CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 279, 17 April 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

NEW PLYMOUTH MAYORALTY. Mr. J. S. S. Medley has definitely decided to contest the Ney Plymouth Mayoralty. The fight will therefore be a triangular one. The present Mayor (Mr. G. W. Browne) is a certain starter, as well as Mr. J. E. Wilson, a member of 'the present Council. We hope the aspirants will come before ratepayers prior to the poll,'and discuss questions of municipal import. People don't like to buy a "pig in a poke," and in municipal affairs prefer to hear the views of the candidates before casting their votes.

'FURTHEST SOUTH." The graves of Captain Scott and his companions are further south than the resting places of any other men. The northernmost grave is that made for a member of the expedition of Sir George Nares, who took the ship Alert into the Arctic Sea nearly forty years ago. This grave is near Cape Beechy, on the brow of a hill covered with snow, and it commands a view of the crowded masses of ice which stretch away into the Northern Ocean. A large stone covers the dead, and on a copper tablet at the head the words are engraved: "Wash me. and I shall be whiter than snow." Sir George Nares reported on his return that the passage to the Pole was impracticable. HOSPITAL MEDICAL STAFF. The humanitarian work which is being uprformed bv the medical staff of the New Plymouth Hospital is remarked upon by the chairman of the Hospital Board in his annual report. "The staff," he says, "under the direction of Dr. Walker, medical superintendent, has disulayed a devotion to duty which cannot be too highly commended, and indeed the district owes a deep debt of gratitude to these gentlemen for the very great services they have renderd to the institution. The salaries paid to the medical staff are really merely nominal, so that it cannot he for one moment thought that it is because of any pecuniary advantage that they devote so much of their valuable time to the institution Tt can therefore only be set down to their training, their knowledge of human suffering and their sympathy with the afflicted. During Dr. Leatham's absence in England Mr. F. Walden Hall will be in charge of the X-ray apparatus. Dr. Leatham intends to make a special study of X-ray and radium treatment, and the Board will have the benelit of bis experience and studies on his return." A MAN OF THE HOUR. General Savoff, the Bulgarian Com-mander-in-Chief, is said to have betrayed no emotion at any stage of the campaign against Turkey. He regarded, rejoicings of any kind as a mere waste of energy. Mr. Noel Buxton, M.P., who had the good fortune to cross the bordcrj into Thrace with the Bulgarian staff, tells of the soldiers who asked if they might cheer as their troop-train entered Turkish territory. "No, General Savoff .would not like it," was the answer. "It was a thrilling experience for one who had visited Kirk Klisse in bygone years to enter it now with the victorious army," writes Mr. Buxtou. 'Bulgarian reserve is fine, but on this occasion it seemed expressive. It marked the climax .of the Bulgarian character when Savoff, avoiding all demonstration, hurried through Kirk Klisse in a closed carriage. Every house had hung out a flag, and the people crowded to their doors, but the whole staff hastened, without apparent attention, up the steep "ohbled road, and, dismounting at the Turkish Officers' Club, betook themselves to examining Turkish maps. Thpi-f, ;., a massive quality about Savoff that defies description," adds Mr. Buxton. "He reminds me of nothing so much as that rare type of Englishman, born a squire, hut hy nature a leader of '"en, oroinied with great affairs, hut when at home joining the crowd of commonplace neople, shooting or hunting or "olfiniT without claiming special regard; the head massive, the figure not disnronortionnte. and vet a short man: 'fpn'.il. vet apart, with an air nf larjre '•onrießcr>nsion. potentials social but pre-n-Piinin-l: n man *o inenVp confidence." GptipV'il F'eliefT. the chief of stiff, is n mini of s'milar tvn«. "FichnfTa lmjrht "'•(s po'ipnnl p ros'-rvo ; "inn"ptv"blp pv»n for .a BuW." writes Mr. Biivfon. "but <TI O'l" Ol'l.ippf ],„ m ,<l,|, n)? f ,(-],,, „, ron „ < , 'if n ,i„ni)V K-n-Hn- n f frnn.lrim. t'lP fivp renhi.--s n f «MnV : t>«. Hi» d"="Hod larvi ... \"ni" th" would «mi.» to l,„ r pl,;i.i ;.-, „„„„„ nm] would lie m«rrv vifhout fmr."