NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume V, Issue 588, 29 December 1897, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Japan has set the whole of civilized Europe an example by the establishment at Tokyo of tho “ KihinKai,” or Society for Welcoming Foreigners. Its object is to provide sfciangers with every facility for transacting their business or pursuing their pleasures without discom fort or exhorbitant expense. On application to an office which has been opened in the chief hotel a visitor can procure all the information he requires. Introductions are supplied to personages of distinction and to business firms. Honest guides are provided, who will prevent extortion on the part of innkeepers, curio dealers and all the other classes who prey on the innocent native of the west. No fee is charged, tiie society willingly incurring considerable expense, with the conviction that the whole community will reap the benefit. Moreover, the Japanese “ bobby ” is rapidly being taught English, and in Otaka this summer 75 of them have passed an examination in our tongue.

A remarkable story of Tennyson is told in the “ Contemporary Review ” by the poet’s niece, Agnes Grace Weld, as follows: —“ I know of a man who, feeling his utter loneliness in a distant colony quite intolerable after the death of his wife, was going in search of a weapon with which to put an end to his existence, when he came across a copy of In Memoriam which ho had taken out with him, and opening its pages, at first half mechanically, he became interested and read on and on until there stole into his soul a peace that never afterwards left it, and lie resolved once more to face the battle cf life—a battle be has not fought in vain.”

A clockmakkr at Birmingham recently found that a certain rival was doing a large trade in cheap clocks sent out to the wilds of Africa. He got. hold of a samcle clock, and finding that there was a heavy profit in the enterprise, invested a large sum of money in making a still better clock, thousands of which were shipped to the same market. Strange to say, sales were very slow, while his rival, turning out a cheaper and far less accurate timepiece, was selling all he could make. Finally the explanation came. Savages like noise. The clocks made by the original exporter had a particularly loud and aggressive tick ; his imitator made a better clock, and it was almost noiseless, and the savages would have none of it. The remedy was simple. The next shipment of clocks to the Guinea coast ticked louder than anything previously heard there, and all went well. Another curious instance of the peculiar knowledge required for foreign trade is that of a firm which sent a large shipment of fancy crackers intended for the Turkish market and had them all returned. The reason they did not sell was found to be that they were decorated with animal “ scraps,” and no true Mahommedan will buy the image of a living thing.

Profelkor Severinus Corkioan, of tho Goodsell Observatory, United States America, is seriously concerned that this poor old terrestrial globe of ours is about t 6 enter upon a very awkward crisis of its existence. It is assumed that the sun was delivered about 28,000,000 years ago of a planetary body, which, by its near approach to the earth destroyed all palaeozoic life ; and in Professor Corrigan’s opinion another period of gestation is now closely approaching its term. According to the professor’s calculations, when this appalling event arrives, tho earth will he the first to receive the impact of this unwelcome visitor. On tho other hand, equally eminent authorities declare that, admitting tho possible nativity of the infant planet, the chances are some billions to one against it coming our way ; whilst Le Verrier certified tho stability of tho solar system to be good for at least 80,000,000 of years.