General News.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3859, 12 May 1881, Page 3

General News.

Something has been said, in eonnpction with the Tararua disaster, of the effect of continual work upon the officers and seamen employed on these steamer*. A similar question has occupied attention hi Great Britain, consequent upon n>cenfc railway disasters. through faults of pointßmen, and Professor Gardner of Glasgow, publishes a letter in^a Glasgow contemporary, in which hf details the ewe which he had treated iv .the Eoyal Infirmary in 1872. This natient was a poitfteman at ButhergJen faction where from 250 to 300 trains were due every 24 hours, or about one train on HuaTerage e»»ry fi?*»inotes. Though the intervals at night were loug. in the daytime ihey were such that in the man s own words, "trains would pass for hours together as close as they could follow" -'x he. work Was diVided into a- day and, a night shift, the latter being thirteen hours, the former eleven. The pay was JSl'per wfek. There was no time for meals, which had to be taken while at work. The wonder would bp how any nan so situated could escape giddiness or some breakdown in the nervous system! The fact that men do so often is a wonder ful testimony to the princip^s on w bich the nervous system i« constructed. •• Bat, as it happened, this man came to suffer from a nervous complaint characterised by passing insensibility, of which [be patient was sometimes,rquite unconscious. The man said that when his duty was most anxious the disorder was at the worst. Dr .Gairdner thinks the public are to be congratulated on that man having c me under treatment. It seems highly probable that in this way an accident was averted. Pince then Dr Gairdner has taken pains to ascertain the rules of Frenoh. lines, and finds them much more CoHSKterat3 of the limitations of human htmktf, '"* On the Scotch line the hours bavfcjbeen reduced"ro_eight, but without •pecia" inteivßl* for" taking food. The patient got well after two or three months' hospital reft and treatment.—Star. X lio^ne; journal has the following: — Clumsy, BBiTow, bigoted, unreasonable as Englishmen often are, they still love their old/ traditions and do not mind being guidedr—kicking a little all the time?—into sensible paths end to generous ends. They would not follow Louis Napoleon into, all-bie scbemea as to the map of Evrope, they would not recognise the Sontkom'.States; they did not refuse the Tr#*F of Washington; they will not, as we hope, turn away, from, the last chence of dealing loyally with Irish questions. ▲ great future JB before us—at least an Englishman may think so. Ouv language is spoken more widely, we think, than any other language on earth. We have possessions in every part of the globe, end our flag floats on evevy shore. What will the future historian of our cbi'dren's time have to say P Fifty years hence will th.re be a great Fnglish Confrderate Empire, with its tiuly Imperial Legislature and the principle 6f self-government established in all its states P Who will be the Gladstones and Beaconsfields, the Tennysons end Brownings, the Trollopes and Blacks of the day? What wi'l be the issue, of our continue! progress *o a more denounced at democracy, and, more than all, what will be the outcome of the keen spirit of investigation b religi as loiters which jiow characterises our population ? The nation is aa vigorous as ever—may its future development be mark d by the lore of truth and of injustice, the abandonment of obsolete prejudices, the. sacrifice of absurd cls'ms, and the reparation of ancient wrongs ! The volumes before us reveal many dangers, and the possibility of many cr.lcmities^-for they record the introduction of new elements into our political system, while, outside our own boundaries, the laws of nations are trampled i!jder foot, and the earth is burtbened by the weight of colossal armies. The generation now arising into manhood may have many perils, internal and external, to cope with, which we have been spared. The future seems to be full of gloom; let us at least hope that Englishmen will not be so foolish as to bring on, by their owa acts, the ruin of tb,e comparative prosperity and stability with which they have for so long been blessed! " The Hon. Algernon Grey Tollemache, lends money on mortgage in New Zealand the interest being payable in London. He could not have been forced to pay but did it. He paid £1600 in cash, representing the property tax on £400,000. The Gbristehurch Press referring to this matter says:—" It may be thought perhaps that he is so wealthy that he does not oar*A pin. for even a large sum like that; bolt no one who knows him would remain tinder that error for a single moment; -Bich be i<s,* undoutedly, but there is not»- t»an Ufing mpre careful of money or less prone to throw it away. He paid his tax not because he liked naving it- fcr we feel sure he hates h mosfc mortally, but because he thinks he ought &Tsv it, in consideration of the protection afforded to his property by the laws and government of the Colony."

The Look on the Human Under-gtendine.-In view of the suspected " attitude " of the Fenians, it is proposed to remove all the locks from' the Thames, and the barrels from the church organs •nd breweries viitfcin the metropolitan arA'Norri»town yonth, who was tijinsj to « o «f fl r a bicycle, when asked his a R e, said heh,d «*n fi^en summers and about Xehandred and fifteen Tails. ttat " poen« «W heawriT things, «»d so,