THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2660, 8 March 1905, Page 52

THE WEEK.

-" -•ir^tuanj miiud mtun, suiud sapicntia dixit."— Jovrn»l. "flood n»rar« »ua good secse muse ever joiii."'— Peri.

ft is significant that the issue by the Czar of a manifesto in which he The Bnssian expresses his confidence in Dilemma. Russia's ultimate victory in the Far East should synchronise exactly with the news of what appears to be a crushing defeat inflicted by the Japanese upon General Kourapatkin's army. • Judging by the erratic contradictoiy nature of his utterances, the Czar is at bis wits' end to know how best to grapple with the present, crisis. His manifesto, which is regarded as an tm-

qualified assertion of absolutism, and calculated at this juncture to provoke the gravest consequences, "is said to" be the Bandiwork of M- Pobiedonostzefr, the Procurator of the Holy Synod. It is re-

ported that it was signed by the Czar without consulting his. Ministers This is quite in keeping with what we know of the character of the Procurator, whose ideal is a Church, as strongly organised as the Catholic Church, permeating all the lije of society, and^ assuming, if need be, a fighting attitude against the rival Churches. Freedom and parliamentary the people under the rod of the Church, consequently, he concludes, autocracy must !>■? maintained, and in his idea Russia is predestined to realise the happiness of "the people under the rod of the Church. 4 For a time Pobiedocostsraff maintained a semblance of a reputation for honesty, tyttt rf late years his actions have proved that . although Jie does not care for wealth, ie cherishes power, and is most unscrupulous as to the means by which he maintains has influence at the court. This enables us to the indignation of the - Ministers as soon as they discovered how they had been tricked. For -whilst the v Ministers were engaged in drafting a m-

script in which the Czar announces his /resolve to convene the people's elected representatives to participate in the elaboration and consideration of legislative measures, M. Pcbiedonostzeff had actually cut the ground from under their feet by

persuading- the Czar to issue his ill-timed and illegal manifesto. The indignation of the slighted Ministers led to their

resigning in a body. This action seems to have brought the Czar to his senses, . and he finally signed the rescript, which, ac-

cording to The Times, has been received

■with mingled feelings of amazement and / incredulity. The^ Czar by his vaccilatdon and indecision is sealing his own doom,

for how is it possible for the people to have confidence in a ruler who never seems to know his own mmd from one^ day to ~ another? ' The issue of the battle now proceeding in Manchuria, said to be the greatest in modern history, must hare a tremendous effect upon the affairs of the Russian nation. It is possible that- Kourapatkin may again succeed in fighting a successful rearguai'd action, but appearances are against him, and a brilliant victory for Japan would play right into the hands of the Russian Stop-the-war party. The events of 1 the next few days may be pregnant with momentous consequences.

It is at length announced that Lord Milner

has, on account of ill -health, Xord Milner's resigned his position as Besignation. High Commissioner of South

Africa, and that he will leave for England at the end of the present month. The resignation has been anticipated for some months, and the announcement has not occasioned any surprise. For the past eight years he has carried a weight of responsibility which would have crushed an ordinary man, besides having to endure gross maligning of cruel and loudmouthed critics. Tt may be well here to recall the words uttered by the then Sir Alfred Milner to the representative gathering who assembled to do him honour on the occasion of his appointment to South Africa: — "It is a great privilege," he said, '" to bo allowed to fill any position in the character of what I may be perhaps allowed to call ' a civilian soldier of the Empire ' ; to succeed in it, to render any substantial service to any part of our world-wide State, would hz all that in any of my most audacious dreams I had ever ventured to aspire to ; but, in a cause in which one absolutely believes, even though I were to fail, the cause itself is not going to fail ; and even personal failure is preferable to an easy life of comfortable prosperity in another sphere." Therein spoke the true spirit of the man. and it was Ms thoroughgoing belief in the cause he had wholeheartedly espoused that enabled him, through' the dark days of the South African war, to cause the first and greatest step to be taken towards the attainment of that Imperial unity which was the goal of his political aspirations. A .''civilian soldier"' he has certainly been," and though neither he nor his cause has failed, vet the strain upon his mental and physical powers, which compels him to leave his task and return to Engl-ind a prematurelyaged man. may more than once have led Lim to doubt whether even "personal success " is preferable to "an ■ easy life of comfortable prosperity in another sphere." ■But the day will come when the real merit of the work done by the retiring High Commissioner yin South Africa will be to the full. One^ circumstance must have been as an \mwavering beacon light in the darkest hour of the storm with which Lord Milner has had to buffet : he never doubted for one instant the courage jmd. tenacity of the British public, and }t never abated the confidence which it r_3jio&ftd in the man at the wheel.

