THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 1926, 15 January 1891, Page 22

THE WEEK.

" Ntragnim nllai n&tnra, ullud gaplentls dlilt."— Jdvihai. •• Good naturi and good wnie muit ever ioln."r-p OpK.0 pK. If the cablegrams which have been arriving about the Behring Sea diffiTiio culty had related to a differFUhetie* Agiiu. ence of the same magnitude between England and any other European power, the whole world would be in a condition of ferment over the crisis. The general feeling of security in the present instance, which continues apparent, notwithstanding the assembling of miscellaneous Yankee warships at San Francisco, and other blustering demonstrations by the President and his Secretary of State, does not arise from any special cordiality of feeling between the people of the United States and those of the Mother Country. Plain Epoken people, who have had opportunities of judging the matter, usually indeed declare bluntly that no such feeling exists ; that on the contrary, the average Yankee regards England and the British with something like chronic irritation, while in England it is an article of faith that our American cousins are rather a low lot, with nothing to recommend them except smartness and push. The secret of the comparative indifference of the English press and the extreme forbearance of the Government is 3imply the knowledge on the part of everybody concerned that a row with England is a stock element in American party politics. The United States are coming more and more completely under the dominion of their Irish citizens every year, and the Irish vote is now unquestionably the pivot of party fortunes. Each of the two great parties studies to conciliate and please the Irish, and each believes, rightly or wrongly, that hostility to England is essential to the process. Hence while the two nations — with no great love between them it is true, but still without a trace of murderous enmity of any kind — would scout with horror the notion of setting large numbers of their respective citizens firing bullets and sticking bayonets into each other's bodies, their official representatives are exchanging documents in which the ultimate idea of war is avowedly kept steadily in view. Mr Blame talks that way, and Lord Salisbury in mere courtesy cannot laugh at him. But everybody in England knows that the whole thing is got up^because the Republican party has been beaten at the elections for Congress, and wants row to strain every nerve to win the election for President. English opinion apparently is that, though it is extremely vexatious that America should have set up irritating pretensions about the Alaskan seal fisheries, ! and though it is impossible to quietly submit | to them, yet there is no more danger of the Yankees declaring war than there is of Lord Salisbury's sending the fleet to bombard the city of New York. But nevertheless, all this constant bluster and bloodthirstiness, and codfishes, lobsters, seals, and such like is creditable neither to the diplomacy nor the common^ sense of either nation. The story of the Stanley Expedition for the relief of Emm Pasha, but The lately thought a glorious injamo»on ddent in English history, has imident. closed in horror, and is coming to be regarded with disgust. The verdict of English opinion with regard to the " cannibal incident " and the character of Major Barttelot is given with evident correctness by the Lon■don correspondent of the Argus when he declares that "Mr Stanley has established his case against both Barttelot and Jameson ; " and it is equally true, as the same well-informed authority states, that Stanley himself has nevertheless "nofc cleared himself of the serious allegations which arise against him respecting the rear column" — allegations which involve amongst others " a distinct charge of treachery." We apprehend that few persons can read the letter of Mr Jameson to the Relief Committee i dated 3rd August 1888, as in any way a sufficient defence to the terrible charge f against him. If he did cot actually buy the slave girl for the purpose of seeing her killed, cooked, and eaten before his eyes, and making bketches of the process, he at least acted in such a way, on his own showing, as to make the immediate occurrence of the tragedy a certainty if such tragedies were possible in the country at all. He says he did not believe they were possible, and he appears to have indulged in a good deal of " laughing " over the alleged possibility beforehand — an expression which more than any other grates upon the judicial mind during a careful perusal.of this weak and most reprehensible letter. "We deeply regret," says the London Times of 15th November, "to record our opinion that Mr Jameson's letter of exculpation strikes a heavier blow at his reputation than any of the statements it has been our duty to publish." The summary of Mr Jameson's own statements, given by the leading journal, seems to us to be that which will unconsciously form itself in the mind of every reader ; and the mystery is how any person who had ever passed muster as an officer of a hazardous expedition could have been so infatuated as to suppose that such a defence could for a moment sway public opinion to" the side of the accused. Here is the summary: — "Mr Jameson admits that he had professed himself incredulous of Tippoo Tib's assurance that the dance at which th.ey were looking on was generally followed by cannibalism. He admits that another Arab said laughingly " Give me a bit of cloth and see." He admits that be thereupon gave some cloth, that the wretched girl was then led forth, and that she was cruelly killed before his eyes." All this it seems to us Mr Jameson's letter does clearly admit, and indeed insists upon ; but he pleads that he 11 did not believe" cannibal stories in Central Africa. He admits further, it may be noticed, that he made sketches of the murder and the feast ; but he thinks it a triumphant refutation of the resulting charges against him to allege that the sketches were made in the fcy&ing tfter it wag all over, The ift-

