CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4855, 20 January 1894, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

During a terrible storm off the coaat of Massachusetts on Deo. 5, the ship Jaaon, from Calcutta to Boßton, owned by Messrs A. and J. H. Carmiohael and Co., of Greenock, stranded at Eastham and went to pieces the following day, OE the twentyseven men on board all were lost except one, Samuel Evans. Every effort waa mada to save the unfortunate sailors, who took refuge for hours in the tigging, but to no purpose. The Government of India has sanctioned the translation of the " EeviEed Infantry Drill, 1893," into Urdu, Hindi and Gurmuthi by Colonel Toker, and has ordered the free distribution of twenty copies of the translation to each Native infantry regiment ia the thre9 Presidencies. "An Old Bombay Officer at Home" observes that this- i3 a significant sign of the enormous change that has come over the Native army in the past thirty years or so. Thirty years ago the Native army could neither read nor write. To-day it is an educated army, that studies its new drill books aa they come out in somewhat bewildering succession ; that reada its weekly paper, and that is well posted up in all the latest news of the day. "It is," adds this commentator, "a tremendous difference, and deserves more attention than it receives." The cyole ia said to be threatened with a formidable rival in the ehapa of a pneumatic road skate, which will shortly be placed upon the market by a Scotch firm. The new skate, instead of having four wheels, like the ordinary roller skate, baa only two, which are placed in line oue behind the other, and are not solid, but furnished with pneumatic tyres. With j this aid to lbcdmotion it ia eaid that j osdtnary roads can be traversed with ease, and that the ascent and descent of hills are by no means difficult. The skates have been already seen in some of the Midland towns, wlieife a tpaed of from oix to aaven miles an hour has been attained with them in the ordinary thoroughfares. Simple padesbrianism, it would seem, may Boon go out of fashion. Here are sotne figures that denote the extent to which temperance sentiment has permeated some important religious denominations. Among the Congregationalists 2100 ministers in England and Wales (out of a total of 2725) are known to ba. total abstainers, and 870 out of SOD students in the Evangelical colleges, la Ireland there are no exceptions, and in Scotland 95 per cent are registered aa abstainers. In the Evangelical Union of Scotland, as with the Primitive Methodists of England, all the ministers are abstainers. Out of 1758 accredited Baptist ministers in the United Kingdom, no fewer than 1421 return themselves bb total abstainers, also 225 students out of 232 in the theological colleges. It would be interesting to know how the Catholic clergy compara with the Frotest&nt ministers ia the matter of total abstinence, but no figures are obtainable to enable us to ia* Btitute the comparison. In the course of an interview with the representative of a London contemporary, Mr Smythe, the "much-travelled," said: —No lecturer personally excited greater i curiosity to Australia than Stanley. When people were unable to obtain admission, they would offer money simply that they might look over the heads of those in front and Bee the great explorer. At Chriatchurch, New Zealand, there waa a ebrfc of birthday celebration in honour of Stanley. On that night two thousand persons were unable to obtain admission to the theatre, and when the famous traveller made his appearance the packed audience rose and ch eared vociferously. "They were under the impression," said Mr Smythe, with a merry laugh, " that it was the explorer's birthday. It was in reality the anniversary of. Livingstone's birth, and I alone waa responsible for the mistake, which not only drew an enormous audience, but also led ..to a number of birthday presents being sent to Mr Stanley at hia hotel." A rival to Leand9r and Lord Byron has, according to the New York Medical Journal, appeared in the person of Dr Judson Daland, of Philadelphia, who recently swam the classic Strait of Messina, where are the rock of Scylia and the whirlpool Charybdis, so dreaded by the ancients. We are assured that the oldest inhabitant of Faro, a neighbouring fishing village, has no recollection of the feat having baen accomplished before. Dr Daland entered the sea at Faro, and, after much battling with adverse currents, he passed the rock of Scylia and landed at Rsggio, in Italy. He giveß the following account of his performance : — The entire swim was made without rest or stimulants, and I restricted myself to the . breast and side stroke, not using the back at all. I encountered during the swim strong currents, running apparently in all directions, the directions changing every few moments; these currents were at times warm and at others icy cold. There waa a high wind and a choppy sea, making ib extremely difficult to breathe. I returned to Messina in good condition, and that same evening went to the opera." The strait at the northern extremity, between the Faro Tower and the Bock of Soylla, where the Bwim seems to have been accomplished, ie two and a half miles in breadth, but the actual length of the swim ia given as about six and a half miles. The time occupied was two hourß and twenty minutes. Dr Daland ha3 beaten Byron, for he had a more dangerous current to deal with, and he was able to go to the opera after his swim, while Byron, oa his own testimony, "had the ague." The Vatholic Times writes aa follows : — What solution ia there for the wageearner's difficultiea? Why, put him on the same footing as the farmer, make him a proprietor like the farmer — not, indeed, in the B&me sense, but a3 a profit-sharer. Give him the facility to become a shareholder in the industry for which he toils. Thee his natural intelligence and his aoquired responsibility will settle his troubles in regard to wages, hours of labour and strikes. Take for iuatanca a i respectab>y large factory or mill. Make ! the operatives part of the corporation j ! immediately taey will become stable j employes and better citizens. Also better workmen, because interested in the profits of the factory, and consequently in the quality of the work. Wages then would I be regulated by the coat of production in order to make a reasonable profit j and the hours of work would be settled, not by the capacity of the human machine tor endurance, but (where the eight hours' system does not exiat) by the demand of trade and the capacity of the mill or factory. Such would be the case for all o her large industries. Give the wageearners a participation in the proprietorship. Then, enjoying