AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9431, 15 May 1902, Page 4

AUSTRALIAN EXPLORATION.

Entertained the other day in Melbourne by the University Club, Professor Baldwin Spencer gave some account of his recent trip through Central Australia. During the twelve months he bad been away, he said, he had had experiences such as did not fall to the lot of many men, but the work he and his colleague had done had not been attended with a fraction of the difficulties of the early explorers. Their object was to .study the habits of the aboriginal tribes, and the net result of his observations was a confirmed opinion that the natives, if properly treated, were quite trustworthy. Their form of religion, though of a very poor kind in itself, was such as to render them incapable of appreciating the white man's beliefs, and this accounted, in a great measure, for the comparative failure of missionary effort amongst them. The Jesuit fathers were the most successful in this respect, because they had endeavored to develop the faculties of the savage along lines that- would be most useful to him. With regard to the outrages, of which particulars were published from time to time, lie thought that if their origin could be traced it would be found -tliat in nearly all cases they arose from some act of aggression on the part of the white man. The climate of North Australia, Professor ■ Spencer continued, was "calculated to make, one lose his faith in the principle of a "white" Australia. For three months of the year it was practicially impossible for a white man to work. Even horses sweated freely when they were not being worked at all. He'had seen strongly-built white men, after a short walk, perspire to such an extent that even their clothes were saturated. Those conditions applied to three mouths of the year, and would, he thought, prevent that part of the country being opened up exclusively by white men. All they could do was to sit down and do nothing but perspire day and night. Although the Northern Territory is not, in Professor Spencer's opinion, a white man's country,- the explorers enjoyed good health at all times. The information they collected will be classified and published in due course, and the Professor has promised to give a series, of public lectures under the auspices of the University..

News from San Francisco states that the work done in re-fitting the steamship Mariposa, in order that oil may be used as fuel in place of coal, has effected a radical change in the fireroom force of the -vessel. Where 24 men were employed to handle coal in the furnaces, the force which will be required to care for the new fuel will be one-fourth that number.

Dr Andrew Wilson writes in the Daily Chronicle : —"A topic of much importance as regards the public safety is that relating to the- highly inflammable nature of the material known as "flannelette." Unlike pure wool, which does not readily burn, or which at least smoulders rather than ignites flannelette speedily bursts into flame. I observe that manufacturers are said to be devising a process jvhich has for its object the lessening of the combustibility of the fabric. Meanwhile the common chemical fact that fabric soaked in,, or rinsed out of a solution of alum and water are rendered non-inflam-mable might be utilised by mothers and others, by way of preventing a. serious danger." Speaking at a dinner given in Suva to celebrate the completion of the Pacificcable to Fiji, the Warden of Suva., who presided, stated that about the titme the Australian Contingent was sent to the Soudan, a Fijian chief said to Sir John Thurston, then Governor of the group. "I am willing tv send 1000 men to Jigypt to fight for Great Britain." (Applause.) Sir John, though he refused the ofler, .commended (he loyalty and national spirit which prompted it. "In the end of 1899," continued the speaker, "we suffered reverses at the Tugela. Stormberg and Magersfontein. The same Fijian chief .happened lo come to Suva shortly afterwards. He said to me, The news from South Africa, sir, is very bad.' I replied, 'Yes, lam sorry to say it is.' He continued, and his dark and* usually soft, good-natur-ed eye looked dangerous, and his jaw visibly stiffened, 'Do you recollect the offer I made to die late Sir John Thurston?' *4l replied, 'I do.' 'Well,', he said, that offer holds; good still.' (Applause.) I thanked him, and commended his loyalty, but replied that I was satisfied that the tide was about to turn."

Forty thousand indicated horse-power is reported to be the energy which is to oe exerted in propelling the coming Cunard liner, of which plans are in progress at Vickery's yard at Barrow, at the Fairfield shipbuilding yard and at the Clydebank shipbuilding yard. This means an increase of 7000 indicated horse-power over the two record-holding German liners. The Canterbury Shearers' Union has sent out a list of demands to the pastoralists of South Canterbury. Under the demands work is to start at 5.30 a.m. and cease at 5.30 p.m. on five days of the week, with intervals totalling three hours for meals and twenty minutes for smoke-oh. Work to start on Saturday at 5.30 a.m. and cease at noon, with one and a half hours for meals. The week's work to consist of 48 hours 20 minutes. The price for shearing flock sheep to be £1 per 100, with rations. The Timaru Post is informed that the present rate for shearing is in the great majority of cases 16s 8d per 100, rams ; double; shearing starts at 5.30 a.m. and ends for the day at 5.30 p.m. ; an hour is allowed for dinner, and there is a smoke-oh in.the forenoon and afternoon, and usually a snack at the afternoon smoke-oh.

W. Schwiegerhausen, who is cycling across the five continents, was expected to arrive at Dunedin on Wednesday on his way across New Zealand. He is a journalist. and has already covered 35,000 miles of the journey across Europe, 'Africa, and Australia. To win the wager of £1250 he must circle the globe in the shape of the figure 8 twice on his bicycle. He must interview three Kings, shoot a wild animal in each country, write 100 articles, take 100 photos, deliver 100 lectures, and earn his own expenses whilst travelling. Five years is allowed to finish the task, and in each place he has

to obtain the signatures of leading citizens as a guarantee that he has visited those places. He started . with a companion, who was murdered by the Khurds in Asia Minor. His machine weighs 901b with luggage, and he has worn out two bicycles and seven sets of tyres.

Though, the facilities for divorce in America have long been a bye-word, and the number of "broken marriages" is known to be enormous, few persons realise what the records actually disclose. "Three hundred and twenty-nine thousand divorces were granted by the courts in that country in the last twenty years. In that same period, throughout the entire Continent of Europe, only 260,000 were granted. This- is to say, although Europe has seven times more inhabitants than America, the latter outran all Europe by 69,000 divorces. With these startling statistics the "Rev. Father William O'Brien Pardew, S.J., brought to a clir max a denunciation of the divorce evil in his sermon in St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, on Sunday, March 2nd. There is at the present time a noticeable scarcity of boys and youths offering themselves for employment in certain occupations. The manager of a Wellington institution informed a reporter that he had advertised for junior clerks, and got less than half-a-dozen replies, and only one or two of that number were capable of passing the examination. That examination,, by the way, included Algebra, which is not taught in our primary schools, and it woufd appear that it is' not a favorite subject among the pupils of our secondary schools. Further search outside by the manager of the institution in question resulted in the finding of one suitable youth of the required .age (from 16 to 18), and of the necessary education standard. Managers of banks, it is stated, experience a similar difficulty. The secretary of the General Post Office (Mr Gray) states that in Wellington alone among the four centres there is a great difficulty in getting suitable boys as messengers. The advantages of such a position are decidedly good, as any boy who shows promise is able to learn operating and get a cadetship, but the right boys, do not come forward.