BRITANNULA.

Temuka Leader, Issue 703, 29 November 1881, Page 3

BRITANNULA.

Blackwood's Magazine for October contains the first instalment of a serial story which is likely to be of great n.terest to New Zealand readers. The scene is laid in an imaginary island in the South Pacific, a colonial offshoot from New Zealand, and started by a band of young men who protested against ihe pressure of New Zealand finance. The time is three generations ahead, when Sir Wil-

liam Gladstone, great grnncson of the present Premier is at the head of affairs, and the Secretory of State for the Colonies >'s the Duke of Hatfield, grandson of Lord Ssilie-hury. Britannula is a go-ahead island. .It first separates from th" Mother Country and then passes a surprising law which lends to the re-estab-lishment of the Imperial supremacy by force. The law is that of the " Fixed Period," which gives the ti le (o the story. It has became plain to a birge majority of the Legislature of Britannula that half the troubles of life arise from the undue longevity of mankind. If old people could only.be put out of the way when they have ceased to bi* wajje-earn-ing and have become a burden to others, the whole community, it is nr«ed, would benefit enormously. Thin is reasoned outin tbe story with considerable satire, and the progress r i the Bill which fixes the period of life at sixtv. seven and a-half is most amusingly described. It. is settled that on'reaching sixty-seven the doomed man should enter a college, where the happy despatch is accotnplished:without his,knowing it, and without pain. , But this pnicfic.il development of the theory of euthanasia, already advocifd Viy an advanced school, is not taken in the best part by the Great Powers of the civil-ed world. The United States protests, but Great Britain does more. It despatches a gunboat carrying a twenty-ton swivel gun, which threatens to lay Gladstotiopoiis in ruins. It is at this point that the story really begins.—Exchange.. .