THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8152, 31 May 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, MAY 31, 1906.

After a jolly journey round the world, making money and enjoying himself to the top of hid bent, Mr Watbin Mills has managed'to return safely home. Outside the fact that he is being rapidly booked for a series of payable engagements in his native* land, he appears to have been in the best of good humours .concerning his long visit to the colonies. One of the stories he

bag been telling bid friends at Home is of the great demand that existed in the colonies for tbe compositions of Liza Lehmann. Her "Daisy Chain" and her "Persian Garden," he states,fwere simply clamoured for in the most out-of-tbe-way places, and whilst it j.is a little unkind that he shoal i select New Zealand as typical of this seclusion, it is still satisfactory to learn, if only by suggestion, that we are such an appreciative nation. Speaking of New Zealand, Mr Mills is credited with the extraordinary statement that the "municipal concert's of the country, where the people oan enjoy the best muaio on payment of threapence for admission, have aone much in the way of cultivation." The natural inquiry among disappointed colonials will be "Where are they?" in Amreica, Mr Mills found that the populace, naughtily enough, had no appreciation for i the old Scotch songs. Tbe Americans are apparently so erudite that make head or'tail of the Scotch language In Chicago Mr Mills was called upon by a handful of Scotchmen to sing Haddon's rollicking song, "The Marriage of Shon Maclean," but -when the song was over the applause came entirely from the handful of people who bad inspired it. The other members of tbe audience looked blankly at the singer, and wondered to gracious what on earth he had been "talking about." "What does he mean by "every piper was fu?" asked a puzzler! Chicagoan of one of the Scotohmen in the interval. "Fu means 'full"' was the reply. "Well," snapped the praotioal and unpicturesque native fof the pork country, "and what's the matter with the whole word anyway?" Mr Mills, sorting over his various experiences, has a good word for the Canterbury Hall in CliriHtohuroh, I but he found tbe Sydney Town Hall about tbe best building to sing in. This particular hall commended itself mainly on account of its magnifloent accommodation, and Mr Mills records of it that it seats four thousand people, and that "at some of the municipal concerns every seat is ocouDied." As his own concerts in Sydney were held partly under the auspices of tbe municipality, it is only natural that he should have a warm corner in bis heart for the place.

Professor Sollasf in "The Age of The Earth," deals with various estimates derived from various lines of\ investigation. The earth may be regarded in the light of a clock, by examining which the skilful watchmaker can generally tell with fair accuracy when it was last wound up. We know that the speed of the earth's' rotation is steadily diminishing, and we can calculate backwards to find out when it must have consolidated in its present shape under the physical laws which affect ths form of rotating bodies cf liquid. The earth is losing heat, and, by calculating the rate at whioh this goes on, we can make a fairly close guess at the time when] it must have been so hot as to be liquid throughout. The siin is steadily uontracting, and the comparatively modern theory, whioh shows that this contraction keeps up the solar of heat, enables us to calculate just bow long the sun has been capable of earth. Sir George Darwin has shown us how to measure the time whioh has elapsed since the moon was torn away from the earth by the strain of too quick rotation. By suoh we can estimate the time which has elapsed since the earth solidified, and none of these estimates has anything in common with the vast indefinite ages of the geologists. Thus, Sir George Darwin estimates that about 56 million yeare have elapsed since ' the moon came into existence. Lord Kelvin estimates that 20 to 40 million years have elapsed since the , surface of the earth began to oon- 1 solidate. The recent discovery of the universality of radio aotivity has somewhat upset this calculation by introducing a possible new factor. But there is no doubt whatnver that the whole age of the earth, since its surface began to be subjected to the moulding influences of what we call geologioal agencies, cannot be more than 50 to 60 million years. Professor Sollas shows that all the best modern estimates of the earth's age can be brought into fair agreement. Probably the stratified rocks, which represent the work of natural agencies still in operation, have taken something like 26 million years to form, and it is within this period that we must place the development of life on the earth.