PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2719, 25 April 1906, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.) There is a feeling latent in most of us that serious earthquakes and dangerous volcanos afflict chiefly such regions of the globe as lie outside modern civilisation. ! Exceptions prove the rule ; — the Lisbon earthquake in the eighteenth century seeming already ancient history and Vesuvius being a. tame volcano serving spectacular uses, like our New Zealand geysers. This notion is unintelligent and implies a short memory. Catastrophes that are at once unforeteen and irreparable seem destined to a short memory. Otherwise we should not think, as our first impulse is, the appalling ruin of San Francisco by earthquake an event unprecedented 1 . The newspapers have no difficulty in citing precedents, though they had passed entirely from the public mind. The pity of it is that precedents and warnings are usually unheeded. Villages cluster round the spurs and elopes of Vesuvius ; a great modern city with buildings that seek the clouds is planted on a site with a bad earthquake history. It may be that, the activity of Vesuvius and the San Francisco earthquake are unrelated phenomena, as the savants incline to say. It may be without significance that the 40th parallel of latitude, there or thereabouts, connects Japan (notorious for its earthquakes), Vesuvius, Lisbon, and San Francisco. And it may be an unmeaning coincidence that in the southern hemisphere the same 40lh parallel runs through Cook Strait. To speak of earthquakes in Wellington is an uncomfortable thing ; in a family that has been bereaved by the hangman you may not speak of hemp. But after the- San Francisco calamity it will be wise in the Wellington people to think a little about earthquakes if only that they may avoid a certain type !of building. It* is true that nothing save an Egyptian pyramid is earthquake-proof ; | a poor reason "this, however, for flouting | prudence. The Paris Jacobins of a century back, like their successors the Communists of 1870, were men of the pike and the musket, content on occasion to receive as good as they gave. The guillotine was for their political enemies, no doubt, but not the less for themselves in their turn, should I Fortune play them a trick. They understood all that and took their chances. Quite otherwise is it with our New Z<?ai land Jacobins. Not in the French Revolution sense are they men of action, per- , haps not in any sense. Their ideals are compatible neither with doing nor with , suffering. They assemble in Chvistchmch to impeach the 'fairness of a Supreme Couit jud^e, to denounce as a thief every landowner, big or little, freehold or leasehold, and to vindicate to themselves New Zealand as a possession and a preserve, accessible from oversea to no other Britishers. These be brave words and they will be backed by brave votes, but of other backing I see £o hint. An unjust judge should be deposed, thieves should be clapped into prison, intruding trespasseis 6hould be shouldered out. Yet, except by way of speech and vote, these things will not be done. It is softness of manners that marks off the new Jacobins from the old, also economy in muscular effort. I am bound to acknowledge, however, that for all Jacobin purposes within these shores speaking and voting will serve. Ultimately we shall be three-quarters of a million Socialists prepared to hold New Zealand against the world. By speech and vote! Imagine the British Isles depopulated to make a tome, for three-giiart^rs of a million

