PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXVII, Issue 5474, 31 December 1904, Page 10

PASSING EVENTS.

History is philosophy teaching by cx. amples. —Thucydides. (From the "New Zealand Mail.’’) AIR MASSEY’S SPEECH. Th© Leader of the' Opposition spoke at Auckland last week and passed under review- the work of the session. It has been hitherto tho boast of the Opposition that they have taken the Government’s policy measures and licked them into shape, now it is Air Alasscy’s contention that tho Government has no policy measures at all. The Opposition is in no better a position, he confesses, but then it would soon and easily invent a policy should.it ever be entrusted w-ith the administration of tills country’s affairs. Still, Mr Massey, though denying tho necessity for the Opposition to formulate a policy until upon tho Treasury benches, put forward one or two planks which, when braced together, might be regarded as the platform of the Government’s opponents. With respect to the Shops and Offices Act, the Opposition did not claim any responsibility for its passage, and they now decline to take the honour of licking that measure into shape. Had this Act been as popular as the other measures passed by the Government, the Opposition would have been eager to share in the credit accorded to the Seddon Administration. Although without a policy, the Leader of the Opposition would reform the Upper House by making it elective. While his proposal is democratic, we question whether its , consummation would effect the reform desirable. To everyone who knows that the price of wool cannot he raised by a specific act of the legislature, it is absurd to blame the Government for whatever tendency towards tightness there is in the money market. The Opposition is fond of reiterating tho hackneyed truism, that the natural law of supply and demand governs prices, and Air Alassey ought to remember that money has its price, and apply the same economic axiom to the money market instead of blaming the Government. AD Massey would borrow for public works as the Government is doing, and he would make the leasehold system a stepping stone to the industrious, saving , farmer. On these points there is agreement between many Government supporters and the Omiosition, so we may say the Opposition is becoming more Liberal under Mr Massey’s leadership.

A DISTRESSING CONFLICT. The war is being waged with heroism and persistency. A dispatch this week tella ns that General Meckel, the German. general who was formerly adviser to the Japanese military authorities, is convinced of the hopelessness of Russia ever emerging from the war victorious Nevertheless the Russians are struggling on and are preparing to fight with still greater effectiveness. The mobilisation of reserves is proceeding ipace, hundreds of extra railway car riages- are required for their transport to Manchuria at the rate of forty thousand per month, and forty millions sterling are to be spent in creating a new fleet ,to replace that which has been virtually annihilated at Port Arthur. Russia may favour the proposal of President Roosevelt for a Peace Conference at the Hague, but in the meantime she is determined to continue this icnlliot. On the other side, the Japanese ire jnst as determined. They, too, ar> displaying the.utmost bravery, and the enthusiasm with which they are fighting has won the admiration of the civilised world. General Stoessel has proved himself a great soldier, in the defence of Port Arthur, and now we loam that Japan is . ringing with the praises of General Samojina, the grey-haired veteran who has handled and led the attacking forces with suoh consummate courage. -- The storming of Keekwanshau must remain in history as one of the most outstanding incidents in a remarkable campaign. The volunteers who with red badges went to almost certain death in the storming of -this fort, performed a deed which has few parallels on the.page of history. Their motto was truly British: “We will conquer or die;” and many of them died in the moment of their triumph. The Russians determined to retake'this fortress, but they failed, and put of a party of three hundred men only twen-ty-returned to their comrades to recount the incident. In no war of modern times has so much bravery been displayed; and while we admire that quality we heartily wish the Czar would respond to the better promptings of his heart and stop a needless and wasteful carnage. NEW TELEGRAPHIC SYSTEM. A remarkable high-speed telegraph, recently invented by Mr Donald Murray, late-,of Auckland, who claims that it is • as great an advance upon the Morse instrument as the Morse was upon its predieoegsor, the single needle, was twelve months ago brought under the notice of the heads of the British Post Office, who. since then have had the instrument working for experimental purposes between London and Edinburgh, ipparently with promising results, for they have now decided to test further a perfected instrument that has been devised by Mr Murray during that period. If the Murray transmitter ever becomes universally adopted, it will mean that telegraph clerks will never have to put pan or pencil to a telegram, beyond marking upon it the time of handing ip. The system is. in some respects similar to the Wheatstone, but differs inasmuch as paper tape, instead of being hand punched, is perforated by an instrument. Also the tape at the other end of the wire is similarly perforated instead of being marked by dots and dashes, and, above all, this tap© can be placed upon another machine, which converts the perforations into printed words direct- on to telegraph forms at ;he rate of about 120 to 150 words minute. The system is four or five times as fast as the Morse, and consists of three" stages. First the telegram ia copied on a machine resembling a typewriter. Paper tape runs through this and is perforated as each letter is struck. Secondly, the message, as it appears on the tape, is run at a very rapid rate through a transmitter, and an exact facsimile of the tape is produced at the other end of the wire. The third process consists in putting this tape through a typewriter, with automatic mechanism driven by a small electric motor, and the message reappears neatly printed, lined and spaced. This last stage may be described as

being similar in effect to the putting of paper rolls of music in an automatic piano, whereas in that case the perforations are the cause of the notes being struck and the music being produced, so in the case of this instrument the perforated paper is the cause of the typewriter keys going down and the jammers containing the letters stril ing tho telegraph form and producing letters, and words. Ono of the effects of th© use of this instrument—provided it be found ultimately to come up to expectations—would be a great saving of time, as a wire would be capable of carrying four or five times the number of words as at present, and fewer persons would consequently be required to perform the work. Any person able to operate a typewriter can, it is said, transmit messages by the Alurray system.