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HomeMy WebLinkAboutZurich Herald, 1927-07-28, Page 3Shivery Doomed Publicity Helps to Rid Sudan of Slave Raids Who Learn Possibility of Independent Employment, Says Report London. -.. An encouraging state, Ment referring to the diminution of slavery in, the British controbled dish tits of the Sudan is contained in a dispatch from Sir John Maffey, Gov- ernor-General of that region, to the Secretary-General, League of Nations, "I consider that the progress made in abolishing slavery in the Sudan has been remarkable," says Sir John, "Slave -trading is a thing of the past And the various forms. of 'domestic slavery" have undergone cusp rapid changes that the ,term is hardly justi fled. This report is one of a series of statements to be submitted to the :League of Nations from British terri- tories, in connection with the work- ing of the new anti -slavery'. conven- tion, The conclusions arrived at as the result of inquiries; by a special commissioner are: Slavery Disappearing, (a) Slavery in the provinces north of Khartoum is "moribund. The num- ber of domestic slaves still living with their masters has been rendeed in significant, chiefly as the result of the publicity given to the possibilities of freedom and the increased oppor- tunities for independent employment offered by various works that have been taken in hand by theGovern- ment and private enterprise. (b) In the extreme south—that is to 'say, in Bahr -el -Ghazal, Kongalla and Upper Nile provinces—slavery may be said to be non-existent, as no slave -owning communities exist there. (c) In one or two of the central provinces, notably Kordofan and Kas- sala, the progress of manumission has not been so rapid as might have been desired. Difficulty in Desert Region. In the case of Kordofan, a semi - desert region covering 119,000 square miles, largely inhabited by nomadic tribes, Sir John attributes the slow rate of progress to "the difficulties inseparable trom the administration of r••o large an area with a strictly limited staff of •British officials." IIe gives a similar reason in the case of Ka::saia, which borders on Abyssinia, v: wase many slaves were originally r.cqu-red.. _lctive measures have meanwhile 1., cn taken to peualize "the practice still to be found in existence in cer- tain parts of hiring out domestic eleven for `wages, the bulk of which were appropriated by the master," the newly al- so to assist l manumitted slave "until he or she can be„ estab- lished in a wage-earning capacity." The question of restoring to the ex -slave the right to share in family property has been met by giving the "freedom paper" which is issued to each member of this class, the status of a judicial decree. Arrangements have been made at Port Sudan to accommodate released slaves sent there from the Hejaz, and for farwarcling them to their homes. Special provision is also announced "to deal with freed slaves requiring repatriation to Nigeria." Personal Convenience Kaunas City Star: Most persons think of advertising se a personal con- venience. It helps them personally in buying ur selling, But it has a much wider social signifl•catice. It is a tremendously powerful instrument developed by modern genius for the wholesale improvement of social con ditione. ear. aga`eram• PICTURE OF THE BYRD EXPEDITION, The tri -motored monoplane is shown above with -Commander Eyed at the top left. A side view of the machine is also shown. At the right is Bert Acosta, the pilot, who was a chief instructor in the Royal Canadian Air Force, and a noted automobile racer. At the left is the flight engineer, Lieut. George O. Neville, an expert in radio devices. At the bottom to thee' left of the map which shows the •course of the flight and distances is the fourth member of the crew, Went, Bert Baichen' of the Norwegian navy. THE WHY OF CAN; ERRA Story of the Selection of Australia's New Capital ase - Troublesome Surplus. Mr, Spendix—"Any instalments due to -day ?" Mrs. Spendix--"No, dear, I think not." LIr, Spendix—"Any payments due on the house, the radio, the furniture, the rugs, or the books?" Mrs Spendix—"No." Mrs. Spendix—"Then I have ten dollars we don't need. What do you say if we buy a new car?"—Hardware age. .. edge)was a regular visitor to tho local library where it was noticed he always took the same book, opened it. eagerly, and then burst into hearty laughter. The attendant's curiosity being aroused, he looked over the v'isitor's shoulder and noticed the pic- ture of a small boy being chased by a bull. The attendant was about to ask what there was to laugh at, when the negro chuckled, "Golly! 