NEWS AND VIEWS.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11534, 21 September 1899, Page 6

NEWS AND VIEWS.

An interesting incident of the German warship Mcewe's cruise off the fever coast of German Now Guinea was.the visit made to the islands of Matty and Durour, off the north coast of New Guinea. These islands are very rarely "visited by trading vessels, and less so by men-of-war. They are cwo small, flat islands discovered by Carteret ori September 16, 1767. Close handy is Tiger Island, which is described as being inhabited by a "ferocious race of savages." Tlie positions assigned to Matty and Durour are 1.03 soutb latitude, 143.12 easr longitude, am! 1.'!6 south and .14-2 east longitude respectively. 7■ The curious part is that while thej"- lie close tQ New Guinea tho inhabitants are not Papuans. They are an entirely different roce, approximating closely to the Japanese. The men are ail-well built, copper-skinned, and sti-aight-haired, and speak a language in no way likp the Papuan dialect. The officers of tho Moewe were surprised at the striking difference between these people and the inhabitants of the mainland, and they secured a number of photographs. So far as-they were able to make out, the .Matty people are not cannibals, while at Friedricl; Wilhelm's H'afen the Moewe met Dr Yaughan. who had had a rough encounter with the natives in the Musk, River. Tiiey had attacked him when going up the river, and he had beat a. retreat, reaching Friedrich Wilhehn's Hafen in his vessel, the Musa, in safety. Speaking of the prospects of the colony, the officers of the Moewe look forward to German New Guinea as likely to become a very valuable possession. -.

Three miles south of th 3 Mesa Encantada. in Mexico, is a splendid specimen of fantastic erosion—an '"island" in the air: a rock with overhanging sides nearly 400 ft high, 70 acres in area on the fairly level top, indented witb countless great b"ays, notched with dizzy chasms. The greater part of the island ovexv hangs the sea, like a huge mushroom, and on the top stands a town which Tor artistic charm, ethnological interest; and romantic history has no peer. This little town of Anoema is one of the most perfect types of the Prehistoric Puebla architecture. Most of the houses remain of tho typo invented when every house must be a fort. One climbed a ladrler to his first roof, and pulled up the ladder at night—living on the second and third floors, and using, the ground floor as a cellar. Against enemies armed only with bows and arrows this was a fair defence. Comfort had to be .sacrificed to safety. Nothing except the eagle sought such inaccessible ejTies as these victims of their own civilisation. Because they were farmers instead of freebooters ; because they had homes instead of being vagrants, they were easy to find, and they were the prey of a hundred nomad tribes. With inconceivable labour, this island town in the air was built and fortified. It was reached only by a mere trail of toe-holes up the stem of the i: mushroom." The age of the island is not known—except that it was already old in 1540, when the first explorer visited it, and wrote an account of its wonders. . ...'..-■

Apropos of'the assassination of Genera) Heureaux, President of the Republic of Dominica, M. de Blowitz, the Paris correspondent of the London Times, writes:—Heureaux was a negro, brought up without education, but of great intelligence, an indefatigable worker, and eager to learn. He had succeeded in learning to speak and write English, French, and Portuguese. He was an excellent orjraniser and administrator, but his good qualities were spoiled by his despotic system. His Ministers, who had about £700 a year, wore mere clerks, but he kept up an army of 2500 men, well drilled and. equipped, who have maintained perfect order for many years. His ships,! howevei, were ill-armed, not fit for the open sea, and not able to go further than St. j Thomas, but they frequently served this primitive autocrat for floating prisons. When his son. 24 years of age, • :>nd a medical student in Paris, returned home without permission, his father kept him for two months on oiic of his ships, making him serve as a sailor; and after a visit from his father, the young "man. without touching-land, was sent back to France. Heureaux leaves a widow, who reside,; at Puerto Plata. Be sometimes went to .see her, but never allowed her to go to San Domingo. In his unostentatious home he led the simplest life, having three maid servants;. and an infantry captain as aide-de-camp, without whose permission nobody could enter. Heureaux was very frugal, but when he gave dinners to important, personages he sent to Nov.- York for delicacies, and hat> a pedal cook. He v.as well dressed, and nis bathroom was tno finer-t apartmeut in >he house. He was afraid of assassins, and not without reason. Disguised as a beggai, he 'frequently went about the streets, but was followed oy women attendants, for he trusted chiefly to women, and when he travelled about the island hs always slept in the houses of these female police. I do not think that he had accumulated a large fortune. He had deposited ■IOO.OOOdoI or 500,000c10l in London.. Hamburg, and New York. The heavy import and export duties, his sole revenue, yielded about 2,500,000d0l a year, but he was not avaricious. His army swallowed up half the revenue, and the swarm of officials most of the rest. When ho wanted to enrich a favourite, he would place him at the head of the customs, but whenever he was in need of money he would borrow from him so largely as almost to beggar him. It was recently alleged that in concert with Hayli, lie was negotiating the sale of Samaria to America, but this, I think, is incorrect. In ar.y case, he would have employed the money in fortifying San Domingo against the liaytians, whom he distrusted. He always said'he liked power loi- its own sake, and if ever he should lost power he should be a dead man. Destiny h..s decided differently. His aim was Presidency ior life, but on this point alone Congress resisted him. A telegram from one of his faithful a/Jherents, a staunch Catholic, says:—"God gave him the grace of dying while giving alms. Ims will not, perhaps, be enough to atone fov ail the violences of his life.