The Cape Colony has not bora vuecoFsfui in its agitation to secur-a Lord the restoration of tlie office

Selbsrue's of High Commission or to Appointment. Capetown and its reversion to the Governor of (Jape. Colony. It is officially announced that Lord First Lord of the Admiralty, v. iH hurcted Lord Milner, anc" obviously the new High Commissioner will reside at Johannesburg, much to the chagrin of; the CapetoAvn people. The importance of the High Commissionership and the grave responsibility attachin^ to the office is evidently fully recognised by the Government. The Pall Mall Gazette, commenting on the appointment, remarks that it is a distinct step in Imperial evolution, for it is the first time ir the Empire's history that a Cabinet Minister has been offered <* colonial appointment. The i.e\v High Commissioner possesses a striking personality and, judging by the records of the past, he will worthily carry forward the work which Lord Milnei commenced in the Transvaal some seven years since. Lord Selborne is only forty-four years of age, but he has filled the most important position at cho Admiralty — that of First Lord — since 1900, having risen thereto through offices of State only less important. He was a Winchester boy, who went to University College, Oxford, and took his B.A. with a first - class in history. "He has been in Parliament since 1885, fhst as a Liberal foi East Hampshire, then as a Liberal Unionist for the same constituency, and afterwards for West Edinburgh. His appointment immediately preceding •his promotion to the Admiralty was that of Under-seeretary for the Colonies. He has always bsen recognised as a man of marked ability and an ■excellent organiser, and as First" Lord of the Admiralty he has so far proved his worth and justified bis selection as to earn for himself the soubriquet of "the Kitchener of the Navy." Lord Selborne has the reputation of being a tremendously hard worker, but he manages to find time'for some measure of open air recreation. As a boy and young man. he devoted has energies principally to cricket and football, playing for his college at Oxford in cricket and gaining his colours at Winchester in football. His cricket and football days now being over, he seeks recreation in such outdoor pursuits as cycling and Hunting, but he distinctly bars golf. Such is the stamp of man upon whom the honour falls of upholding the Imperial prestige in the Transvaal, and who will have to bear the brunt of solving the many knotty problems which confront him in the wise administration of that newly-formed colony. The fact that -he first criminal charge in which the police relied upon Finger- the evidence of finger print prints, has been heard in Identification, the Wellington police Court, and that a man charged with burglary has, solely upon that evidence, been committed for trial, has directed considerable attention to this ilately-developed science. That remarkable romancer, Mr H. G. Wells, in one of his latalt flights of fancy, imagines two visitors from anothei planet descending upon the earth, late ip the present century. They are at once pcuncer" upon by the police as suspicious characters, and by the prints of their fingers are identified as two prominent personages, supposed to be travelling in quite another part of the world. The subsequent developments are amusingly worked out. It will be difficult to convince the average man that his fingei print is so unlike JLhe finger print of any other mar as to render his identification absolutely certain. With the case of Adolf" Beck still full in the public eye, it is evident how easy it is for cases of mistaken identity fo occur ; yet the cocksure finger print experts declare that 21 characteristics exist between the print on the broken pane of the window through which the- burglar gained admission and the finger print of the ma» now in custody. So mathematically exact are these experts that they express the opinion that the chancas against the maiks on the glass having been made by any other man than the one examined are over two thousand ! billion to one. It remains to be seen, however, whether a jury will sentence a man, even upon a two thousand billion to one | chance. To some extent, experience in England backs up New Zealand expeit opinion. According to an article contributed to a recent number .of the Lancet.

out of 60,000 cases recorded in Scotiand Yard, no fewer than 3642 convictions have been effected by means of finger prints. The writer goes on fco say :— " Recent cases were mentioned pf identifying burglars who had left niarks 'on drinking glasses and blood stained finger marks on window panes. It was stated that the pnbability of any two finger marks beiny identical was one in sixty-four billion. Kacial distinction was shown to form no basis of recognition, and students, statesmen, and idiots all save the same markings. Heredity, however, gave more rjositive results, and the persistence of the pattern was •clearly shown to remain through lite." The near future should therefore yield at least two developments as the result of the universal adoption of finger prints as the accepted method of identification. In the first instance, all well-pdueated and up-to-date burglars will most assuredly take to wearing gloves when pursuing their gentle avocation"; in the second place, writing will fall still further into disuse ; at present the typewriter can do everything except attach the signature : in future this will be. replaced by the finger print.

