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Otago Witness, Issue 3115, 26 November 1913, Page 11

One hundred and two immigrants arrived from London on the 21st by tho steamer Turakina. Most of them have come to the dominion to join relatives, who preceded them, and are therefore booked to various parts of New Zealand. Their destinations arc as follow; —For Dunedin, 9; Wellington, 16; Lyttelton, 31Auckland, 13; Gisborne, 11; Napier, 1; New Plymouth, 13; Wanganui, 5; Timaru, 1; Picton, 2. Six red deer hinds, a red deer stag, four pedigree pigs, and two Polled Angus bulls arrived by the Turakina on tho 21st from London. The deer are consigned to the Otago Acclimatisation Society, and the bulls to Messrs Murray, Roberts, and Co., while the pigs are booked for Lyttelton. Two specimens of rainbow trout that were extraordinarily unlike in size, although •shoal brothers, wore exhibited by members of the Linnrean .Society in Sydney last week by Mr D. Q. Stead, the Now South Wales fisheries expert. They were bojh yearlings and came from the hatchery at Prospect, near Sydney. One might have had a fortnight’s start out of his egg over the other, but which one Mr Stead could not say. One weighed 1 I-16oz. and was nearly 6in long, and the c (her weighed 18J.oz, and was about 15in long. Never before in Mr Stead’s experience had such an abnormal development of trout occurred at Prospect. The two fish were typical of many others, but the astonishing thing was that the larger lish was the size and weight of many three-year-olds which were stripped of their ova this year. About a year ago Mr Stead placed outflow valves in tho ponds at Prospect to provide for the water being run off from tho bottom and not only from tho top. This might have had something to do with tho improvement in certain lish. The usual size of yearlings is about five or six inches. Mr Stead said that an improvement in trout culture and development in tlje cultivation of Murray cod and yellow-belly might bo looked for. It is a matter of common knowledge that, whether by coincidence or otherwise, tile march of the missionary in some of the South Sea Islands has been followed by a gradual decrease in the number of the native inhabitants. Dr Ramsay Smith, of Adelaide, in a lecture delivered last week, provided a reason for this depopulation. He spoke of the ravages of what he termed tropical languor, bringing about poor digestion and fever. “Tho natives of tho South Seas are an active race and are not lazy, as some people seem eo think,” ho remarked. “In the past, the missionary has sometimes come along and stopped the religious dances and other energetic observances which have prevailed among the natives for hundreds of years, with the result that it has meant extermination. This has been recognised now, and missionaries arc beginning to trouble tho people less with Sabbath observance, and are not interfering so much with their ordinary activities. They are .getting them to do honest labour —looking after cows and pigs, coffee plantations, and so on.” He mentioned the case of one island, 'which had been considered to be the most Christianised and free from alcohol, and assorted that in 30 years tho population bad decreased to one-tenth of what it had been. That instance gave some idea of the danger of interfering with customs which had become engrained in the nature of a native race. “Tho best thing to do would be to let tho natives alone,” added the doctor. Chief Yamamoto, of the Tokio Detective Bureau, is greatly concerned at tho tendency among Japanese women to free themselves from tho shackles of convention, and ho has warned them in an official communication of the dire consequences of following tho lead of advanced members of their sex. “Tho modern education of women,” ho says, “seems to mo defective in tho promotion of womanly virtues, with

