THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 956, 16 May 1889, Page 21

THE WEEK.

" Nunquiuai allud nutura, altud aaplentia dtxit,"— Juvenal. Good nature and good sense must «T«r jola."— T?opb.

The committee appointed by the Otago University Council to exThe sahooi of amine into the position and Minos. requirements of the School of

Mines has brought. up areport (which we published last week) worthy of considerable attention for severalreasons. In the first place, there is not a word in the whole document about the peripatetic lecturing and demonstrating which was the subject of so much fuss two or three years ago. We may fairly oonclude that -the committee regards this business as played out ; and its members may rely upon it that nine-tenths of the practical miners ' of New Zealand will agiee with them. It never was really possible to teach miners any useful practical chemistry by this fly-by-night process ; and af ter the novelty of a few pretty experiments had worn efi, the miners themselves were too sensible not to perceive that nobody was getting much "forrarder." Moreover, it is not in the least necessary that miners should be able to analyse or assay any likely-looking stones they may come across in their day's work, any more than it is necessary that a farmer should be able to perform analyses of the soils of his farm. . It is much better, in the interests of true economy —to say nothing of accuracy — that such work should be assigned to ' a .recognised authority; whose verdict could be accepted with tolerable confidence. With regard to the condition of the School, of Mines at present, it appears that the ' University has made no provision either of room or of appliances for the purpose, except such as are available in the chemical department; and further, that in the committee's opinion another professor is required, to take up the teaching of metallurgy and assaying. To this the University Council reply— and the committee by anticipation concur — that there is no chance of getting what is alleged to be required out of the funds of the council, and that the committee had better ask the Government. But since the public purse is to be resorted to, the committee* will have to be prepared with a more careful case than it has yet laid before the public. The report admits that,, so far, the School of Mines has not been, attended with adequate success,- and the committee declare that for this " there is only one cure "—which cure resolves itself on examination into more buildings and another professor, a" kind of cure which is easily suggested when, as* in this case, those who suggest it do not intend to provide any of the money wherewith to carry it out. We recognise the care and ability shown by the committee in its examination into the matter, and we do not suggest that the conclusions arrived at are wrong. But it is only friendly to warn the committee that, if they are to succeed in inducing the Government to come to. their aid, they must be prepared with better proof than is at present offered' that' the unattra'ctiveness and ill-success of, our School of Mines are in reality owing to 'deficient buildings and a scarcity of professors, and can be cureb! at oiice by erecting the one and; importing the other at the public expense.'

Foreign FlßaneleHt

The management of the Exhibition has hith&td bden sd btisinessItkgjt ablej and .steady thai it is ii 6 iiidre tftaii right id , . assume thai the commissioners, would be the last to, join in the things that ire said about .bdydotting" the ">reigl' r bank's,. When "Mr Roberts said that he would like to see these banks "get a good rubbing up" for their cold refusal to join in, the, scheme, hesaid a fhing Vhioh W:aß.both^ttatidab'le, in' itself and well deserved by those of whom it was said, Bat when people go .on to say) .tjiat the 1 . Austra--Man banks doing business here ought to be punished by the wholesale withdrawal of. accounts— in other words, that we ought' to try and, t flo. thenrrr-they not qnly utter threats which are, perfectly f utije, and whjich merely gitfe occasion to- the, enemy to mook, btit they forget of ignpre all that banking means in ,a yopng colony like thisi .The foreign banks exist. tbecause foreign .capital finds^oti she I whole", profitable' investment .in* this cduntry. We may perhaps do .without them some day, but that is a long day .yet, if, Jndeed; ,it will ever come.atall : and in the; meantime, whatever tends to strengthen their resources j is good for the country ,'and whatever tends to weaken them, and to check the free employ- i ment of " foreign " capital in the country, is unquestionably bad. It is not, however, desirable to treat too seriously what may have been said by irresponsible people about the question) while Commenting With pardonable irritation upon the stand-off attitude of these ,'banks in relation to the Exhibitipn. What may be usefully noted in connection with the matter is the curious, and surely' thoughtless, feeling which is so often exhibited in New Zealand towards the foreign capitalist, in whatever shape he makes his vicarious appearance. There is farioo much attention concentrated upon the interest which, these persons draw out of the colony, and far too little upon the capital which they bring into it. Just as, in our public life, while we are preparing to borrow another million in London, many of us are busy abusing the Londoners who lent us the million that preceded it} so in private matter's,' such as the proceedings of banks and loan companies, there is much more readiness to denounce the money-lender for grabbing. his interest than to recognise that the extravagance of the borrower may have ; had something to do with the trouble which is complained of. Jf New Zealand were thrown upon her own resources, clear of " foreign " capital, her industries would collapse at j once ; while on the other hand we can always, if only we keep our heads level in i times of prosperity, impose a useful limit on, the " exploiting " of the resources of the | colbny by grasping capitalists abroad. In a ' healthful moderation in these matters ; national prosperity lies j not in greedily clambering for more loans with one breath, ; and abusing the entire tribe of lenders with the next.