. The Chancellery of the Legion of Honour in Pans has published a list of ail the women who have from the foundation of the order been entitled to wear the magic piece of red ribbon in their buttonhole. The first was Virginia Ghesquiere, who served as ft canliniere under Junot in Portugal.. and was known as " the pretty sergeant." One woman only has ever had both the cross of the Legion and the military medal, and she is still alive. Her name is Juliette Dodu. When the war broke out in 1870, at which time she ■was only 20 years of age, she was employed in the "telegraph office at Pithiviers. The Germans took possession of the town in due. course, and a. message was sent by the German General Staff to Prince Frederick Charles, which Mdlle. Dodu had to transmit. Instead of doing so, she destroyed it. The fact was discovered, and she was arrested and sentenced to be shot. Prince Frederick Charles, however, arrived on the spot, learned what was going on, and ordered her to be released, at the same lime complimenting her upon ho: courage. An incident so honourable to both sides must be rare in the miitet ol a •;:. :>.•;>. ••"''"«>■'>' war. Tho tradition in J<"n>.r.r-..< U ll'.it [!.■? :?>vji.g\vuin.<:.• s.'tveu ft whole Frii'iuh an.iy v.i:,y !;■•■•■.:: •.losi.rux'Uoa, but thai is doublissi ?.:) qxas^i-'p-Lion,

Mrs Hillyard, who recently won the Ladies' Law Tennis Championship of All England, has a record with this competition which is positively unique. Mrs Hillyard won her first championship as Miss Blanche Bingley, no less than 13 years ago, but looks, and (says " M.A.P."), indeed is, as young and as active to-day as she was in 18S6. " Since 1885, when she was beaten by Miss Maud / Watson, the first lady champion "that ever'was/' _ she has won the championship in all five times (in 1386, 18S9, 1894, 1897, and 1399), and on nearly every other occasion (barring the three or four on which ?)>e did-not compete at all) she has been second only to the winner. Other championships besides tho All England have fallen to Mrs Hillyard's share in goodly numbers; in single-handed contests she lias won over 60 first prizes. Mrs Hillyard's play cannot bo called graceful even by her most de voted admirers, but this defect is more than atoned for by her wonderful pluck and determination. r If Mrs Hillyard had been a man she would have made a good general, for she never know when she is beaten, and is never more dangerous than when apparently " done for." These qualities enabled her to hold her own with players who possess a far greater variety of strokes. Her peculiarities are that she never hits a ball on the volley if she erin possibly avoid it, and that she invariably wears chamois gloves, or rather gauntlets, while playing. Hei husband, Mr G. Vf. Hillyard, is best known to fame, by reason of his having played during several past seasons in the Leicestershire" cricket eleven, but he is also an accomplished lawn tennis player, and a mighty driver at golf.

The Berlin correspondent of the Daily News asks:—Does the mere fact that a private lecturer (privat Decent) at a university belongs to iho Social Democratic party make him unworthy of that position? The question was on 22nd .Tuly answered by the Philosophical ITtculiy of Berlin hi the native. Silting as a disciplinary court, they acquitted D>- Arons, whose removal from iiis? position had been proposed by the Minster for Public Instruction. Dr Arons, a lecturer on. mathematics, is confessedly a Social Democrat He, however, has never taken part in agitation, nor given expression to Ins political conviction before the students. .The Philosophical Faculty had already once refused to proceed against him, but meanwhile the Prussian Dint, with ?ts reactionary majority. ?passed a lawmaking the Ministry of State the court of appeal in such questions. It is therefore to bo'expected that the Ministry will quash the sentence and remove Dr Arons from his post. Di Arons is fighting the case as a question of principle. He is a millionaire, and would losa nothing by his removal from office.