The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1899. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 9527, 20 July 1899, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. THURSDAY, JULY 20, 1899. AT HOME AND ABROAD.

The reply of Mr Hall-Jones to Mr Dauglas McLean's question as to when the Mohaka bridge will be finished throws a fierce light upon the futility and falseness of many of the claims of the Government. According to the latter and their supporters this country has been a kind of paradise on earth since 1891, in which year the people ceased to be serfs, eurplasses began to abound, wages to rise, production to increase, and all-round prosperity to become manifest. And this happy condition of affairs has been accentuating itself as the years rolled on. What was joy in 1891 developed into delirious delight in later years, and as since 1896 about a quarter of a million more money per annum has been raised by cheerfully paid taxes levied upon the necessaries of life through the Customs, from a political point of view New Zealand and Valhalla may be looked upon as synonymous terms, while from a financial standpoint the colony is simply rolling in wealth. That is the Ministerial version.

Unfortunately for this pretty picture facts seem to prove that we are more pinched for money and find it more difficult to make ends meet than ever before. The railway service has been allowed to go to the " demnition bowwowa " because the Minister did not think it prudent to spend cash for rolling stock and for repairs until the mechanical majority in the Honse voted him loan moneys to buy what in the bad old times used to be purchased out of railway receipts. As for breakdowns, like that which happened when the floods of 1897 came, many of them are not made good yet for lack of money. It took the Minister two years and two months to repair the break in railway communication between Awatoto and Clive. His excuse whon challenged about the delay was that he could not get ironbark timber suitable for the work. Tuat this was sheer nonsense everybody knew, but as for party reasons many who were acquainted with the truth pretended to believe what was not true, the Minister found support for bis delay and pre- j varication among tbo3e who suffered from those failings.

Possibly it will be so with the Mohaka bridge. That was swept away in April, 1897, and in reply to a question by the member for Uapier as to when it will be replaced, the Minister is good enough to express his belief that the structure will be completed by the twentieth of June next, or considerably more than three years after its destruction. This sort of progress could bo improved upon, oven if this wore not a country of magnificent surpluses. That it ought to be improved upon, therefore, goes without saying, especially as owing to the procrastination lives have been sacrificed, for persons obliged to attempt the crossing of the stream without the aid of a bridge have been drowned. Possibly this does not trouble the Minister. His grammatical studies with regard to whether " permit" ought to be read as a noun or a verb, in connection with tho " Jones-Duco" fraud, may provide him with such a sufficiency of mental stimulus that to think of such common things as the lives of travellers is not pressed upon him aa an obvious duty, while the need for restoring in less than three years and two months a bridge carried away by a flood does not seem to have struck him at all.

The plain fact is that for the last eight years tbe countiy has been groaning under the most vicious system of maladministration possible to conceive. I Lund scandals, bank scandals, Wrigg scandals, Murine scandals, scandals of juggled book-keeping, ecanduls of pressing public works npglected, scandals of all kinds, have dogged the political steps of tho Ministry. It is true that the Ministry have not ruined the colony, for the sun has shone, the rains havo fallen, and tbe earth has yielded her increase, but if political wrong-doing could havo achieved our destruction • hat result would havo happened at pbout tho time of the bank swindles and tbe legislation which resulted from them. But to those who are willing to face realities the shameful delay in connection with the Mohaka bridge must speak volumes. It means that if the Ministerial surpluses aro not the

ranke?t impostures, Hawke's Bay is being punished for political reasons by deliberate neglect of the most pressing works ; while if the delay is due to lack of funds, the whole of what is urged in favor of Ministerial finance is obviously untrue.

Wβ cannot tell whether the telegram from Dunedin dealing with the birth rate in that city is exaggerated or not, but if it is not we are brought face to face with a serious social problem. We have on one or two occasions, when discussing the recent legislation which seeks to prevent boys and girls learning trades, jocularly suggested that those in favor of such mischievous nonsense ought not to become parents, but here in solemn seriousness seems to be something of the kind in progress. The statements made aro sefcsational. The chairman of the Dunedin Education Board, in commenting upon the situation, says that it is alarming to study the vital statistics of the colony. That is hardly the way it should be pat, for seemingly it is not what affects the colony generally that is in dispute, bat the position of Danedin. That this is so is apparent from consideration of the problem as stated. It is that the attendance at the schools has decreased considerably tbere in consequence of a marked decrease in the birth rate, young children not being forthcoming to take the place of those leaving school, while in the country districts of Otago very few births are being registered. From some districts it was reported that there were no young children.

If the condition of things described is not greatly exaggerated we can only say that Otago is worse off in this respect than any other portion of the colony. It ia true that for many years past there has been a persistent decrease in the New Zealand birth rate, but it is not of such a nature as to justify saying of the colony what those who know Otago best say of that province. Over the whole colony the birth rate has decreased, slowly but regularly, from 3732 per thousand of the people in 1882 to 25 96 per thousand in 1897. This, while undoubtedly a striking fact, reveab nothing like what is alleged of Otago, so that if that be true the colonial decrease must be due principally to the condition of that part of the country. We I cannot help thinking that those responsible for the sensational statements in tlia telegram which has promoted these remarks have not spoken carefully, but have jumped to conclusions which a calm investigation would not bear out. That in this and in the other colonies, and to a large extent all over the world, the percentage of children to each marriage tends to decrease, ia a statement of the case strictly true ; but to say that, and to assert that in Otago young children are becoming so scarce as to necessitate dismissing school teachers, are two widely different things.

Among our cable messages yesterday was one which referred to the Eitualistic practice of reserving portions of the bread and wine used at the Lord's Supper. This question, which has been before the ecclesiastical authorities for some months, has nothing to do with the practice of the Roman Catholic Church reserving the wine from the laity, but relates to a practice that has grown up of late in the Anglican Oharch of reserving portions of both the bread and the wine, placing it after the celebration of Communion in a tabernacle devoted to that purpose, in order that the bread and wine thus reserved may be subsequently taken if necessary to sick persons, Communion "in both kinds 1, is the law of the Anglican Church, and even the most daring Ritualist who does not wish to be turned out of his church would not risk introducing the practice of Communion in bread alone for the laity, the wine being reserved for the celebrant. But with regard to reserving both bread and wine after the consecration service, instead of consuming or otherwise disposing of is left after celebration in the church, the question is held by some to be open, and hence the long disputes which have for some time past led to theological disturbances in the Anglican Church.

Apparently our view that a peaoable solution of the Transvaal difficulty would be found is to be proved correct. The Volksraad has made farther concessions which The Times regard as baring ended the crisis, and we are told that Mr Chamberlain is satisfied. While we freely admit that we side with Mr Rhodes, in his conclusion that nothing short of equal rights will permanently solve the problem, it is nevertheless pleasing to find that a working compromise has been arrived at without the necessity for fighting. Of course there ia still the danger that in what President Kruger is seemingly giving with such frankness, we may have buc the elements of another of the tricks of low cunning which have marked his policy for so many years. Even if the inadequate concession of the franchiso after seven years is secured, it will be possible by a rigging of the electorates and by an unfair distribution of seats to prevent the outlanders getting, we will not say fair play, but even an approach to it, in tbe matter of Parliamentary representation. Bat as Mr Chamberlain has shown himself so firm up till now, and has succeeded in wringing from the Boers that which for so long they asserted should never be granted, we enay fairly trust him to see that his work is not rendered nugatory by subterfuge.