CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 6437, 17 March 1899, Page 1

CURRENT TOPICS.

The late Governor of New lord South Wale., was not allowed hami'DEM ex to take his departure from ArsTKALiAX the colony- without giving "in ciiakactkr- intervb-wer a farewell mesiSTtcs. sage to the people" of Australia. Lord Hampden i§ known to be observant, "and as he is also uniformly courteous to the Press, the interviewer expected something of interest. He was not disappointed. Some details of wha. the Governor said, more particularly his references to Federation and to the Pacific ay "an Australian heritage" have been cabled to New Zealand. But, perhaps, the most noteworthy portion of the Governor's remarks was omitted from the Press Association's message. From the Sydney newspapers it appears that Lord Hampden analysed, for the benefit of his questioner, the national temperament of the colonial, at least of tlie colonial on the other side of tin* Tusman Sea. The analysis was not exhaustive, but it was in one or two respects suggestive. "I could not possibly have been here for three and a half years," his Lordship said, " without taking a deep interest in all that concerns the daily life of the people. I have visited .several of the districts far removed i'rom the metropolis, and I am perfectly certain from what I have seen that the people in the conntry districts are a hardworking and industrious population. In many ways they encounter great difficulties, not the least of whicli is that occasioned hy droughts." These remarks, though of a somewhat non-committal ' character, are at least a tribute to th_ industry of the country residents of the continent, put the speaker was more interesting whon he referred to a charge very frequently made against the people as a wholo. It has been said, with more or less truth, that a warm climate tends to lower the moral tone of a community. Lord Hampden does not think that the tone of , Australia has been lowered. " I was certainly rather astonished, he said, "to hear statements from some public men reflecting upon the morals of the Australian people. I have been about the colony a good deal. I have attended many race meetings and picnics and other festivities, and have had abundant opportunity of observing the conduct of the people under a* variety of conditions. And on those occasions I have certainly se-m less intemperance than I have seen iv connection with similar occasions at Home. It is re n]ly wonderful how -well-eonduc'.ed the people are hi that respect. Australian, people have, I suppose, their faults, but they also have very much of the virtues of tlie race from which they sprang." Lord Hautjiden, it will be noticed, showed a tandency to make "morality" a question -o." temperance, and thus to avoid what is possibly a more serious aspect of the question, but the assertion that he saw no difference between the Australians and " our own people'< in the Old Country" is one thafc can stand by itself. It shows "that a reflection sometimes cast upon Australian social life is in no d-inger of being countenanced' by the departing Governor of New South Wales. The operations of the old pkxsioxs age pension scheme in New lntm the Zealand have been respoii-y,-o.mAn's sible for an article in one of point oi* the Sydney papers on the vikw. question of old age pensions for women. The writer is evidently a woman of sympathy and insight. " On the whole," she says, " the woman has loss opportunity of making provision for old age than the man. Very few single women continue for many years to earn enough to save from. . After thirty-five a woman's value to an employer decreases with every birthday, she soon exhausts her savings, and generally after that age lives from hand to mouth. A married woman cannot save. If she receives more money than she immediately .requires, she. invests it in her In. some cases.it proves a poor . investment, with. little or no return. 'Ihe poor old 'widow:, has surely a definite claim upon the -State; for whatever be her faults ancl failings, she must have done her pai't according to her lights in establishing a

home, in rearing children, in doing tlie work | necessary to lay the foundations of- Empire." The writer admits that where there are relatives possessed of anything like a competence there should not be much difficulty. But there are women who have never married, who have survived their guardians, and who have been unable to make pro vision for old age. As the writer pointedly says, " there are women on whom Fortune never smiled very brightly, who were never very beautiful, or clever, or skilful, but just able to earn enough to keep them from day to day, and little more. Sometimes they saved a few pounds, but sickness came, and there were intervals between situations, so the hoard was never large, and it is gone now, ancl they are poor indeed. They served the world for food and clothing,. and now the world is tired of themV This is in some respects a depnessing, but nevertheless a faithful statement of what happens in a great many cases. The depression is lightened, if not absolutely dispelled when it is considered that the tendency of the time is to entrust the State with the care of the old people who have served it during the greater part of their lives. In its way tlie Sydney lady's article is the most eloquent tribute to the value of an old age pension scheme that has yet appeared.

The publication of Si»* l .*el axd Robert Peel's private papers DISB.AKLI. has led to some rather unpleasant disclosures with reJ gard' to Lord Beaconsfield, and the Primrose League is much agitated; by the inflections they have cast upon its idol. It seems that during one j of the*wordy encounters between the two great statesmen in the House of Commons, Beaconsfield— at that time, of course, plain Mr Disraeli— accused Peel of having traded for forty years " on the ideas and intelligence of others." " There was," he declared, "no statesman since the days of the Conqueror who had committed political petty larceny on so great a scale. Yet he had told the House he did not feel humiliated ! It was impossible to know what were the feelings of others. Feeling depended upon temperament, upon the organisation of the animal that feels !" In his reply, Peel expressed surprise that a gentleman who entertained such a poor opinion of liis feelings and temperament should have been so anxious to join his Ministry. Directly the opportunity occurred, Beaconsfield jumped up— with extraordinary audacity, as it seems now — aud asserted that the statement that he had been an applicant tor oflice was entfrely unfounded. The papers which have just been published show how audacious this assertion was, and how confidently its author, relied upon Peel respecting the contents of a private letter. They include a communication sent by Beaconsfield to Peel some time baf ore thei** altercation in the House of Commons and containing the following paragraph:—" l have had to struggle against a storm of political hate and malice, which few men ever experienced, from the moment, at the instigation of a member of your Cabinet, I enrolled myself under your banner, a,nd I have only been sustained under these trials by the conviction that the day would come when the foremost man of this country would pub- ' licly testify that he had some resp.ct for my ability and my character. I confess, to be unrecognised at this moment by you appears to me to be overwhelming, and I appeal to your own heart-to that justice and that magnanimity which I feel are your characteristics—to save me from au intolerable humiliation." That there might be no mistake about the matter, Mrs Disraeli, the future Lady Beaconsfield wrote in plainer terms, supporting her husband's application, and it must have required extraordinary assurance on the part of the disappointed politician to declare that the application had never been made.