The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1895. THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 7499, 19 October 1895, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1895. THE OUTSIDE WORLD.

It seems strange that Lieutenant Peary should declare Greenland to be insular, and almost as strange that the cable agency should consider it worth while to repeat his declaration. Greenland has been held to be an island for the last forty years. Those who will take the trouble to look at a map of the world will see that the only undefined portion of Greenland is that part of it which lies north of the eighty-fourth parallel of longitude. ' The waterway between Northern Asia and Northern America, and the line re- . presenting the eightieth degree, is shown i on all modern projections of the globe. I For Greenland not to be an island it would have to form part either of the North American continent, in which case all the waterways among the islands of the Arctic archipelago would have to be wiped out, or else part of Northern Asia. That this is not the case has long been known, and for so long as that has been known there was no need for anybody to tell us that Greenland was an island. We think the message has been misunderstood, and that what Lieutenant Peary means is that it is possible to find open water all round Greenland at certain seasons, and that it can then be «ircumnavigated.

We confess to failing to understand the cable message we published last night referring to the question of salmon. The message was to the effect that the British authorities objected to the sale of Vancouver frozen salmon shipped via Australia, because it is at present the close season- for salmon. The cable message is perfectly comprehensible if we are to understand that salmon is shipped from Vancouver to Australia and thence sent to England frozen, because that would enable the law as to the English close season to be broken. What is hard to believe, however, is that it would pay anybody in British Columbia to ship to Australia, transfer there to boats leaving for England, and get a profit after paying the double freights and charges. We do not say the thing cannot be done, but it would be preferable to believe in its possibility only after hearing good evidence to that end. At present that evidence has not been available. Of course, if it were found that English epicures were willing to pay fancy prices for salmon in the close season, as they will sometimes pay dearly for out-of-season peas and strawberries, even to ship from Vancouver to England via Australia would pay. But at present we doubt the story.

The action oF the Admiralty in granting a pension to Surgeon Lea is practically a reversal of the sentence of

the Court Martial who tried him. The

issues were not very involved. He said that Captain Johnson, of the ltingarooma, was not in a fit state to be in command of his ship, owing to mental indisposition, and ordered him under arrest. The captain did not agree with this view of the case, but had the surgeon placed under arrest and subsequently charged with insubordination. The Court Martial found him guilty, and although he bore a twelve years' unblemished character he was dismissed

his ship and dismissed the navy. A petition on his behalf was sent Home from Australia, and the subject was discussed in the House of Commons. The Government decided that they could not set aside the finding of the Court Martial, and further said that

they agreed with it, as Surgeon Lea could have appealed to the commanders of other ships of war in harbor at the

time he ordered the captain under arrest. As ho failed to do this, and instead took the extreme step he did,

the Government held that the Court Martial was right in finding him guilty of insubordination. Yet now the Government stultify themselves and turn the Court Martial into a farce by giving Surgeon Lea a pension. We rejoice that ho is to get it, but regret the inconsistent and illogical manner of its conferring.

Tho message of Mr Gladstone to tho people of the United States is undoubtedly true. It will be a bad day for the commercial supremacy of Great Britain when the United States become a Freetrade country. From that point of view one is tempted to hope that the stupid and hurtful doctrines of Protection may always find a majority behind

iem m the United States, as while

that is the case England must prosper above all her fiscally-fettered rivals. From the standpoint of absoluto right, however, and as firmly believing that the only fair trade is Freetrade, we ought to hope for the conversion of America. It would be pleasant to be able to discern the triumph of reason over prejudice in the Australasian colonies, but there are no signs of this. New South Wales is wisely emphasiaingher Freetrade principles, and she

will, if she is allowed to stand alone in that respect, monopolise the whole carrying trade of the Pacific, but all the other colonies seem quite willing to aid her in her efforts to eclipse them. New Zealand lost her chance of becoming the true Britain of the South, so far as commerce is concerned, when she fell into the Protection bog.

The action of the Premier of South Australia suggests some curious thoughts. He has succeeded in getting his Parliament to agree to prevent Chinamen from working on any goldfield or in any mining claim. This will be hailed by many as an extraordinary victory. Let us not forget, however, that it is a victory of the kind, which China won centuries ago, when she decided to shut out the " barbarian." It is that victory which has brought upon her most of her subsequent trouble, including not only national decadence for lack of the stimulus born of competition, but the attacks upon her by outside States who demand that their subjects shall enjoy life and liberty in China if they choose to reside there. We are therefore most inconsistent, for while we claim the right to go to China we refuse to allow Chinamen an equal right to come here. If there is no such thing as a principle of justice in the universe, our inconsistency may not subject us to future inconvenience, but if there is such a thing our punishment for infringing it must result necessarily. It is a poor rule that will not work both ways, and if we demand the right to keep Chinamen Erom honestly and quietly earning a livelihood in this part of the world, we ought to cheerfully submit to being shut out of China.

