TOPICS OF THE TIME.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 7, 2 June 1896, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE TIME.

f According to to-day's cable news there is great jubilation in South Africa because" of the promise of President Kruger to do his best to obtain mitigation of the sentences on the Reformers. This, we are told, is regarded as a pledge of racial reunion, and, what is more to the purpose, stocks have risen 50 per cent. "We cannot understand so sharp a rise upon such slender words', unless the market is being worked with the knowledge of some who stand near to Ooni Paul. Of course, there have been throughout possibilities of a wonderful "bear," and some clever people will become multimillionaires before it is over, and some " lame ducks " will go into outer darkness. Great is the gamble of the Rand, and it will be another interesting development if time should show that Cecil Rhodes has really been the keeper of the bank. But though stocks have risen, Joubert and Leyds are organising a firm alliance with the Orange Free State, and arms and munitions of war to the tune of 25,000 additional rifles and 10,000,000 of cartridges are to be ordered to, cement the union of the races. Then the Transvaal Government has put a deep affront upon the High Commissioner by sending officers to the frontier to verify his statement that troops are not being massed at Mafeking. This Sir Hercules positively denied at the time, stating that the troops were under the control of Im-' perial officers, who in turn were under his orders. This is not the line of conduct to establish confidence, and suggests that the stockjobbers of the Rand will presently again ride for a fall, and, as of old, the poor publio will be " badly^-lef t."

Lord Brassey has been reassuring the Australian mind as to the power and effectiveness of the British Navy of to-day. He is a competent and reliable witness, and his statement can be accepted as one of fact that our present naval power is above the standard agreed upon by the House of Commons. As we have more than once pointed out, the Salisbury, Government has turned the newly-aroused war spirit of the nation to the fullest account in straining naval preparation to the utmost limit. Lord Brassey says that the naval power of Britain now exceeds the power of equality with any other two nations. Fur- < ther, the British power is increasing more rapidly than that of Russia and France combined. In this relation it is satisfactory to find that the defences of these colonies are not ineffective or effete, as some of our local critics would have us believe, for we find that on 14th April, in London, the Earl of Hopetoun presided at a meeting of the Royal United Service .Institution, when Vice- Admiral N. Bowden-Smith read a paper on ''Two Years in Australian Waters." lie said he was much struok by the determination of all the colonies to have good harbours. Several of the ports, both in Australia and New Zealand, were fairly well defended. He believed the best defence both for their ports and trade routes was to maintain a powerful navy. The colonists had of late years contributed substantially towards the mainten-i ance of a so-called auxiliary fleet, and the colonies got more than their moneys worth. If, in years to come, thfe Australian polonies became one great confederation, they would probably have their own navy, but for the present they could not do better than continue to support the Imperial Naval force. Six games have been played by the Australian cricketers with Oxford, the results of them being that the colonials have been returned winners five times, while the [University has notched but one victory. The third Australian eleven (the most powerful which has ever visited England) opened against Oxford, and Massie at once took the cricket public by storm by hitting up^the large score of 206 out of a total of 265 made while he was at the wickets. His side won that game by nipe wickets, but the match played against the following team resulted in a win for the University by seven wickets, chiefly through the fine batting of Kemp and O'Brien, and the bowling of Whitly. The 1886 match was playea on a bowler's wicket, and Spofforth "had the extraordinary average of 15 wickets for 36 runs. The Australians won by 25 runs. The 1888 match was notable for a fine innings of 105 by Percy M'Donuell, whose side won by an innings and 19 runs. Murdoch's 1890 team won by an innings and 61, while Blackham's team only secured a victory by the narrow margin of 19 runs. " A hothouse for Jorcing Liberal and Labour legislation " is the opinion of New Zealand held by a recent visitor, Mr: Mathew Swinburne, late of Newcastle, but now of TttAbiAKTA- THrlinu Downs, Queensland.

Mr. Swinburne, having made his modest pile, wished to settle in the colonies for the seventh age of man, and for that purpose visited this colony. But after an extended tour in these islands he decided that New Zealand was not the place of his dreams, and settled in Queensland — why, he explained in response to the toast of his health at the annual exhibition of the Eastern Downs Agricultural Society, Warwick, Queensland. " I went from north to south of New Zealand and spent about two months with very great pleasure and profit. I tell you frankly that I like New Zealand better than Australia. Its climate is more congenial to Englishmen. I would have liked to have settled my son there, and, with that view, inspected several estates. Their legislation, however, scared me. The levelling state of the laws, and the promise of more of the same kind to come, was cautioning capitalists that it was very uncertain for them to invest in such a country. The so-called ' progressive' legislation, and the prospect of more, only hampered the shopkeeper, the manufacturer, and the employer, with no benefit whatever to the -working classes — but the contrary. The village settlement was a failure, and the lending of cheap money to the farmer was initiated. That experiment was looked upon as being fraught with most certain danger, as the Government could not "protect itself from dishonest valuators and political pressure. Only those of the Party got the awards. The Queensland Government appears to be following in the wake of New Zealand. May they do so with wisdom and caution by adopting and applying only those good and beneficent laws which experience has proved so, and rejecting all visionary and dangerous schemes. Then, again, the New Woman is a veritable reality in New Zealand. Her status in every way is equal to her husband's. As several ladies said to me, they had now got the franchise and must make some sort of • use of it, but they did not know what the general idea ought to be. Depend upon it, they will soon find the idea, learn the use of it, and grasp the power along with it. Well, I did not speculate in New Zealand, but left it as I found it, to work out its own salvation, and sailed for Hobart, and then for Queensland." The good people of Hawera, in the Taranaki Province, have a desire to emulate Cbica go and go in for pork. At a recent meeting of the local Chamber of Commerce the Chairman remarked that it was an industry which had made Chicago and would also make Hawera, or any other district in the colony which was ' first in the field, and he strongly urged the members of the Chamber to think seriously of the question. If the district could take its' stand in the forefront in the cheese and butter industries, why should it not do so in pork ? The meeting apparently saw that there was something in the Chairman's suggestion, and forthwith se.t.up a.c.ommittee, with instructions to go exhaustively into the question and* furnish a report. That there is money in porkraising Chicago has proved, and if properly taken up, there is no ' reason why Hawera should not become the "porkopolis" of this colony.