a sense of security, they would be opurred on to possess theii own homes, to learn economy and to find contentment and prosperity. Thus their citizenship and public epirib would be vastly improved. A gentleman who has been travelling in the Kurow aud Hakateramea district informs the Oamaru Mail that the bot fly ia very prevalent there just now, aud showed a specimen of the peso which was taken from » contractor's hocse. He relates that whila discussing the question of the fly with a contractor, he noticed one oi the man's horseß fidgeting, and remarked that it was probable the uneasiness was cauaed by bota. The contractor laughed him to scorn, but on examining the horse its neck was found to be badly shot witb I tho larvse. All the horsea in camp were then examined in turn, aud found to be in a similar condition, more or Icbb. In an article in the Chronicle oa th« traffic in aermonß cccurß a good instance oi clerical presence of mind. A curate whe had mounted the pulpit armed with one oi the late Rev Charles Bradloy's mo3t recent homiliea v>m tor a, moment horror-struck by the aitjhfc of tbe Rev Charles Bradloj himself in a pew beneath him. Im . mediately, however, he recovered enougl self-possession to be able to gay, f'Ttu

beautiful sermon I'm about to preach is by the Rev Charles Bradley, who I'm glad to see in good health, among us assembled hew." A North Island farmer waa leading a bull along a lane adjacent to his homestead lasb week, -whea the be&st rushed at him and pinioned him against a stack of hay. Returning hia self-possession, the farmer told his ten year old son, who accompanied him, to get a pitchfork from the barn. Haying got this, the boy was told to put it against the Bide of the bull, in the region of the heart. The boy obeyed, and waa then ordered to "push quick, with all your might." He did so ; the tines went their entire length into the bull's side, and the gteat beast, with one tremendous bellow, rolled over dead. As the bull's horns were withdrawn the pluoky farmer, who was eighty yeara of age, fell down insensible, and it waa then seen that, despite his cool* ness, one of hia legs had been frightfully furrowed. Atale is going the rounds to the effect that along the gutter of Piccadilly, between Sfc James's Hall and Hyde Park Corner, a certain noblo lord played the sandwich man on a recent Saturday afternoon. He is not a peer of jubilee or | mushroom growth, but of an old family, is in the Princes set, and the husband of one of the most beautiful women in the three kingdoms. As many will rightly coni jecture, he did it for a wager. He had to go to an advertising contractor^ in Savoy Street, get his boards and perambulate i Piccadilly without being recognised save i by the select few who were "in the know." And he won his bet. The Canadian mammoth cheese ha3 ' bean ehipped by the Dominion Govern- ! ment to Liverpool. The American papers state that this gigantic cheese was one of the moat attractive hits ' at the World's i Feir Exhibition, Chicago. It weighs something like 24,000 to 25,0001b (nearly twelve tons), and it has been shipped to Lipton, the well-known tea and provision merchant, who will exhibit it throughout the country. A Reutei's telegram gives an account o£ a terrible affair which is reported to have taken place at Krcsche, a town in the Government of Kovno, Russia, about thirty miles from the German frontier. The authorities at that place, it is Btated, received orders from the Russian Government to close the local Roman- Catholic church, and to prevent this from being done the Roman Catholics assembled in the church, and occupied it day and night. Finally a detachmeat of trcops, led by the Governor, one night forced their way into the building, and attacked the occupants with drawn swords. Before the building waa cleared twenty persona were killed, and more than one hundred were wounded. The remainder then fled, but were pursued by Cosaacke, and, in attempting to escape across a neighbouring river, a large number of them were drowned. Some hundreds who were taken prisoners are to be tried before a couit-martial. A remarkable discovery was made by the police at Marseilles recently, in the course of a search made by them at the lodgings of a casting modeller named Charreyon, 151, Avenue d' Arena, whom they suspected of anarchist sympathies. Behind a heap of old iron at the back of Charreyon'a workshop was a secret door, giving accesa to a tunnel about twenty-two yards long and two yards wide, running underneath the street. At the end of the tunnel the officers found a bulky parcel with a linen wrapper, which on being opened was fonnd to contain a quantity of auspicious apparatus, such as safety fuße3 for discharging explosives, tin tubeß and cases, Bnd various powders, which were at onfce submitted to M. Gasaend, the expert. M. Gassend has found the powders seized to be extremely dangerous substances used in the manufacture of dynamite and Favier powder. A searching investigation into the whole affair has been instituted. • A daring feat has been performed at Enshden. Northamptonshire. A man named Ingram, known as "Parachute Joe," having obtained possession o£ the keys of the parish church, was soon af terr wards seen on the b&tblementß, and speedily commenced to climb to the top of the lofty spire by means of the Btone crockets. A crowd of spectators gathered in the street j below. Having reached the weathercock, which he swung round several times, he pulled off his necktie and threw it to the ground. He then turned round, and placing his back to th.9 masonry, waved" both his arms to hia horrified audience below. He succeeded in returning safely to the ground, to the relief of all who witnessed the dangerous exploit. The Bank of England is going to make a startling innovation in its constitution ! It i3 going to introduce lady clerks into the issue department. Thus another encroachment will be made upon the field of clerical labour, and, goodness knows, there are enough men already seeking— and not obtaining — clerkships in the oity without barring any mote opportunities. • It would be ungallant to say that ladies would not make excellent bank clerks, but the innovation by the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street will not cause feelings o£ unmixed joy amongst the baud of young men whom providence has destined to earn their bread and butter by being " something in • the city." The idea is capable of much, expansion aa far as the city is concerned. Why not have lady stockbrokers and lady 1 j directors of joint stock companies ? The 1 i latter could hardly make a worse hash than 1 J have so many eminent city financiers on 1 | the boards of public companies lately.