'e ain't caught him yeti" A Scottish member 'of a golf course near London took a business friend for a day's golf. After the morning round they lunched very sparingly on biscuits and cheese and beer. "Man," cried the . enthusiastic Scot as he gazed through the open windows, "this is my favorite course. Isn't it yours?" "Er, not exactly," replied his guest; "I should have preferred e fillet steak andonions." Hicks frequently told his friends what an excellent atiok his wife wast Brown boasted that his wife was a apien•did dressmaker; azul `Robinson proudly stated that his wife was an pnusually tclever artist, Smith was not to be outdone! "My wife is a great linquist,' he remarked. NO one seemed impressed.. " Iiumphl't ex- ' "plained Robinson, "they all are!" • CITY OF BEAUTY Why is the seat of government of the Commonwealth of Australia be- ing transferred from Melbourne, which has a pop:1216m of 900,060, to the new unfinished- city of Canberra, whichp a as o ulation of 5,900, f $ p whom 3,000 are workmen engaged in constructional work—in erecting pubs lic buildings and dwelling -Houses, in makingbricks and tiles for these buildings, in making roads, building bridges, laying oat parks and gardens, and laying down mains for the supply of water and electricity, and a sewer- age system?" The answer, says a cor- respondent of the London "Sunday Observer,' is that the written Consti- tution of the Australian Common- wealth which came into operation in 1901 as the result of the federation of the six self-governing colonies of Australia, copied the Constitution of the United States in inclining a clause providing for the building of a new city as the Federal capital. Rivalry Set Aside. To some extent this provision in the Australian constitution, like that in the American Constitution, was adopt- ed as a means of settig aside the rival claims of existing cities to be the Federal capital. Sydney, which is the largest city in Australia. and is • the capital of the State of New South Wales ,the oldest of the six States forming the Commonwealth of Aus- tralia, -put forward a strong.claim to be the seat of Government of the Commonwealth; but this claim was resisted by the representatives of other States, particularly those of the adjoining State of Victoria, o€ which Melbourne, 'with a population slightly lower than that of Sydney, is the capi- tal. Finally, it was decided that a new city should be built as the Fed- eral capital; but as a sop to the old- est State it was agreed that the new city should be in that State. To please the other States,, which, were opposed to making Sydney. the Federal capi- tal, it was laid down in the Consti- tution that the site of the new city should be at least 100 miles from Syd- eny. As a sop to Victoria, which in population is the second sief the six States, it was decided that Melbourne should be the temporary seat of Gov- ernment until Parliament mot at the new city. Melbourne has been the temporary seat of Government for 26 years. Too Many Claimants. It was not without considerable de- lay and political manoeuvring that the Commonwealth Parliament carried out the provision of the Constitution regarding the selection of a site for the Federal capital. At one time there were as many as forty sites suggested; nearly every town of any. impoe a.nce in New 'South Wales rut forward a claim to be selected as the site of the Federal capital, Some ,members were embarrassed by haw- ing two or three sites'in. their elector- ates. The embarrasstnent of these members arose from the fact that, al- though each of thein, was able to in- silt that the Sites in his electorate wore far superior to every site in every other electorate, he could, not differentiate between the superlative Morita of rival Sites in his own Con• 00 /OA BHN 1 — � 2500 r "ii -395;i: ^- S 1 .2000 �soo/tAx i• l 1 1 1 r 1 r OCE ---4 _. i i r f ��i I stituency, without offending some of his constituents. Chose District First. In 1903 a Seat of Government Bill was introduced in the Australian House of Representatives with the name of the locality of the site of the future Federal capital left blank, so as to allow Parliament absolute free- dom in selecting the site by filling in the blank. On a ballot a majority voted in favor of the Federal capital being built at Tumut a town of about 2,000 people;fifty miles west of fCaA berm. 