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Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10965, 7 May 1907, Page 4

In his speech at -the installation last week, Mr 0- E. Mackay, M-jyor of Wanganui, said : No doubt the most momentous question the borough has had to- face during the last year has been tliat oi trams. „A solution has beeji finally arrived at* which commends itself to the great majority of the cjtrizens; No one can dispute that an. electric tram is the most "-up-to-date and efficient system of traction; and Wanganui's wisdom in adopting it is shown by, the fact tEat even smiiller towns- — such as Napier and lnvercargill — -are now proposing to follow our example. Tenders have been called for the installing of the system, and will close on. the Ist of August. All indications point to our having satisfactory competition for the contract. The actual work of laying the line should be well under way by next December, and iri less than 18 ' months Wanganui should possess a thoroughly up-to-date . system of street traction. 'Whether tlie trams will pay from the outset experience alone can decide.- But even if they 'do not pay directly, indirectly tliey .will pay in many ways, .-■'■'.' At an inquest held at Perth (W.A'A concerning the death of a boy named Walter Jarmy, 'evidence was given by two lads named Anderson to the effect that, whilst one was mending a bicycle and the other was skinning a rabbit in a shed deceased came in arid asked for. a rabbit for his dog. Suddenly, without any warning", he fell dawn dead. Some blood was observed coming, out of his eye. .There was a pearifle in the shed, which was not loaded, and which had not been used since the previous Saturday. No sound of a shot was beards and no one could have got the-rifle without being.pbserved by witnesses. Medical evidence shewed that the bullet had passed through tlie left eye, lacerating the brain, death oeing . instantaneous. -The bullet had been fired at very s&ort range. Further evidence showed . that the boys had adriiitted bliub the shot came from across tlie railway, linel On looking about no One could be seen. The boys informed ' their. 'iriother, -who gave information to th© police. Tlie jury returned a verdict of death from a bullet from a* pea rifle, but there was no evidence to show wlio had fired the shot. Late on Saturday morning one of the boys confessed that he had, accidentally shot deceased with a pea rifle whilst they were examining it. The trigger \yas very easily pulled. Thev were afraid, and concocted the story' told at the inquest. Like all else -human," said Dr. John William Springthorpe, of Melbourne, at the annual meeting of the Australasian Massage Association, at the Royal Ey-. change,. Sydney, "the medical art J_nj gone through stages of development.'* In the cluldhood of the race, he continued, the priest was the medicine man, and disease was the direct outcome of tlie displeasure of the gods. Then belief was the main basis of medicine, even though it -was. a' basis tliat had no necessary connection with science. lis value, however, did nob disappear with tlie disuse of praying wheels, incantations, and signs of the cross as remedial measures, but was recognised to-day in legitimate medicine in the. great subdivision of mental therapeutics, and, illegitimately, in faith healii_g, Christian Science, self-doctoring, and quackery.^' In the middle ages there wag added a second factor in trie shape" of cultivated human reason, when disease became a matter of finely woven theory! Finally, in these days, tliere had been introduced the scien^ tific element. Disease was now recognised as due to the breaking of law— it mattered not wliether ancestral or personal, intentional -or :. ignorant. , Tlie 'medical practitioner was now a student of nature, working ;«*> much as possible by accurate observation, 'exact experiment, and logical deduction. He was more useful by his advice than by his drugs, more potent preventativcly than curatively, pointing out shortcomings in inheritance, and defects in development, .correcting errors iu environment, harmonising opposing conditions, and removing dangers, unseen and even undreamt of. The big tramp steamer Como (in New Zealand a few months ago), which recently exchanged her Chinese crew for one composed of Americans, had (savs the Sydney Morning Herald of 15th 'April) a remarkable experience on the short voyage from Newcastle to Sydney . The Como, which arived at the northern port a few days ago from San Francisco, having loaded there 2400 tons of bunker coal, was ready l to leave for Sydney to ship a cargo of about 6100 tons of South Clifton coal for Valparaiso, when it was discovered that of all her sailors only ono man was competent to carry out his duties. To detain thc vessel was out of the question, and to secure hands for the short run to Sydney was impossible. Captain Tom Darle.v, one of tlie members of the firm of Messrs W. Scott, Fell, and Co., Ltd., who possesses an exemption certificate for this port, proceeded to Newcastle by rail t<>_ bring the Cosmo to Sydney, and late on Saturday night he joined the vessel in the inner basin at Newcastle. He. took command on the bridge at 11.40 p.m., and dospite the condition of the crew, determined to bring the Como on here. The lines were cast off by the local Custom-house officer, and hove in by the second officer. Captain Filkins, who brought the Como ail the' way from --San Francisco to Newcastle, assumed charge of the telegraph communicating between the bridge and the engine-room, the chief officer Tvas placed ori duty, as the look-out, while tlie) third) I officer took the wheel. The engineers I were all on duty, as were the nremeri, but the sailors, enjoyed the unique exj perience of travelling to Sydney as pas--1 sengers, watching the officers performing j their duties. On reaching San Francisco I on her last visit from Sydney the Cpmo's , Chinese sailors refused duty, and were sent to gaol, the captain being called upon to pay 800 dollars for their maintenance, arid to send them home -to China. - *