A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 93, 14 January 1935, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

France’s New Deal The French Government has tabled a Bill providing for industrial codes resembling a modified American New Deal, attempting to adjust production and consumption. In a statement made upon assuming the office of Premier, M. Flandin spoke of the Cabinet’s “determination to fight with a single purpose against proverty and unemployment, to restore the nation’s economy and finances, and to revivify and strengthen the State.” Compared with 1933, industrial output was lower in France last year in practically every category except steel and automobiles. The railway deficit, despite tax relief granted a year ago, reached 4,000,000 francs at the end of last year. Foreign trade during the first three-quarters of 1934 fell 'l2 per cent, below the total for the same period of 1933. Unemployment has grown steadily; 339,822 individuals were registered as idle in the week end---ed October 2, 1934. This figure represents an increase of 46.6 per cent, over the total for the same week of 1933. Moreover, unemployment has been rising in recent weeks —normally a season of greater employment. This economic distress, accompanied by high taxation and high living costs, is bearing very heavily on the French shopkeeper, farmer, labourer and clerk. Angry and resentful over his troubles, the Frenchman looks with none too pleasing eyes upon a Government which, during the past year, has been shown to be incompetent, perhaps corrupt, lax, and inefficient. Religion in Mexico. Several people have been killed and injured in Mexico as the result, of clashes between clerical and anti-cleri-cal forces. Revolutionary Mexico's bitter feud with the Roman Catholic Church is no new thing. It entered a new stage in October last with the adoption by the Mexican Congress of compulsory socialistic education in all schools as part of the programme of the dominant National Revolutionary Party. It is now the law that education is to be provided by the Stale; it is to be socialistic and divorced from all religious doctrines; and religious groups are forbidden to interfere directly or indirectly with primary, secondary or normal school education. The most determined opposition to this law comes from Roman Catholic organisations and from student bodies. In October, in many Mexican cities, clashes occurred between students in association with several thousand Roman Catholics and the police with loss of life and injuries to many people. Students in some universities went on strike, and other universities were closed by the authorities. As a step toward solution, the Chamber of Deputies voted on October 19 to request the President to expel all Roman Catholic bishops and archbishops from Mexico. Meanwhile, drastic repressive measures were taken by national and State authorities against the Church, involving the closing of some churches and ordering the clergy to leave the country. On October 28 the President reviewed, in Mexico city, a crowd, estimated to number 200,000 people, carrying banners with inscriptions such as “Death to the Catholics”; “Socialist education means freedom from Catholic oppression”; “We seek the return of al! priests to the Vatican.” The Mexican Supreme Court has held that all privately owned buildings in which Roman Catholic ceremonies of any kind are . held automatically become the property of the nation. Norfolk Island. New Zealand is not allowing the import of bananas, from Norfolk Island. This island is about 930 miles from Sydney. 400 miles from New Zealand, and 980 miles from Fiji. It is five miles in length and three in width, having an area of 8528 acres. It was discovered by Captain Cook and was used as a convict settlement. The convicts built roads and stone houses; individual holdings of from 10 to 30 acres were allotted to them and animals were brought from Australia and distributed. The soil proving very fertile, agriculture prospered. Between 1804 and 1814 the inhabitants were transferred to Tasmania, and the island remained uninhabited until 1527, when it was again used as a convict settlement. In 1856 the Pitcairn Islanders, 194 in all, were transferred to Norfolk Island, One of the biggest factors in improving the island and the condition of the people was the establishment of the Melanesian Mission headquarters there in 1867. The mission remained till 1920, when it was transferred to the Solomon Islands. The Norfolk Islanders still bear traces of their Tahitian origin, their physique is good, education is under the control of the Australian Commonwealth, and the children are mentally alert. The island is so rich in harvests, both of land and sea, that very little effort is needed to obtain food. No intoxicants are permitted to enter the island except for medicinal purposes. The climate is probably the mildest in the world, the range of temperature varying about 30 degrees Fahrenheit —52 in winter and 82 in summer, with a mean of 68 degrees. The average annual rainfall is about 43 inches. The development of the island has been retarded by lack of regular shipping services. Comets. The Melbourne Observatory is reported to have discovered a new comet. Most comets have three parts, a head which looks something like a nebula, a nucleus or star-like point near the middle of the head, ajid a luminous tail. It is believed that the head of a comet is composed of small solid fragments, each carrying with it an envelope of gas in which light is produced, probably by electric discharges. The tail is believed to be formed of a great mass of very tiny particles, which have first of all been thrown out from the nucleus toward the sun and afterward repelled by both the nucleus and the sun. While the particles individually may be solid matter, the density of the tail as a whole, and indeed of the complete comet, is very very light, because the particles are so widely separated • from each other. It has been estimated that 6000 cubic yards of comet would weigh only as much as one cubic yard of air. One astronomer has estimated that 100.000 of the largest comets ever seen would not weigh so much as our earth. The head of a comet is sometimes 150.000 miles in diameter. Some are even many times larger than that. The tail of a comet is rarely less than 5.000,000 miles long. and sometimes exceeds 100,000,000 miles. More than 1000 comets have now been recorded, and about 400 of these were observed before the invention of the telescope. About one out of every five comets is visible to the naked ere.