TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 125, 22 November 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Lionel Terry, who deliberately murdered an inoffensive ChinaMischievous man in Wellington, Sympathy, has escaped from Seacliff Asylum. That this homicidal v lunatic should ' liave been allowed to escape a third time is scandalous, and calls for the most searching enquiry. Madness takes many forms — in the cuse of this unhappy man its leading feature seems to have been Eersonal vanity. Ho published, as will c remembered, an anti-Chinese pamphlet in bombastic verse, supplemented by .1 letter to the King. There were signs to any critical reader of mental alienation in this book, which, though treated by certain critics at, a work of genius, fell flat. Fiom a remark dropped by the writer just before the commission of the crime, it would seem that one of his objects was to bring hi.s sixpenny book into notoriety. "Pcoplo will buy it fast enough in a day or two," he said to a bookseller. Strangely enough, not long afterwards, an insann woman in England' committed suicide wIMi a like object, as shown by the letter left behind. -The only possible alternative in Terry's case to wilful murder was the plea of irresponsible insanity, and the court and jury, despite the prisoner's protest, took the merciful j view. His previous career, though blameless, had been erratic, and in prison his malady soon became unmistakably evident." After attempting the life of an officer, he was transferred to an asylum. It is not pleasant to reilect that he is again at large. The attitude of a poi-tion of tho press, which seems to regard Terry not only as normal, but as; a person of some honourable distinction, calls for the strongest protest. Even while the question of his v mental condition was being investigated certain newspapers prejudged the case by declaring that it would be an outrage if h(j wtre found guilty of murder, while at the same time anticipating his early restoration to liberty. His crime has been systematically minimised ; it has been called a "protest" j he was once actually described as having acted from "conscientious motives," and his sayings in confinement have been 'reported as if they had been the weighty words of a Statesman. There have already been signs of incipient "Terryism" — witness a lato case of arson, by a gang of young men. But what is to b& expected when newspapers can make , a hero of a dangerous lunatic? The sudden thunderstorm of the Newcastle fiolliers 1 Ftrike The Coal Strike happily has rumbled Ended. over the horizon ; and the sky is cleaTiug. Questions in dispute are lcferred to tho ax'bitration of representatives of Government, mine-owners, and colliers, sitting as 1 a special court. Tho mini'iowners have once moi>3 yielded for tha sake of peace ; and apparently the colliers ar6 permitted to wipe the Arbitration. Act off th-3 jslate, with all its bonds and agreements, and make a. fresh bargain. The? incident shows once more that arbitration cannot be carried to tho point of final efficiency uilfoss the arbitrators can enforce penalties upon both sides. And as, in the cas& of largo masses of men, it is not practicable to secure the penalty after the verdict, it follows that — if fair play,is to be .given — a 1 substantial guarantee must be" tendered before the verdict. Otherwise, as in the Newcastle case, arbitration is a farce. If the verdict goes, against employers, they have to grin and , bear it; if it goes against the men, they grin and strike whenev-ir it suits them. Still, there is public opinion to Teckon with ; und Australian public opinion, in the present case, is pretty solid againsj; tho colliers — who, without any definite or unusual grievance, have caused the public very great inconvenience and loss. We are in full accord with the views expressed by tho Mayor Beauty last night in regard to and the pressure now being Business, placed on the Government to purchase from _.tho Wellington Steam Ferry Company tho I pretty piece of bush at Day's Bay for j a scenic reserve. We have already had a good deal to say concerning the almost criminal folly which in years past stripped the lofty and precipitous mountains and deep valleys near our city lof their gracious growth of varied forest and green herb — in most cases wasting tho verdure which Nature, ever working on lines of beauty, had taken centuries to prepare. We have -also urged, wherever possible, the acqiiisition by the State of beauty-spots still remaining, that our children may gladden their eyes with some remains of the fast-vanishing bush glories of the island. We hold, therefore, that the council did right in carrying Mr. Fisher's resolution. But we can not fail to note that public interest has been stimulated and many of the signatures to the citizens' petition obtained through the impression, right or wrong, that if the property is not promptly secured for the public, it will be given over to the tender mercies of a sawmilling concern. To the owners of tho freehold the question, apparently, is purely one of cash returns. It ia possible that, if the company is willing to sell at the official valuation, the public by private subscription, backed by the State and the local" bodies, may secure the property. In this case, the present proprietors would retain all the advantages of the natural attraction to their resort, and would be at the sumo time relieved of rates and cost of maintenance. If, however, they seek a big. profit on the sale, we doubt whether that sale will be effected. With backblock settlers lighting for sustenanco and bare life in unroaded districts, paying ruinous freights, as well as rates for roads they may never live to see, it would be a crime for the State to lavish public money on the purchase of pleasure resorts. If the company, for immediate gain, sacrifice the bush, it is its own concern; but it will, we think, be extremely unwise, as it will for ever depreciate- the value of what i& even now one- of its most important assets. We do not think there is any great danger of .such action being taken —if it is, the City Council will not bo to blame. Mr. Balfour's statement of his conviction of the importance of ■.Gulling tho "Free-trade within the People. Empire" has earned Mr. Haldano's comment, ih.it he does not know what the phrase means. In essence, it means nothing. Quite intelligently the Dominions re.ilisn that they must grow not in 0110 limb «r another, but all ovefc 1 tlieir ecouomirt bodies. Quite certainly they will never .stamp out their manufacturing industries to provide a British matkefc. That is a couunonpldcc- 'of colonial opinion : it has been made clear lo Britain owr and over again. But JTrT Cliambetl.tin and his allies have m:iintain.?d the pretence that i.oloni,il prpfcrent-e mo.ml se!f-s>acriike, and have Hooded Biilain with pitiful pictures of the loyal Dominions standing and knocking vainly at the door of their British home,, asking for a crumb of kindness. The fact is, as everybody beyond Britain knows, that wo "want preferential trade in so far as it will pay us, and uo farther. Wo have no objection to Britctiu making a proiit loo; we would sooner jrive the trade to Britain than to the foreigner, other things being .equal : but as soon us other things aro

