Here and There.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XXXXV, Issue XXXXV, 9 December 1903, Page 4

Here and There.

THE SEA SERPENT. A specimen of what may be ths genuine sea serpent has been captured oiv the shore of the Santa Oaitali'na Channel, in American waters. This is the oar or ri't/ron fish (Regalicus). The specimen cawgiht was some 30ft in length and weighed between 4001b and 5001b. It is a long narrow tlsh with very striking and beautiful plumes, or dorsal fins, and specimens have been (*vn of the length of 40ft to 50ft. Sluould there (says the Morning Post) l>e ribbon fish in existence of the length of 60ft or 70ft, and should they ever l>e seen rushing along the surface with fins raised, it is easy to see how a sea serpent story might take shape. PHYSIQUE OF ARMIES. A writer in the Manchester Daily Dispatch points out that the recruiting returns afford no criterion as to the physique of the oration. The army is fed from the poorest aired most physically inefficient section of the community. On the other hand. Continental armies are recruited from the whole of the national manhoiod, and consequently represent a better class of men. It is only by comparing the whole of the British nation wit'll the whole of other nations that we can possibly arrive at the truth of the matter. Statistics prove that we are the finest in development of European peoples. Here are some national average standards : —Scotch, sft lOin ; Irish, sft 9in ; English, sft BJin ; Welsh, sft 71n. Average, about sft Bfin. Norwegians and Swedes, sft Bjn ; Germans, sft 64in; Dutch and Belgians, ~tfp Tin- ; French sft 6Jin ; Italians, sft 4in ; Spaniards and Portuguese, sft 3|in ; Swiss ami Austrians, oft 5Jm. In brain weight we-also 'head the list. The figwes are as follows :—Scotch, 50oz ; English, 490z ; Germans, 48. 3ok ; French, 47.90z ;■ and so on. And, moreover, no nation is increasing in height and weight so rapidly as the British nation. LABOUR IN NB*V SOUTH WALES.

The report of the Labour Commissioners presented to the New South Wales Parliament states that industrially the year has been a bod one, especially for unskilled labourers, a condition attributed by the commissioners largely to the drought, Another factpr in the depression of the labour market was the sudden return of some thousands of soldiers from South Africa. Wages generally during the year had been increased rather than decreased. Every conceivable artifice had been used to obtain free rations without work. Most heart-rendinig stories haid been told, many of which, on investigation, had been found to be wholly false or grossly ejaiglgerated. DeliU'rate fraud had also been encouraged. The great majority had, however, been cases of real hardship and poverty. A noticeable and disquieting feature had been the large number of young single and quite aV_Jle-bodied men who had endeavoured to live on Government chairty. Many of them attended the office nominally in hope of procuring) work but in reality persßrtently hanging luack until they had ascertained that all available work had been given out. Then they came forward loudly asking for it, and demanding food when told that there was no work. The ftuuiber registered last year was less than during any year since the foundation of the Government bureau.

MORE ABOUT RADIUM. With icspoct to the cable message announcing Professor Ramsay's dis>covery of transmutation of radium into helium, it appears that the discovery was anticipated by Sir Win, and Lady Huggins. A recent issue of the Loudon Daily Chronicle had the following .•—"The realisation of t'he alchemists' dream of the 'philosopher's stone,' will probably soon lie observed in radium. Sir William amid Lady Huglgins have sent to the Royal Society a paper which demonstrates that helium, the inpalpable gas, so light that the mere rotation of the earth had wjiisked nearly all of it off into space millions of years before man's l advent, is actually developed by the break! ing-dowii of the atoms of radium, which is probably the heaviest, as it is the scarcest, saifcistance in the universe. We talk of atoms 'breakiwgvdown' as if it were a commons place, but only twelve months ago this revolutionary tonception would have been meaningless nonsense. The iuesident of the Royal Society and m.s learned wife have photographed the spectrum of the light given off by radium, and find that it is almost coincident with the spectrum of helium. Radium shines, therefore, by the light of this rare gas which it evolves ; not by its own light. This is another link in the chain which will assuredly end in the production of gold and silver and the rest to order—a new problem for the moHO amd bi-metallists." A STARTLING PAPER. A hot paper, under the title ''Morality in Welling'ton,'' was read bv Rev. W. C. Olliver at Wesley Churck (Wellington), last week, before a meeting of the Ministers' Aseociation. He scourges the city's vices, and deals in detail with prostitution, gambling, Salbibath desecration, and drinking, and states these evils are rampant. From personal dbservation he finals that vice stalks imaeh'anied through our streets by day and wight. He laments the lack of police supervision. The police and magistrates are our brother's keepers, and he cannot understand why the powers that be, esliecially as they are paid to keep a tight hand on conspicuous vices, should allow the scarlet woman to flaunt herself openly in the hig*ways iuud by-ways of the city. He attributes the prevaiHng evils to the materialistic surfeit of the age and lack of moral fibre generally. The only bright tone in the picture is ('but in which be sums up the commercial morality of the city as being of the best, and he quotes in illusUation the small number of hkinkrupteies recorded in recent i years. The paper evoked con.sideralble discussion, Ivut no resolution was passu*.—Truth.