CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 209, 23 January 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

EXPENSIVE STEERING. It is stated on reliable authority that it recently cost the owners of a ship nearly one pound an hour to steer a vessel from "New Plymouth to Wellington. Four seamen were engaged, and demanded and obtained £5 each for the trip, which took about twenty hours. And one of the seamen, it is said, would 'have had to go to Wellington in any c.-tse, as he was delegate to a labor coiiffienee sitting there! Such is the power of labor!

A GOOD EXAMPLE. A New Plymouth gentleman has offered to go through the southern part of the Dominion, at his own expense, distributing the literature issued by the Expansion and Tourist League, and generally helping to focus the attention of southerners; on the attractions of Taranaki. He appreciates the good results that have attended the work of the League so far, and thinks it is "up to." him to assist. He starts on Saturday. We hope his public-spirited action will be infectious.

HOW LIEUTENANT BROOKE DIED. Wells, in his "History of Taranaki," publishes an extract from the report of Major Nelson regarding the death of Lieutenant Brooke, at Puketal viiuere fncai \\ aitara). in which engagement the British Imperial troops lost heavily. The passage states: '•Lieutenant Brooke, of the 40th Regiment, was barbarously killed in a swamp, after surrendering his sword to the enemy." The correctness or this has frequently been disputed. Now a correspondent to the Lvttelton I lines comes forward with ail 'account that throws a new light upon the killin" of the lieutenant. I n it, he shows that tke lieutenant fought a great duel with the chief Haupronii (who also commanded the natives at Te Arai) m the raupo swamp. It was a fight to a finish of sword versus taiaha, and the taiaha won. Ilapurona narrated the whole of the circumstances to the writer, whose interi«sue" a ° Co " nt ilPlJ ° ai ' S elsewher e in this

BOROUGH WATER RESOURCES. There are few men in the town who have rendered more valuable municipal service than llr. W. A. Colli*, ami few who know as much as he about tlie history of hj municipal undertakings. Chatting with a News man ves.terflay over the hub'iub that has taken place in connection with the threatened shortage of vater at tlie reservoir, he pointed out that the old Council at the time of the construction of the tunnel feeding the reservoir and the electric turbines anticipated the present demand for tlie water and electric power and prepared for it by purchasing a piece of land on the other side of the river for the building of a weir. The weir will now have to be built, and in Mr. Coll is' opinion, that part of the tunnel thai, dips under the Mangamohoe creek will have to be enlarged to the full carrying capacity of the tunnel. This done, ample supplies for water and power should be assured.

A XEW COAL FTELD. Eight coal Ms, distributed over one hundred thousand hectares (a hectare equals 2.47 acres) have been discovered cm llie *hore of Lake Tanganyika, in Equatorial Africa, so rnns a cable message. Tanganyika (said to signify a ■'niixins-place"') is a vast lake in EastCentral Africa, the largest fresh-water hike in the world, measuring- just about tOO mile-., with a general breadth varying from ,10 to 45 miles, and an area of about 12.700 square miles. Although drinkable, the water of" the lake seems at; times at least to be very slijfhtlv brackish, and it was supposed by some that no outlet existed, until, in 1874, Lieutenant Cameron showed that the surplus water was discharged towards the T'pper Congo by the Lukuga river. The lake is fed bv a number of rivers and small streams which descend from the surrounding highlands. Though rumors of the evistence of the lake had previously reached the cast coast, Tanganyika was not visited by any European until, in 1858. the famous expedition of Burton and Speke readied the Arab settlement of Ujiji, and partially explored the northern portion. Ujiji became famous some years later as the spot where Dr. Livingstone was found by Stanley in IS7I, after being lost to sight for some time in the centre of the continent. The southern half of the lake was first circumnavigated by Lieutenant V. L. Cameron in 1874, and the I

whole lake by Stanley in 1870. In the partition of Africa among the European Powers the shores of Tanganyika have E'een shared by Belgium, Great Britain and Germany, Great Britain holding the southern extremity, Germany the east and Belgium the west. '•'THE LIMIT.''

The story is told at the expense of a Taranaki resident -whose boast it is that he and his wife can easily live on five shillings a week, and have done so foi years. A neighbor lost some sheep, which found their way into Brown's paddock (Brown is not the name, but it will serve). The neighbor, on discovering where the sheep had gone, looked up Brown. Sorry," said Die latter, "but they are impounded here. You will have to get an order from the poundkeeper for their release. Just wait a while till I give you a note to the poundkeeper explaining the matter." The neighbor duly carried the missive to the poundkeeper, who read it and then handed it back. "This," he said, 'is a request from Brown to ompouud your stock that are grazing on his property. I will be hanged before I willl" The farmer went back, with the glint of battle in his eyes, to think that he had carried a note to the poundkeeper to impound his own property. lie saw Brown, who was given a warm quarter of an hour and was glad to release the sheep without compensation.

