TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8258, 11 October 1906, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

The spread of cancer in all civilised countries is a matter for grave concern Dr Thresh, medical officer to the Essex County Counnil, in bis latest report, summarises all the reports of the district medical officers in the area ever which he has oontrol. He states that year by year the death-rate from canuvr grows, and that wherras in 1900 the number of cases in Essex was 527, there weie, according to the latest report, 721 noted. For the ton years ended 1880 the death-rate from this eoourge was .51, for the decade ended 1900 it rose to .66, and in 1905 it had advanced to' .76. Dr Thresh says: "In a few years oanoer will be the oause of more deaths than any ether disease. At the present time it causes about the same number of deaths as all the following diseases put together: Small-pox, scarlet fever, diphtheria, typhoid, lever, measles, and whooping oough." He adds that cancer may be due to the increasing use of some article of food or of some particular class of food-stuffs.

Commenting on a lecture by Professor Maatermuu, to the University Extension students at Cambridge upon "The King," the Morning Advertiser noints out that "by the Civil List Aot of 1837 Qaeeu Victoria surrendered the hereditary revenues of the Crown—including the income from the Crown lands—to the nation in return for a Civil list of £365,000 per annum. At that time the Crown lands returned a comparatively small revenue. And as many expenses were taken off the Civil list (it had been £510,000 a "year under William IV.) it waa thought that the Queen had made a very good bargain. as time w»nt on, however, the Crown lands developed and grew in value In fact, for the years the country made a laige annual profit so far as Queen Victoria was concerned. . .' . So well was this recognised that when his present Majesty came to the thrune he agaiu surrendered the Crown lands, which were recognised as his proprety, to the nation. In return he was voted a Civil List of 470,000, which was at that time the exact sum that the Crown' lands were returning. Aa a matter of fact, the Budget figures for last year show that the hereditary revenue returned the sum nf 29,465 more than is paid to His Majesty. . . . Taking all the grants made to the other members of the Royal Family, and deducting the profit made on the King, the net cost to the nation last year was about £76,000. . . . Who, then, can doubt that we possess the oheapest monarshy in the world—and the best?"

It is announed in the Gazatte that the Secretary of State for the Colonies has considered the position and treatment of foreign Consuls in New Zealand. His decision is ihat foreign Consuls in England have no claims of prenedenoy, and were treated like any other foreigners resident in England. This principle equally extends to the colonies, and it is not desirable that any instruction should be given tending to recognise the principle of aucird iug preference to the foreign Consular body. Reference was made to the claims of the Consular body in Sydney in 1863, and;tbe Spanish Consul at Brisbane in 1856, for privileges, when it was, deoided that there were no privileges to whioh foreign Consuls wore [strictly and legally entitled. This decision, the Secretary of State says, should be carefully borne in mind, as it would pro ye in the highest degree inconvenient if in the British colonies Consuls of foreign Powers should he permitted to acquire a claim to the privileges or immunities of diplomatic agents, or tn assume in any other respect a footing different from that which they hold in the United Kingdom, Beoent experiences have shown that this possible danger is a real one, and should be strictly guarded against.

The dependence of Europe on England for the supply of sportsmen is quaintly illustrated by the account of the opening of the first Russian links under the guidance of an English professional, says the Daily Graphic. A more amusing Irstnueo is to be found in the list of French golfing terms recently supplied from Fiance to a sister Society. Every single club except the iron, which is "le fer," is called after its English name. It is philologically interesting to notice

that some of the French. terms, now for the first, time used in their new reference, are the original source of the English terms. There is, for example, no reasonable doubt that the Soots, whose earl? connection with Frenohmen was close, converted "cadet" into caddie, and tee is what the philologists call a sharpened form of "de." The list, unfortunately, supplies no solution of the rather obscure "stymie," and "dowmy;" but "poter," though used by French golfers only of a successful stroke, has perhaps derivating affinity with "putt" The word golf itself would supply a trenoh witb an interesting chapter. Both as game and word it came from the north in the form of koly, was transliterated in Scotland into the word they call "gowf," and has now a half-dozen pronunciations in half a dozen European languages.