unequal -vr.3 think of our own pockets first, and not of British pockets. And that attitude is quit© reasonable; for, if tho Imperial creed has any basis, we are just as good Britons here as they are in Britain, and there is no sense at all in preferring the Briton in Sussex to the Briton in Winnipeg. Mr. Chamberlain may really have believed in his scheme once, but he cannot believe in it now. And the Conservative party support of his scheme- is merely given to divert electors from the real issue — which is the taxation 01" land-owners' w-salth, and the opening of British soil to British settlement. If voters in the industrial cities can be fooled by the carrots of Imperial Free-trade, the starved agricultural donkej' may itill be relied on to support his landlord according to tradition. So far as vital problems are concerned, tho Conservative policy is naught ; the Literal policy, with the aid of the House of Lords, can be brought fo naught; and that is the state of Britain. No wonder ther-s are Socialists, Not very long since, in a Punch cartoon, the British lion The was represented condoling Threatened with the winged lion of Domo. St. Mark-'s over the collapse of the Campanile in Venice, For some time past,- apprehensions have baen entertained as to tho possibility of a disaster graver still in London, the foundations of the great cathedral of St. Paul's having shown a certain amount of subsidence, followed by ominous cracks in the walls. At first, the subterranean operations of tne London County Council were blamed, but expert testimony did not support the suggestion ; ana the prosent idea ' seems to be that the more probable cause is the gradual removal of underlying sand into the Thames by the agency of water below the surface facilitated by dredging operations, which first broke the natural crust of the riverbed, and then deepened its channel. The latest_ reports from Home show that, so far, expert authorities differ as to tho extent of the damage, as well as to, the precise causes — and accurate diagnosis should precede remedial measures if they are to prove effective. Last night's telegram, recording a sinking — in some places to the extent "of six inches — beneath the great dome, may well adH to the disquiet of the citizens. j London— that is to say, living London — I without its great cathedral, would seem inconceivable, and Macaulay's phrase "The ruins of St. Paul's" was synomoncus with utter devastation. It is almost exactly thirteen hundred years since Ethelbert laid the foundations of a Christian temple on tho sito — a building which was deslroyed nearly five nundred years later by fire. "Old St. Paul's," undertaken soon after a structure in tho Norman style, was forty years in building, but was not considered absolutely complete till 1315. It had become badly dilapidated, and was undergoing restoration when it was swept away by the great fire of 1666. The present structure, Sir Christopher Wren s greatest monument, was begun in 1675 and completed in 1697, and its lofty and beautiful dome is London's crowning glory. Smaller than St. Peter's - at Rome, it excels it in its simplicity and beauty of proportion, and would have been even more beautiful had the great architect's design been in all respects adhered to. London, we may feel assured, will do all that science and skill can suggest to conserve a building, the disappearance of which would "be an irreparable loss — not to Britain alone, but to the civilised world. Information received by the last American mail permits one The American to form a more definMoney Crisis, ite opinion of the causes of the American money crisis. There were two 111 particular. In tho first place, a succession of prosperous years has carried industrial expansion beyond the point where the available currency could cope with it. American industry is like a child that, ir the common phrase, has outgrown its strength. Always and everywhere business is crossing money. As the tide of business rises, the tide of money falls, and vice versa. -A Chicago banker gave a case in point. "Here's a man," bo said, "comes 1 to me and tells me last year was the best business year ever ho had. He has trebled hib turnover, doubled his factory output and his staff of employees, and still has-more orders than he can overtake And what dees he want of me? He wants more money. He wants an additional overI draft to keep .pace with his expanding business. He wants to put up another factory and employ more men. The business is quite sound ; the profits are ample — and I can't give him the money ; I can't get the money to give him. For the same , thing is going on all over the country, and the stock of currency isn't equal to tho trade." That gives one intelligible reason for the I crisis. The other and lesser, yet still j important, is President Eoosevelt's campaign against industrial trusts aud millionaire magnates. That has had the effect of frightening all the ordinary stock-holders, all the small investors, who furnish much of tha capital for trusts and companies to work with. American stocks and bonds generally have fallen. Yet they are not commonly bought. Instead of using the '■ other fellows' money to keep up prices and the market, the millionaires have had to use their own. And, somewhat to their surprise, they have found they •] haven't got enough. Horrid tales are told of the scarcity of cash at Newport, I tho millionaires' summer resort. Entertainments this year have been on a plain suburban scale; and mere nigger minstrels, instead of whole o^era companies, have supplied after-dinner diversion. A third reason of the crisis, probably the least important, is suggested iv the tendency or the foreign population to hoard their gold in their homes. All three reasons have made American bankers cautious, thoughtful of their reserves, and those who have been' incautious have fallen. So in one way the crisis is natural, in the others the explanation is feasible ; and recovery, in the normal cycle, will take time.