A Useful Toy.

I The suggestion mace by two gentlemen of ArI rowtown(Otago)tbatasupplyj of kites should ."be added to the ordinary fittings of eyery ship, to be used for the purpose of taking a line ashore in case of wreck } is by no means to be considered as absurd bj reason of its extreme simplicity. Quite apart from the fact that the inventors of the plan have brought it forward in the most modest terms, and have besides exhibited some of that lordly contempt for minor details which often characterises the origi- 1 nators of large ideas, there is nowadays always danger in treating a suggestion as trivial merely because it involves the use of means available to everyone's hand. There is, for instance, the case of the oiling of waves, a device so old that it ' originated a proverb familiar to our grandfathers— and very likely to theirs— and yet was never put. to practical use in our own day on; any extensive scale until ■within ,the last year or two. The suggestion of a revival of the practice in good earnest was received with utter scorn. Now, however, that it has been found that an expenditure of a few shillings in oil may, in certain situations, make all the difference between the salvation and the loss of a fine ship, prejudice is being- laid aside, and we are beginning to hear that a steamship line here and there is ordering systematic provision be made on its boats for the use of oil, under circumstances where experiments have shown that it can be useful. Kites, like oils, are cheap and common things, but it does' not follow that anyone has ever happened to try them as a means of getting a line on to a lee shore. They were probably as cheap and common in Pfftnklin's time as they are now ; yet it was only to that philosopher that it ever occurred to use one for the historic experiment by which it was first demonstrated that lightning is in ' truth an electric discharge, and that the upper regions of the atmosphere are constantly charged with electricity at a greater or less tension according to their meteorological conditions at the time. We cannot, of course, treat here of the actual measure of value which the scheme of Messrs M'Corvie and Miller may be found to possess, if it possesses any. Competent authority alone can be relied upon for that, and we are not nautical experts. But the matter strikes us as decidedly worthy of serious inquiry: and we recognise tyiat a possibility exists of j a useful life-saving device being refused' j .notice merely because it may be feared that ; a certain amount of ridicule attaches to the investigation of the properties of kites. We hope to hear more of the matter. As a matter of fact, speaking of kites, they have lately ' become The science of fcjjg subject of serious study Kites. - n jr rance> w here the principles of their action and the theory of their equilibrium under various conditions have been made the subject of discussion before no less distinguished a body than the French Association for the Advancement of Science. M. J. Fillet, teacher of machinerydrawing in the Bcole Poly technique, has been the chief student of the matter ; and one of bis principal conclusions is well worth the attention of the Arrowtown inventors, besides being in itself somewhat surprising. It has ! always - been supposed hitherto that the ' tension upon the string of a given kite is i roughly proportional to the strength of the ; wind at the time ; so that in a hurricane,.! Buoh as that which Mes'fcrs' M'Coivie aridj

Panatds Ctnftl.