It is the custom of visitors to the colonies on their return to the Old Country to air their impressions of what they may or may not have seen in the course of their travels. Only too frequently these fls'ing visits give too little opportunity for forming correct ideas of colonial life and the condition of things in the countries through which they are made, and very erroneous and misleading "information" is sometimes spread broadcast? ' Mr. Haweis, who a short time ago paid this colony a visit, and charmed large audiences with his delightful lectures, has undergone the usual interviewing operations on Ms return Home, and it is pleasingly refreshing to note that, at any rate in his judgment of this colony, he is very near the mark in indicating the true position of affaire. "There is still plenty of room in the colonies," he says, " and the first quality needed by a young man to ensure success is a little money; second, a good introduction ; third, not to be afraid of turning his hand to anything." Speaking of New' Zealand, he remarks— " They don't want ' genteel ' people out there. Clerks are at a discount ; New Zealand is overdone with them. Domestic servants are always in request, so are farm workers, and there are plenty of openings for professional men, and especially to anybody who can minister to the entertainment of the people ; they will have entertainments, and young men who could get up > good variety entertainments would be received with open arms." Mr. Haweis may not be entirely right in his judgment of our colony, but, excepting as to the "variety" type of colonist, of whom we have at times enough and to spare, he has not gone very far astray.

Undoubtedly the cyclist, who now wheels through the streets of the city with more or less freedom from restriction, will soon be brought under special regulations. The very rapidity of the growth of this hobby requires it, and the City Council has been engaged in incubating a scheme for some montlis^ When it will emerge into actuality who can tell, in view of the frame of mind which the Municipal Fathers have shown of late? Meanwhile, let the wheelmen (and women) take note of what has been done in Melbourne. There a comference of metropolitan and suburban councils has been held, and foregathering with it there were delegates from the cyclists' unions of the metropolis 'and its environs. Some points seem to have peen agreed ,upon by common consent. Riding on footpaths, it was decided, should be strictly forbidden; every bicyclist must carry- a light between half an hour after sunset and sunrise ; each cyclist must also carry a bell, whistle, or horn, and the bell be sounded on passing a horse or vehicle ; the speed of C3'chsts when passing street corners had to be reduced. The municipalities wished to impose a speed of eight miles an hour when running through boroughs and of four miles when crossing streets, but at the request of the cyclist representatives the figures were left out, it being pointed out that it was' impossible to lay down a, hard and fast rule. The following proposed bylaw provoked \ a great deal of discussion : — "No person using a bicycle, or having charge thereof, shall leave the same at any one time in or on any street so as to become an obstruction, and every person shall remove his bicycle immediately upon being requested by a constable or other authorised official." The proposal was eventually withdrawn. It was agreed that cyclists must dismount when approaching a restive .horse ; and that the rule of the road must be followed. " Keep to the right on passing a horse or vehicle" also caused considerable discussion. The cyclists urged that wheelmen should be allowed to pass to the left if necessary, but the bylaw was retained. There was a proposal that " not more than two people should ride abreast," which also provoked much argument, and was finally struck out. On the whole, the regulations agreed to seem to bear the mark of common sense, and they may possibly be worth bearing in mind by local legislators •nearer home.

1 ,(Tho Chinese question was recently under discussion by the Auckland Women's League. , Mrs. Rule admitted that she knew little or nothing about the Chinese, but said she objected to them settling in the colony. Mrs. Gibson took a somewhat different view. The Chinese should,- she said, be shut out of the colony if the commercial prosperity of the country depended upon their exclusion, but the League should be honest and admit that it was because the almond-eyed strangers were willing to work for less money than Europeans that the cry for their exclusion was raised. A good deal of the talk about the immorality, dirt, and disease of the Chinese was to her mind mere cant. She strongly advised her hearers to drop all talk about

religion, for if the Christ whom they prefessed to follow was with them he might say that the Chinese were their brothers. Tho Chinese must not be shut out of the colony, aud other cheap workers allowed to come in, Mrs. M'Connell argued that Chinese were undesirable colonists, inasmuch as they did not circulate their money in the colony. The President (Mrs. Johnston) asserted that the Chinese took up land which had already been brought into cultivation by Europeans, and another lady followed with the statement that the Chinese found it to their advantage to pay a high rent for suitable ground. Mrs. Gibson, who had previously spoken, saicL that if the English people had not forced China to open her ports, natives of that country would not now be coming to the colonies. Mrs. Marson expressed the opinion that the Chinese "were a disgrace and a nuisance, and said she should like to see them exterminated. A male visitor (Mr. Alkopp) held that if the Chinese were allowed to come here in large numbers the progress of the colony would be checked, and the white man would be dragged down to the level of the Chinaman. The subject was then allowed to drop. If the discussion of the Chinese question by the Women's Political League of Auckland is not to be productive of more "light and leading" than this, we would suggest that they will not weaken their influence by asking the press to avoid publication of their deliberations. In any case, they should first come to understand that the test of immorality in a European community does not apply to the Mongolian. This they do not" understand, and no decent man and nd decent newspaper will be willing to explain it to themopftissicqinpellad.'. ■>• n