"CIVIS" AND THE NEW SUN THEORY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2079, 3 November 1885, Page 4

"CIVIS" AND THE NEW SUN THEORY.

A conniMPONDENr informs me that a local savant has invented an entirely new theory of the Quito right. I have always been for encouraging local industry. Ino sun io far an lam avvaro in not private propci ty. Anybody is at liberty to invent any theory about tho mm that he pleases, ■nd certainly wo who live in Dunedin ought to prefer a theory of the .sun invented by a Dunedm man to one invented by a foreigner, and imported. For nil tho practioal uses of life the Dunedin mans theory will provo quite as, seiviccable at, »ny other. If I have rightly grasped it, the Dunedin theoiy of the sun is, hist, that tho sun is cold— in this latitude theio are days in the year when this seuns far from improbtible.-second, that tlw sun is dark, or nt least that he is not the source of light. Tho first part of theoiy is easily proved by going up a mountain and going | down a mine. Tho nearer tho sun the colder, the further from the sun the warmer, it is an invariable rule. Hoat is duo to the friction of light nys in passing through the atmospheie, and their ancted motion on striking tho earth. But it is on tho second part of his theory th-vt tho inventor prides nimMilf, that being quito now, entirely original, and gloriously incapable of proof, or, indeed, of dwpioof. Tho sun shines not by its own light, but is merely a mirror reflectingtho rays of another sun too far away from us to bo visiblo. This necond sun reflects tho ray* of a thud still further removed, tho third of a fourth, and ■o on indefinitely. A majestic conception truly, but have I not read something of the sort before, in Dean Swift or Samuel Butler? . . Near tuns haro distant nuns behind their backs to light 'em, And distant suns more distant sun I',1 ', and so ad infinitiim. With this Dunedin theory of the sun wo may bracket a now American theory of the moon. Mr C Flanders, an astronomer at Kendill, Orleans County, N.Y., announces that the moon is transpaient. By means of a telescope during tho last eclipse he saw sun spots through it. Fancy tho perfection to which tho Americans have brought the telescope ! Mr Flanders sees not only the •un through the moon, but also tho spots on tho sun's face ! With an American glass probably our Dunedin astronomer could catch a glimp«o of one of his invisible •uns.— " Civh" in the Otago Witness.

