The Otago Witness, THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2666, 19 April 1905, Page 52

The Otago Witness,

THE WEEK.

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN

MERCURY

{WEDNESDAY, APRIL 10, 1905.)

"••o< nature and »o#d tens" must er«r join."— P*p«.

Mr Massey's speech a.t Mosgiel and Mr H. D. Bedford's attack upon the

A Lire methods of the Seddon adOppositioii. miuistration are evidence

that the Opposition is very much alive, and that the next General Election will witness a determined effort to oust the present Government. The policy of the Opposition has been summarised as follows: — (1) The concession to Crown tenants of the right to acquire the freehold of their land ; (2) The reform of the Legislative Council by making it an elective body; (3) The establishment of a public service board ; (4) The insistence upon a proper audit of the public accounts : (5) A proper settlement of the Native land question ; (6) The reform of the local government system; and (7) Economy in the expenditure of public moneys. This is undoubtedly a, strong programme with which to go to the country, and with an able politician like Mr Massey in the lead, it is safe tc say that Opposition prospects have not been so bright for many years. Speaking at Mosgiel Mr Massey remarked that his advent to the South Island had evidently caused a stir in the Government dove-cotes, in proof of which he pointed to the fact that the political organisation under the Premier's control had appointed an additional organising agent. The Opposition leader also threw some light upon the methods employed to raise funds to defray the expenses of these organisers, and characterised the system as one of blackmail. Mr Bedford's remarks also go to show that the Liberal Independent party, to which he belongs, is inclined to support Mr Massey in an endeavour to overthrow the present Government, and to accept the Opposition leadership up to a point. The result of every election largely depends upon the emciency of the organisation prior to the voting, and it is pleasing to note that already the Opposition are taking time by the forelock. Arrangements, it is understood, have been made so that every electorate in the North Island — with one exception — will have an Opposition candidate ; and it is to be hoped that as a result of Mr Massey's visit a similar state of things may prevail in the South Island. In this way alone dan the strength of the Opposition to the Seddon regime be really ascertained, and it may be that the polling in December next will prove a surprise to those Government supporters who fondly imagine that the colony is tied to the apron strings of the present Premier for the term of his natural life, or until such time as he decides to accept the. High Comrnissionership which is waiting for him.

The impression gains ground that the next triennial local option poll >'o-Licc*se will witness a series of Prospects. sweeping triumphs for the No-license party ; indeed, there are not wanting those who prophesy that the South Island, with perhaps the exception of the West Coast, will vote almost solidly for No-license. Taking lnvercargill as a sample, it is certain that temperance sentiment in Southland has been profoundly stirred by the visit of Father Hays, and in the opinion of leadinw citizens the No-license vote will benefit°largeiy as the result of that gentleman's eloquent advocacy of the temperance cause. There is no disputing the soundness of the principle, as laid down by Mr J. A. Hanan at Father Hays's farewell meeting at Invercargill, that the evils of intemperance are so great as to warrant the^ people taking the regulation of the liquor traffic into their own hands. At the same time, however, it has to be borne in mind that the No-license movement, at the best, is only in its experimental stage, and it remains to be seen how far it will provide upon an extended scale an efficient remedy for the evils which all right-minded people so much deplore. There can be little doubt that in the electorates where No-license at present obtains considerable benefits have accrued — the testimonies in that direction are too emphatic to be ignored. For instance, leading authorities in shipping circles make no secret of the ease with which the crews of the ocean liners are collected and vessels dispatched since the era of No-license in Port Chalmers, and so delighted are they with the altered condition of things that they have gone so far as to express a wish to see No-license carried at the other ports of the colony. But how No-license would work if applied, say, to the whole of the South Island remains to be seen. Already in certain Nolicense distx'icts it is becoming a common practice to keep alcoholic beverages in homes where formerly they were conspicuous by their _ absence, and judging by the experience of say fifty years back, there is a clanger of "drinking in the home developing a greater amount of evil than even drinking in the open bar. It has to be remembered that, so far as can be ascertained, the total abstinence sentiment in the colony has not grown of recent years. It may be doubted 1 whether a bare majority of the people of New Zealand are total abstainers, to say nothing of a three-fifths majority. There are a large number of people who are perfectly willing to vote No-license so long as no insuperable obstacle is placed in the way of their obtaining the drink they require, but the moment they &cc that their individual liberty is likely to be assailed they will cry "Hal I. !" At the same time the fact remains that cvci-ything points to a very heavy No license vote being cast in December next, and the result of the experiment will ke awaited with considerable interest.