the result that the time-honoured ideal of women to be good wives and wise mothers has lost its authority. There are large numbers of young women who clamour for their rights and freedom to oppress men. Men and women arc born differently, and women cannot beat men in intellectual and physical power. In Japan, the spheres of activity for men and women are definitely fixed. Men have to work out, and women to keep house. Now women would like to imitate men in working out, in motoring, in making speeches, and even in demanding freedom in morals. There are women who openly advocate such extreme views, and their influence on the thoughts of j'oung girls is simply appalling.” Absolute freedom for women, in Mr Yamamoto’s view, is not to be thought of. He recalls that in olden times people threatened their children with expulsion from home. It was a brand of shame on its victims. Now the general idea has changed. Some girls do not bother themselves in the least about going out of their homes. They often leave them of thqir own accord. “If I were permitted to express my views frankly,” ho adds, ‘‘l should say that the conduct of the wealthy class is reckless and calculated to encourage the vainglorious desires of young women. The result is that they welcome the arguments of the ‘ new women ’ and envy the lives of actresses. The arguments of the ‘ new women,’ half-digested by young .girls, are driving them to liqueurs and the company of men. Girls will not be badly affected by the theatre, if they only go to the shows with moral teachings. But they do not like such plays. They patronise cheap shows and” modern pictures, some of which the police have had to suppress ’’ An assault, of a most brutal and cowardly nature was made upon a girl, five years of age, in the Town Belt, near Port Chalmers, on Friday evening. The child left her homo shortly after 4 o’clock, and appears to have been enticed into the bush by a man who said he would get a bird’s nest for her. About 5 o’clock a surfaceman on the railway heard the child crying, and as she was known to him he took her home, but could not ascertain the cause of her distress. The little girl informed her mother, and the matter was placed in the hands of the police. A search for'thc miscreant was instituted at once, but without result. The opinion of the doctor who examined the child indicates that she will sniffer no permanent injury.

The extraordinary conduct of a young man attracted considerable attention in Port Chalmers on Saturday morning. As" some of tho immigrants were proceeding from the Turakina to tho railway station, on route for Wellington, a young man com menced to remove all his superfluous clothing and deposit it on the road. After spending some time upon this occupation the young man nia.de a rush for the station, evidently being under the impression that ho had just donned a running suit. The police took charge of the man, who was evidently suffering from the result of his long sea voyage from London, but ho soon regained his normal state of mind ami was able to resume his journey northwards by tho second express. Mr Thomas Taylor writes to us from Sawyer’s Bay; “Kindly allow me space to contradict a paragraph which appeared in a recent issue of your paper in which it was reported that I had mot with a dastardly assault and been rendered unconscious whilst on my way home from Port Chalmers to Sawyer's B&y.. I wish to give that report a absolute denial, as I was not assaulted on that or any other occasion whilst on my way home.” Wo regret if we have been misled. Our information was apparently authentic and was published in good faith. Our Wellington correspondent informs us that Mr Miller, who has been Mayor of Lyttelton on several occasions, will bo the Government candidate for tile Lyttelton seat, rendered vacant by the death of Mr La urc ns on. The motion for tho issue of tho writ will probably be moved in the House by tho Prime Minister to-day. A correspondent lias forwarded to us what he regards as a very strange freak o? nature in the shape of a rabbit’s head in which tho teeth of (he bottom jaw have grown to form almost a half circle over the nose, and tho teeth of the upper jaw have grown downwards to form an even more nearly completed half circle. We have sent the specimen to the museum, where, however, there are already several other oxhib:ts of tho kind A Press Association message states that a beautiful memorial window in tho Catholic Church, Timaru, was dedicated on Sunday afternoon to the memory of Sergeant William Byrne, tho first Timaru man to lose his life in the Boor war. Tho subject is tho Baptism in tho Jordan. A procession of ex-members of tho South African Contingents and other military men was held at the morning service. Eight other windows, all scriptural subjects, decorating the chancel, and the gifts of different individuals and parties, were also .dedicated. Great interest is lacing e\ inced by tho residents of tho Wakotipu in the ceremony of unveiling the Scott Memorial, which has been erected in the park, Queenstown, with funds collected by the 42nd Company Senior Cadets. Tho ceremony is to take place on December 3, and the memorial tablets will be unveiled by Lieutenantcolonel A- Bauchoo, C.M.C., the officer commanding tho Otago Military District. A number of prominent gentlemen liave signified their intention of being present, and tho Queenstown branch of the Dunedin Expansion League is urging the railwayauthorities to issue special excursion farce

from Dunedin, Invercargill, and intermediate places for the occasion. Tho School Committees at Arrow-town, Glenorchy, and Queenstown are arranging to assemble aJI the school children to witness and take part in the ceremony, and a parade of all the troops in tho district is also being arranged, together with a visit from the Southland Pipe Band.

