Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE. SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1895.

Te Aroha News, Volume XII, Issue 1792, 7 December 1895, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News AND UPPER THAMES ADVOCATE.

SATURDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1895.

* This above all—te tbtna own self be tract And is mast follow as the night tho day Thou canst 00b than ba false bo any man.' SHAsasrEAlia.

We desire to vary our information concerning foreign parts by giving .some occasional intelligence as. to what is going on in other worlds. Do not good reader. we have not been in Communication with Mr Stead's ‘ Julia ',. or any other spook, blit the information we desire to make ‘public will be derived from scientific observation. Up to late years the question of the ' inhabitants of other 'worlds has boon purely speculative, but now there 866 ms a chance of something like certainty owing to the wonderful discoveries on one of the .nearer planets, namely, Mars. Those who have not read about the matter/ will hardly believe that the dwellers on oho outside world have been so* active as to make their gigantic efforts visible by the aid of the telescope. The idea was / proposed some ; years back of signalling to the inhabitants of Mars to let them know we were here, and the thing is not impossible; by making “large illuminated figures such as triangles, circles, etc , on tho surface of the earth, the people of Mars might notice thorn and take them for signs of intelligent creatures, and if they caught the idea that- we were signal-, ling, they/would only have to respond by similar signs, and both worlds would know- that the other was ini-. habitated. The difficulty is solely the expense, the signs would have to ewer such a large surface to become visible that a million of money would hardly suffice for one signalling; but what is here regarded as a joke appears to have been effected by tbe inhabitants of our sister world, though without any : thought of us, but solely from necessity. Mars can be seen from N.Z during part /of the year,, and may be readily detectod by its reddish appearance. When lo >ked at thr mgh the telescope it is of a reddish ochre colour, with markings like continents,' 88as, etc., but/he so called seas appear to havo a habit of drying up. Early in the summer a large white cap is seen at the pole, this has for many years been 1 1 ken for ice fof the simple reason that it disappears more or less as the summer advances, in some years it vanishes altogether, on which rare occasions the inhabitants can travel to the pole in an easy way that must make them the envy of our Arctic explorers, who so often try to reach our north pole without success, and are fortunate if they return alive. Next below this white cap in Mars, comes a region mostly bluish green, interspersed with patches of red. This blue-green sea is caused by the melting of the snow and ice which has previously piled itself up in successive layers by the drifting mists which constantly fall there and ire zo on the ice cap ; when the summer comes this melts, an l forms a sea of water all around the edge of it ■This is not merely imagination as it j has been tested by the polarisoope and j found to be really water./ Below this .

sea, at the period we are now describing, lies the vast red desert continent, the snow cap melts then at the rate of hundred square miles a day, and this has been' observed for the last two hundred years. Both continents and seas are very level and tho depressed portions (called seas only to distinguish them) are very, shallow, and share the main characteristic of the planet in having a tendency to dry up during part of the year, but when the annual molting at the polos takes place, the marking of the sea spaces gradually darkens through the influence of the melting waters which permeate h ir surface in a manner which cannot as vet be quite understood, at the same time the higher or continental regions remain red. The mountain of ice at •he pole tends to flow down and find its level, forming first the fringe of bluish green sea which again spreads in mysterious ways more or less over the continents and seas below in a way to be shortly described. And now we come to the surprising manifestations which seem to afford unmistakeable evidence of the existence of intelligent beings. Onthegr'eatcontinentanetwork of fine straight lines appear, these are known as the Canal of Mars, they start from the green regions, they are perfectly straight, of an even width throughout, and they run sometimes to immense lengths, one being 3500 miles long, now when our river runs down from the hjflg-ff'certainly doesn’t run>v^--g h( . line 9by any and it is inconceivable that any natural process in the world, would shoot lines straight as a gun would; for 2 or 3 thousand miles at certain seasons of the year, and these lineß vanish after'some months to return every year in the same way and in the same places, nearly all these lines are straight but some are curved,, and both the regular curves, and the accurate straightness, combined with an identical width all through for hundreds and thousands of miles, show unmistabeable design of a quite different kind to tho spontaneous productions of nature. There is another remarkable peculiarity of these canals that many or all of them are double, we have said that these canals appear once a year and again after a time they vanish, but they always show up after the, melting of the polar ice, this forms the polar sea, then the canals show fost in that rcigon and gradually extend across the continent till the season of the year comes round when their work-being done they dry up and disappear from sight till the next irrigation comes round. Now, although these long lines have been named canals and are clearly caused by the water from the melting snows, when tested to prove whether they were water or no they did' not respond to tho tost for water, they are from 15 to 30 miles wide and it wovld appear that they are lines of irrigated ground, which become gradually visible as they become clothed with verdure, and in time slowly disappear from view after the annual harvest is ovei, but the stream or streams of water which produce the growth is too fine to appear,' or to respond to any test. It is proved by observation that the surface of the planet is surprisingly flat, the so called seas and continents being only slight depressions or elevations and the canals turn in all directions, North and South, East and West and all ways, an 1 cross each other, or sometimes meet at 8 spot where several others meet; wherever they cross each other or where they meet there are cicular spots, called Oases’ by the observers, these appear to be large areas and there is no spot visible on the planet without various canals leading to it, the majority of these Oases vary from >5 to 150 miles in diameter find would be large irrigated distnots,' surrounded by arjd deserts arfft manifesting the same peculiarity as the canals in bocoming visible, and then after a time disappearing/ altogether, and thus we see the canals' running for thousands of miles in straight lines, passing through what/we may call stations, iu the shape of round idagaled expenses, and still passing on leaving a bright green country *in their tiack of from 15 to 30 miles wide generally, and 5 times that size at the occasional stations, till the special canal reaches its last Oasis and stops abruptly, having done its work. Ail this and a great deal more which we could mention, (if space permitted) inust be regarded as unmistakable evidence of intelligent spirits taking immense pains to obtain an annual supply of food. Here is another wonder yet in connection with these canals which are not only absolutely straight but often run double for a thousand mi.es or so, being exactly paraleil, which is obviously not a freak of nature, they may be 150 miles apart chosen the maintain that width and Ihe paraleil lines show through the landscope as though drawn by a rule on a plan. In fact the whole surface of the planet is a vast map of elaborately schemed lines, and j unctions, and arrangements, all tending, no doubt, at a certain season of the year to make, this red desert world turn radiant with life and beauty, and to provide supplies to carry its intelligent and industrious inhabitants through : the dried up seasons which intervenes, and which takes the piace of our winter, aUnough very, different in character. It may be thought that the Almighty has given the inhabitants of our sister planet a good deal oi work to do, but it must be remembered that the object ,of life isnotaltogetner pleasure, but the development ox body and spirit with a view to a higher life beyond. ■