PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2371, 10 August 1899, Page 59

PATER'S CHATS WITH THE BOYS.

A NEW BOOK OR TWO. ! Ihese cold nights, I daresay, some of my yonng readers are rather at a loss as to ■what to read, and it struck me that a name of a new book or two might be acceptable ; so I'll tell you of one or two I am dipping into at present. " With Kitchener's Army: A Chaplain's Experiences with the Nile Expedition, 1898," is a cheap halfcrown's worth, for it is a very readable account and well illustrated. " China and the Chinese," published by Hurst and Blackett, is very interesting. It is a translation from the French, and is the work of a Frenchman who lived several years in China. It is illustrated also, but, the illustrations are woodcuts from drawings, while the former book is embellished with process blocks from photographs. Then there is a sixpenny '" Mr Dooley in Peace and in War," which has sold in tens of thousands at Home, and perhaps in hundreds of thousands in the United States. But I dare say that one of the bast books out for boys and girls, even those well on in their teens, is the New Penny Magazine. This is in two volumes published separately. They are well illustrated, contain nearly 800 pages as large as those in the ordinary exercises, and they cost only 2s 6d each. They contain good f up-to-date literature, and a, good sprinkling of humorous selections. Then there are the sixpenny editions of Barrie, Stevenson, lan Maclaren, Black, Tennyson, and other standard writers. No one needs now to be in want of a good book. There are a few of the sixpenny editions of " With Kitchener to Khartoum," in town, but the price has heen put up to a shilling. Curiously, the 200,000 of the sixpenny edition of this work are causing a demand for the 6s edition. Coming to more expensive books, I would like to see every boy who is forming a library of his own possess Captain Mahan's "Life of Lord Nelson," which can now be got for 12s or 15s, and "The Life of Lord Roberts," which is j now procurable for 8s or 9s. Another book | I have heard well spoken of, I haven't read j it myself, is " The Queen s Service," and as ! it is only 2s 6d in paper covers it "will be worth while getting. CHINA AND THE CHINESE. In this little volume there is a chapter dealing with the relationships existing between China and the European nations, and the author says : — " One great fact is easily seen. It will be Russia, with her wonderful faculty for working steadily onward towards a definite aim, who will secure the lion's share, in the spoliation of the celestials ; whilst her Trans-Siberian railway, which already pays its way, creating trade wherever it passes, and in another four years will connect St. Petersburg with Port Arthur, will be one of the most important factors in changing the course of the commerce of the world. ."Shut in as she is by the British in Burmah, and the French in Cochin-China, threatened on the East by the Germans and Japanese, and dominated on the North by Russia, the Celestial Empire finds herself compelled to awake from her long stupor and to arouse herself to action of some kind. With no real army, no longer an efficient fleet, however, what can she do? She can only choose what seems to her the best of the evils hemming her in on every side, and elect from among the many competitors for the post the protector best able to save her not only from her outside enemies, but from herself. "As has been very aptly said, Russia is of all the Western Powers the most imbued with oriental ideas, and she combines with the energy and, ambition of a first-rate power of the future a sympathy with the Celestials altogether wanting to France, Germany, or Great Britain. There if, in fact, an actual affinity of race between the Chinese and the inhabitants of the Northern Steppes, and there is therefore far more hope of real amalgamation between them, than there can be in another case." The author then proceeds to show that though the British, French, Germans, and Italians may win concessions, they will uever fuse with tho Chinese ; they will si ways be aliens, and this fact was recognised by lii Hung Chang when in 3 896 he proceeded to Europe to ascertain by personal observation which of the Western Nations would be likely to be ..the best friend to China. And he came to the conclusion that Russia would answer China's purpose 'best ; hence the treaty in 1897, which gave Port Arthur and other important concessions over to her northern neighbour. In one of the chapters the author tells us that it is more than probable that though the European nations will have their spheres of influence in the near future, it will be Russia alone who will obtain real political control of the Empire. And I cannot help thinking that he is right. Hitherto China has resisted all attempts to open her up to the commerce and civilisation of the West ; but now she can offer no further effectual resistance. The railway and the telegraph made the battles of Atb<*>^ and Omdurman possible, and therefore T?he conquest of the Equatorial Soudan ; and the same agents will disintegrate China unless the Eui'opean nations can agree upon the more generous policy of opening up the whole of the country on equal terms to all. Already nearly all the important towns of the Empire are connected by telegraph with one another and the outside world ; and the railway concessions already granted will, when completed; gridiron the country from end to end. We have heard at various times how Salisbury has been worsted over and over again in diplomacy relating to the Far East. The following table will show that, as regards railway concessions, at any rate, he tiasn't done so badly : — British railways ... 2800 miles Russian railways ... 1630 miles German railways ,*. 720 miles Belgian railways .., 650 miles French railways „. 420 miles American railways ... 300 miles In addition to the chapters dealing with Ihe present day politics of China, those dealing with the missionary workj. the

opium traffic, the manners and customs and the early history of the Empire, are equally interesting. METEOROLOGICAL DATA. I am verj r muc'A obliged to Mr Trail, of Stewart Island, for a copy of his observations for July, and I shall be glad to receive the further ones promised. I see that not once in July Avas the temperature dovrn to freezing point at 9.30 a.m. How different from Central Otago, where it was lldeg below zero, or 43deg bsloAV freezing point at night and 22deg during the day. I'll likely have something more to say some other time on the observations telegraphed daily to Dunedin ; and I shall be glad of any notes any of my readers in the interior or along the coast may find it convenient to send to me.