[ MiHer allege Wave suggested to them ttieir kite-dying expedientj there Would always be dangeSt that a string light, enough to be earned the 1 nec§ssat'y distance might riot be 1 . strong enotlgh to hold the kifc£ _ It mttsfc be* borne in mind that a 1 special recommendation ffiVe"ji id theft plafi by. otlr inve'ntdrs is that the kite could verpiikely reach the top of a precipitotfs shore,' to do jyhich it must, as every boy knows, be ,haid,K©ld, and could ; ript be allowed to run clea,r before ibhe.wind. ! I What M. Pillet ,has demonstrated^' then, is t^at- ,in a properly' e'onsfci'uc'fceq . kite' the tecsion of the string varies between vefy narrow limits only, whatever khe force of the wind may be. Its extreme tension. ..in ,the most powerful hurricane need hot be more tnan that whibh would be produced in the string by banging to it a wejght equal to ' double the .weight, of the kite and,, its tail; and this, qf course, even ,a veryi fine cord cotild easily withstand. It all depends on the place where the string is attached to the kite* whether the kite "-pulls" strongly or hot. ' Soys welcome, the ''pulling "of akite< because it seems -to indicate that it will go up well. Not so, says M. Pillet ; the pulling only indicates that the string has been badly attached^ and- the experiment caiinot.be sosuccessful as it would be if the -theoretically .correct point of attachment were ascertained and used. This is absolutely necessary. ", in order to obtain with a given kite a maximum of altitude and of asoer. sipnal force ; " and its observance will secure the collateral advantage of the tightest possible strain on the string— or, in other words, will permit of the use of the lightest possible kind of string. If these conclusions are sound, which there seems no reason to doubt, their bearing on the practical use of kites on shipboard is obvious. Equally obvious. is it that, if a kite can. save human life under the awful perils of shipwreck) it cannot be frivolous to devote a little time or space, as the case may be, to examining or describing the properties of the article it3elf . < With the collapse of the Panama canal the two rival American schemes — Nicaraguan canal and the rehuantapec ship railwayspring at. .once into imporfcancej and the division of North from South America is likely still to be accomplished by one of them within a v,ery few years from now. The latter of the two schemes, the ship railway across the isthmus, is in abeyance for the present, no one having been found . ready to take it up practically since the death of Captain Eades, the distinguished engireer who designed this colossal work. But the construction of the canal across Nicaragua has just been authorised by an act which has already passed both houses of the American Congress, and the company which has it in hand believes it can complete the work in 1895. The total distance from ocean to ocean at the point chosen is about 170 miles, but of this by far the greatest distance is already navigable by lake and river. Starting from the Pacific side, the river Lajas will be followed for 20 miles to its junction with Lake Nicaragua, which will then be navigated for about 57 miles ; thence the river San Juan will be followed towards the Atlantic Ocean for 64 miles, leaving in all 0n1y29 miles of actual oanal to be constructed in order to reach the Atlantic Ocean, in addition to a few locks, upon the rivers named. The company estimate the cost of completion, after allowing £3,000,000 for contingencies, at about £13,000,000 of £14,000,000— a sum which looks, perhaps, formidable enough at first sight, but is a mere trifle compared to the engagements of the Panama Canal Company, whose obligations are now said • to reach a total of over £80,000,000, with the greater part of the work still to do. The revenue of the Nicaragua enterprise is estimated at a million and a-half, and the annual expenditure at about £200,000; and it is noteworthy that some part of this revenue is expected to be derived from shipping making the direct voyage between England and New Zealand, as well as between England and Australia. The new canal is situated almost on a straight line, so to speak, drawn over the surface of the globe from London to Wellington. In view of the earnestness shown in connection with the enterprise in America, it might be as well to remember, in the course of any mail negotiations with Canada, that there is a possibility of this i line being open to our consideration in the course of a few years hence. The English case upon which we commented a week or two ago, in which Cnriosittei there is every reason to of crime. believe that two guilty men have been released from prison, commiserated, and compensated,while two innocent men have taken their places upon a false confession made by themselves, has been paralleled by a curious series of trials in Melbourne. A -short time ago a Chinaman passing peacefully along a lane off Little Bourke street was set upon by a mob of larrikins, pursued, caught, and finally kicked to death. A man named >Stepb.pn Cutler was placed upon his trial as the alleged actual murderer, and the evidence against him would probably have been strong enough to convict but for the fact that so strong an alibi was sworn by several people that the jury could not but conclude that Cutler had nob been in the lane at all that night, and they accordingly returned a verdict of acquittal. The police however, were convinced they had the right man notwithstanding ; and having hunted up new"evidence,they considered that they could prove perjury on the part of the witnesses who swore to the alibi. Accordingly several of these witnesses were arrested, indicted for' swearing falsely that Cutler was absent on the night of, the murder, and— the case being apparently clearly proved— were convicted. The presiding judge, who , fully concurred in the verdict of the jury, sentenced all the live prisoners to nine years' imprisonment each, with added punishment in irons, at the same time expressing his detestation of the conspiracy by which they had shielded a murderer from the arm of the law. Now comes the strange part of the case. At the trial of these prisoners, Stephen Cutler himself came'forward to give evidence for the defence; his principal business being, of course, to swear that he was not in the lane, a statement he could not make on his own trial, being theti a prisoner in the dock, ' The accused men,

