HERE AND THERE.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 16319, 7 January 1921, Page 6

HERE AND THERE.

GUARDED MINISTERS. Seeing that democracy is based upofl the people’s trust, it is odd that democratic premiers always require to b© more carefully guarded by the police than tlieir Tory rivals. Mr Lloyd George never stirs abroad without a cloud of detectives, and when he goes lor a week-end to Sir Philip Sassoon’s, at Lympne or Trent, half a dozen plainclothes policemen are dispersed about the grounds, and hid© behind shrubs. Miss Dempster tells us that when Gladstone came out lo Cannes in tho eighties, he was preceded bv Sir Howard Vincent- (then chief of the 0.T.D.) and the Chief Commissioner of police : and that when she went to call at th© G.O.M.’s villa the carriage door was opened by a detective dressed as a butler, and that several Scotland A’ardors were, in the tea room. Lord Beacon *- field and Lord Salisbury were not so jealously protected : and yet they mad© no pretence of listening to tho voice of tho people as the voice of God. It is also a fact that more presidents of republics have been assassinated than monarchs. Have, the insurance companies a special rote for democratic statesmen?—“ Saturday Review.”

THE DUEL. Sir Claude Champion de Crespignv has challenged his cousin, Lord Kenyon, to a duel over a family quarrel. Possible 100 years ago in England, this method of righting wrongs has long been ridiculed. Johnson “ fairly owned that he could not explain th© rationality of duelling.” though he also defended ifc on another occasion. ATeeting “on equal terms” is cant and nonsense, when one considers the different • responsibilities in life belonging to this man and that. The papers of Southey include a neat exposure of this point, when he was expecting a challenge from Byron. His letter asked Byron to establish equality between them by attending to four conditions : —(1) B\ron must marry and have four children : “ please to be particular in having all of them girls.” (2) ll© was to have the provision for his family dependent on liis own life, insured under a bond of £4OOO. not to commit suicide, to l>o hanged, or to be killed in a duel. (3) He was to convert Southey from the Christian religion. Otherwise. (4) Southey could not tell three_ direct falsehoods about him in a public place. Literary duels are a shocking feature of life a century ago. Now a man is not lded by a duellist, when he saves his honour; he is bled by a solicitor.— “Saturday Review.” SPAIN’S PROG RESSTYENE-SS. Like other countries, Spain has of late had to consider the problem of her naturaL power resources, and has done so on a broad national basis. Spain possesses already some important hydroelectric power-plants; they are situated mainly in the northern regions, on the southern slopes of the Pyrenees and on the Ebro, and in the industrial centres of Madrid, Valencia and a few other districts. In tho Pyrenees and in the centre, south-east from Aladrid, electric power is transmitted over distances or more than -300 miles. By means of tXieiso power plants, some of which, were remarkable in th© days of their erection, enough had feeen achieved to demonstrate the great advantages and possibilities of electric power distribution, and the project which is at present under discussion Spain goes further ill a judicious nationalisation of the country’s power -resources in water and coal. Tho whole country is to be encircled and traversed by ;i system of electri© transmission lines, and the generation and supply of electricity are to be put under State control without undue restriction of private enterprise. It is a big scheme for a country, one and a half times as large as the United Kingdom, with le°s than half its population. 21,000.000 against 40,000.000. Tho Kingdom of Spain, apart from the relatively small Alediterranean islands, forms a big continental square, a considerable portion of which is of plateau character with a severe continental climate and a very sparse population. Both water pow©r and coal are concentrated in the north, and are found in mere isolated spots dotted all over the kingdom : tho scheme is thus far bolder than it would l>e for an inaustriallv highly developed insular country, such as England, th© midland counties of which are not la!* from the sea. and the natural resources of which are more evenly distributed.

THE BULLFIGHTERS’ UNION. Th© new Bullfighters* Union in Spain has fixed a scale of minimum salaries to bo. paid its members for each a.p----f-earanoe. Th© schedule calls for twri thousand pesetas for matadors and toreadors who fight two bulls during th© exhibition. Ala ta dors fighting wftfiont pica dure s are to he paid five hundred pesetas and are to receive one thousand pesetas when thev appear with picadores. •.* DUCHESS DIES IN LODGINGS. It. is significant of the days sve live in that the death of the DowagerDuchess of Saxe-C*oburg in a hoardinghouse in Zurich should first hare been announced as th© death of her niece, tho present Duchess, and that only obscure references are made to it in the Press, state# the “Manchester Guardian.” The daughter of t?ir Cznr Alexander, married to the Duke ©T Edinburgh, brother of King Edward, and mother of tho Queen of Rumania, her lif© has ended in middle-class circumstances in Switzerland. After the revolution in Germany she sold her lewels, like most German royalties, hut she sold them badly in Frankfort, and latterly lived ©u her widow’s allowance from the British Government of £6OOO a year, much ©f which wcut to pay debts, and to relieve her relatives, several 6f whom aro living in Switzerland. THE NEW WTNG Hie new aeroplane wing which ha# recently undergone s’lcressful trials i«. like many inventions, remarkable chiefly on account of its simplicity. 11 has. of course. long »>e©n reeoqnised that theoretically the ideal aeroplane for climbing and slow landing won •; b© fitted with on infinite number oi" wings. The impracticability of such .* design , however, is obvious. Th© notion now adopted, of 10s king a. series of wings cut of one wing—which in effec t is what the new design does-—overcomes these disadvantage*, and sboald mark definite, advance in "aviation. Despite the progress mad© under pressure cf war. that science ri still in its intanco . and it has a long way to go before it can become of any commercial use ether than in emergencies. During the wardesigners concentrated upon speed. They have now to turn their attention to safety.—“ Saturday Review.”