A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Dominion, Volume 28, Issue 100, 22 January 1935, Page 7

A BACKGROUND TO THE NEWS

Rainfall Approximately 20 inches of rain fell in Samoa in 24 hours. The moisture in the atmosphere varies with the nearness of evaporating surfaces of water and with temperature. For every temperature there is a definite quantity of water vapour which can be held in the air. The moisture tends to condense round particles of dust as. they cool rapidly by radiation; the clouds thus formed consist of tiny particles or water-dust, which with further cooling coalesce to form drops of larger volume, and relatively less surface, when they fall as rain. The amount of cooling necessary to produce rain depends on the amount of moisture present in the air. The intensity of rainfall depends also on the amount of cooling and the initial temperature. In grains troy the water occupying a cubic foot at different temperatures (Fahrenheit) is: 20 degrees, 1.30 grains; 30, 1.97; 40, 2.56; 50, 4.09; 60, 5.76; 70, 7.99 ; 80, 10.95; 90, 14.81. Thus a fall of temperature of equal amount would produce heavier rain in summer than. in winter, humidity being equal. Further, rainfall is heavier in lower than in higher latitudes.' One inch of rain is equal to 101 tons of water on an acre of ground. It really means an acre of ground covered to the depth ' of one inch. Apia. Apia, where damage has been caused by the abnormally heavy rain, is situated on the island of Upolu, and is the capital of Western Samoa. It is also the home of most of the white population. The bay of Apia is shaped like a half-moon, having Milinuu Point for the western and Matautu Point for the eastern end of the crescent, the distance in a straight line between the points being about two miles. Inside the bay, through an opening in coral reefs, is a wedge-shap-ed space of water deep enough to harbour the largest vessels. In ordinary weather the bay gives as secure a harbourage as a roadstead can give, but in anything like hurricane weather the danger of all kinds to shipping is con siderable.

In the Magistrate’s Court at Dunedin, a man has been charged with committing arson. Arson is tbe unlawful and malicious setting fire to ouildings or to certain peculiarly inflammable kinds of other property. At one time in England, tbe crime of arson was confined to the “house and out-houses of another man,” and the punishment was death by burning. In order to be arson the burnin? must be done with malicious intent. Burning a house by any mere negligence, however gross it be, is no crime. Even the fact, that this gross negligence occurred in the course of the commission of an unlawful act will not suffice to render the consequent burning down an indictable arson. That is, it must be proved that tnere was an actual intention to do the particular kind of harm that in fact was done. Consequently, if a criminal, when engaged in committing some burglary, or other criminal act, negligently sets fire to a house, he usually will not be guilty of arson. He would, however, be so in those rarer cases where the original i-rime he was engaged in was itself an act of burning, such as he would know to be likely to result in producing, an arson. Finland.

j Finland is claiming from Britain approximately £1,000,000 for the use of Finnish ships in war time. Britain paid the Russian Government the money and Russia did not pay Finland. Finland is the most northerly of Russia’s neighbours. For more than a cen i tury she was a partly autonomous but discontented territory of the pre-war Russian Empire. When Fin’and was separated from Sweden and united to Russia in 1809, she was allowed tc retain autonomy in the management of her internal affairs. But as the century advanced the Russian Empire became more and more aggressive in the attitude toward Finnish independence and in attempts to bring about the j -Russification” of the country. The ! movement of Russian aggression w-ent so far as to abrogate in 1899 the legisi lative power of the Finnish Diet, and Finland by means of a ‘Rational strike” played an important part in the Russian revolutionary movement in 1905. Thereafter, the powers of the Diet were restored. The system of Parliamentary government with a single chamber set up in 1906 prepared the way for the creation of an independent Finnish Republic when the Russian Empire collapsed in 1917. Finland in 1914 was very discontented and it was impossible to compel the Finns to serve in the, Russian Army. Toward the end of the war, the Finns offered their country to a German Prince as King, but the collapse of the Central Powers prevented the consummation of the idea. Communism has been rife In the country, and politics are intluenced by proximity to, and fear of, Russia. Finland is a poor country greatly dependent on the prosperity of the timber trade. Great Britain has been her chief customer. The “Untouchables.” - The leader of the 75,000,000 “untouchables” in India says he must reject the Indian reforms, which “com pletely fail to safeguard our interests.” The keystone of Hinduism is the caste system. To give a divine sanction t<the institution of caste, it was taught that that of the Brahmins or priests proceeded in the beginning of things from the brain of the supreme Creator Brahma; that the Kshatryas, or warrior caste, proceeded from his shoulders; that the Vaisyas, or caste of traders, including writers or medi cine men, proceeded from his thighs; and that far beneath these three, the Sudas, or the serving caste, proceeded from the deity's feet. In the course of time, each of the four great castes has been into innumerable, sub-castes and septs, each with its own rigid rules, under Brahmin supervision as to permissible food and dress and marriage and employment. In Southern India and in the more remote parts of Central and North-Eastern India, are many extremely primitive people whom the Hindu Aryan conquerors never displaced or assimilated, and who still lie beyond the pale of Hinduism. Officially lumped together under one denomination as “the fifth caste,” they are in reality of no caste, and as such, from the Hindu point of view, are at the very bottom of the social ladder, “untouchable,” because contact with them defiles a Hindu who belongs to a recognised caste. Consequently the “untouchables” are subject to ail manner of humiliating disabilities.