CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4869, 7 February 1894, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

Campaigns against tht>" baboons are still requent at the Cape. On Baviaan's River he other day five farmery surrounded a roop of baboons which had been very roublesome in killing their stock, with tho ©buH that sixty were killed in a few tours— a total of over 1000 on their two arms since 1884. These pests are beoomog more and more troublesome every year, tot only amongst small stock, but also in he wheat and mealie fields. The following examples of modern lon;evity in one family are, it will be agreed, 'cry remarkable. Mr Turner, bootmaker, { Balcombe, Sussex, ie now ninety-four, md his wife ninety years of age, and the igea of their eight children (there were iriginally nine) run as follows :— Seventy, ixty-nine, sixty-six, sixty-four, sixty, fiftyhree, fifty-one, forty-nine— a grand tota', n all, of six hundred and eizty-aix years t FrofesEor Falb, the well-known astrolomer, whose meteorological predictions lave so frequently turned out correct, ssues another list of " critical days " for ;his year — that is to say, days on which riolent storms or other serious forms of itmoapheric or terrestrial disturbance may se expected. The Vienna correspondent >f the Chronicle says the days are given in. ;he order of maximum disturbance:-— august 30, Sept. 29, Feb. 20, March 21, August 1, April 6, Jan. 21, May 6, and Oct. 28. Thus the moat serious disturbance may ba looked for on August 30, and the slightest on Oct. 28. Professor Falb also states that the earth will, some i\x years hence, come into close conjunction with a comet whioh was first discovered in 1866, and which has, Beemingly, been since moving in an uncertain orbit. St Paul's at last has a clock worthy o£ the great cathedral. In 1891 the old works, after 182 years' servioe were declared worn out, and Lord Grimthorpe, who designed the famous clook of St Stephens, was consulted on the plans o£ the new timekeeper. The new clock is the largest in the kingdom, bigger even than that at Westminster. Its pendulum is 15ft long, weighs 7cwt, and has a twosecond beat. Great accuracy is naturally expected, and if care in construction goes for anything Big Ben must look to bis laurels. The time is indicated by the first stroke of the hour, and of the chimes at the other fifteen minutes intervals. An incident of the Austro-Prusßian war of 1866 was lately told by the Archduke Joseph to a party of friends. We find the etory in the New Pester Journal : — " On. our retreat before the advanoe of the Prussian Army," said the Archduke, " we camped in the neighbourhood of a Bohemian town. I was lodged in a peasant's cottage, when, about midnight, I heatd the sentry challenging some newcomer. My adjutant entered, and reported that a gipßy wanted to see me in private. A soldier (a gipsy) entered, and on my asking ■what was the matter be told me that the enemy was approaching to surprise us. "The outposts have heard nothing suspicious/ I sa : .d. ' No, your Highness, because the enemy is still a long way off/ ' But how do you know this P' I asked. , ' Come to the window, your Highness,' ! answered the man. 'Do you see those j birds flying over the wood towards the south V ' Yes, I see them ; what then P* ' What then ! Do not birds sleep as well as men P They would certainly not fly about if they were nob disturbed. The enemy is marching through the wood and has frightened all those birds/ 'Very i well, my lad, you can go.' I at once ! ordered the outposts to be reinforced, and j the camp to be alarmed. An hour later I the outposts were fighting with the enemy, j and our camp was only caved by the keen | observation of a simple gipsy." M. Paul Blouet, whom the world gene- ' rally knows better by his pseudonym of : Max O'Rell, finds touring as a lecturer , rather hard work. During his last tour, \ so he has informed a correspondent of j Cassell'B Saturday Journal, he gave 446 i lecturea within a period of twelve months, \ and the countries he visited embraced i America, Canada, the South Sea Islands, I Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. 1 On his way he met with a number of ! adventures, travelling sometimeß in ttagei coaches, in regions where there are no railI ways, while in one place, where there are { railways, but trains are few and far j between, he and his party had to travel on : the top of some laden goods trucks. There ; is a reverse side of the picture, however. j Thus, in Johannesburg, his receipts for a i week were .£IOSB. At Samoa the lecturer j visited Mr E. L. Stevenson, and found him !in good health and high spirits. Perhaps ! M. Blouet's greatest trial as a Frenchman i was at a place in New Zealand, where a I drunken man would insist, until he was j ejected, on having a lecture on " Waterloo" : substituted for the one announced.