Since the closing of the hotels frequent applications have been made to the Auckland city magistrates for orders enabling the applicants to obtain liquor for invalids. Tho magistrates have pointed.-out that the order issued by them forbidding the sal* of liquor does not extend to “any apothecary, chemist, or druggist administering or selling any spirituous, distilled, or fermented liquors for medicinal purposes.” The magistrates have also informed the members of the Licensed Victuallers’ Association that the order they have given does not prevent licensees from receiving bonafide travellers and visitors, and supplying them while they are living in the hotels with liquor in reasonable quantities, for consumption on the premises. Tho funeral of Mr G. Lauronson, M.P., on Saturday (a Press Association message states), was one of the largest seen in Wellington for years. Amongst those present were tho Prime Minister, the Postmastergeneral, tho Minister of Public Works, Sir Joseph Ward, a majority of the member* of Parliament, and nearly 1000 members of the Waterside Workers’ Union, the band belonging to which headed the cortege. Tho service at the Karori Cemetery was conducted by the Rev. J. Gibson Smith, assisted by the Rev. J. Gibb, D.D. At tho conclusion of tho service tho band played' a funeral march. Mr John Henson’s farm at Mount Stewart (near Feilding) presents an animated scene since some 23 senior pupils of the Wanganui, Marten, Hunterville, and Feilding Schools took up their quarters there on Wednesday to receive practical instruction in sheep work and shearing (says our Wanganui correspondent). They will be. in camp for a fortnight. Mr Humbly, the instructor employed by the Wanganui Edit- » cation Board, was busy on Saturday initiating the boys into the rudiments of dagging, packing and pressing wool, and branding previous to export. To-morrow 1 lie boys will commence shearing, {ind this operation will engage their unremitted attention til) the camp closes. The boys sleep in a large tent and do their own cooking, which is said to be very satisfactory. A. cablegram from Sydney"' recently recorded an accident to three nfen who were sheltering from a storpi behind railway truck. A horsebox was being shunted at the time and the thunder pfevented tho men from hearing its approach. It struck the truck. “Two of the men,” the cablegram stated, “ Walsh, a recent arrival from New Zealand, and M‘Mahon, wore killed. The third, named Brownlow,, was badly injured.” Tho Eltham Argus says that Mr J. Walsh, of Rawhitiroa, whoso son, Mr Frank Walsh, was spending a holi-lay in New South Wales, immediately got into communication, and in answer to a cablegram received a, reply stating that tho identity was correct, but that tho young man was not killed. Both his legs, however, had been amputated, and ho was critically ill. The parish priest was then communicated with, and the following reply was received from him : —“Yes, the injured man is the son of Mr John Walsh, of Eltham. Ho is improving satisfactorily, though seriously injured.”

An interesting experiment. was conducted on Friday afternoon (says the Christchurch Press), when some 1500 children representing the upper standards of the majority of the city and suburban schools attended a matinee picture performance at His Majesty’s Theatre. The programme was specially selected und approved of by the headmasters, the chief idea being to cover geographical work done by the children during the year. The experiment was the outcome of the recommendation of the Chief Inspector of Schools and other in. spectors, who recognised that properly selected pictures would be of great odtica tional value. One of the hoard’s inspec tors told a. reporter that it was not pr< posed to hold any more matinees this yea as a sufficient interval would bo allowed u. enable the teachers to deal with the subjects taken, and generally to gauge the value of the kincmatograph as a means of conveying instruction. Ho recognised that the scheme had not been tried at its best, because great improvements could be made in the class of film screened. There wan no question that the children enjoyed the programme thoroughly, and it was quite refreshing to witness a programme which contained no over drawn comic films, und no absurd Indian creations, and none of the American stereotyped dramas. Canadian, Japanese, and English scenic pictures were shown, along with several good industrial subjects, and the programme was interspersed with films calculated to provoke healthy amusement Numerous icebergs were passed by the Now Zealand Shipping Company’s chartered ‘"earner Tokomaru in the Gulf of St. Lawrence while the vessel was bound from London to Montreal to load for Australian and New Zealand ports. 'I he Tokomaru arrived at Auckland on Sunday morning from the Canadian port, via Melbourne and Sydney, and the officers report that the bergs were of great dimensions, several being *ver 1200 ft in length, and well over 200 ft in height. The presence of the bergs was most unusual for that season of the year, and, owing to their close proximity, extreme caution had to be exercised in. the navigation oi the vessel.