a hosiery. hand, Bickley aconfectioner’s' assistant, and Mason a machinist. , - ''!! VICES OF EDUCATION. Sir John Gorst,'M.P;, '-'Vice-President! ' of the Board of Education,' r Londpn, in " a recent," speech, said that, the Vicos of'the', elementary .school system were due. to the mistakes of .the central government, and condemned the system of payment by results. The outcome of this system was that managers, turned • the, children into .grant-earning machines. They taught pupils .subjects not because they, were adapted, to ,the: circumstances of the taught,... but * because they were * the best calculated to get big grants from the Government.: The children wore - educated by machinery. They were treated like performing animals, and drilled into a number of things which pleased the ignorant spec-, tat or who. wept tn sea, an exhibition. But when the control was over and the child left school it sank back into the, same stupidity, from nvMch* it' sprang, and in a short time forgot everything it was taught. He pointed to the legislation of the Government in 1889 in the direction of" technical education, and said that it was now intended to make a further step. Bills were laid upon the tables of the House of Commons and the House-of Lords in the last session showing that it was intended , to take in hand the technical instruction committees - of - the county councils and other, local authorities to modify-them so that, -tKey 'might.'."Mve the assistance of the, advice of experts and representatives of. great educational institutions, and that those committees should ho entrusted with the further development of higher education.Whether things would stop here, oi\ ■whether ultimately, we should have onesingle authority for education of every kind it was impossible to say. VALUABLE NEW RAILWAY BRAKE. M. Planta. chief engineer of the Lucerne tramways, after many years of cai-eful study and experiments, has invented a system of brakes much superior to that in use in Europe at the present time. * . . .:* The brake is meelianical and so powerful. that it is able to stop a train travelling at the rate of twenty-five, miles an hour within a distance of eight yards—' oven on an incline—while in,-a little over double this . distance , an, express with a speed of fifty miles an hour is brought to a standstill. The shock to j the travellers is even less than, that ex- | perienced with the ordinary brake/ and it is stated that the brake may be ap-

plie’d by a passenger - simpll’ pulling the alarm-cord. | M. Plama's vysteiu'vas recently- test-' led at Lucerne’by Government exports', --. who' without . reserve expressed ' their j satisfaction with rl tho' now system arid i recommended jt : , strongly. The brake, ; may also bo applied- to electric or steam j tranis. The-Govornmelit -is takiug strips to have the -Plaata brake adopted' throughout SwrigeHand-A,; ./[;■! "■> ‘VT ; .1' .Tv,r—•. A .1.- V. A HERMIT MILLIONAIRE. , Thirty ~ years ago. George Johnston, millionaire and laird of the, Fife Isle .estate, near Dundee,. _yowed that no •man should seeJus. face again, and he kept hia vow. But now. .he is dead. His father; '-army officer,: Indian .tea planter, and smuggler, gathered a-huge ■fortune, and settled on tho Fife Isle estate.'Hevyas hard firid mbrbse,.strango ‘in .habit, rind violent.',in temper; Yet he foil in love with Jean Douglas, the ■ daughter of a peasant, and married her. She -boro liim a soil and, died": i, .. -i: ‘ /That was a bad -day for. George Johnston’s father. Ho brooded, they say, oVer: hisloss ; ■ his temper : became, ungovernable. 1 His son’s was riard'y better, /Duo day"tlie .son'tied tlie father in. a carpet.t^row,him. Jrito a room, arid decamped Ic the woods. "The . police caught ■ him, and ho was scut abroad. Thirty years: ago' tho fatrior died; ;and th -sdlt rcturried to Eve 'a solitary, sordid life, without the touch of romance which.redeemed' his--father's. Never once did ho' sot foot across the threshold, of., tlie dilapidated manor hiuse. ; A maid cooked bis scanty meals, hut .