Notes and Comments.

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume III, Issue 143, 19 December 1901, Page 2

Notes and Comments.

The United States Government have recently adopted the doom anew explosive, rnaxiof the mite, and Mr Hudson ikonclad. Maxim contributes to the New England Magazine an article on maximite. Tbe writer is of opinion that the doom of the battleship has been sounded. Maximite is about fifty per cent more powerful than ordinary dynamite. It is considerably more powerful than pure nitro glycerine, and is only equalled in violence among commercial high explosives by nitro-gelatine and pure picric acid ; and yet maximite is so insensitive that it cannot be exploded by flame or by piercing it with a white hot iron. It is not only because maximite has a greater bursting power than any other explosive that it is likely to be so deadly to the battleship, but also because a new method has been discovered of securing its explosion in such a way that it can destroy the iron plate against which it is hurled. A shell charged with a j high explosive can do little damage unless it bursts at exactly the right moment; but according to Mr Maxim, the new detonator renders it possible to secure that the explosion shall occur when the shell has embedded itself in the iron plate. Hence in Mr Maxim's opinion the day of the ironclad is over, and.we shall have to set about the reconstruction of our fighting fleets. Mr M a xim believes that the real successor of the battleship, and the moat formidable warship of the future will be one of sufficient size to afford the necessary fuel capacity for a long voyage, and provided with engines and boilers of suoh dimensions as to give it a very high speed. It will not, however, even approach the battleship in siae or cost. It will be practically unarmoured with the exception of a turret or turrets: carrying quick firing guns and aerial torpedo throwers. These turrets will have armour only thick enough to resist quick firing guns. The main protection will consist in its ability to assume a semi - submerged position when going into action, so that nothing will appear above the surface of the water except the turrets and a superstructure for flotation purposes only, and which may be entirely shot away without vitally injuring the vessel. The function of this vessel will be the destruction of other vessels of its kind and of coaßt fortifications. It will carry a powerful armament of automobile torpedos, charged with maximite. It will be impossible to prevent the destruction of the war vessels, and as a consequence they will be made relatively inexpensive as compared with the present heavy battleships, and their mission will be to destroy as much as possible while themselves being destroyed. Sea-fight-ing of the future will be done in skirmishing order, the same, as troops now fight on land, and there will be much reconnoitring and long range duelling.

Mr H. G. Wells, in the October Fortnightly, discusses the the future of the whole world's of mankind. The lanlanguage. guages of the smaller nations will tend to disappear in the near future. " Italian may flourish a little while, but French is N beside it. Spanish and Russian are mighty tongues, but without a, reading public how can they prevail, and what prospect of a reading public has either. They are, I believe, already judged. By a.d. 2000 all these languages will be tendiLg more and more to be the secondary tongues of countries which have two languages, with French or English, or less probably German, ■ winning the upper hand." The most interesting part of the paper is that in which the writer states the reasons why he has come to the conolusionthat English will not be the the world in the future, and that itj chances are inferior to those of French. '-'The inducements to learn English rather than French or Genman and a fact of very great significance is that; the actual number of books published in English is less than that in Frenoh or German, and that the proportion of serious books is muoh less. In France the criticism passed on any book is worth the having and French translators are the moat alert and efficient in the world." Still, although he is gloomy concerning the future of the English language, he says there is a pbßsibility, of saving it. " If in the coming years a deliberate attempt were made to provide sound instruction in Engligb, and all who sought it, if honour and emolument were given to literary men, and if the present

sordid trade bt publisfoifijUg 80 lifted as to bring tho wtt ij ter . ature, the whole science, all e contemporaty thought of E or ia within the reach of even\ an » a need and desire, then \i> r ,ji prophesy that by the year %}je whole body of numan read and perhaps even My speak the English language. not only that, but it might fiA. N prevalent and every day lamL i\ / of Scandinavia and DenmarjrS ,-V X Holland, of all the Pacific Asia and of India, the univeU international language, and in a 14 way to be, the universal languages mankind. But such an enterpAl demands a resolve and intellige/ beyond all the immediate signs \ l the times." \