'but when:the Bill carie before the Senate this Chamber decided in favor of Bombala, . a town of about 1,000 people, situated close to the Vic- torian border of New South Wales, and about 120 miles south-east of Tumut, When the Bill was returned to the House of Representatives the substitution of Bombala for Tumut was rejected, and as the two Houses failed to reach an agreement the mat- ter was postponed to enable survey- ors and other experts to furnish ex- haustive reports regarding the rela- tive merits of Tumut and Bombala. The question dragged on through a couple of Parliaments and finally the Yass-Canberra district, about 70 miles north of Dalgety, was selected. Pronounclation. No further change was made, and the Federal capital, which has boon officially christened Canberra pro- nounced Can -bra, with the accent on the first syllable, in order to preserve the sound of the aboriginal name of the district), is being built on a vir- gin site which was formerly part of a sheep station and farming district. The Commonwealth Government have acquired as Federal territory 900 square miles of country, and the site of the Federal capital, consisting of about 16 square miles, is in the north- east corner .of this territory. The reason the Government asquired such a large block of country is that it was considered essential to have control over the catchment areas of those tributaries of the Murruinbldgee River from which the water supply of the Federal capital will be drawn for a hundred years to come while the city is growing in size. Location. Canberra is in latitude 35 degrees 16 minutes S. and longitude 149 de- grees 15 minutes E. It is 75 miles in- land from the coast of New South Wales, and is 204 miles by rail Froin Sydney, 429 miles from Melbourne, 912 miles from Adelaide ,the capital of the State of South Australia, 929 miles from Brisbane, the capital of Queensland, and more than 2,500 miles from Perth, the capital of West- ern Australia, The site, which has an average altitude of 1,900 ft. above sea -level, is an undulating stretch of country in an amphitheatre of hills, With an outlook towards the north. Pretentious Plans. It is the intention of the Comp1oli wealth Government to make Canberra the most beautiful garden city in the world. The design provides for sev- eral artificial lakes supplied with water by the Molonga river, which flows through the site. Ou the north side of the river will be the civic, quarter, with the town hall occupying the central position on a command- ing hill.. On the south side will be the Government quarter, with the Pariianent buildings on Capitol Hill, the most elevated piece of land with- in the site. The town hall and the Parliament buildings will be nearly two miles apart. The building in which the Duke of York formally opened the session of the Common- wealth Parliament at the Federal capital, is on the slope of Capitol Hill. It is a two -storied stone • building, erected at a cost of £500,000; it is estimated that itwill last one hun- dred undred years, but officially it is regarded as temporary, because it i9 intended to provide as the permanent home of the Commonwealth Parliament a more decorative and costly building. Beauty Assure rd. There will be numerous parks, pub- lic gardens, and open spaces within the city, and the whole site of six- teen square miles will be surrounded by a belt of open country several miles wide. All the streets will be lined with trees, and will have strips of garden on both sides along their whole length. Some of the main thoroughfares will be 200 yards wide, and down the centre of each of them there will be a wide stretch of gar- den. Every plot of ground on which a house is built will have room for a flower garden in front- and a kitchen garden at the back. There will be no fences or walls dividing the house plots from the streets. The occupant of a house can have a trimmed hedge instead of a front fence if he desires to ensure privacy (he will be allowed to have a fence at the sides and the back), or ho can have an open garden leading down to the pavement. Bo- tween the pavement and the roadway there. will be a continuous strip of garden about 20 feet wide, maintain- ed by the Federal Capjital Commis- sion. All Govern'ment Owned. • For all time every foot of land in Canberra` will belong to the Govern- ment, and the occupants will pay an annual ground rent. The complete control which the Federal Capital Commission exercise over the sale of leases will enable them to control the building of the city, so that develop- ment will take place according to the fixed design which was prepared be- fore the city was, laid out, and to pre- vent any part of the city being unduly developed while other parts are neg- lected. --Saturday Night. Safe to Indulge. "Be careful how you hug delusion, Jiro: , "Don't worry, Bill, I'm not the mar rying kind. 1ott will find it almost as diilicirlt to discover the average man as the perfect man.