NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1127, 15 May 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

A favourite phrase of the LabourSocialist agitator is "class consciousness." "The war we are fighting," he loves to say, "is a class war," and ho has for many years been urging the workers to become "classconscious," and be-rating them because they remain unmoved. They remain unmoved for the very, good leason that "class-consciousness" implies the existence of what does not exist in this case, namely,' the pressure and.antagonism of other classes. Our Socialist friends have not even begun to. realise .that "the workers" are not a sharply defined class or caste at all: when they appeal to "the workers'' they are appealing to the world at large. The Manchester Guardian discussed this point very well the other day in commenting upon a characteristic speech by Mi:. Keir Hardie. Mr. Hardie had said that in setting class against class, Socialists were only copying the tactics of their opponents. The Guardian observed that the theory of some deliberate conspiracy was an easy thing to put forward, and added:

But such theorisings, however tempting, rarely have a foundation of fact, ami are never really scientific. There are no conspiracies now; certainly there is no such thing as a class conspiracy. AVhen. for example; we are bidden to see a conspiracy to keep the children of the working classes out of the teaching profession, we suspect that a closer analysis of tho facts would reveal the results of imperfect co-ordination between primary and secondary education, and lack of understanding between inspectors and teachers, critics and performers. And we fanty most other modern conspiracies are capable of equally prosaic and unexciting explanation. Tho true method of reform is usually to reduce vague, nebulous discontent to- definite and precise forms by narrowing the issues, not by extending them. . . . Education has greatly lessened tho gap between men in all classes. There are fewer men of pre-eminent authority over their fellows, not because the leading men of to-day are inferior to those of former generation?, but because there has been a great levelling up in intelligence, and in particular perhaps disproportionate development all round of the critical faculty. The signs of unrest of which jr.ivHardie speaks arc not confined to one class, but are visible in all.

But, of course, our Labour-Socialist friends will say that the Guardian is a capitalistic and corrupt paper.

It is a great pity that the Hon. J. A-. Millar does not trouble to ask his staff, when it gives him matter for his speeches, to give him some sort of idea as to what that matter is, what it means, and what it refers to., In his Duncdin speech, opposing tho idea of a Civil Service Board, he said: ''It was strange that on March 31 there had appeared an article on Civil • Service Boards in .Great Britain." Ho then proceeded to quote an- article from the London Star, a journal chiefly owned by the Daily News, and devoted mainly to betting tips and police court cases. The article in'question was for the most part a vicious and wrong-headed attack upon the permanent officials in the Civil Service,- who are . cordially hated by the Radical press just now because of their- failure to preach bitter Lloyd-Geoegism in the De- , partmental reports and memoranda. Mr. Millar asked: "Did they want a system like that here]" We"would suggest that ho should cither give up using English newspaper clippings or else make sure he knows what they mean; for we are sure the public does not like to see a Cabinet Minister make himself ridiculous. One of the complaints made by the Radicals, 'in which they are supported by many Unionists, has to do with a very curious incident. There was issued last January by the Board of Education (or; "as we should say here, the Education Department) a circular urging inspectors to use their influence with local authorities to discourage elementary school teachers from obtaining inspectorships, and to see that such officials were public school men and graduates of Oxford or Cambridge. Mr. llumciman, questioned upon this )oint, said no such circular had, been issued by the Board. A week later the circular was produced and read in tho House of Commons, and Mr. Rukcijian then admitted the fact,.but repudiated the circular, which did not represent the policy of the Board. It appeared later that the circular had been printed and distributed with the sanction 6f the Permanent Secretary, Sir Rouert Morant, whose position k) Mr. Runciman is.as our Inspector-Gen-eral's to Mr. Foivlds. It is evident that the chief officials in some of tho Departments of State in Britain enjoy a larger freedom than is wise, but Mr. Millar should really get it out of his head that the incident has anything whatever to do with Civil Service Boards.

It appears to be clear from the statements which we publish in another column that the detention of the steamer Patcena at Picton on Saturday evening affords evidence of a quite surprising lack of consideration for the interests of tho passengers. The story as told is that the Patoena was advertised to leave Picton at 5.30 p.m., which would have given her ample time in which to reach Wellington to con-nect-with the Mararoa leaving for Lyttelton at 11 p.m. But, in order to ship a number of bags of barley, the departure of the Pateena was delayed until 8.15 p.m., and the passengers who desired to go on to Ohristchurch missed their boat, while the others were subjected to the inconvenience of arriving in port at an hour when the' trains and trams had stopped running for thft night. But, more than that,'the mails from the Nelson-Marlborough district for the South missed the Mararoa also, and will have to.remain hero until to-night's boat leaves for Lyttelton. All this inconvenience is stated to have been occasioned by the anxifly of someone to ship a quantity' of grain which could have been brought on by the next steamer. We endeavoured to ascertain last evening from the local office of the Union Company whether there was any explanation to offer for t'.io delay in the Pateena's departure bc:yond tho desire to ship the late consignment of grain mentioned, but were unable to do so. It.strikes us as a very remarkable thing that tho Union S.S. Company should display the lack of consideration alleged, and explanation is most certainly called for. It_ is possible that the trouble was occasioned by the too rigid adherence on tho part of a subordinate official to a rule which should have exceptions, and if this is the case then it is the business of the company to leave no room for misunderstanding in future. The running of the Saturday night boat to duo time is a matter of'very considerable importance to tho public;

and if that running is to be upset and the interests of passenger? seemingly treated with unconcern merely for the sake of carrying lat-e cargo, which might he left to another w?sel to bring on, then the company must blame those officials responsible if trouble comes of. it.