CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 282, 28 March 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

WHEN DOES DAY GIVE PLACE TONIGHT?

When may it reasonably said to be dark? The question was raised in the Magistrate's Court yesterday during the hearing of a by-law case in which Dr. f Wylie was charged with having driven | a motor-car at .night witiiout a light. The, borough inspector (Mr. B. Tippins) prosecuted. Mr. J. C. Nicholson appeared on behalf of the defendant, and entered a plea of not guilty. The facts of case, as set out by the inspector, were not disputed, hut in asking that the case be dismissed, Mr. Nicholson pointed out that when Dr. Wylie drove past Mr. Tippins it could not lie considered to be dark, as the street lights were not lit. The inspector rejoined that the by-law took no cognisance of the street illuminations, basing its idea of the'advent of darkness on the sunset. After sunset was night, in so far as the purposes of the by-laws were concerned. Regarding the case in point. the inspector mentioned that the street lights had been switched on about two minute* after the defendant had driven by. ' In reply to this, Mr. Nicholson urged that it was a commonly accepted criterion that if there were sufficient light not to necessitate the lighting of the street lamps, it was inconsistent for the Tiorough Council to prosecute private individuals for cycling ov driving without lights. The presiding justices (Messrs F. €. J. Bellringev and J. F. Eustace) upheld counsel 1 * contention and'dismissed the ease.

GOOD HEALTH AM) LONGEVITY. The general public bus been glV'.'.n so much expert and conflicting advice regarding the royal road to good health

and longevity, and has listened to so many '•Thou shalt nois" from eminent octogenarians, that the dictum of Sir George Birdwood, a man of heavy tonnage in the scientific world, a laureateof the French Academy, anil a professor of anatomy and physiology at the University of Bombay, will be received rejoicings by the Philistines who reject the simple "life. Sir George surprised an interviewer recently by refusing to give any advice on the subject at all, save the old adjuration, "Eat, drink and be merry, for to-morrow ye die." Ho went a little further and stated that he believed the best way of postponing the inevitable end was to take no dietetic thought for the morrow, which perhaps was his way of suggesting that a meticulous care' in the matter of diet and Lygiene frequently bespeaks a morbid physical introspection which is inimical to good health.

DEMOCRATIC TENDENCIES. Alluding to the democratic tendencies that he had noted in Australia, Lord Chelmsford, the retiring Governor of New South Wales, said lately that hedoubted whether there was any other country in which personal liberty was accepted as a principle to so unqualified a degree as in Australia. For instance., a crime had been committed: there was a great hue and cry for the criminal, and the public did not breathe until they realised that the culprit was safely in custody. But no sooner bad he been eaught' and committed than petitions began to pour in from every quarter to ask for a remission, or mitigation, of the sentence. Tt seemed that with many the passion for personal liberty outweighed pity for the victim, horror for the crime, and the necessity for guarding against its repetition. Passing to another phase, Lord Chelmsford said that democracy contended that every man was the equal of every other man as a. citizen, but it did not, and could not, contend that every man was the equal of every other man in brains, ability or experience. Further, there seemed a danger of opinions lieina: weighed, not bv quality, but by quantity.