-•-Itoberti Low, EAT MORE 'AM Own Your Own Ham Week A national advertising campaign to Increase the consumption of ham and eggs is now on the calendar of com- ing events. The packers are out to put ham. over in a big way and pro- mote bettor feeling between the How ig Is t? Size of British Empire is Vari- ously Estirnai ed, But Re- ference Books Disagree. Even on Area of the Isles of the United Kingdom Canadian public and the Canadian How large is the British Empire? egg. Seemingly even experts cannot agree, * for it is rarely that two reference National Hamand Egg Week is in books give the same area. the offing.Pork and Beans Day is The problem does. not see md f'ii. cult under consideration. It is understood to solve. Official figures exist for each part of the Empire, arrived at, presumably, by careful geographical surveys. To add up the total area of the Empire, therefore, connotes no in- superable tnathelaatical task, even for the arithmetically distrait. Yet, and Egg sales are herewith respect- the results are never the saris. fully suggested: Take the area of the British Lias To a Gentleman on the Occasion of a (excluding Ireland), for example. The Great Achievement. Statesman's Year Book, which ought 1—Ten thousand congratulations to know, gives it at 39,011 : lilard upon your splendid success Also two miles, but lt'hitaker's Almanac's, or tree thousand hams and a dozen which may b3 splitting ,`_air;, resists eggs. it is six miles larger. and six squat e 2 Felicitations! I knew you would :miles of land is worth a lot of money, bring home the bacon. !oven to carele: s cartographers. How- ever, in this care the World Almanac (without a k) corroborates the Bra 1—Cordial wishes for a Happy New the telegraph agencies are co-operat- ing and that the appeal "Wire your mother or father a ham to -day" may go forth at any momenta * s s Form telegrams to promote HIam ear. May you never want for ham. 2—May the New Year bring you • Tho case of India ie far r oro ecii- ous. The Statesman's Year Dent health, happiness and pork products. i „,.. tisk Almanac's (with a h) 3—My (Our) best wishes for a year "'"" `.le `rax of l;ritish India rick in in calories. 1 vinces at 1,805,333 square mile.:, an exactitude that is backed by the Parental Greetings. World Almanac. But Whitaker's Ala 1—Am sending you a Virginia Ham manack, with magnificent largesse in with all my love. 'A very rough guess, declares the area 2—All that I am and all that I hope is 1,900,000 squae rmilos—as if the odd to be I owe to you. How do you like 94,663 square miles were a mere drop your eggs? in the bucket. That is the more re- 3—There is no blessing like a good markable in that the difference is mother, a good father and a good or- larger than the British Isles, again der of roast pork. 'omitting Ireland—another apparent Congratulatory Message to a Public example of British insularity. Man. 1—I (Wel havo just road your speech on better citizenship. Once a else estimate of the area of the en - ham always a ham. tire Empire would appear to be as 2—Congratulations upon your cies follows: Take any British reference tion. It demonstrated clearly that -the book and, without bothering to check people love their hams. i lists against each other, compare * j figures with those given in the Wbrld Obviously it will be some job to re- 'Almanac. If any set of figures agree stare ham to its .plata in the hearts of —and figures sometimes do—it is the Canadian people. Too many obvious that there has been collusion Canadians are on a diet these days. and that, therefore, any other set of Although . the great Canadian break- 1 figures, chosen at random, is the fast diet used to be ham and eggs, it more to be trusted. is now prunes, toast and a glass of 1 The divergence of estimates for the area of the whole British L hot water. Bring an order of ham toEmpire is the modern girl and elle screams. I complete. Nobody knows how large } it is. The London Times Atlas proves A Computing Formula. Tho formula for arriving at a pre - In her/ determination to keep We- by pretty, multicolored diagrams that the young woman of today will eat its area is 13,730,000 square miles. nothing heavier than lettuce leaves. !The Statesman's Year Book puts it Tho advertising managers will have ludic moderately, and with seeming to win her over with some such slo- accuracy, at 13,355,426 square miles Bans as: I (yards and foot omitted). Whitaker's "Keep that schoolgirl complexion , Almanack makes the sweepng asser- with a club breakfast." tion that it is 13,900,752 square milds "Do you wish radiant beauty? Cut large, and the World Almanac, taking yourself a slice of pork!" an independent stand., declares its "Don't be a wallflower) Eat more area is 13,370,526 square utiles. It is fat!" • lamented out that unless better track "When better figureo� are built of the Empire is kept somebody inay Davies will build them!" one day steal a few thousand square rules and never be caught. A mall boy was pi•oniised twopence Andient Retainer. if lie were good for a week. At the "Your maid seems to be rather fa• end of the week he was asked whether miller with you." hethought h e deserved the money, "Yes I put up with that from old o Y. The boy considered deeply for a mo servants; just think, she leas been went Then; "Glenne a penny;' he with Its for more than 'a nioizth,"--1 Rise Paris Le Ri ) ( said.