CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6267, 17 June 1898, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

Mr Charles Bright, cable F.R.S.E., a well-known cutting, cable expert, recently made . some remarks en the question of cable cutting in time of war. In the first place he said that nations were under no obligation whatever to refrain from cutting cables, and, indeed, it was well known that Russia had had a special cable ship fitted out for that very purpose. It does not require a special ship, however, to interfere with the wires. The cables are ended in lonely' out-of-the-way places, and the cable hut, which is built for testing direct ' from the cable, and from which a land line proceeds to the town where the signalling , is done, is visited at the out-side once a week as a rule. It would be easy, therefore, for a fisherman to light a fire on the beach where 1 the cables are and break the circuit. Mr Bright proceeded from this to argue with | great cogency the need that exists for an ! all-British cable. He pointed out, by means ■ of a map, that the route suggested from Vancouver Island, through tfie Fiji 1 Islands, to Norfolk Island^ and thence to New Zealand and Australia, possessed many advantages, notably because it lay in the deep Pacific, because its ends could be easily defended, and because it was comparatively inaccessible to those who would be likely to try to injure it in time cf war. Russia, for instance, | would find great difficulty in cutting up a cable in tho Pacific. "No doubt," said Mr 1 Bright, " great care should he taken to only let certain people knpw the position of these cables. Of course, the shore ends must be shown to. prevent ships from anchoring on the cable, but there would be no particular harm in giving this information, and in an all-British cable the various landing-places could be defended by soldiers." As- to the various routes suggested, while the Pacific route gave what the colonies so ardently desired— direct communication — it would be costly in construction, and by reason of tha great lengths between the land points, would be difficult 'to repair. The American route across the North Pacific, starting from San Francisco, through the Sandwicli Islands to Japan, also commended itself to Mr Bright as being a highly useful scheme, provided nn extension "were made to Australia, and in this connection he pointed out that an alliance with America and Japan would give Britain almost, the security she desired for continuous cable communication in time of war. There is, . of course, a danger in the multiplication of cables from a business point of view, in that they cannot all " pay expenses," but the most prominent business men of Australia and England are convinced of the necessity of at least one new route to the colonies. The difficulty in settling the question arises from the fact that Canada must be taken into consideration.

Ladies sit hatless in a Chicago Presbyterian Church. "I am tired,"- the minister is reported to have said, "of preaching to a single row of faces before a -forest of millinery." His .appeal has been gradually responded to, and, now, during each .service, the hats are placed where they can do no , i harm. .>,'.-'