It is a moot question as to how far the

Church is justified in enterTheProsrctß ing the field of politics, but or the as in England, so in the TTo-Hccuse colonies, there is a grow-

Poll. ing disposition amongst clerics of the more militant type to endeavour to gain -their ends by pulling the political wires. Thus the temperance question, to take a concrete instance, has been almost entirely removed fi'om tl\6 world of morels to which it was

originally assigned, rmd has btcoine a front rank issue ■>'n th r political world. Whether the seriousness of the problem

warrani" this alteration or no we do not peopes© here io discuss, but in the minds of many people, ihe No-license jjoll is allowed, at the general election, to crowd out other and equally important conS'tltrations. Nor is there any reason to suppose that the general election to take place at the end of ths present year will show any material alteration in this respect. Judging by the preparations being made by both parties, the fight at the polling booth is likely to be a bitter one. Nolicense is in the air, and also very much in. ths newspapers, and like the poor it is apparently destined to remain with us for the next nine months at least. As bearing directly upon this subject it is interesting to note the attitude of two of the leading religious denominations at the annual convocations. The Congregational Union of New Zealand, representing the Congregational Churches of the colony, has just concluded its annual meeting at Christchurch. An effort to obtain the delegates' a=j»ent to a system of State control, even when advocated ir connection with Nolicense met with signal failure, and a motion pledging the Congregational body to support No-license only wat, carried by a large majority. At the opening of the Methodist Conference, now sitting in Wellington, the retiring President was most emphatic on this point. He expressed the hops that "Everywhere our people will 'Strike out the top line' at the licensing poll," and he urged, where No-license cannot be at once carried that " Reduction be resorted to until "the drink enemy is finally driven from our land." He stigmatised, tht State Control of the Liquor Tratfic as the proverbial red herring accross the scent which 3hould be rejected as an impossible dream, and undesirable if possible. In addition to the support of the Congregational and Methodist Churches, the No-license cause is to receive thepowerful advocacy of the Rev. Father Hays, a Roman Catholic priest, described as a "second Father Ma£hew," and who is dua in New Zealand about the middle of April. He 'has had a wonderful reception in Melbourne. On one Sunday night in ! January he addressed between 5000 and ! 6000 people in St Patrick's Cathedral, oi I whom at least 2000 in response to his im- ! passioned advocacy, took the temperance ! pledge. But Father Hays is not only a ! believer in pledge taking, he is an out-and- | out advocate of tht No-license principle. Interviewed in Melbourne he is reported to have said : — "Religious means are very powerful to combat the evil, but the Legisfature mus^ also do its duty. I i want .he people to b& able to guard themi selves against tse fearful temptations of | the traffic. I want them helped before : tney fall, so that generations to come may not be able to stumble. lam for lessening the number of temptations always. A district ought- to hcive tli© right to decide the question of the issue of licenses for itself. The people ought to have the right to defend themselves against anything that threatens body und soul." Father Hays's advocacy is calculated to increase the No-license vote amongst the Catholics, in itself no inconsiderable factor in the situation. The Presbyterian Church is also almost entirely on the side of Noliceiise, which the results in actual experience in some of the present No-lioense -districts has made some notable converts amongst the Anglican clergy. The Nolicense party is on the gui vive, and their organisation is fairly complete, so thai* although the battle is yet a long way off, already the old war horses on both sides are sniffing the breeze.

The- opening of the Simplon tunnel, the

longest in the world, has The Opening unfortunately been marred of the by a sad fatality. A trainSimplon load of guests specially inTuuuel. vit-sd to undertake a trial

trip through xhe tunnel was seriously affected by the carbonic oxide emanations, the majority of the passengers fainted, and two of the officials were overcome to such a serious extent that they subsequently succumbed. This alarming incident serves tc/ bring out the absolute necessity of a pi-cper system of ventilation in these long distance tunnels ; and it would appear that although engineering skill is now-a-days able to overcome the most stupendous difficulties in construction, yet science has net been able to solve the problem of a proper supply of fresh air. The Simplon tunnel was commenced on August 15, 1898, and has thus taken fully six and a-half years to complete, although it was originally estimated that the work would be finished in fivo and a-half years. The delay is accounted for in the extraordinary and unforeseen difficulties encountered, chief amongst which were the tapping of a number of boiling springs in th© heart of the huge mountain. The Simplon tunnel consists of two parallel tunnels, each being roughly twelve and a-half miles long. The St. Gotharci tunnel comes short of the oimpion by about 15,000 feel, the Mount Cenis tunnel being some 6000 ft shorter still. It was the theory of ths designers that the construction of th** parallel tunnels, some 57ft apart, with connections every 670 ft, would create a sufficient current of ah' to ensrre proper ventilation, but evidently the theory has been borne out by facts. It would appear that the poisonous fumes generated by the locomotive drawing the train enveloped the unfortunate passengers, with the results already mentioned. It is possible that the difficulty may be overcome by the utilisation of -electricity as the motive power. The tunn-els through the Alps being of such extreme length and great declivity, necessitate the employment of locomotives of the most powerful type, which in their passage under the mountains discharge large quantities of carbonic acid and "carbonic oxide gases, the fumes being dangerous in the extreme. The Simplon tunnel opens up a new and speedy route between Italy and Switzerland., and its promoters hoged to repp a

good - harvest in the quickened impulse which it would give to the tourist traffic. It is to bs feared, however, that tourists will giv the Simplon a wide berth until such time as they are assured of a safe passage through its entne length.