A remarkable letter appears in The Times from Mr Clifford Lloyd That gentleman proposes the abolition of Dublin Cattle, tho transference of its ceremonial duties to some member of the Royal family, and its administrative functions to the Home Secretary. Another point in Mr Lloyd's programme relatei to elective county boards, with the administration of liberally-constructed local affairs. In thus returning good for evil, Mr Clifford Lloyd, who is » decided Conservative, may be doing tho present Government a good service. At any rate ,his scheme is regarded as a ballon d' emai, intended to show them how Lord Salisbury may aim at dishing the Radicals in their Irish policy. Iv connection with the anniversary of the battle of Bosworth Field it is not apparently noticed that just three centuries ago Sir Wolstan Divie, then Lord Mayor of London, becamo the possessor of the famous battle ground His descendant Sir Beaumont Dixie,, husband of Lady Florence, is now offering the property for sale in lots for building purposes The church, that still stands on the hill yherc Henry was crowned, was an old edifice even when the battle waa fought. It is now ■uffered to fall somewhat into decay, mucli to the regret nl all Londoners who take an interest in this historic spot.— Home News. Professor H.A. Strovo, in the course of an intel esting article m Good Words for Auguat, sajs : "New Zealand has the very extraoiilinary pioperty of causing all who have set foot on her shoie3 to pass beneath the indescribable spell of her witchery. I never met any one who having tasted life in this new island home would consent to change Ins abode. Switzerland haa loftier p^aks and fairer towns ; Tyrol may boast prettier outlines j Scotland has her classic heather and her brown hillsides; Norway historic memories which linger to her winding fiords ; but, having ga/ed at and fancied himself in love with each of the syrens in turn, I am ever drawn back to my ideal beauty, New Zealand. Nature does not often play the prodigal. To New Zealand she was given all her charms, and keeps them fresh and imperiously beautiful as Cleopatra's. In no other country has she sent down towering mountains besides profound fiords, and backed the scene by dense forests sloping down on the other side of the range into fertile pastures. In no other spot does she find so deft a tiring woman as in the climate of New Zealand, who loves to exhibit her mistress in an Atmosphere of blue relieved by a carpet of l)i own and ureen. lam quite aware that this collocation of colour ought to sound hideous and repulsive in the last degree, but I am certain those who like the author of 'Krehwon' have lived in Npw Zealand till they learned to catch the spirit of her scenery will bear me out that the effect is pasting beautiful. Thon was there ever a land of streams so crystal clear v. hich challenge you to count every pebble that lies beneath their arrowy current? And is there not an unspeakable charm in finding oneself among a sea of snow or of cloudcapped peak, many unnamed and most untrodden by anyone ' CONDITIONS Oh THK PoOK IN' LONDON*.— For heart breaking, sui< ide making, and dram-drinking into bestial forgetfulness of the condition of man surrounding, us city approaches London by illimitable lengths. If whole regions could be swallowed up in an I«chia earthquake it would be an untold blessing, in ending by a quick expedient the despair, hope lessness, and utter, iiiimitigttcd ccuscproducing conditions of thousands on thousands. I am filled with wonder that the three fourths of London does not rise up and throttle and destroy the greatest part of the other fourth living, as they are pu//.led, and only puzzled, with the one problem of their existence — how to get rid of the wraith am isscd by theirpredecessors, and yet never a thought bestowed on those to whom a loaf is only dreamt of— a vision of their sleep to be dispersed when waking moments again come. Think of that awful fact, testified to by the Chairman of thu London School Board— that one of the mistres«es had to cease from the mockery of asking a bless ing when she had to preside during the midday interval between school hours, for nearly all the poor \\ retched children wore mealleps— not pvcu a scrap of biead to a«k a blessing on. No wonder that you will find Mr. L. convinced, when you sec linn, that the condition of the black is not worse than his brother native of the slums of London. People deceive themselves, or try to, by saying it is the result of civilisation. It is no such thing. It is the willing forgetfulness of one man's duty to bin fellow in the hurry to be ricl). This has blinded them to tho truth that the poor unaided cannot fight for their right to live on in wholesome dwel Imps, undeprived of light and air, against vast companies and corporations, who have inn up their immense edifices and stations and railway lines and new Btteets, elbowing tho poor not out of the disti icts but closer and clo«cr together, till their miserable hol<« are reckoned now tho best paying pioperty in London. I believe I am safe in s.iyinc; that only one thing could have rendeied tho poor so repre.hcnsibly content with their wretched condition, and that is — the false air of comfort and jollity they can have temporarily in tho glaring gin palaces that are allowed to infest their neighborhoods, but which are banished (all poßsiblc) in better districts.-—Corres-pondent of South Australian Advertiser. Wn M'l> ton Cr vui.\ mi v -" [ be lie\c it to be •ill wronfr and e\rn uitkril for c)rrc)mon or oilier public mm V) be led into Rmnf; trsti ninni-iN to quark doctors or vile <ttiffs callrd mrdii irei but when a really meritorious article ii in ide up of common \ iln.ible ri-nifdu s known to ,i'l and that ill ph\iiriin« n«<« and tru«t in dail\ v.c Oinnld frecU comou nd i f . I flii-ri forp <h< i rfttllv and heirliK rnnnnend Hop Hit f r rs for flic if«wd fl'fr hiir done me md mi fn< ml*, fiirnh li.'lii u in' llv \ luxe nn fi|inl fur firnih u«r I will n<it In- wnlioni ih< m, ' -Ke. - -, \Ya«lniBtuii,J)C L'.SA.