The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1891. Scientific Robbers

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 131, 28 April 1891, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, APRIL 28, 1891. Scientific Robbers

♦ Some people in Europe have peculiar fads, and not the least singular is that of body snatching, or grave robbing, a? practised in the name of scientific research by certain selfstyled Learned Societies. Our attention in this connection has been particularly directed to recent dis coveries near Thebes, in Egypt, wher« there, has been found a vault filled with mummies and funeral coffers. The excavation from which already two hundred mummy cases have been taken, seems to have been a caohette, or hiding place, and so far it has been ascertained that the mummies are chiefly those of priests aud prietesses who lived about 1 100 8.C., also that they had been removed from their original place of burial, either at a time when the tombs were being searched for treasure, or perhaps during the reign of Shashank, the son of Nimrod, who overthrew the priestly rule. On this side of the globe it seems hard to imagine why these ashes of men and women " who lived aud moved and had their being" so many years ago, should not be allowed to remain undesturbed in the resting places chosen for them. It cannot be cupidity because it is known, or the knowledge is admitted by implication, that few articles of value were placed in these tombs because of the robberies which had before taken place, where temptation was thus offered to thieves, warned the survivors against it, and thereforn at this late day it is hopeless to ex pect to find any jewellery of value, even to meet the cost of making th« excavations to get at the tombs. It may be curiosity, but in our opinion if that is the cause, it is almost un pardonable. Suppose, for the sake ot argument, we bring this body-snatch ing down to our own time. What would the people of England say of a lot of "scientific people" were to steal the honored remains of the warriors, statesmen, and poets which lie in Westminister Abbey? Or to put it. in another way, how would they receive "an offer" to purchase them from an American " syndicate" 'i vV^hy, there would be a succession oi howis of indignation from one end of England to the other, and the people who supported the thieves, or vendors, would be torn to pieces if they could be laid hold of. Yet the very people who so much respect their own dead, are the greatest criminals when the graves of strangers may be outraged. Although the Ministry are cutting down expenditure by discharging old and tried servants of the State, and taking no end of credit for the same, yet they are not forgetting to reward their supporters. Without increasing the number of names on the list of Civil Servants properly so called, they are making appointments in departments where they may, under the polite fiction of taking on '' experts," place their impecunious and not too particular friends. The one special de partment which is at present receiving known attention in that way is that appertaining to stock. After retrenching all the men who really do know something about their business, of course it would not do, at least without allowing a decent interval to elapse, to put other men in their places, so they are having billets invented for them. The only thing that really troubles Ministers is that as they know absolutely nothing about stock, they do not find it an easy task to give names to the appointments. Here we can assist them, and we do so all the more willingly because in helping the Ministry we help the needy, which is a good thing to do. The following are a few titles which should prove acceptable. For the better regulation of sheep farming, | but where no particular aptitude or knowledge is needed, and where little real I harm can be done by the appointees, ' Curators might be selected, for dagging, brand polishing, hurdle making, hoof- j paring, cutting and tailing, each official to have an assistant and a deputy assistant for the district he curated. For cattle, there might be appointed, Curators for counting the horns on poly bullocks ; photographing invisible brands, tail twisters for working bullocks, and so on. j The ways and means to pay these men ' ought to be well enough known to Ministers and therefore we will offer no advice. That the members of the Opposition might and no doubt would object, goes without Baying, but as they are in a miserable minority what does that matter? It is rumoured (says the Advocate) that Mr Ritchie, the gentleman who has been appointed to the position of Chief Inspector of Sheep, will be stationed on this coast, and will have another inspector here under him who has not heretofore been in the public service. This is a sample of economy of the economists, and shows conclusively that the object of retrenching old servants is merely to make room for friends. On the same subj ct the Napier Telegraph points out that the appointment of Mr Ritchie is not warranted by law, and no payment has been authorised by Parliament. The pastoral interests of Hawkes Bay run into millions of money and are of too much interest to the colony generally to be permitted to be injured by the miserable cheeseparing of a know-nothing Otago small farmer." (This is rough on the Hon. Mr McKenzie). This alarm is very natural because the first evil to sheep owners, which will follow the appointment of inspectors who are ignorant of their work, will be an outbreak of scab in the flocks of the Colony.