9

terpreter Assad Farran has been induced to sign a kind of retraction of the charge so far as he was concerned in making it ; but unfortunately we have Mr Jameson's own authority »for the statement that Assad Farran " cannot help lying," together with a strong suspicion that Assad Farran can be bought. Moreover, Assad Farran's retraction unfortunately proves too much. He says the gift of the cloth " had no reference whatever" to the subsequent tragedy: whereas Mr Jameson's letter expressly associates the gift of cloth with what followed, denying only that he actually intended anything of the kind to follow. We trust that the Australian members of the Australasian Association for ■n,e the Advancement of Science, seiento which begins its second congrcu. annual meeting in Christchurch this week, will not be disappointed if on this first occasion of its assembling in New Zealand the amount of general public notice accorded to its proceedings is not quite what it might be. Science in New Zealand has attained a remarkably respectable level for a new country; indeed, it is often remarked in Australia that the Transactions of the New Zealand Institute, as recorded in the annual volume issued from the Government Printing Office under the supervision of Sir James Hector, are in advance of any other similar publication in the Australasian colonies. To a certain extent this is no doubt due to the exceptionally varied and interesting nature of New Zealand flora and fauna ; the absence of large wild animals of the higher orders being more than compensated for by the unique characteristics of many living classes of birds, insects, fishes, and lizards, and by the interest attaching to the relics of extinct species of birds. Workers, therefore, both amateur and professional, in those great departments of natural science which come under the headings of Zoology and Botany— now commonly grouped together under the general denomination of Biology — have found a rare wealth of material ready to their hands. Nor is New Zealand deficient in material for investigation derived from the mineral kingdom— the geological and volcanic problems presented by her strata, and the more "practical" questions connected with her valuable mineral treasures, being such as to try the mettle of the very best men the ranks of science can supply. Still, for all this, the country is too new, and its inhabitants too busy, to have advanced far on the road of the organisation of scientific work ; and so large a part of our population is condemned to daily toil at the plough, the mill, or the desk, and so small a portion has any leisure worth speaking of, that the general tendency still is to relegate science to its professors and to take little heed of it as an element in daily life. The eminent Australian visitors now landing on our shores are not, however, new to this difficulty as affecting a new country. They had to meet it in Melbourne as well as here ; and indeed it might almost be said that the association exists principally for the purpose of overcoming the general reluctance to take part in the great work of the categorical observation of Nature. Socially they will have a hearty welcome, scientifically they will have the very best we can give them ; and with a man like Professor Parker as local secretary the association can feel an absolute confidence that its arrangements will be so conducted as to make the utmost of every step it can show us how to take towards the " advancement of science."

The continuous stream of telegrams arriving about the Koch consumption The Berlin care sufficiently indicate two controror.r. things— first, the extreme difficulty of any positive pronouncement as to its success or otherwise ; and secondly, the universal interest which the subject has aroused among medical men, as well as, of course, among consumptive sufferers and their friends. On the whole the. matter must be admitted to present a less promising aspect than ifc did when the discovery was first announced a few weeks agor The powerful voice of Professor Virchow has been given in a negative direction, and a committee of French experts has decided that the subject " bewilders the best physicians," and has recommended that judgment be suspended pending further developments. The views of Dr Koch himself in relation to bis critics do not seem to be easily obtainable, but from what little can be gleaned from the cablegrams ifc would appear that the Berlin scientist is by no means disposed to relinquish his confidence in the ultimate success of his remedy. The difficulties in the way of applying a discovery of this kind to practical use are very great. Starting from the assumption that Dr Koch has succeeded in composing a lymph which, being introduced into the blood of a tuberculous patient, tends to destroy the bacilli of consumption while not necessarily affecting the patient injuriously in other directions, it is obvious that an immense amount of detail of the very highest importance has yet to be worked out. To mention only a very few of the elementary questions which arise, first of all the strength of the lymph has to be settled, and whether gradually increasing or gradually decreasing concentration should be used in the course of the injections; how frequent the injections should be ; into what part of the tissues the lymph ought to be introduced, and . how ; what amount should be introduced at each njecfcion, and whether successive doses should vary in amount; at what temperature the lymph should be used; how the details should be varied in relation to the course of the patient's health ; what medical treatment should accompany the inoculations; how long the treatment should be continued in a given case, &o. All these matters, and a hundred other?, must be carefully and laboriously worked out upon a multitude of human subjects, before the use or the cure (if it survives the ordeal of examination at all) can be committed with confidence to the hands of the faculty generally. A similar work has been necessary, and has been for years in .process, of evolution under the supervision of the eminent "French scientist' M. Pasteur, at Paris, having for its object'the overcoming of the dreaded disease hydrophobia by a process of. inoculation similar to that recommended by Dr Koou.

Infection.