Socialist Little-Englanders How long] before Germany toot a look-in?" Where the carcase, there the eagles, in this case the two-headed eagles. On such questions as are raised by our New Zealand Jacobins the last word is always with Nature and the eternal fitness of things. Which is another way of saying that on the question whether three-quarters of a million Socialists, disinclined to exertion, 6hall permanently possess these islands the last word will be with the Japs and the Chinese. '•It had been asked what the Premkr was doing in regard to the action of the Imperial authorities m Natal. "Wall, he had made iiicuiries, first having scat a cablegram to the Secretary of State foi "the Colonies. . . .*' etc. — Mr Scddon at Rangiora. The course of events in Natal was no doubt influenced materially by Mr Seddon's intervention. lam fortunate in being able to give some further particulars of his faithful dealing with the Secretary of State. | Seddon to Elgin.— Am gratified to learn from your reply to my cab!e that you had ao lultution of interfering with the action of tho responsible Government of Natal. Appearai.ces are against you, but, as between gentlemen, of coarse I take your word. However, don't do it again. Speaking for myself am a'.Y.-ays ready to advise, but as Premier of Cod's own country with an overwhelming majority and tho Oppositian nowhere can accept no dictation. Please make a. note of it. You have neglected fo consult me on* other South African questions and people here remark it. What about the Transvaal Constitution and Chinese labour? Kind'y ieply through Plunket vithou.t,,d§lay f .. j y ',\ Elgin to Seddon.— Hurried , mating of. Cabinet specially summoned, cable ,r«ad, .Go-,: vernment much impresssd. Please telegraph at own expense any ideas , that may occur to you on any subject of Imperial interest, j \ Seddon to "Elgin. — Eight you are,- old nun. At own expense, yen sa/. Makes me;langh, it does. Guess you don't. -know* the Topep, out here. Between me and colony. Of 3 what's yours is mine and what's, mine's my own. So it's bound to be- *t*"o'Wh expense' though not in the way you think. ,You fellows on the otl<>r side have a lot to learn. But about South Africa, or India, or the Tariff, or .Education, count on. me, . At own. expei>se, says you. That's good. Must cable it to Ward. , Thus ends for the present ,an interesting and important State correspondence. To " Civis." — You may not have noticed ' some disparaging leferences to Duuedin which recently appeared in an Auckland paper, the , N.Z. Herald : " Auckland is picturesque and placid, Wellington full of bustle and push, j Christchuxch spacious and ' toney,' and Du-n- ' edin dull and untidy. . . . But if the city does not hum with activity, if the shops look , } mean in comparison, with those - of other citiss, I ! and the womenfolk with their .fresh complexions have not yet learnt ' tcr dress with the taste of their Auckland or Wellington sisters, there is ?n air of solidity about Dunedin which is nowhere else to be found." I think 1 this calls for some comment. If Dunedin is dull, dirty, and dilatory, it is to" be"\hop«l that our new town clerk wi'l cto something to make our city more cheerful, clean, jmd captivating. — " The Chiel." I can but echo so pious a hope. And if the transition i 6 to be from the dull, the dirt}', the dilatory to the cheerful, the clean, the captivating, possibly even the alliteration may help. In one poor particular we may perhaps claim an advantage already. We of the South think comparisons odious and reflections on our neighbours — the meanness of their shops and shabbiness of their womenfolk — bad form. Otherwise it were easy to retort on the Auckland man, repaying him in his own coin. He allows that Dunedin compared with the Northern towns is the better built ; perhaps he ought to add, though I say it as shouldn't say it, that the Dunedin people are the better bred. Two correspondents, "G.C.8." and " Archimedes," return me solutions of the Dutchman's problem, and as they are both in a tale I must suppose them correct. I There came three Dutchmen of my acquaint- j ance to see me, being lately married; they bicught their wives with them. The men's , names wera Hendrik, Claas, and Cornelius, the women's Gertnuj, Catriin, and Anna; but I forget the nams of each man's vife. They told me they had been at market to buy hogs ; : each person bought as maay hogs as tliey | g?ve shillings for orie" hog. Hendrik bought 23 fcog3 more than Catriin, find: Claas bought II more than Gertruij, likewise each xnan laid out three guineas more than his wife. I desire to know the name of caoh man's wife. Answer- The coupling is Hecdrik and Gtotruij, Claaa end Anna, Cornelius and i CUriiii. J The number of hogs to each and the price ! paid by each, also the working out, by arithmetic and eke by algebra — all this I have ; but for such vanities the Passing Notes column has no room. I am aware that there are minds for which a problem in mathematics has all the fascination of chees or bridge, — indeed I am of that sort myself. For a long voyage, a desert island, a prison cell, give me a TodJirtnter's Algebra ! But in Passing Notes this intellectual recreation is not permitted me ; — I have to consider my audience, also my editor. It was by way of bantering the "Journal of Education that I quoted the Dutchman problem, — merely that ; I asked for no solution. The reason for which I 2>r e sumed to banter the Journal of Education I will explain. j It was from the Journal of Education, as I understood, that a country schoolmaster writing me last week had taken the following extraordinary specimen of crass examining : — 9. A train £.8 yards Icng overtook a man walking a'ong the line at the rate of four ! miles per hour and passed him in 10 seconds. i Twenty minutes later the train overlook anoiher man, and passed hinii in nine? seconds. When will the first man overtake the last? But this week another country schoolmaster intervenes : Deae Sir, — In your notes in re train sum it is evidant you* were not informed of the source of the question. It is question 9 of last year's matriculation arithmetic mper. I: is only right to add that ten out of the eleven questions eet were lery fair. My apologies to the Journal of Education. It was a matriculation paper that

