PRESS OPINIONS ON CURRENT TOPICS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13835, 23 February 1907, Page 14

PRESS OPINIONS ON CURRENT TOPICS

PLAYING AT OCCULTISM.

There is a danger to-day of psychical research degenerating into a fashionablo society amusement without practical aims, and there are prominent members of the Society for Psychical Research who do less than little to eneourago this tendency.—Occult Review. BRITISH DRAMA. Tho BrifT~ranmtic authors of any importance who have been represented 011 our stage by new works during the year now ending arc only about a baker's dozen in number. The malern English drama will be a long time a-coming if it does not come any faster than this.—The World. KEEPING ON LIVING.

There is philosophy as well as fun in the reputed reply of tho centenarian that lie lived, to such a great, ago "by perseverance." The man who gives way to despair when overtaken by adverse fortune is not likely to be long lived. But "perseverance" —cheerful determination to surmount obstacles and survive calamities—undoubtedly lends to prolong life.—Herald, New York.

BRITISH CAPITAL IN CHINA. The new conditions in China require very careful and expert watching if the vast opportunities which ehould present themselves for the profitable employment of British, capital aro not to bo allowed to pass, and the task of keeping the Foreign Office alive to those opportunities and the necessity of safeguarding them is as difficult as it is dclicatc.—Herald, Shanghai. HIS MAJESTY'S TACTICS. Most States have hitherto adopted the system of keeping something up their sleeve, some grievance against other Powers to use as a lever in case of need. Edward VII has. followed a diametrically opposite system. With a- skill unequalled, save by its success, he has cleared tho ground of all tho old quarrels of the past. It was a difficult plan to pursue. The Convention of April 8, 19M, big with consequences for us/ wiped out in a day a past o£ centuries of rivalries and wars—La France Militaire.

HOME FROM THE COLONIES. The prosperity of the Dominion is well exemplified by the fact that the two direct steamship lines between Canada, and Great Britain found themselves severely taxed to supply accommodation for all those who desired to "go home" for Christmas. Both the Allin Line and the Canadian Pscifio Steamship Company have had " full ships" this Yuletidc. The gratifying feature about these crowded shins is that in nearly every case the passengers are people who have dono well in Canada,—Canada. WIVES IN DEMAND. Mr Ball, the Canadian Government agent in Birmingham, has had any number of letters asking him to find wives for lonely men in Canada. At first Mr Ball took the matter rather as a joke, but, the number of them impressed lilm with the seriousness of this eminently human requirement, and in several instances he has been able to introduce marriageable ladies.—Canada. FATE OF ST. HELENA. Lovers of the picturesque should welcome the news ot the abandonment of St. Helena by its British garrison. The greater part of the inhabitants, numbering some MOO, will probably emigrate, since there arepractically no industries on (lie island. This is as it should be. It was always an anomaly to think of St. Helena as an island like any other island in tho gazettcr. Deserted, it becomes a) monument and assumes its proper sublimity as the rock on which Great Britain chained the Prometheus of European democracy.—Nation, New York.

FASCINATING CHAUFFEURS. ■ The chauffeur, for some reason or another, has, it appears, an extraordinary fascination for well-born girls, and several heiresses have rcccntly insisted upon marrying these heroes in leather coats and leggings. The attraction may conceivably lie in his name. Let "him be callcd the "car-man" instead of Ihe "chauffeur," and lie may 6001) take his place beside the coachman.— Lady's Pictorial. CHANGE IN HEN'S ROOMS. The young man of to-day is growing more ladylike, by which is meant, of course, more tasteful, in tho adornment and decoration of his rooms. The smoking room and study element scorns to bo disappearing in order to make way for a cross between a studio and a boudoir. The sporting prints are replaced by water-colours and silverpoints; tho boxing-gloves, fencing-foils, photographic groups, and "horns" by costly china and pretty draperies.—Vanity Fair, THE 'BRITISH CABINET. It is notorious that in the present Cabinet there are two parties at least, of which one is relatively moderate, the other impatient and violent. The former has the advantage of intellect and experience, tho latter the kind of strength which violence nearly always uses with effect, over moderation. If, in the reconstruction of the Cabinet, Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman reinforcts the more "advanced" section, the country may look out for a period of Constitutional storms and a barren record of'useful social legislation such as it desires We believe, in' common with a very large number of electors, that there is still a chance of securing the passage of a reasonable and conciliatory Education Bill: but that, most desirable consummation will not be achieved by revolutionary methods or by a stupid determination to treat tho Hou.=e of Lords as a negligible quantity.-— London Daily Telegraph.