All who have read in any detail the records of the thousands of laborious experiments patiently made year after year at the Pasteur Institute with this noble object in view, and \ who bear in mind that after years of fierce controversy the efficacy of M. Pasteur's cuie is to this hour doubted by many eminent { physicians, will receive without astonishment the recommendations made for a reservation of judgment in the matter of the new consumptive lymph. But to those who feel that M. Pasteur is gradually but surely making his case absolutely assured by .the irresistible logic of results, there will not supervene upon reserve any abandonment of hope. Dr Koch may have as yet failed to learn the method of using his own weapon against the enemy consumption ; he nay have to retrace his steps and start upon new paths a hundred times ; he may even be responsible for deplorable fatalities here and there. But until the scientific critics tell us that Dr Koch has found no fluid which is fatal to the tubercle bacillus within the {human tissues while not necessarily harmful to the patient, there remains — and we are sure the critics themselves, would eagerly admit it — the | strongest hope that his genius has led us to the threshold of a truly divine dispensation. The Indian rising in the United States has now, as appears from our infection. cablegrams, produced a sympathetic movement among the red tribes in the Dominion of Canada, who are reported to be engaged in " dancing the ghost danoe," whatever that may beprobably a Canadian form of haka, indicating general hostility to everybody and everything that does not happen to be coppercoloured. The Indians in Canada have already on two historical occasions proved somewhat formidable. The Red River rebellion in 1870 collapsed, it is true, on the appearance of Captain Wolseley (now " our only general ") and his band of adventurers in the enemy's camp; but it was renewed 15 years afterwards at the instigation of the same leader, and wqs only crushed out after some pretty smart fighting between the insurgents, under tbeir half-breed general Louis Riel, and the Canadian militia forces under General Middleton. Since Louis Riel was captured, tried, and executed the redskins in j our dominions seem to have settled down J comfortably enough. We gave last week some particulars of the measures taken by the United States Government for gradually civilising and educating the Indians in their territories, and ib may not be without interest to add that Canada has not been in any way behind her great neighbour in similar humane provisions. The Canadian aborigines, including a large proportion of half-breeds and fractional products of infinite variety, numbered at the last estimate about 130,000, of whom about half are in the Quebec and Labrador provinces on the east, and the remainder divided equally between the wild north-west country (stretching to the borders of Alaska), Manitoba, and British Columbia. Many of the east coast Indians are registered pro- ' perty-holders, and by a recent Canadian enactment possess the privilege of the franchise. Those in the wilder districts westward are provided with ample reserves in land, and are supplied liberally by the Government with implements and live stock, and also with instructors competent to make them independent farmers whenever they desire to become so. Upon this service a quarter of a million is annually spent under the supervision of the Minister of the Interior, who by virtue of his office ie Superintendent-general of Indian affairs. Of course there are many wild tribes who decline to take advantage of Government benevolence; and of those who do, many are not yet to be trusted. If the measures now being taken by the United States Government are fairly effective, however, it may be confidently anticipated that the agitation among the Canadian redskins will not take any more formidable shape than a few weeks' energetic devotion to the ghost dance. The second report of the master of the steamer Kahu 'as to the wreeinge character of the wreckage at washed up at the Chatham Chatham i»iana».i i s i an d. s> far from clearing up the mystery, only serves to increase it. One question it undoubtedly clears up is the identity of the vessel. Another oar marked " Assaye " settles this. The extraordinary discovery of Maori carved bones and stone weapons carries the matter a little further. It is well known that Sir Walter Buller had made some fine purchases of such objects in London and Paris, and was sending them out by the Assaye. He also had on board a number of valuable stuffed birds and other objects, some of which were the property of the Otago Museum. Among these was a curious black penguin, a picture of which appears in Sir W. Bullcr's great work on the New Zealand birds. This was the only specimen of the kind ever seen, and it was taken to England by Sir Walter for the purposes of his book. Now, how came the Assaye to the Chatham Islands? Homeward-bound ships have occasionally been wrecked there : an instance of this was the Ocean Mail, some 14 years since. The is!and3 are a small group 400 miles eastward of Lyttelton. The course of vessels to Wellington brings i them, no nearer these islands than the coast lof New Zealand ; the vessels either come I round Stewart Island, or round the Snares, or through Cook Strait. . It is pretty evident that this vessel was taking one of the former courses. The character and quantity of the wreckage shows that the vessel went to pieces close to the Chatham Islands, and not ! long before the first discovery of wreckage last winter, as cases of candles were found ■with the" paper" packages still on the bundles. The vessel must have reached that point in a disabled and probably abandoned condition] There is a current setting eastward from New Zealand at the' rate of about a mile an hour, the true direction Of which is probably with the prevailing wind I from the south-east. The direction taken by a derelicb would be determined by this, j though influenced by varying winds. The general effect of the evidence is to suggest .that the Assaye was dismasted, and, perhaps, abandoned somewhere south of the Snares, and drifted ' thence in the course 'of months to the Ohathams. As, however, 6he has taken longer to drift there than is apparently warranted by the satq of.

the current, assuming that she had made an average passage to the Snares, it may be that she was dismasted a long way to the southwest. She may possibly have been trying to work up under imperfect jury masts, and have been driven to leeward of her course. In any case we cannot hope ever to hear the fate of her unfortunate crew. We think it would be right, even at this late date, for the Government to send a steamer to the Chatham Islands to make a thorough investigation of this mysterious matter.