1 No. 9 first adorned. Then the enormity ."of it is the more enormous. Tfie first -man is to overtake the last, the man in front — who is the slower— to catch up with the man behind ; in accomplishing which paradox he must, needs circle, the globe,as I 6aid last week, — would- exhaust Time and encroach upon Eternity. But you are unfair — interposes my mathematical friend, " Archimedes,"-; — it is the first man mentioned, etc. Yes, — my intelligence if equal to that. But lam not so sure about the intelligence of a matricide candi-> date. The problem, must bt with the eyes of the unhappy -uinee. Moreover, passing -this ambiguity, there i> a worse. The man to be overtaken, is he in motion or stationary? "Archimedes" holds that he is in motion- and calculates his rate, finding that he will be overtakejj in 3 hours 40 minutes " provided jthere is no hotel to pass on the way." But " G.C.8." my other oracle, holds that the man -is or may be stationary, and the time wherein he may be overtaken ascer--tainable on that basis. These are two mathematicians of equal merit; both grappled successfully with the Dutchman problem, and I anx- prepared to certify each with -the same affidavit :—: — That, hfi, "by geometric scale, Could take the size of pots of ale ; ; " • Resolve, by sines and tangents, straight" Jf brend or butter wanted- weight; -1 And wisely tell what hour o' th* day . .The clock does strike .by algebra.. When these two .pundits radically diffee, in their reading of an examination question the fault must lie with the examiner.'

Judging From' the- traffic returns 1 it would appear that the electric trams ' were well,' patronised during the Easter holidays. On '. jGood ''Friday * the" "cars . carried 39,599passengersi the fares collected amounting to £180. On Saturday the numbers .yrere 53,273, the fares t co!leeted amounting to £217- The total number carried on Sunday „ was, '35,790, the- cash takings being £115 ; and' on. Easter .Monday "the cars' carried 55,215. persons, the" fares collected amounting v to £261. A large proportion consisted of threepenny fares, and the /bulk of the pas- -, sengers went to "St. Clair and Ocean Beach, _, the north-bound cars being patronised to a considerably smaller extent.- From 4.30 p.m. to 5.30 p.m. on Monday evening the carrying capacity of the Beach cars was - severely taxed, 40 cars, each carrying about 70" persons, being dispatched to town during

the hour, referred to. . . , At the Crown' Lands^Offiee cm (fie 17th tha ' two remaining] sections' oir Steward Settlement we;© taken vp 1 . For section 50a two .applications were received, the ballot result-, ing 'in favour. of. SVilliam IJarcer, ;'jun| -. Andrew Graham was the only applicant for section 56a. The subdivision of this estate has resulted in 48 settlers beiDg placed on the land, the total area selected being 21,730 acres 1 rood 28 perches.

Another New Zcalander to the fore at Horne — this time in the vocal art. Slack and White, of February 10, has a picture of Mr Charles Carter, who is taking the part of principal tenor in " Grey Street," Mr Nicholas Gatty's new opera, and' says: "Mr Charles Carter, the principal tenor, will be seen as Gish. He is a New Zealander, and his first success was gained in Australia with the Gilbert and Sullivan operas. He then came to England, and studied .for a time at the Royal Academy, and has gained his chief successes with ihe Moody-Manners , Co. as Lohengrin, Taunhauser, and Don Jose."

A story of the keen business capacity displayed by Mr James Hevcr. husband of iff Andrew Carnegie's niece, in related in New York' newspapers. Mr Hever, it will be recalled, was an Englishman, and his romantic engagement with his present wife last year, whilo he was in the service of her mother as coachman, is already well known. After the declaration of his love he Jeffc.his Job as coachman and established himself as a riding master, his marrMijife " with the. steel master's favourite bm»<, Nancy, closely following. It was o» IW* occasion" that Mr Carnegie made to th*' reporters the somewhat enigruatio annOQMS* mesit, "Belter an honest coachman t!vs» m .' worthless duke," which was quoted thr<W|><.out the country as a matt worthy saytny ' of a good and patriotic American. After tho marriage Mr Carnegie bought the young couple a farm, which Hever has now' sold to a neighbouring dairyman with an undisputed profit of £5000. Mr Carnegie is reported as advising a profit of £4000 only, but Hever held out for £5000, and got it.

The investigation into the system of drainage adopted by local, "bodies on th& Taieri Piain was resumed at Henley on Wednesday by tho Royal Commiseion. appointed for that purpose. A numbei of settlers had coma long distances to give evidence, and in a sitting that extended over six hours 12 witnesses were examined. Strong exception was taken by several of the witnesses to the proposal to make a main drain through the centre of the plain.

The visual weekly meeting of the Benevolent Inetitution Trustees, held on "Wednes- ' day afternoon, was attended by Mfisers R.. 51. Clark (chairman), A. Tapper, D. Larnachi VV. T. Talboys, J. Arkle, and the Hon. H. Gourley. Twenty-three applications for ( relief were dealt with, and accounts, amounting to £104 12s 4d were passed for, payment. The weekly report stated ff 1-"*1 -"* two inmates of the institution (G< Gardner, aged 76, and Hans Hvihr, 71) had died on the 14th and 15th in» . respectively. Donations of parcels oj magazines from Mr Cameron (Musselburghl and from Mrs Gow and Mrs Baird wero\ acknowledged with tlwmks.