TOPICS OF THE DAY

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6362, 9 November 1907, Page 11

TOPICS OF THE DAY

GENERAL NEWS BY MAIL. THE BRITISH EMIGRANT. (From Out Special Correspondent) LONDON, September 27.

Sreial conditions in tbis country, coupled with the liopo of a bettor life cven-eas, are driving tbo people from Jibe U:.' ; tod Kingdom at the rate of [nearly 3800 a ! week. Tlie number of immigrants who left these shore] last year to seek their fortunes in other lands was 194,671 which gives an avorjago of 3743 per week. Details are given in a White Paper just issued by jthe Board of Trade To , British, North America there went 01,203; fivoj .years befoie the total was but 7121 The figure for the United States has* ialnost doubled in the same period, being last year 85,941, aaginst 45,383 in 1901. Australian and New Ecalaiul ,emigrants have increased by <*no-half‘ in-the same tune, the figures being:— For 1901, 6570; and for 1906, 9920. India claimed nearly three times as I many emigrants last year as she did] five yeans previously, her total having risen from 1478, to 4046; while nhe ,'emigrants to other Brutish possessions Iveire 3109 against. 1333. " For countries outside the Empire other than (the United States. 3552 people depart. C'.3. almost four times as largo a number as the figure in 1901, which was but 894. The one exception in the .list is South Africa, the number of emigrants to which 22,804, was less by 3160 than the number of persons who returned from that country. . With regard to the separate divisions of tiro United Kingdom, English passengers formed 68 per cent,, and fScots and Irish 16 per cent, each nf the total number of British and Irish passengers, ns against 65, 16, ipreec ding year: The year was the i first in which the total number of outgoing English passengers exceeded ®i®, and of Scots passengers 50,000; it was also noteworthy as being the- first in which the -irurnber of Scots passengers exceeded the num’"“000 IriflL ’ totalling: 53 > 000 against

The roprrt points out that there was a noticeable increase in the number of Insh' passengers going to Canada 'in 100 b: nevertheless the United States took all but 7000, or 13 per cent,, of the Irish passengers. A peculiarity ia the large proportion of Irish women omigiants, lire number of whom nearly equalled that of the mein; indeed, in each of the years 1893 and 1905, the number of women actually oxooc-dc-a the number of men. The relatively low proportion of children is noticeable, only 3 per cent, of the outward passengers of Irish origin being children urdcr 12. The proportion of Irish to the total of all British and Iris!; outward passengers: has fallen from 61 per cent, in ;ho yeans 1853-5, and 47 per cent, in the quinquennia! period 1868 -70, to 26 per cent, in the period of 1896-1906, and 16 per cent, in th« year 1906. but tbo change in the relative populations of England, Scotland, and Ireland must bo bonne in mind. Another analysis showed that of Brdtiah and Irish adult male passengers 15 por cent, belonged to the agricultural and 10 per cent, to the eonjrieiciial and professional groups. Twenty-throe per cent, were described as belonging to the skilled trade group, and £9 per cent, as being labourers. Of j the , adult .females, 42,372 wept abroad as domestic servants, by far the greater number going to the States, Some 570 enitoiants wore rejected by the countries which they sought, Amo-i. pica declining' 44G, Canada South Africa 8, and Now Ifealand 2. Rejection took place xu the great major ity of oases on the ground that the emigrant was a pauper, or likely- to bfcorao a public charge, or that lie or she suffered from mental affliction. “BY WIRELESS.” Air Marconi hopes to begin commercial wireless telegraphy across the Atlantic in three or four weeks’ time. “Wo have overcome all obstacles,”says,_ “and are sure of success.” The public, then, will very coon have at their disposal the Iqng-promised, long delayed service by “wireless.” The price of ‘messages sent between England and America will bo only 5d a word, against Is a word charged by the cable eommm'esn Tf

seivioo proves ;n reliable and rapid as cablo telegraphy, the oablo compnniea will either liavo to reduce their, charge to 5d or lose tacir business

Press messages, will be sent by the Marcon; system at 2J-d a ! word.' t The greatest'distance that wireless messages have been transmitted is 3000: miles, from ’ Poldhu, in Cornwall, to Cape Cod. Constant communication is now established . between . Poldhu and Cape Breton, Nova r Scotia, but final' tests are being' made; in order that tbere be no interiiiption when orce the service is opened to the public. The 3for;:e code is employed, and' no difficulty is experienced in reading the messages. - Great advances have been" madi, and many obstacles overcome since the first wireless : message: ever sent across the Atlantic—the single letter “S”—was received at the Newfoundland station on December 31, 1901. The letter bad been sent out from the station at Ptaldhu, in Cornwall. As soon. as. this., news was ) known, the Anglo-American Telegraph YVimnnnr t.hnt. 5+ hnrl bv.

