September 27, 1909.]
operation, We think they will upon reflection agree that the Government would have deserved the strongest censure had it failed to do this, and so allowed large imports of wines and spirits to come in free of duty to be sold to consumers at the higher prices. which merchants have already announced. No doubt the operation of the Ordinance at the outset will be attended with many serious difficulties, a few of which are indicated in the letter from Mr. CHARLES GARNER which we publish to-day. It is evident that the Ordinance could have been greatly improved had the Government been able to allow further time for the consideration of such a measure; but we must all recognise that when once the principle of an import tax was approved by the Council it would have been manifestly detrimental to the interest of the taxpayers as a whole to prolong the discussion over the details. It is to be gathered from the reports of the proceedings in Council that the Government do not regard the details of the measure as un- alterable, like the laws of the Medes and Persians, and we think the public may rely, with confidence on the Government to make, when good cause is shown, whatever alteration is advisable to rectify injustice and to more efficiently protect the revenus if that be possible.
THE POLAR DISCOVERY.
(Daily Press, September 21.) It is by no means an unprecedented thing that after a search, sometimes extending over centuries, two men should at the same moment, and without previous intercom- munication, have made the discovery. The best known instance of such a coincidence, and that which excited at the moment the most interest, was the simultaneous discovery --or rather the place where the discovery was to be made of the planet Neptune. Two men, one the well-known French astronomer LEVERRIER, the other a young and hitherto unknown English mathematician of the name of ADAMS, had at the same time, and all unknown to one another, attacked the hitherto untried problem of discovering from the perturbations, not otherwise accounted for, of the planet Uranus, the place of the suspected perturbator. LEVERRIER, with the confidence born of his already well-known position as an astro- nomer, when he had completed to his own satisfaction his calculations, made them known to the world, and the unknown planet was at once marked down close to the region calculated. ADAMS, as yet unknown in the scientific world, placed his calculations in the hands of AIRY, the Astronomer Royal, and AIRY after a little delay placed them in the care of CHALLIS, of Cambridge. CHALLIS was cautious; and determined for extra security to map out the entire region which he intended to search. He had actually on two occasions noted the planet on his map, but till he had actually made himself sure of its motion did not care to publish it. The observer to whom LEVERRIER had communicated his calcula. tions, finding close to the spot indicated a star hitherto unnoticed, at once gave it to the world; so though ADAMS was actually some months ahead, LEVERRIER's calcula- tions were the first to be verified and published. Another equally curious in- stance of two men being engaged at the same moment in important researches of wide, world interest occurred in the case of DARWIN and WALLACE, who, perfectly unknown to one another, had evolved a theory of modification of descent under the influence of natural selection. The publica-
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CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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true, did hoist the British flag within ninety miles of the South Pole, but then this was on Terra Firma, so we seemingly must conclude that REUTER has been dealing in romance on his own account. Still more difficult to explain is the action of President TAFT, in announcing his intention to claim the Pole 88 United States territory, "should it contain anything valuable." Sea is sea, and land is land; and it is not for the PRESIDENT, nor anyone else, to es- tablish territorial rights over the high seas. Doubtless the rest of the world has by this time been placed in possession of sufficiently trustworthy information to be able to form a reasonably clear opinion as to whether or not both of the claimants for the Polar blue ribbon are properly entitled to rank, and after the centuries of fruitless search, they would be pleased to learn that all those engaged have been men of honour as well as of courage and determination.
LIQUOR LAW MISCONCEPTIONS.