ASSASSINATION IN BENGAL.

Recently cabled that two unknown men had assassinated G. Ghose, the wellknown political suspect, in Eastern Bengal. The police recently arrested thirteen persons on charges of preparing a political dacoity, and it is believed that Ghose's companions thought that lie gave the information to the police. The Ghose family have long been prominent ill the unrest in India. Mr. Arabindo Ghose" is one of the most remarkable figures that the movement has produced. Ihe limes said of him a few years ago: "Educated in England, and so thoroughly that when he returned to India he found it difficult to express luniself in Bengali, he is not only a nigh-class. Hindu, but he is one of those Hindu mystics who believe that bv the practice of the most extreme forms' of longa ascetisism man can transform himself into a super-man, and he has constituted himself the high priest of a religious revival which lias taken a profound. hold on. the imagination of the emotional youth of Bengal. His ethical gospel is not devoid of jranduer For hiin British i;nle and the Western Civilisation for which it stands threaten the very life of Hinduism, and therefore British rule and all that it stands for must go, and in order that they may go every Hindu must be up and doing That Mr. Arabindo Ghose himself holds violence and murder to be justifiable forms of activity for achieving that- purpose cannot be properly alleged, for though he has several times been placed on his trial and in one instance for actual complicity in political crime—namely, in the Maniktolla bomb case—the law has so far acquitted him. But that his followers have based upon his teaching a propaganda by deed of the most desperate character is beyond dispute. It has been openly expounded with fanatical fervour and pitiless logic in a news paper edited by his brother, Barindra Ghose, of which the file constitutes one of the most valuable and curious of human documents."

LAND SETTLEMENT. What land has the Massey Government taken for closer settlement since they succeeded to the Treasury benches? asks the Wellington Times. .We do not know of a single acre, and neither do they, unless it was the 300-aere fann in the Oamaru district that was reported to have been purchased by the Government a few weeks ago. Why did the Hon. W. F. Massey not frankly confess that this was so at his banquet at the Thames on Fridav? Why did he attempt to create thp impression,'' though he did not say so in actual words, that it was his Government that had acquired the .€400.000 worth of land for closer settlement? As he has flattered us by replying to our criticism, we would like an answer to this question. So also when he quoted the figures of a return from the Under-Secretary for Crown Lands statins; that within the present quarter: ending March 31. the Government proposed to open up for settlement within the Dominion 285 sections, containing 55,139 acres. In addition to that, there were to be opened up, in the same period. 35 pastoral runs, aggregating 233.34(5 acres. Does Mr. Massev seriously claim any credit for this small measure of land settlement? Is he not perfectly well aware that the staff of the Crown Lands Depa.rtnH.nt was busrlv engaged in the, work of preparing these particular lands for selection manv months before he came into power? . Tf lie. is aware of this fact, and lie surelv must be. why did he not franklv state the fact in common justice to his Liberal predecessors? The people of New Zealand know that Sir Joseph Ward and the Hon. Thomas Mackenzie were both busily employed cutting up land for selection when they went out of office. What they want to know now, seeing that there are scores of applicants for every section that is offered, is what Mr. Massey and his colleagues have done since they, came into power to acquire large estates for closer settlement? Have they opened negotiations for even one ?

WHITE SLAVERY. A London cable that a man named Patrick Conner has been sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment at the Old Bailey and to receive thirty strokes of the "cat" for forcing his wife to lead an immoral life. Also that Frederick Austin, a musician, charged also under the White Slavery was sentenced to twelve, months' "imprisonment and to receive twentv-four strokes of the "cat." During the past two days (says the London Daily Mail of December 12) feverish preparations to leave the country have been made bv the men yho had trapped innocent girls in our cities. This activity, our contemporary was informed bv a. high police official, began directly'the votes of the House of Lords became known eonfirming the clause in the White Slave Bill, -which empowers a magistrate to order a flogging 011 a first- conviction for certain offences, and inserting an amendment making the Bill become operative not, in January, as was ; ,t first proposed! but (linvfly it rccoivod the Royal Assent. "We know from our own observations and from information we, have received from some of the white slave victims." said the police authority already quoted, "that a great number of foreigners and bullies are making preparations for an immediate flight. These rascals, who do not ordinarily take anv interest in the proceedings' of Parliament, are anxiously watching f or the decision of the House of Commons on the Lords' amendment. If the House of Commons adopts the amendments there will he a welcome and immediate increase in the cross-Channel departures these: clearances having been effected everything will depend on whether the magistrates exercise their powers to order a flogging in addition to imprisonment. If they do not we shall soon nave the foreigners back again, and the number of Englishmen who follow the calling will soon assume its old proportions." 1