CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 261, 27 March 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

DEATH OF LORD WOLSELEY. At the ripe age of eighty years, that sterling soldier, Field-Marshal Wolseley, lias been gathered to his fathers. A ] fighting man from his youth' (for he saw detive service' wlien life 'Was barely 20 years of age), he was famous long before many of 'the present generation were 'born. Many greybeards of to-day will feel that it is something like "ancient history" when they recall that Wolseley was wounded in the Burmese War of 1852-3, and again in the Crimean campaign of 1855;' that he fought through the Indian Mutiny, taking part in the siege a,nd capture of Lueknow; and that lie was engaged in the Chinese War of 1800. How many people can remember Wolseley's .famous- -Rod River expedition against the Canadian rebel. Louis Rial, his campaign against King Coffee Calealli of Ashanti/and his successful operations against the Zulus and Boers'? These expeditions were, all much talked of-in their day, and they added lustre to Wolseley's name. How lie crushed the Egyptian revolt under Arabi Pasha in 1882 is better known to most people; also the splendid organisation lie displayed in his Nile expedition to relieve General 'Gordon.' For his services in Egypt, Sir Garnet Wolseley was first created'a Baron and then a Viscount;, and in 1804 he was raised to the rank of Field-Marshal, being Com-mander-in-Chief in the Army a year later. His has been a useful and a brilliant career, without blot or blemish. He rlias died full of years and honors, but his name and deeds will live as long as the British l'ace endures.

OIT.-DIUVEX WARSHIPS. There in special interest for Taranaki in the cable news published to-day on the subject of oil fuel on warships. The Imperial Committee set'up under the presidency of Lord Fisher, has recommended that all British warships should tie oil-driven; and, as an earnest that this recommendation is likely to be acted upon, we are informed that the. Admiralty is spending £2,000.000 on oil fuel depots'. \ T ew Plymouth, being the centre of the petroleum industry in the Dominion, cannot fail to receive a tremendous impetus from tne proposed new departure, if the yield from the oil fields comes up to anticipations. In any event, even supposing that all- the Taranaki oil should be refined and no crude petroleum should he available for use as fuel, the effect of wiring oil on war ships will be to enhance the price of the oil and the valuable by-products. From the point of view of the naval authorities, oil fuel is expected to have a- great influence on future warfare, as its smokeless combustion will enable warships to approach closely a hostile fleet or position. without being observed.

A LAND POLICY. The Wellington Evening Post lists sub mitted a land policy to the Government, as follows:—''Let, the large estates in eachdistrict he inspected, and an expert report obtained as to those most suitable to provide the area required- resort being made to the largest estates first, hut to none whose unimproved value doe# not exceed £-20,000. These steps haying been taken, the owners of the required area should then be notified that ;lt the end of a reasonable period —say, twelve months, the maximum now allowed under the compulsory provisions of the hand for Settlement Act—the Crown would, by finzette notice, take the area for tho purpose of closer settlement at the land tax valuation, the, purchase money to be paid in debentures, redeemable in ten years, charged upon the land guaranteed by the State. Let the land then be offered to the applicants by public tender on the deferred payment principle—."i per cent, at once, and the balance spread over a period of ten years, with interest at. the same rate as that fixed in the State-guaranteed debentures, When all the purchases under this deferred payment system have paid the full amount of the purchase money due by them, then, if the total of these payments exceeds the amount of the debentures—that is, the price at which the laud was taken—let there be paid to the

owner the amount of such excess, together with infor ten years, at the rule fixed in the debentures, after deducting all moneys spent on the land by tiiH Crown oil surveys, roads, bridges, and other works necessary to enable it to be sub-divided and settled, and alsd one-quarter per cent, of the total proceeds to cover the cot-t to the Crown of collecting the moneys, due, and otherwise administering the' system."

DISEASE AND THE KiNEMATOfiRAPH. Three hundred members of the Medical Society of New York County had a ne« experience at the Academy of Medicine, when for two hours thev watched moving pictures, which have been taken during tiie last live year* by Dr. T. If. Weis- ; enburg. Professor Clinical Neurology at the Medico-Chinirgica!. College, Philadelphia. The pictures displayed nervous and mental diseases, and Di:. Weisenbnrg showed five reels of the 25,000 ft of film he has taken. The pictures showed in great detail nearly every known form of nervous disease, with their clinical symptoms,,with the different methods of examination! including the taking of reflexes and different types of gaits. Dr. Woisenbnrg said that he first conceived the idea of takintr moving pictures for class room work five.Jycara ago, in order to more easily explain symptoms. So far his work has been devoted almost exclusively to nervous diseases, hut he expects shortly to extend his work. His ambit ion now. lie says, :s to record the speech of the insane as well as their pictures, in order that a.n,absolutely'correct record may be made of the words and. intonations. Then he will extend the work of picture-taking to the operating room.

TllK TRIPLE ALLIANCE. The Triple Alliance, which ranges Germany, Austria and Italy against the Powers of the Triple Entente, came into existence on March 'l3, 1887. The narrie is rather misleading, since tliere has never been a complete alliance between the three Powers. Austria and Italy, in fact, hav? not -been able to compose their old quarrels and their diplomatic relations with one another have been strained on several occasions within recent years. They are held together only by their common understanding with Germany. ..The original pur- | po3e of the Austro-German and Italo--1 German agreements was purely defensive, the countries being bound to stand I together in opposing the aggression of : any outside Power, hut the present form jof the Alliance is not known. Probably [there is an understanding which would require the Austrian and Italian fleets to combine against France or Britain in the Mediterranean in the event of war,