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NOTES AND COMMENTS. -------...----

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NOTES AND COMMENTS. Owing to the decision come to by the Govern- ment to prorogue Parliament after the passing of the War Estimates—in other words, to con- fine the business now before them to one spe- c. tt object—it will be a new session to which Members will be summoned in due course early flcxt year. There was, of course, no real oppo- s tion to the granting of the ten millions asked for to meet the extraordinary outlay conse- quent on 'the military operations in Sooth Africa. It is inevitable, after what has hap- pared and is taking place, that this amount should be forthcoming. But where there is difference of opinion is as to whether the war itf was inevitable. Mr Chamberlain, in his speech on the debate on the Address, said it was, and he now thinks it was "always" so. A damaging assertion this for the Colonial Secre- tary to make, and is all the more damaging in view of the fact that the negotiations, from h s own description of them, had reached a point, before they were finally broken off, when practically there was only the question of su- zerainty in dispute. What happened then was that two men lost their tempers, and, unfortun- ately, they were the very men who should have been calm and collected. President Kruger, suspicious of Mr Chamberlain all along, now openly became hostile to that gentleman; while Mr Chamberlain, after his wont, began to say things in his despatches, and still more in his public utterances, that brought matters to a deadlock. Then came the interval during which the Boers waited for the terms of settlement which Her Majesty's Government had indica- te they would formulate for themselves. For this the Boers waited in vain, and then, finding British forces gathering on the Transvaal frcntier, they issued their Ultimatum. It was undoubtedly an able speech, with sharp and scathing allusions to his opponents, that Mr Chamberlain made in his defence—perhaps the most noteworthy in his political career, and that is saying a good deal; but, nevertheless, it drew from so eminent a lawyer and Ministerial- ist as Sir Edward Clark the sorrowful admission that Mr Chamberlain's conduct of the nego- tiations had been "most clumsy," and that we have consequently embarked on "an unneces- sary war." The general feeling of the House, at the same time, is that, after the Ultimatum, we had no option but to fight; and every one is anxious that the campaign, now that it has begun in earnest, will be speedy and effective. Even without the large reinforcements now on their way to the Cape, we have a stronger force in South Africa than any one not in the secrets of the Government has been aware of. On Mr Chamberlain's own showing, it was originally 3,000; it was then increased to 20,000; and this was more than doubled, so that at the close of last week—it has been measurably increased since then-we had 25,000 troops doing garrison duty in South Africa or at the front. Sir M. Hicks-Beach, as Chancellor of the Exchequer, has taken the easiest way he could fnd of providing the money for the heavy war grant that has rendered this brief Session ne- cessary. He is fortunate enough of having £ 3,000,000 of surplus to look forward to. This he "commandeers" flor military purposes, and the balance is to be raised by Treasury bills. These he will place on the market to the extent of £ 8,000,000, which will leave him a margin of £ 1,000,000. The Money Market, ho wever, is not to be suddenly disturbed by tiese operations. To go on with, the Treasury will, have placed at his disposal considerable sums belonging to Savings Bank depositors. By this expedient the Chancellor of the lk- clequer will avoid, on the one hand, a perma- nent addition to the Debt, and on the other an immediate increase of taxation. He recog- nises that he will have to take serious stock of iiie financial situation when he presents his Budget next April, but he so far anticipates future events as to indicate that the Transvaal, with its hidden stores of gold, will have to bear its share of the burden. "It will be perfectly possible," he thinks, "for the Transvaal under a pure and honest Government, to bear not only Via ordinary expenses of government, but to provide for the maintenance of peace and order ell over the territory, and a reasonable contri- bution towards the expenses we may incur in tlw war, consistently with a reduction of the taxation on the gold fields." This explana- tion satisfied the House, and only on the part of some of the Irish Members was there any attempt to upset the Chancellor's proposals. Mr Patrick O'Brien managed to secure A mo meat or two of notoriety by declaring that La connection with the war the Colonial Sec-v t&ry's hands were "as deeply stained in blood ao those of any criminal who ever went to ibe scaffold." As be refused to withdraw uch an outrageous departure from, the dem.Lmps of Parliamentary debate, be was "named.' ard suspended. Mr Davitt took the more dignified course, as a protest against the war, of resign- ing his seat. A deputation of Members of Parliament be- Icnging to both political parties waited on Sir Matthew White Ridley, at the Home Office on Tuesday, to urge on the Government the intro- duction of a measure giving effect to the re- con.mendations of the Select Committee on Burial Grounds, which reported in July, 1898. Mr Jebb and Mr Oarvell Williams having stated the case of the deputation, the Home Secretary ;D reply, said he had already had a Bill prepared dealing with the amendment of the law on the 'lines of the Committee's recommendations, which he would do his best to induce hia col- leagues to include in their programme for next Session. He did not think, however, that it w(uld be possible both to amend and consoli- date the law in one Bill. The electrical developments of the last de- czde have cleared the way for at least a partial solution of the difficult problem of saving and restoring distributed industries. The most sanguine engineer would hardly put forward (according to Dr Louis Bell in the "Engineer- ing Magazine") his art as panacea for these economic ills-otber and more drastic remedies must come at the hands of the long-suffering people if they would save themselves from in- dustrial serfdom; but, nevertheless, electric power is no insignificant factor in the situa- t on. We must look upon water powers not nerely as local privileges, but a available everywhere within a radius of, say, twenty- five miles in almost every instance, or at several t mes that distance in regions where fuei is dear. And this means that if, within such dis- tance of a water power, there are locations .ctherwise desirable for manufacturing purposes tiie power user there will be in a better situa- tion economically, so far as cost of power is concerned, than his large competitors who have to depend upon steam. And all along the line such a transmission this industrial advantage ejists. Christopher Miner Spencer, born at South Manchester, Connecticut, June 20, 1833, was the first to comprehend clearly the vast savings in machine-part production which are rendered possible by converting the semi-automatic tur- ret machine into a full automatic tool, capable of producing almost any shape of small metal piece, without human intervention .beyond the placing of a bar of metal within reach of the feeding mechanism of the machine. Metal- working machines have not yet been so made that they can, of their own volition, go to the stock rack and select bars suited to the work they are fitted to produce; but at works where the automatic turret machines are in large use it is the practice to use, aay, one machine ten- der to ten automatic turret machines, with the result that the observer may often gaze down the long vista of a screw-machine room, and see hundreds of machines busily engaged in the production of small machine parts without a single workman in sight. This magnificently economical result is due to the work of Mauds- lay, supplemented by that of Stone, and placed beyond the hindrance of human intervention by Spencer. A whole century of observation and effort on.the part of by far the best and most intelligent mechanics ever known in the history of the human race, has been consumed in per- fecting the elide rest and utilising the full scope of its powers.—Henry Roland, in "rhe Engin- eering Magazine" for November.

! PONTYPRIDD BAKERS' WAR.…

YSTRAD FOXHOUNDS.

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IAthletic Notes. ------.----

-------------Temperance Topics.!

! : — ;Llwyfan llafur J

--HERR PAREESER AT PENTRE.

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