While the world is anxiously awaiting the

news of the approaching

The gieat battle between the Natal lialtle Japanese and Russian fleets, of the it is interesting to note the Future. predictions of ]\I. Santos-

Dumont as to the pait which airships will play in the naval engagements of the near future. This ingenious and daring inventor pictures the time when the nation that has submarine boats and no airships will find itself in a ludicrous posiion. He remarks upon the well-ob-served fact that the occupants of balloons or airships floating over the surface of the water are able to perceive bodies moving beneath the surface of the waves to a depth and with a distinctness which is marvellous. He imagines the of a fleet threatened by submarine boats. " Without the aid of an aerial ex'uiser, it must remain as helpless as were the magnificent Russian warships in the harbour of Port Arthur. Protected by an aerial cruiser, observe how its chances change. The air ship will be seen moving over the water in long parallel lines. Beneath the surface of the water moves the submarine boat. Its speed is little in comparison with that of its adversary in the air. It cannot even perceive that the airship is threatening it, without rising to the surface at great risk, and it can profit by the knowledge so obtained only by diving to depths in which its usefulness becomes nil. In a word, the submarine boat can do no harm to the airship, while the latter can discover the submarine's presence, indicate its position to warships, and hurl down upon it long arrows filled with explosives, and capable of penetrating the waves to depths impossible to gunnery from the decks of men-of-war or cruisers." Then M. SantosDumont gives way to his imagination and pictures one of the great aerial cruisers of the future. He declares that it is no fanciful picture, for he has long and carefully calculated the specifications, and they are in due proportion to one another. This aerial crusier is to be enormously stronger and more powerful than his famous No. 7 airship, whose sharp, elongated form it will adopt for the sake of speed. It is to have a gas capacity of 77,000 metres, to give it a liftingpower oi 93 tons. The balloon is to be 200 metres long, and 28 metres in its greatest diameter. It will be propelled through the air by 30 propellers, each worked by a separate petroleum motor of 100 horse"-power. This will give a total of 3000 horse-power, sufficient to impart to the airship a steady high speed of as much as 100 kilometres per hour. To withstand the exterior and interior pressure corresponding to such speed, the balloon envelope will be composed of 26 thicknesses o£ Lyons silk properly superposed and varnished. With a balloon of such lifting power, enough fuel could be carried to make 1000 kilometres at full speed, and there would remain enough lifting power to carry a crew of 20 men and a supply of explosives to be hurled at the enemy. Such an aerial cruiser will have nothing to fear from the wind, says M. Dumont. With its high speed of 100 kilometres per hour it could make its way tranquilly in the stiffest breeze, and when not in use it could be held close to the ground, practically out of the wind's reach, by a hundred cables. M. Dumont admits that there is danger of these aerial cruisers being destroyed in war time, but on the other hand the crew of an aerial cruiser will not be a tenth of the crew of a warship, nor will its cost be anything like as great. And how quickly a great warship is sent to the bottom has been show in the Busso-Japanese war.

But although this talk of airships and aerial cruisers sounds much

To the like a fairy tale, yet M. Xorth Pole by Dumont has the audacity Airship. to declare that at no dis-

tant date it will be quite possible to visit the North Pole in an airship. He is now engaged in an experiment which, if successful, will enable him to go cruising for a week at a time over Europe without needing to touch earth every night. He is sanguine that he has solved the problem which has hitherto baffled all aerial navigators, and by reason of which they have never been able to remain more than 24 hours in the air at a stretch. The two great enemies of balloning are condensation and dilation. Say, for instance, that a cloud masks the sun, at once the gas in the balloon condenses, and to prevent a speedy descent to earth, ballast has to be thrown out. Then the cloud passes, the sun shines out once more and heats the gas, and by its dilation it regains its old lifting power. At once a certain amount of gas must bo allowed to escape, or the balloon will descend to where the rarified air will increase the dilation until the balloon bursts. Thus, even with the greatest economy of gas and ballast, the time comes when the balloonist must descend for fresh supplies. From the earliest times men have sought to combat condensation by means of heat, and M. Dumont profeses to have solved the problem by the use of petroleum fuel. Briefly, his theory is that with one kilogramme of petroleum he can vaporise 20 kilogrammes of water, and by again catching this water as it ceases to be steam, he overcomes the difficulty. "Imagine the balloon coming down — the result of gas condensation. Instead of lightening it by throwing out 20 kilogrammes of sand, I will have but to burn one kilogramme of petroleum. My 20 kilogrammes of water will become steam, itself lighter than the air, and whose heat will dilate my gas to such an extent as to produce 30 kilogrammes of new ascensional force."' Thus by keeping a continual circular movement of water, steam, water steam, water, M. Dumont claims that with a given quantity of petroleum fuel as ballast he will be able to stay 30 days in the air without descending to earth. What a wonderful vista of possibilities does this not open to the intrepid aerial navigator! And how nearly his project is to actual realisation is evident from his statement that the bal-

loon envelope of his aerial yacht is bemq sewed, its car is already built, its boiler and condenser are being constructed, its motor is ordered, its propellers exist, and very soon it is to start on its first cruise. Already M. Dumont sees himself floating through space, the o-reat map of Europe unfolding before his eyes "We shall dine. We shall watch the stars rise. We shall hang between the constellations and the earth. We shall awake to the glory of the morning. Flushed with the consciousness of victory the airship inventor looks eagerly for the time when the North Pole will be reached, when aerial omnibu&es will begin to carry business men and tourists from Paris to St. Petersburg, and when, entering into the spirit of the airship age, people will take to this mode of conveyance as naturally as our grandfathers took to railway trains. It is a wonderful prophecy, but it appears destined to be fulfilled* in our time.