TTerklng-mon Deltgttci.

as already mentioned, were, .hpwe^r^convictedj and as this'implied/a3|^rar»tiQpby the jury that Stephen Ou'tler'^as present at the sdene of the ,murder,, Cutlet himself was now drfested for fatsely . . shearing at the perjury, trial that he .was riofc. At Cutler's ftial fof perjury the ' first Jurf disagreed, fcut cable iiews ba& fitfwarilted to the effect thai at Bs.)se6bri4 tfial h.e;m& been acquitted, . : It is. easy ib", i>b&% H Cutler , has. been jusjbly deolared. , innpoen> of perjury, he ; is>also,innpcent of i»he which the judge who tried the perjury jCase ba"d dearly laid to his charge, and-thereidr* is to be* gfe"atfy /oommiserated t for, having been subjected to three trials on|twp heinoni chaises of crime. , .it" alspj fdfrows_,tiiat tha five ZO6Q who are cow in. penal aeffisv[d&lkgb perjury must necessarily be innocent i&OujM lev is, and will probably be entitled to.release. The British belief in the infallibility, pf jthe jury system seems to be meeting with some rude shocks in ,these"latter days.r Itdoea not seem to,, be, yet known,. how the ; Victorian Government will deal with thj>B remarkable complication^ whioh is obviously; a queer tangle, requiring Very darefttl tleatmen^t; New South Wales. is ,nqw ri the only { ootonx wh!ei;e payment .$f ■ ,is not in f obgo,' ,ajvd j \b\ .is jriog sui prising, therefore,' to»fin<+ that strong efforts are being made in the Sydney Parliament to remove the undesirable condition of free service by which every member is bound. These efforts have received some slight enoonragement from the fact that a similar question has lately been raised — though -without, of course, any hope of early suecessrr-in the House of Commons itself.. But it. is. odd to notice that the principal argument. relied upon by the advocates of the change is the pretence that payment of legislators confers upon Parliament . the benefit of the presence of working" .men as members. In all but one of the successive struggles in successive Parliaments of ;suc« cessive colonies, by which payment of members has ultimately been established,' this old fallacy has been made to do duty for arguments Yet nothing is easier, than to refute it by a simple appeal ■ to, actual results. Which of the colonial Parliaments numbers amongst its members a genuine working man 1 Of course by workingrman we mean (using the definition of the working man himself) one who labours with his hands andarms alone for a living ; other kinds of work do not count, and even according to the definition given, the hands and arms mitefc hold a rougher implement than either the pen or the sword if the courted title! is to be attained. If we look, at Victoria, which prides herself upon> bting the- most democratic of the colonies (and which pays her legislators at double the New Zealand rate), we do not find a single working man inParliament; and the reason is obvibusiy that working men do not believe in 1 being repre* sented by one of their own class, but prefer, for some reason or other, representatives chosen from other walks' in life. If aworking' man, in fact, insists" on going to the hustings, he Btands a very, good chance of forfeiting his £50 deposit;' i It has been tried time after time, and always with the same result. The determination of the work ing man to keep working men out of Parliament may ot may not be iaund and wise : wt are not at present concerned with that point, But there it is ; and there it will in all pro* bability remain. There are plenty of igood arguments available, not indeed for giving members of Parliament a salary, but for enabling them to serve without actual expense to themselves, What, therefore seems so curious is that so much stress should be laid by the advocates of payment in New South Wales upon an argument which is little better than an exploded fallacy.