'Company charter a pionoboly, of the Transatlanr 1 tic telegraph business of the island, ; and Mr Marconi was refused a' permit/ to continue hisv experiments. . v On an invitation from tbo Canadian Government, ho crossed to Canada, Table Bay four towers .were erected, and the "machinery installed; by the spring of 1902. On December 21 of that year messages were exchanged between His Majesty King , Edward and Lord Mintp, the Governor-General of Canada, and prepartions were made to begin commercial work. But suddenly it was discovered that the proximity of‘a largo electrical power station interfered with the working of the; instruments _ at Table Bay. The | towers had to bo razed to the ground, 1 and the work to be begun over again, i The signalling; station was transferred to Port. Moriert, where the mechanism is now complete. The installation now in place at Morion Bay and Cl if den aro the most powerful in the world. They oonoist of rows of masts, varying > in height, but from 150 ft. to 200 ft. high, wifh a powerful electrical apparatus for making the spark by which ; the signals are sent. .The curvature of the earth does not affect the transmiaoicn of the vibrations. ,

THE DOCTOTt. A letter in one of the xnodical journals frr.m a general practitioner throws' an interesting light on the financial position of the average medical man

in this country. The correspondent -referred to states that- ho is a general practitioner in an industrial centre, and after ton years has scoured a fairly good connection. "My average receipts,” he continues, “work out at £220 per tannin, out of which the expenses of surgery and practice have to bo paid before 1 can claim anything Tor my borne. ,Liit my fate to keep always at Ihio avers,go income?”, " The chances are all against him. : It, is tpue that many doctors -ip- the big cylures have incomes viinninp into four figures, but the average income of ibo British, medical man is between £2OO 'and £250 per annum. V.Ths Vord)jnarj' suburban or provincial general jjractitjonor, can rarely hope to ■earn more Ilian a couple of hundredpounds a year, and usually it is a pain,ful struggle through 1 several yearn- of obscurity before iho gels , together it -practioe that- will yield this income. The pathetic figure of the general praotitionor in Boninrd -Shaw’s play, “The' Doctors Dilemma” has only too many:/ counterparts in, real life. V b'F-arv,tho.- : medical specialist, too, life is a precarious business._ He eiihor makes a Ifoitune, or fails; to iiiako 1 both ! ends ,moet. 1 X believe., it would not bo an exaggeration - to iajc-i; :have : it ini Mid 1,1 imodioal -authonty—timt: Mlf..'.the - sock: cinlmts in Harley street find -it vervd; moult to make, a bftre living nffoV all expenses in connection with I,licitwork are paid. In flu- medical profession quacks flourish amazingly, and ’ grow rapidly rich; hut for the honest m ”n it is seldom a lucrative profession! . average of inoomo is far from h-gfc hi any of iho professiuns. A statistician has estimated 1 ■ f’at the average incomes of the various professions in Great Britain, reckoned 1 approximately, are somewhat as follows;—Law fcxoluding Judges)', £3OO to £320: medical. £220 to £250; literature (all branches), £l9O to £240,music, £l2O to £150: art. £IOO to diureh, £95 to £130; theatrical. ~80 to £llO. While not one professional man in a hundred enjoys an 1 income of over £SOOO, more than eighty in a hundred cam less than £3OO a year. But oven those must be accounted well-to-do in a country 1 whone persons earning less than £l6O number. with- their families, some thirtyeight millions. • • A CRIMINAL'S DEATH.

The death this week in her 79tli y<-ar, at Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, of Christiana Edmunds, rooa,?Jj one of- the ,-moßt notorious 'osimimd trials of last century. It ia more than 35 years since this woman was sentenced at the Old Bailey for' tSv* murder of a boy named Sidney Barker, at Brighten. The evidence at ho* trial revealed a curiously cunning and subtle ■ attempt at wholesale poisoninc conceived with the object of diverting suspicion from herself, Christiana Edmunds had boon attended in 1870 by n Brighton medical man, with whom she appeared to be on very friendly terms. In December of that year Edmunds was visiting at tho doclona, and she gave a ohooolite cream to the doctor's v,ufo, who, linding that it tasted bitter, spat it out, and though she was made unwell, she suffra-od im permanent injury, Her husband, however, ■ suspected something, and charged Edmunds with having attempted to poison his wife. Then Edmunds, finding herself cut off iron, association with the doctor, wh-qse wife sbo fondly hoped to succeed, pdannod a diabolical course of action to make it, appear that tho poisoned sweetmeat hud come fivun a well-known sweet shop in Brighton. Bbo induced children to go to tliat slop to purchase chooelnto creams. Those the im. pregn-atod Vritli htn-clxtiir.a, and then sent them 1 book to excuse that they were not -of the right Bort. So the poisoned sweets got into the liands of other customejs, and cue of them, the boy Barker, died. Edmund distributed . other poisoned csveete to children in the street, and a cumber were poisoned, but happily no others died. She tven volunteered evidence at tho inquest ou Barker, saying that she herself had been made ill by sweatsvbbught;hip’yieishoii'iivlietia: she had “planted” tho poisoned chocolates. She wan sentenced to death, but insamity being proved to exist in her family, the sentence was uoinmut/ ed to ooxt&n-eancoiti-i'aA': .;-33ybii