-never,-Saw. him-. She would lay . tho food down, ring a bell, and then withdraw.' Only then would Johnston com© ogt.pf Ijis den. - -He-had a craze for purchasing' the tops of all the hills in the county. ’ The Marquis cf Bute proposed to construct a railway from Falkland Palace x to the town of Falkland partly through Johnstou’s.ground, but Johnston would have none of it. , .’A,’ ’ ’'• . ■' \ 1 - -'When; her died a box-of 40,000 -sovwas fourid, and' bank-notes- innumerable, .stowed, away in odd comer ri. He never , married, and his fortune, com-puted-at- five ~milli-one,.,is said to go,-to bis "nephew,, Lieutenant Mackgill-Crich-tonjof the' Seriforth 'Highlanders, now serving M the Soudan. •' : ■ : THE- TOLL-,OP THE SEA.. As compared wilin' previous,’ year's, 1900 has been exceptionally free from wrecks,. ,Bup , in, spit©, of, tjus. decrease the-loss of life ..entailed; .has been , .abnormally high.. - rr ,.. fii.-, ' : f (‘ . . ' ' The','. disappeafririOO' -of • sailing ‘ fillips from,'the .oommei|ciar'sea routes, and) their . replacement sfearners,’, is .rer garded las the main - cause of trie,.dq-crea-ja in .wrecks.f'SKhile.; the abnormal increase in, tho-losS of lifeiis. due to the fact that the vessels of to-day are. larger in bulk than th-osrr of previous years." In-fact,-it is estimatedr-that with the collapse ’ cf .one of our big ships the nririiber of lives placed in jeopardy is eqdßt to a dozen wrecks of a few years., ago.- .... , , A.;'.,a'.'-". I ..1.-.,Aw ■ Theaoauses 'of maritime" disaster are. mans', but the' m;aiu are Eareless ■ rialvigri.tion, , inefficient look-outs, paucity of hnrits, :--and,, traycßlng;, at., too ..high .a speed in fogs. - Ten'years ago, .fire, was A very prominent'- factor among the ©arises "of disaster! but' owing' to'; the ,fgct that the’ principal "shipping ‘companies ’.refuse,to take aboard.,passenger ships - a'nything’ of .lari.. lilflaiuiriable ' jnature,- -the -past l year, has jbeen comparatively free from such accidents. ‘ Altogether ’it is-Yeekoacd that 'the value of thq, lost’ from various- causes during IfjdQ'rs about £3,4300,000,- of which the value,of “missing” vessels -accounts for. one-third, i The .first steamer to' be placed on tho, ‘fmissing” list last'; yean* Was the ■British steamer. R-oseiriofran, ntfhioh left Baltinore on-January-.20 Vi.® . a cargo of wheat for Londonderry'.' jwiTlie list of- warships* olid' ffrinf,ports lost during-the,iJast year-is alUo.-a short one; Amcricaj ■ France,. Ger. . w,- and Japan being- the only cor ics figuring’ in.the list, witn a loss o one ship each. „ RAINIER AND MILLIONAIRE. Anders Zorn, the well-known Swedish artist, now on a visit 'to Am erica,"has been figuring .in a sensational controversy. with, Henry Clay. Pierce, aT.’StLouis... millionaire. ; Pierce ; employed Zorn, to paint portraits'of himself,, wife, and daughter, - agreeing to pay £BOO each'. When the - ’‘portraits were finished he refused to accept; them, claiming that they. w,ero unsatisfactory. Zorn thereuponicommcncod. a suit in the St. Louis Courts, but the matter was- settled out of court yesterday by Pioroo 'paying £2400 for the paintings and £250 -lawyers?, fries; , " Pirirce says-’ he would have won the suit, but iii that event the portraits would have belonged to Zorn; who,- bo 'behoved, intended making' an improper, use of- them. Therefore ho decided to pay for tho paintings, and means to burn them. Zorn, who is at present in New York, said tc-day: "The Pierce paintings have been pronquricrid' masterpieces by conrussettrs. . The', trouble was .not the fault of my art; but simply my refusal to bow down to Pierce’s millions.” . , ' CANADA’S DiyOROE PROBLEM.The higher courts of .Canada and tho Judicial Committee" of th© Privy Council . will -probably ihave to., decide, soon whether a divorce in -Canada is .sometimes not a' 'diVorcte. - A- very interest, ing point has arisen. . . AI. Delphi secretary, to the -LieuteniantrGt’i'ernor of -Quebec,' obtained from Hrdvßoman Catholic authorities a dcor©B>iof’/'SiVoWSSlfrom his wife, which the court of Rome, on appeal, upheld. In previous: casos'of this/kind the decree of Rome’ has been accepted by the divorced party as legal, but Mine. Delpit’s advisers hold that .such .a divorce is invalid, and counsel an appeal to the liighesfc authority. ... ( . ~ The, question- is whether tho decrees of, the Roman Catholic Church are to be recognised by, and possibly to override, Canadian law, and it is of widespread interest by reason ~ of the numerous inter-marriages af Cathojjcs with,'Protestants-,: In many, '.cases’ legal’'.'titles to .estates are involved. Aln this ease M. Delpit pleaded vthat his marriage had been invalid, because it was performed by a Protestant clergyman. Roman Catholic • senators of Quebec have always refused .to concur in divorce Bills granted by the State in cases of Roman Catholics, contending that the Church of Rome alone ba-c jurisdiction. ,