PARIS LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2335, 28 June 1887, Page 2

PARIS LETTER.

[FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Paris, April 20. The Astronomical Congress has commenced badly. It was, in a general way, anticipated that the first thing it would, take in hand before indulging in stargazing would be to lay the terrible east wind, which dries a fellow into a mummy, and compels even blue ribbonists to wet their whistles. The east wind is carrying off the rheumatic with an earthquake completeness, so heirs expectant can console themselves with the reflection that it is an ill wind that blows, nobody good. It affects the J institution as sympathy, in the form of subscriptions, is affected by the prevailing drought. Flowers appear in due season all the same; ibirtl juild their nests as if zephyrs dominated, bo, as the French proverb says, when the building trade is brisk all goes well. It must have been the Chinese that gave the French Government the wrinkle to invite the astronomers from various parts of the world to assemble in Paris, and form a co-operative society to farm the heavens. All the waste corners of our planet having been appropriated recently by France and Germany, England having philanthropically left them the pickings, it is only natural the upper regions should become objects of envy. Laplace and Biot attest that the Chinese, 2000 years before our era, had practically utilised astronomy, and made that science a sort of Government institution. Mesopotamia was also renowned for its astronomical love, and yet neither a Celestial —the most elegant of names at a planetary congress—nor a Chaldean has been invited by Admiral Monchez.

The Congress will not be occupied with accepting Greenwich as the firet meridian, as France claims that maritime supremacy for Paris, now about being made a seaport and' a seaside resort. The congress has for end to allot a certain portion of the firmament to each nation's astronomer—royal or democratic —who is to take photos of the stars in his section of space, according to a uniform process, and common apparatuses. In due time all these celestial takes will be sent to Paris, and by a system of geometrical mosaic work pieced together, and thus compose the starry firmament, taken from several points on th<) earth's surface. Then, on the occasion of the centenary of the present Congress—and " may we be there to see"—another map, a new edition, shall have been produced, and a comparison instituted between the two pictures.

With a good photographic apparatus, and carefully prepared plates—so delicately sensitive are the latter that it is as easy to take a likeness of a portion of the sky as of the human face, or a running animal. The image once taken, it is examined by the microscope and the micrometer, and what appears to be only a star or a blotch will be found to be a cluster of stars. It is the atom of cheese or the drop of water magnified to unfold its myriads of atomies. Take for example the star —or group—Hercules. To the naked eye it appears simply a diffuse spot, the three-thousandth part of a mtitre in diameter; examined by the ordinary magnifying glass, it will reveal several hundred stars round a kernel; looked at through a microscope the same photo will reveal thousands of stars. And to think there are stars whose light —travelling at the rate of 200,000 miles per second since the creation of the world—has not yet reached us, though possibly it may by the time the Irish question is settled. The astromoners will be entertained to a free representation at the Theatre Fraucais. It is to be hoped the bills will include " The voyage to the moon" and the " Milky way"—two sides splitting astromonical comedies. A banquet will also be given to the guests : in the absence of ambrosia and ncctar the favourite dish of Lalande tiie astronomer ought to be served, namely, spiders.

General Boulanger's plan of campaign —not for the invasion of Germany, but for the capture of his non commissioned officers has been divulged officially. The French, like every other army, and perhaps more, suffers from a dearth of noncommissoned officers, due to their dislike to re-engage. Indeed had the French army to rely on enlistment or volunteers to be recuited, it would be a skeleton, and far below that of Great Britain. Hence a decided proof that militarism is not popular in Frauce. General Boulanger mentioned that the army exists for the non-commissoned as well as for the eommissoned officer, and that as the former is more in touch with the men hia condition merits a partial cure. According to the Boulangcr project henceforth the non-commissoned officers, niter eight years service, will have the right to be commissioned, especially by the general commanding their corps d' annus. They can contract an engagement to remain till fifty years of age under the flag, and this re-engagement can be even made after returning to civil life for three years, following their compulsory three years active service. This interim will allow time time for the exsoldier to decide between a civil career, and the advantages of a special and privileged non-commissoned officer. In this latter case he can marry, live outside barricks, and receive lodging money : if he commits a fault, among his judges will sit two of his peers ; that's a democratic innovation. His pay will be increased with his years of service, so will his pension, which can amount to 1,500fr, after 45 years under the flag. There are conditions for continuing the pension in case the recipient leaves his wife a widow and his children orphans. He can even quit the army after his re-engagement when he pleases, receiving a pension pro rata to his years of service. Nay more, if he possesses the aptitudes for certain departments of the civil service, he will be nominated thereto as a matter of right. This is a wet blanket on the civil servants who threaten strike, bccause one minister has ruled tint all clerks within his jurisdiction must arrive punctually, must never remain idle, must work eight instead of six hours daily without any extra remuneration, and at the latter tariff and for longer hours whenever necessary. Those clerks who dislike this Draconian Code have only to resign, when General Boulanger will march in a battalion to occupy their vacant stools.

Wonders will never cease. Thirty-two years ago France was ready to restore the Kingdom of Poland. The countrymen of Ivosciuso were then the fashionable sympathy. To-day they are as much forgotten as Thiers and Gambetta. Stranger still, such are the necessities of politics. An extreme town councillor has just chanted the praises of Holy Russia. M. Martin has returned from a tour of some 19,000 miles through Eastern Siberia. He travelled with the tribe Tounogouzes and lived with theui in commou like a good Socialist. Doga and reindeer drew the sledges. The party consisted of men, women and children, who lived as they voyaged, by fishing and hunting, when M. Martin" always exacted his share. A baby was born during the tour, thanks to a lady foungouzes, and lived out the journey to the river Amour, in Eastern Siberia.