: SPECIAL KOAUS FOR (MOTORS, The announcement made by Laffan's correspondent at Now York that a. syndicate of capitalists have agreed to build a special roadway between Now York and Boston, fo.be used by motors alone without any limitation upon speed, is interesting from the light which it sheds upon fho possible developments of rapid transit in the future. The proposal is paralleled by the scheme prepared two years ago for the construction or a motor road between London and Brighton. That project collapsed from its authors' inability to obtain the sum required for the 'construction of the road, though there Was fair reason to think that with a.properly-adjusted system of tolls it might liave proved remunerative. But 'roads in England aro far better than in the United SifttCßj ' jvliere, outeido .the ureal

cities and a. few States such as Massachusetts, they can scarcely bo said to exist at) all. Thus an English .motor road would have been subject to the competition of the ordinary highway, for the uso of which no one has to pay, while an American road from New York to Boston would be tho only available route for motorists who wore not in search of dangerous adventures.— London Daily Mail. RUSSIA. "The destinies of the Russian Empire,", if we may so modify Macau lay's stately phrase, "are enveloped l in a thick darkncss." From moment to moment there is a glimpse of some shadowy movement. Ono roads of a Foreign Minister discussing world-policy, aud of efforts towards an understanding with some other nation, as if any stable understanding could lie reachcd while tho Russian people is helpless and inarticulate before its tormentors. Another time it. js finance, and there is the shaking together of tho dry bones of reform which precctle an appeal to Kuropean credit. Op thero is a going to and fro anions tho makers of Constitutions, and one learns that, by some arbitrary violence M. Stolypin has disfranchised' a party, or by some incredible mealiness proscribed an opponent's. No wonder the result is confusion for thoso who watch the spirit of absolute wrong masquerading in tile forms of liberty. —Loudon Morning Leader. . PETITIONS TO PARLIAMENT, In many ways the present. Parliament is ljelow its predecessors, and that may account for the astonishment of the members recently when Mr Ellis Griffiths presented his anti-vivisection petition, measuring nine miles in length, and carrying 400,000 signatures. The Houso was used to such things in the good old days. No fewer than, 33,918 petitions were presented in 1813, and 24,279 in -1860. As regards signatures, tho petition promoted by the Salvation Army in favour of Sunday closing had 436,500. The Chartists' petition presented by Mr Feargus O'Connor, carried 1,900,000. But tho most curious petition of all was • that presented 16 years ago in favour of the Government lioensing proposals. It was eight milos long, aud had 600,000 signatures. ' II stood on the floor of tho Houso in three huge wooden cylinders, each 7ft in diameter, and as if that were not enough the late signatures were represented by throe comparatively small rolls. And what gave riso •to no little surprise, nobody seemed one penny the worse—or better,—Pall Mali Gazette.

THE TRANSVAAL. ' e Tlic progress of the country,—this !s indeed the foundation of any hopeful forecast. If the cconoimo situation changes, and settlers pour into the country districts and artisans and labourers into tiic to\vn6, then we have no fear of the issue, for that new population will of necessity be British and progressive. We do not distrust the "Boers. Wo do not believe that, a Boer majority need mean a disloyal or an anti-British majority. But the Dutch members will represent conservative traditions not always consistent with true progress, and progress is what, wo wish to see. The duty of all good citizens in the Transvaal is to mako the most of the new Constitution, and shape it to tho good alike oP the Empire and tho colony. Wo havo started on a road from which there is no turning back, and our business is to walk circumspectly but fearlessly. Men of all parties in England and throughout the Empiro will'reecho the words in the covering despatch in which Lord Elgin records his Majesty's "earnest wishes for the peace and prosperity of the country under the new Constitution."—Spectator. ARGENTINE PORK. Tho good points of "tho gintlem&n who pays the rint" are being recognised in i new quarter. Argentine is going in for pork production. Tho news may seem trivial, but is really of some importance. This go-ahead South American Rcpublio has already shown what, it can do in grain production, and British' graziers and dairy farmers havo felt the effects pf Argentine competition in the production of beef, mutton, and butter. Very soon tho American and Danish, as well as the English, pigbreeder will have to tako account of the activity of Argentine in, the raising of swine. In tho production of cheap pork the Argentine has advantages vvhich England, Denmark, and the United States can hardly be considered to possess. Is it. then, all over with our pig-keeping industry? By no meane. There is a demand for highclass pork as woll as cheap pork, and it is equally profitable to meet it. And tho man on tho spot, with an established reputation, has a much better chance' of meeting it satisfactorily than anybody in South America.—Westminster Gazette.