(Daily Press, September 22nd.) The Unofficial Members of Council as well as the Government have been well abused during the past few days in connection with the passage of the new Liquor Tax, but now that the excitement has cooled off some- what, the public are beginning to realise that the change which the Law makes in the character of the port will not be so alarining as was at first anticipated- and as indeed there were substantial reasons for anticipating from the measure as it was originally drafted. Material changes were made in the second and third drafts of the Bill, but it is very evident from the nature of the criticisms which have been passed, especially on the action of the Unofficial Members, that the public have failed to grasp the value of the changes made in the Bill. The Unofficial Members were not dragooned, ΠΟΥ were they inveigled by the adroitness and tact of HE. THE GOVERNOR, into accepting a measure which, when it was first introduced, the Hon. Mr. MURRAY STEWART said
tion of these notices, supported as they were by two of the most prominent natur-n alists of the day, has left its impress on the course of human thought ever since. It was, then, nothing out of the course of human experience that two men, without previous, communication, should find them. selves at the same time in the quest for what for some two centuries has been the goal of every arctic explorer-the search for the North
Pole. By a curious coincidence, although it is scarcely en years since the exploration of the Antarctic continent can be said to have begun in earnest, Lieutenant SHACKLETON very nearly succeeded in snatching for the south the blue ribbon of the polar explorer, It was only then fit that redoubled efforts should by made by the Arctic explorers this year to prevent it going to their junior competitors in the south. Meteorologically the conditions seem this year to have been all in favour of the North. In China, as elsewhere in both Europe and America, the spring of the year was abnormal. TH middle China, after a long period of drought, at a period when rain usually is predominant heavy rains set in in June, and continued well into July. The Monsoon was unusually late in arriving, and when it did come it never became properly established, the summer being marked all through by variable winds. As often happens in such circumstances, these variable winds were accompanied by excessive heat. In America likewise the early summer was marked by excessive heat, while in Europe the spring generally was marked by cold raw weather; and it was not till July that any real summer was experienced. These phenomena not unusually accompany a failure, more or less complete, of the Monsoon in India and eastern Asia, and are due to an imperfect circulation of the air, probably arising from a deficient supply of heat from the sun. The same causes seem to bave been effective in bringing about a state of calm in polar regions. A period of deficient Monsoon is naturally correlated with circumpolar calms, and this seems to have been more especially the case this spring. As yet we only have meagre information from particularly un- satisfactory telegrams as to what actually happened, but both explorers were able to make unusually long journeys; Dr. Coox; whose narrative arrived first, claims to have averaged sixteen miles a day, and added that he found the ice around the Pole almost undisturbed, which accounted for the long distances he was able to cover. This state- ment it was that at first cast discredit on the entire narrative. Curiously, though Com- mander PEARY afterwards telegraphed bis disbelief in Dr. Cook's veracity, he has the same tale to tell of long distances covered; he, better equipped, doubtless, having been able to cover thirty miles a day. These are distances unprecedented in Aretic explora- tion, and the fact that the two narratives mutually confirm one another has gone far to remove the stigma of want of truth. Little, however, as we learn from Dr. Cook's telegrams, as distilled for us through REUTER, we learn still less from the other. Cook seems to claim to have discovered somewhat extensive land somewhere about 87 degrees north, and incidentally REUTER mentions his having on his return stopped in a cave till daylight returned, which is not easy to interpret. The Pole, according to him, is in mid-ocean; PEARY, so far as REUTER favours us, does not mention its being on land or sea, but talks of his having nailed the Stars and Stripes to it in token of its being United States territory, a pro- ceeding not easy to reconcile with its being actually at sea. Lieut. SHACKLETON, it is
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staggered" him, and it will perhaps be useful if in simple justice to the Unofficial Members and in the interests of a correct appreciation of the measure by the public we enter into an explanation which may be made the plainer if we base it upon an extract from the speech delivered in Council on the 16th inst. by the Hon. Mr. STEWART, who after dwelling on the fact that it went against the grain with him to witness the institution of the smallest Customs service, said :-
When I read the version of this Bill which reached me last Thursday evening-the evening before the first reading took place-I was stag- gerod to find that the Government proposed to arrogate to themselves powers under which a complete Customs service could be established. How extensive those powers were does not seem to have been fully realised in some quar- ters. Under them Customs stations could have been established at every wharf in the harbour, in every bay in the coastline, and on every road leading into the Colony. Passengers land- ing from any steamer could have been held up and arrested without warrant if they objected to open luggage at the bidding of any revenue officer, who might be a Chinese talking no English. And not only could such an officer have so held up any passenger landing, he would have been equally formidable, when after landing, the passenger might reasonably have imagined himself safe in the bosom of the Colony. According to Clause 31 in that version of the Bill,
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any person landing or being about to land or having recently landed from any ship or enter- ing or having recently entered the Colony by land shall, on demand by any revenue or police officer, permit his baggage to be searched, etc." Having recently landed! This meant