TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume LX, Issue 11506, 12 February 1903, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Since the mosquito proves to The 'A'oo> carry malaria, and the boueeBusy Bee. fly helps to disseminate plague and other disease, it is natural that some charge of germs conveyance should next be laid against the bee. It is only in orchard diseases, however, that its visits are dangerous. Mr Waite, of the Washington Department df Agriculture, after patient investigation, announces that bees we chief offenders in the distribution of such orchard poets &a tho poach and plum rot fungus, rampant last summer in the States. "In June and July hundreds and thousands of bees may be seen swarming over the early-ripening peaches and Japanese plums, and in going ovor rottwi fruit they cany the spores into the wounds made by wasps and eoldier-bugs, or into weather cracks." Thus, with the assistance of the foregoing wasp or eoldier-bug, the too busy bee'becomes an active agent in spreading the niooolia. Even worse is its conduct with respect to blight and blossoms. When the pear blight germ once **k«e hold in spring the tree Sβ blighted throughout the year; and Mr Waite has proof that lte destructive presence is too often due to that normal biological process), the visiting of orchard blossom by the bee. Here again this insect is not the only criminal. "I started out," Mr Waite admits, '"to get a list of insects which visit pear blossoms, but when I reached the number of forty I gave it up. Nearly all the flying inseote—the bee being most active of ali, bub even beetles and wasps, and occasionally a humming bird t&e—latter, of course, not an insect—visited tho _pear blossoms, and carried the disease along." But the pear blight germ, it appears, grows and multiplies especially in the nectar of the flower, and' bees, after visiting infected blossoms, are most sure to distribute the trouble on their honey-eedting excursions from tree to tree. Mr Waite having identified the Tiros as a sticky substance not to be carried uy tflc winds, but readily caught up by anything touching it, jproceeded next to convict the intermediate agent, by capturing insects in the act of visiting infected flowers, auu, as he cay», "succeeded beautifully in isolating pear blight germs from the mouth parts of vie bees." The unfortunate point in the affair is that otherwise the bee is a distinctly useful element in orchards. "The blossoms are for the bees to pollinate, are developed' by inseote, and the insects have been developed in correlation to them. The bees are here performing their proper functions." -Californian growers who have had terrific outbreaks of pear blight are indeed planning to dispense outright with the honey bee, and their Bartletfc pear is said to set all the fruit that i» necessary without insect fertilisation. Air Waite hardly chooses to recommend such ■ sweeping measures, but at he remarks—"When there is no pear blight about, it is easily judged in favour of the bee; but when there is an outbreak of blight, it if a difficult question to decide." The tidal wave which Iβ The Friendly reported to have swept Islands. over the Friendly and Society Islands, and in ' which from five to ten thousand persons are estimated to hare perished, must have obliterated, temporarily at least, the loveliness of some of the most enchanting spots in the world. The news is conflicting with regard to the Friendly Islands, which a telegram from Auckland states were quite untouched when the Manapouri left the group on January 20th, some time after the reported date when the tidal wave occurred. One can only hope that these beautiful islands have escaped the deluge, but from the cablegram* received from San Francisco, one of which states, wita j a certain amount of detail, that the disaster in their case is feared to be worse than in that of the Society group, it seems only natural to suppose, that the date, and not the area of destruction, was incorrectly cabled in the first instance. The Friendly, or Tonga Islands, are situated eastward, and slightly southward, of Fiji. The kingdom, which is under British protection, consists of three main groups, and with a total area of 374 square miles, has a population of slightly over 20,000. of whom only about 150 are British. One of tho principal islands, which is rather low. is remarkable by reason of a large salt water lake in ite centre, about a mile and a half broad, and having no visible connection with the sea. There is another lake, of the same peculiar formation, existing on Tofoa. an active volcanio member oi the group, end from it the natives bring small black pebbles, which they greatly prize, to cover the graves of their friends. The majority of the islands are entirely covered with trees of every description, including the graceful cocoanut palms and flowering shrubs, and each has the appearance of a beautiful garden set in the midst of the sea. The inhabitants of the Tonga group have a, reputation for moral | stamina, energy, and self-reliance, excelling, perhaps, in these qualities, any j other race still existing in the (Pacific, They have had a civilisation of their own from time immemorial, and if they had been acquainted early with metals, would doubtless have subdued the whole of Polynesia. As it is they have been not unfitly j called the Anglo-Saxons of the Pacific. The imports of the group include drapery, breadstuff*, meats; and the exports, copra, green fruit, and fungus. Of the former almost one-half come from New Zealand, and of the export* nearly one-fifth are senb to this colony. The Society Islands—in the The Society caee of which there is no Group. hint of doubt as to the terrible damage done—are a French possession, and lie a long way west of the Friendly Group, from which they are separated also by the Cook Islands. Their total area is about 1520 square miles, and their population about 29,000. Of the loveliness of the principal island, Tahiti, few have been able to write without enthusiasm, and an old French traveller simply and impressively said of it: "Often I thought I was walking in the Garden of Eden." It consists of two noble promontories crowned by mountains rising nine thousand feet above the ocean, and connected by a narrow isthmus. "The valleys of coolness, the slopes of the heat," wind down from the central ridges to the blue sea, covered with thick bush, and with deep streams pouring down,

the gullies. A zone df rich, low-lybg ] H a fertile in vegetation extends round most O f; IK the island, and forms the home of moot of IMP the inhabitants. "Tahiti," sap HenW"lβ Merivale, "is by fur the most famoos wkad mi in the SouUi S*as; indeed, a M? causes has made it almost cU*«o. , ,' ; - jfS Seen from the sea, the prospect is mana* ficent It is one mass of thadod tint* of green, from beach to mountain top; «aX* l ksfily diversified with Talleys, ridges, and cascade* Over the ridges, hen there, the loftier peaks fling their ehtdow.' v ;Sk and far down the valleys. At the head eftht* >Wm ' the waterfjlle flaeL out into the sunlight ' if pouring through vertical bowunj of tw ~'sW dure. Such enchantment, too, breathes ortr *Wm the whole, tihat it scorns a fairy world, all M*W freah and blooming from the hands of tbt Itw* Creator." The inhabitants, whtn first es>-'--J covertd, were of rare physical beauty. «j e tyM truth, everything about them was ated to awaken the liveliest interest, GUm. Jβ at tiheir civil and religious institutions. Tfo '*\ their King, divine honours were paid, whfii i for poetry, their mythology rivalled that of* F-j ancient. Gi«ecc" To such & people oootaet *-' l> with European ci\"ilkation, when it r • came, brought anything but improvement, ! "w , and in the fascinating volumo entitled 11 Sea Bubbles," written some years ago, ft j. • ■ stated that their cliief occupation at ,- time was gambling. The chief town of tbt L ' islund i 3 Papeete, with 4282 inhabitaate t of whom 2490 are French. Tho principal \ industries of the group are the preparaifoa l £ of copra, sugar, and rum. Th« chief fea. *{' ports are foodstuffe aaid cottons, and the 1 cWef exports copra, mot her-of-pearl, aa£ J | vanilla. i> |