CURRENT TOPICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2264, 26 October 1889, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

Although Solomon is allowed to hava been the wisest man who ever lived, there are people m the present day who privately indulge the belief that m some respects at least they are wiser than he. For example the silly parents who utterly reject bis dictum as to the evil effects npon childhood of sparing the rod. Now we go all the way with those who condemn indiscriminate flagellation, and we allow that too much flogging has as bad, if not worse, results than no flogging at all, but there are occasions m which moral suasion is ineffectual and phyaical punishment a necessity. These decisions are the exception— not the rule-*— but they exist, and it is folly to suppose that the parent and the schoolmaster can always escape the necessity of employing the argumentum bamlini. But there are foolish people who shut their eyes to this fact, and of such was the parent of the boy attending the Sydenham Borough School who the other day summoned the headmaster for assaults ing the lad with a stick. The evidence showed that the young delinquent was one of four of the schoolboys who had robbed an old woman, and taken articles from her basket, and that the master had flogged them as an example to tho school, " And very properly,'' most of our readers will say, and so say we, and bo also, we are glad to say ; said the Bench, who declared that the punishment had indeed been too light for i\& offence, and condemned the plaintiff^iff costs. That is quite as it should' 'li, and the Magistrate, the master, and the school may all be congratnlated on the result. . ;; j

We now and then hear a great deal about the Eight flours Bill— principally during the session of Parliament, --/hen that measure makes its annual appearance on the Order Paper, and at election times when it is dragged forward on the platform by the candidates for 1 the suffrages of the working tain. We believe that m this colony there are many workingmen who are anxious to see it made law, but if so it does not appear that there is any great anxiety about it among their fellows m the Old Country. For we read that " the result of the voting on the eight hours question reported to the Trades Union Congress, sitting at Dundee, was very unsatisfactory. To begin with, while the conference represents 885,000 unionists, the total number of trades unionists who could be induced to vote on the eight hours question was 102,512--that is to say, not quite 1 m 8. Of the lin g who voted, only 39,629 voted m favor of an eight hours' working day, whilst 62,883 were against it. Of the 89,628 who were m favor of eight- hours,' only 28,489 were m favor of 4 an Eight Honrs Bill Therefore the net resul. of interrogating the trade unionists m the United Kingdom is that 28,489 but of 885,000 are m favor of securing the eight honrs* working day by Act of Parliament This is a very remarkable, not to say extraordinary, result.

Surely some mutual agreement should be come to as between the several Australasian Colonies m the matter of Patent laws. That is a remark which naturally follows npon the announcement nude by the Government m the Vi_forr«_i_ Leffisbture the other day with referenced Pond s packages. Mr Pond (an Auckland man) is the patentee 0 f packages for the conveyance of butter, these packages being lined with a composition, the manufaotnre of which is protected by his patent, and yet it appears that the Victorian Government has instructed the Government analyst to find out the secret of the composition, and coolly proposes to utilise the knowledge, thus obtained m manufacturing similar packages for nse, by Victorian exporters,, A more flagrant case of piracy— a n_r, ro dishonest trick we never read of* X Victoria can steal m this wav &_, can any other colony, and if so, _&. p ond - B the bounds of New Ze^and. . Surely the same commercial Morality whioh applies to private mdiv^uals should; apply ta Governments, and with a view to make the statute law square with the principles of the Decalogue, the sooner there is a mutual agreement lor anihtercolonial Patent Law the better.

Writhto the other day oh the Subjeot of « harnessed lightning," that isto say the employment of electricity as.a motive power, we indicated onr belief t_utt ; it is destined one day to be almost -anivewallj utilised m this direotion.Hese.iire a few instances of recent. application), of this occult and Wonderful fluid. ,Thi» we read that " passenger elevatore hiring electric motors , are much m ,v& ia England, the Bank of England %iiuy the last to utilise their electric plant for such a purpose." Again, we find that "on the 14th instant an electrical tramway — the first m Australia— was opened at Box Hill, near Melbourne. The line runs from Box Hill to Doncaster, a distance of two and a-quarter miles. Midway, an engine house has been erected, containing a power dynamo which supplies an eleotrioal current to an overhead wire, with which a movable arm on the,tramcar so that the electricity is conveyed to a motor between the wheel axles of the car. The track is over undulating country, but m spite of steep gradients the special car put on ran smoothly at an average speed of seven miles an hour." Yet again, *» read that "a Chicago electrician has completed a device for catching fish by electricity. There is a small apparatus attached to the hook at the end of the fishline. From this apparatus one electric wire goes to the bottom ofthe water, while the other leads to the point of the hook, where the bait is attached. As soon as the fish, attracted by the bait, co_oe& close enough, he receives an electric; shock, whioh either kills him immediately or else stuns him, and brings hiu. to the sarface."

Pough or* PiLE&-*Why suffer PHpb ? Im aediace relief and. com^leta cure guarantead Askfor Rough oa Piloe. Bare cure for ttoWnc protruding, blooding, or any form of Piles. Holloway's Ointment. —The _r_at_st climatic variations which soldiers a^d sailors experience .render them liable to a Variety 5 diseases, the development of Vh ich j s KLd* by exposure and haxdshm"-_ofte n i? kTbe _?Sl_W- their „, ov^* caelessness as weU. meals To/ru "* ' * -"* afford a sa,e am ' «■* maladie * lor tne corist i tu.tiona.l and local by ri - S ' * v * 1 * e h a *" c so frequently engendered! \ J ..sidence m unhealthy climates and by •incautious living. The Ointment is a wonder ully healing application, as it cleanses the surface of foul sores and ulcers, soothes the throbbing and pain m cases of inflammation and checks the progress of skin diseases. The Pills purify the blood, cleanse the liver, and emovQ all n-wous ma te? from the $ysts&.u4|