LASH AND LONG GAOL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1224, 5 September 1911, Page 8

LASH AND LONG GAOL.

6 AND A GOLDEN DAY, GLIMPSE OF THE TEAR 2011 A.D, .•■.:.'.:. :.. .. No> . 3 _;.. : . :-. :: (Br Gybo.) , . At , "tho Auckland Supremo Court Sessions la, man received sentences on two- counts—ten years and five ycarsi cumulative. That is a sentence of toentirely necessary measure in ISII., In 2011 A.D. thcro will have occurred • a erea-t chance. "The Tace," said tho lato.Oaptain Mutton. -in his littlo book . on evolution, "has . passed . its physical maximum, and its mentality is now as high , as 'ever 'it <will ■ bo. ~ The coininK development will be ethical." "Tho men of tho futuro will not hesitate to put habitual criminals to a*tttt."-Hr. H. G. Wella. "Yah!" "Whizz!" "Take that I" What is it'all about? Why just a street scene in 1911. It is a worker being' hoisted into a cab by two police on a Saturday afternoon- Tho worker's mouth is bleeding, and as you look you may observe that his poor, little, shabby hard-hitter is just being borne on tho spring wind away round tho corner. The trousers of one of the police aro tern from top to bottom, and tho eye of the other is fast disappearing; behind a blue chiaroscuTo, where tho worker's fist got home. . • "Bit potty," remarks a small boy, but bo one replies, and presently' tho caravan moves off. In fifteen minutes tho bolts of the cells aro banged behind a very dilapidated worker. Meantime what of She startled down the streot that very afternoon with the childron—rather joj-ous adventurers a-foot to meet "daddy," and bring ; homo the weekly wage. The children peered into the-windows of' fllo, Chinaman's : shop' as they passed, and then they waited at the corner.' An hour went by, perhaps two, and then tho woman divined the meaning of that delay, and wept. Tho children cannot makft. it. oat. ..- . .. . They return, to the ■ Chinaman's .window to watch and to wait. '. ~■. ■' ~. .. . On Monday the nian is fined—he hardly knows why. "I jes' had.five. meejums, your Worship," iiesays, ''and alter .that .1 didn't remember no more, i It'fair put: me to sleep." What-lie.might'have.said-should run something,like,this:.... ■ : Your Worship.—r am a. worker by profession, and a;lib.-Laheral by persuasion. For twenty years I have vot■ed to keep tho Lib:-Labs. in: I have also helped to pay-for tho upkeep of a Libi-Laberal Health : Department. Do you not think >th'at that. Depart- ' ment should see 'to' somoof the beer I drink, so that ;a glass or two shall not bo sufficiently potent to set me a-flame ix> wreckithe town?.- You see, your Worship, it would bo quite simple to boil some of'that beer in . a beaker over a Bunson burner, and ' roughly tesi it with blue litmus. If we dii wo might.get a chemical reaction indicating the presence of a very ■ strong acid? But Lib.-Laberalism— ■ what does it <3o in theso matters? Maybe some poor milkman is harried once in six moriiths. . . ! And here is another case.- There was a man whose pnblished record was so bad that the State resolved that it must cease. ■It presently became a duel between the man and the State, not a duel as regards morality, but a duel in cleverness and efficiency of methods. After one year of steady antagonism the man took tho measure of his simplo enemy,-and laughed straight into-the face of • a' Lib-Laberal Justice Department, and wont his way. Tho main's name was Powelka.. Could anything have been more demoralising? Chelations :oi some Lib-Labs with such' ooneeras as shipping companies quite a beautiful book' might bo written, but there is nojpresentfipeed. ■••Lefr / ns keep to-.the subject—to the lash-and-the long gaol;and the breaking down of most of the remedial, influences tending'towards •righteousness'.'. .•;■"■■ Of the continued interference of LibLaberalism with the hand of the State school teacher something was said in .previous, articles. Tho simple little whipping at school has become a somewhat perilous thing for the teacher, and is, less common than , it was.