TOPICAL READING.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8325, 5 January 1907, Page 4

TOPICAL READING.

A correspondent of the Otago Daily Times, discussing the performances of the Fijian fire-walkers, inclines to the belief that their immunity from burns when walking over the hot stones is due to the spheroidal state so well known in chemistry. The common method of illustrating the spheroidal condition is to heat a slightly concave metallic disc to a sufficiently high temperature, and then let a drop of water fall on it. A curious feature of the experiment is that the drop of water does not actually touch the hot metal, but remains suspended above the surface, and freely evaporates. The test of dipping the hand for an instant intq molten lead, when the vapour raised from the moisture of the skin prevents the hand being burned, is another illustration of the spheroidal state. Actual contact of the hand with the molten metal is prevented by the moisture of the skin. This, the writer believes, is the explanation of the Fijians' performance, and all the elaborate explanations of the scientists are, he considers, beside the mark.

I The Premier :of Queensland (Mr Kidston), after visiting the Christchurch workmen's homes, stated that so' far as he could judge the houses were very much better than could be provided for the same money anywhere else. He was satisfied that the cottages themselves, especially in view of their conveniences, were excellent value for the money. One result of the enterprise of the Government in this respect would probably be that rentals, which were privately controlled, would come down. No such system was in operation in Queensland, but, speaking as a responsible politician, he was prepared to say that the system would be brought under the notice of his own Legislature. In a letter received by Mr Ell, M.H.R., the Hon. J. Millar expressed his satisfaction that applications were still being made for the homes. "I have practically made up my mind,'' Mr Millar writes, "that it will be possible to go in for cheaper classes of houses in future, and with a little judicious pruning to build a comfortable five or six-:roomed house that can be let at from 7s 6d to 8s 6d a week, without sacrificing unduly the architectural attractions of the houses.

A notable figure in the public life of Edinburgh, and one who formed a link with an interesting period of British history, has passed away in the person of Mrs Priscilla Bright McLaren, widow of Mr Duncan McLaren, for many years member of Parliament for Edinburgh, and a sister of John Bright and, Jacob Bright. Mrs McLaren was born in 1815 at Rochdale, and as a girl she visited the prisoners in Newgate /with Mrs Elizabeth Fry, while her associations with the pioneers of the AntiCorn Law League gave her a keen and active interest in politics which she never lost until the end of her life. She was a good public speaker, and a strong advocate of what are known*as women's questions, especially that of women's suffrage. On this question she was one of the earliest speakers, and always took an active part in the organisation connected with the movement.

"Are we governed at all?" asked the Cologne Gazette in its now almost historic article on the "Crisis." The answer which the German press of all shades gives is that there is certainly j a Government, but that it is a "personal regime," . which is, being | translated, a. Government apparently ib/ the Emperor's nominees, but by the Emperor himself. T ;■:• influence of the Ernperor on b;>th domestic and foreign affairs has, of course, never been successfully disguised, but the danger of the present situation lies in the fact that the public and the press have begun to drop the fiction of government by Cabinet, and to make the Emperor responsible not only for the general tendency but for individual mistakes, and, not least, for the pernicious influence of the domintuit clique. It is a root-prin-ciple of the English Constitution that the Sovereign is outside party politics, and the fatal difficulty which faces Germany how is that this has ceased to be a generally recognised principle in that country-