But there is a more philosophical view of this case worth considering. A man who believes that God made Chinamen as well as Irishmen and Englishmen will not bo ready to refuse to Chinamen opportunities of procuring food, clothing, and shelter in the country where the Irishman or Englishman happens to be. But a man who does not believe God made Chinamen cannot believe that God is tho author of any man's existence. The denial of the one involves a complete denial of the creation theory. Those, therefore, who would refuse to albw to Chinamen, or Negroes, or Japanese, the natural rights which upon any creation hypothesis belong to all men, are Atheists. They may call themselves Protestants, Catholics, or what they will, but they are Atheists. If they pooh-pooh this aspect of the case, they are still tyrants, anyway. A man who claims for himself natural privileges which he will not concede to another is a tyrant. If we adopt the Christian view of " Resist not evil," it is wrong to hold that killing is no murder, but if we do not, and are ready to admit that there are circumstances when it is meritorious to kill, then those circumstances come into being when we find a man who, claiming the right to live himself, will not concede that right to another. And whether that other be born in London or Pekin, in County Down or Fucheng, in Glasgow or in Yeddo, makes no difference to the principal. Justice is of no nationality.

Another miners' strike is threatened in New South Wales. If it comes it will be—supposing that we may trust the cables—the fault of the employers and mine-owners. The cable messages on the subject state that the existing and threatening condition of affairs is due to the owners persistently undercutting each other in the endeavor to obtain new markets or to monopolise old ones. If these persons paid for their fun out of their own pockets their tactics would be purely their own business. But they do not do so. They first cut' to undersell a rival. That rival has to retaliate. The first cutter wishes to go one better (to use a well-known phrase), but is met with the consideration that if he does he must either cut his own profits or his workmen's wages. He does not hesitate at this juncture, but cheerfully resolves to shed as much of his brother's blood as his brother will submit to lose. That is what is now in process of working out in New South Wales at this moment, and if a strike and its consequent suffering bring another labor blight to that colony for a time, the authors of the mischief will not be the miners who strike, but the mineowners who force them to that course.

The one hundred million roubles which it is announced Russia is about to mint represent roughly fifteen million pounds sterling. The rouble is the money unit of Russia. It is divided into a hundred copecks of the value of a little over the third of a penny each, the rouble itself being worth three shillings and twopence. At first sight the determination to coin this amount of silver looks like another of the many signs of preparation for war Russia has been manifesting lately. It may really be one of those signs, and the most reliable of them. On the other hand it may be nothing of the kind, for Russia needs coins badly for ordinary commercial purposes. She is at present a paradise where paper money does all tho good it can. She has all the advantages in that way which the wise and far-seeing advocates of paper money for New Zealand would confer upon us. That is to say, Russia is in a condition of either perennial bankruptcy or inflation, mostly the former, as New Zealand would be if the sagacious reformers aforesaid could have their way. In tiussia there is little else but paper in circulation, in the form of notes from one rouble in face value to a hundred roubles. The silver rouble is worth three shillings and twopence, as we have said. The paper rouble is worth in exchange for commodities almost exactly two shillings. That is one of the benefits of paper money.

The shilling testimonial to Dr Grace has reached the total of five thousand

pounds. From many points of view, and especially from tbe standpoint of admiration for facility in a noble game, the testimonial is defensible, possibly praiseworthy. But there is another aspect, possibly a little more cynical, but none the less worthy of some consideration. Dr. Grace was born of parents who were able to give him a liberal education. He started adult life fitted to be an ornament to

that noblest of all professions—that which exists to alleviate the sufferings and cure the ills to which flesh is heir. Instead of devoting his energies to that profession he chose to put in his life welting a leather ball about the earth, and for that he is rewarded with five thousand pounds. Had he devoted his life to philanthropy he would probably have been ignored if his efforts left him lacking bread. Haying chosen to practically understand what is meant by "expenses" paid to amateurs, as opposed to " wages " paid to professionals, he finds his bread buttered on both sides. When a poor young doctor dies through infection contracted while performing tracheotomy for diphtheria, the world says " poor fellow, 1 ' and straightway forgets him. Dr. Grace shunted the risks of his profession for the fun of perpetual play, and is idolised.