-- -That is partly why. the lash and the long gaol are becoming commoner for. the ■ offspring of certain parents later in life.- Of the offspring of better parentage the brand of Seddonism and Millarism and Wardism is also plain. Merchants, -know them well. : .They cannot write; they read with difficulty; it takes hours for them to go 500 yards to clear the mail-box at the Post ..Office. To their, somewhat dubious accomplishments in plasticine modelling B&d brushwork, which also came with Lib-Laberalism, the employer is, naturally, a little indifferent". It must not, however, be supposed that our primary remedial influence —the State school system—has perished for want of experts. It is one .of tlio symptoms of Lib-Laberalism tha); experts grow as thickly os'mushroom.s in Happy Valley. At one time, in the. State schools, they tried-a system of vertical writing. The system was the product of • very long headsin England, and only ten or fifteen years--.-Fould have been sufficient to determine -what its merits were. Alas! It did- not get much lime. . Au "expert" rose noisily at the ° table of tho Otago Education Board one'day, and roared that it must stop. That' noisy "expert" was the Hon. T. Mackenzie. He was on educationist them, and now he is a farmer. He is a Lib-Laberal-expert on the farming questions of tho day." One chortles a little sometimes. This sort of thing and hundreds of other fatuities', fiko it cannot last. ; , As the poet Mackay said: "There's a pood, time, coming, boys," and the only difficulty is to fix a. dato. Conceive oureelveS standing on top of Mount Victoria in the .year 2011. The hill itself will be mantled with trees, and bonneted with artillery. A dozen tunnels will stab it. The mists, which sometimes.shroud the other side,of Pert .Nicholson, will not be' sufficient, to hide tho mass of dwellings which, will have risen acros3 the bay. In the eveni&gs the sky above Kilbirnio will bo reddened with tho glow of him-, d-reds of furnaces,' and tho whole of the Hutt Valley will bo gemmed with light. Fifty, very small spearheads of ships, each mounting only one- 'turret, • will ■ be a-dTOwse at moorings in Evans Bay. These will bo the Dreadnoughts of that day. Aeroplanes will, be rising .and falling everywhere against the blue. Thero will even be cheap week-end trips to Tonga. This' will be very wonderful, but tho most wonderful' of all tho changes "will perhaps he the least observable at the first looking. It will bo tho march which all research eeenis to show that the world is now ready to make.in tho direction of ethics and right-doing. Some even say religion. One conceives ihat the dishonest tradesman will entirely have vanished. So will all other patently ■ dishonest persons. Thoso who are inclined t'o adopt tho view of Mr. H. Or. Wells in Ms "Anticipations" —tho view which he expressed before a meeting of the British Association—have some warrant for supposing that continued meddlers with righteousness will bo put to death. Mr. Wells' thinks'that'tho men of the futuro will not hesitate to do that. ' ' ■ • ■ ■ ' ■ '• • And Lib-La beralisra-ronr bravo LibLaberals of ' Mil—where will it be? It will bo plaintively dead, and tho-daisies will bo growing over it. Bits of it will be shown in tlio moving pictirro shows of 2011, but whether it will bo screened among the tragedies or the comics is hard to say. One is inclined to tliink that its likeliest placo will bo among the "Foolshead" series. No doubt tlio entrepreneurs.of 2011 will know their business. Meantime that golden day is far off, and the night, is yei dark. It is only 1911— tho day of 'tlio lash nnd tho long gaol. Lib-Laberals stalk tho land with the State correctives in one hand, nnd their own beautiful oxamplo in tho other. "Wonn!" calls the warder as the cat whizzes down. "Tew!" , calls the warder as down it comes again. And, whilo.it is going on one may perceive the dogs in the street near tho gaol burking with their heads turned up to the sky as if even they were minded to ask the bright, blue implacable universe why these things should be.