CHATS WITH THE CHILDREN.

Otago Witness, Volume 06, Issue 1986, 6 March 1890, Page 43

CHATS WITH THE CHILDREN.

By Patbb. The Transvaal.

I have still two points to notice — 1. Why the Boers are fitting out to invade Mashonaland, and

2. The statement by President Kruger that the Transvaal will soon be an English possession.

1, Mashonaland is owned by Lobengula, who has placed himself under British protection. In his territories the British South African Chartered Association is about to commence mining operations. Gold-bearing quartz reefs have been traced for miles, and it is supposed that the mines about to be opened will be the richest in the world, the Mount Morgan mine in Queensland perhaps beiug excepted. Theße mines being worked by English capital means the employment to a large extent of praotical miners with whom the Boers are at enmity. So I daresay the Boers are wanting to get Mashonaland for three reasons— 1. To extend their territory ; 2. To annoy England ; 3. To get possession of the mines, and to exolude the English miners as much as possible from South Africa.

2. Gold-bearing reefs are now also, being worked in the Transvaal. Pretoria is the capital, but Johannesburg, a couple of years ago a village, is more populous, containing over 20,000, and it is the centre of a goldfield supporting over 100,000, of whom nearly one-half are British, who are now agitating for equal rights with the Boers. Theße descendants of Dutch settlerß were able enough to secure their independence, but they won't be able to keep out the adventurous miners who migrate by the thousand to any new goldfields. President Kruger sees it will be difficult, when the roads, railways, and telegraph lines now being constructed are opened, to keep the English from swamping the Boers, and judging by the past, it will only be a matter of a short time when the eoLtlera will have to give up their dreams of a South African confederation ruled by Dutchmen. The Beers see this as clearly

aB their President, and endeavoured to avoid it, by Bending agentß to Holland not leng since to induoe emigrants to set out, promising them every faoility to settle on the land and so prevent English land settlement.

I have now written several articles on Africa, and you ought to have a fair knowledge of_ it, or, at any rate, of Eastern and Southern Africa,

Leprosy.

The death of Father Damien, the collection of £12,000 in London to establish a lepers' hospital and to study the disease, and the knowledge that about 250,000 lepers in India mix to a very large extent freely with the rest of the population, has caused attention to be drawn to that terrible disease. We in Otago are taking a spaoial interest in it owing to cases of leprosy being found at St, Clair and in Southland. I have read a couple of articles in the Home magazines, and Fil give you the main' points of them. No mention is made of leprosy in Western Europe until after the various Roman conquests. It then became bo prevalent that in the time of the Normans there were 2000 hospitals in France and 17,000 throughout Europe where this loathsome disease was attended to. England, Scotland, and Ireland had these leper hospitals,<and those entering had the burial service read over them, and were henceforth regarded as dead. By law they were classed as idiots, and were incapable of inheriting property. I have read somewhere that one of our English kings was a leper, but I forget which one. There are still 1000 in Norway, and leper hospitals to accommodate 600 are in existence at Bergen and Drontheim. As elsewhere, the disease is being conquered by isolating its viotims, though in the Baltio provinoes and Sicily it is spreading. In the West Indies it is also on the increase, while in the Sandwioh Islands 1 in 15 has it, though 50 years ago the disease waa not; noticed.

Sir Morell Mackenzie, the celebrated throat epeoialißt at Home, says that there is a leprous zone of 25 miles around Lake Taupo in the North Island, and he asserts, too, that lepers are on the increase there. The natives say that they get the disease from the oarp that are caught in the lake. In olden times the Maoris killed off all lepers. The origin of the disease is not known, nut the leading authorities at Home agree that healthy people by continually coming in contact with those suffering from the disease are sure to catoh it too,

Pictures I>y Telephone.

On page 43 of the issue of the Witness published a fortnight ago, you will see a statement to the effect that Herr Korzel, a German scientist, exhibited to a party of soienti&c gentlemen the picture of a friend who was then speaking to him by telephone from a town miles away— that is, the gentleman sent his picture by telephone ! A little over a month ago I saw a paper from Ballarat, Viotoria, whioh gave an outline of the life of Mr Henry Sutton, and an extract or two will, I am sure, be interesting. He has found out a way of sending copies of pictures by lightning— that is, by electricity. Four or five years ago he made a machine by means of which he was able to see the horses running in the Melbourne Cup race, though he waa in his room 100 miles away ! Since then he has been perfecting this and other inventions. He now states that he can Bend copies of photographs or drawings by electrioity, and with another apparatus make a stereotype plate so quickly that the picture of an accident ocourring, say, in Dunedin, may be reproduced at Ohristohuroh and sold in the streets there within a few minutes of the event. He has left for England, so it is possible that the Daily Graphio will soon have its piotures produced by these wonderful inventions. Mr Sutton when only 14 had read all the scientific books in the Ballarat Library. When quite a youth he invented what is known as the Gramme- dynamo electrio machine, but had not the means to patent it and make it known; and Mr Ellery, the Victorian astronomer, stateß that Mr Edison, the American eleotrioian, only beat Mr Sutton by 16 days in the invention of what is called the carbon filament, used in electric lighting. While in his teens he invented various machines, the majority of wbioh he did not patent ; and he has been in regular correspondence with, and has written various papers for, the scientific societies at Home.

From England he goes to America, intending to show his inventions at the great exhibition to be held at Chicago in 1993. Vast improvements have been made in the drawing and copying of pictures, but what a leap to be able to send them by telegraph !