TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 26, 30 July 1907, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Since the commencement of the Rand strike — which tho cable tells Strike us to-day has ended — the Ended. Transvaal Minister of Mines has been familiarising himself ivitk tho legislation alreadj- tried el3Cwhero, particularly that of New Zealand, for the settlement of labour disputes by compulsory arbitration. A declaration of the Government's policy on this subject may be made at any timo. With the meagre information at hand it is difficult to gain any idea of the terms agreed upon in concluding the miners' strike, but at the actual endiu" of the strike there will be a general fooling of satisfaction. The miners sought to prevent additional responsibilities boing planed upon them in the mines, but it is very doubtful if they i have succeeded against the tremendous influence of 4.he mming millionaires. The men must have alienated a great deal of public sympathy by the acts of violence associated with the progress of the strike, and without the backing of public sentiment no strike can wholly succeed. It is to bo hoped tbat -the Government, of which General Botha has already proved himself a firm 1 leader, will promptly grapple with this phase of tho labour problehi and place within reach of the men a system or tribunal which can be relied upon to mete out justico to both parties. "Banish the Chinese" was ono of the main cries of the strikers. We shall read with even greater pleasuro the cablegram that tells us of tlio repatriation of the Invaders from the East. In its special sphere, the Council ol the Churches has done some Divorco very useful work, and the made discussion last night, initiatEasy. Ed by the Bey. P. W. Fairclough, and the facts brought to light — which will come to many as a surprise— arc such as the Administration and Parliament, in the interests of public morals and even of iocial stability, cannot afford to overlook. Collusion between the parties is, for obvious reasons, a bar to divorce under British law, but tho provision in our own statute, that disobedience of an order for restitution of , conjugal rights shall be held to be equivalent to desertion for five years, has afforded great facility for collusion, which there is reason to fear has been turned to account. The notable increase in the applications for orders for restitution of conjugal rights, eide by eido with an increase in divorces in, far larger ratio than tlia increase of population, goes I far to confirm the suggestion that this oblique method is finding favour with many who -would hesitate to use the direct methods, contemplated By th,e law. Wlmtevei object Parliament may have had in making this peculiar provision, it j can scarcely have realised its possibilities for evil. It has the opportunity, now that it is in session, of reconsidering an action that appears to havo been taken inadvisedly, and which has apparent lv already hegun to affect prejudicially the social o^der of the community. A distinguished celestial visitor is paying a, call on tho earth. This Seven is "a comet, with seven tails, Tails, one of which is sevon million miles long." Appropriately enough the monster was first sighted a couple of days ago by a French astronomer named FLimmarion, and the multi-tailed heavenly body was then just ft matter of a hundred million miles (only about eight thousand times the distance between Wellington and London) away from the earth-. To the inhabitants of Mars or Venus, possibly, thn spectacle of an old man comet running by night through tho vasty upper ail 1 , waving seven brilliant tail's, must, be exhilarating. From what gay band of comets has this dissip;itfd member broken loose? From what halls of heavenly -revelry will he bo missed?, Onto, far from mortal eyes, he wagged! his tails in the peace of 'well-established ! law, and now ho is v vagrant, an "incorrigible rogue," as tho police might say, found by night, without lawful excuse, in the starry domains which tho people hero think belong to them. One of the trespasser's tnifs, too, is long enough to encircle the earth three hundred times, and it is therefore to be hoped that ho will be merciful and not swish his great appendix round and round our little, globe, flicking us off likf" flies. It is not stated that this latest cojnjt has cojae jvitk intent to coyyiut

a crime — a purpose attributed to an Italian one aDout which the cable said much a few months ago. Eventually it was proved that the monster, which was due to inflict "considerable damago" on the earth, bad its birth in the mind of a practical joker, who alleged that the prophecy came from the lips of a famous astronomer. That comet scare was responsible for a painful, though ludicrous, incidont in Melbourne, and also troubled the minds of Fijians. Generally, however, this world does not take impending comet disasters very seriously. Perhaps tho reason is that tho name of the destroying agent so readily suggests "comic." There is an old proverb which reads : "A man may lose his goods Korea's for want of demanding Plight, them," and no doubt this or some other axiom of a similar nature has influenced Japanese action in regard to Korean affairs. For the Japanese remember, doubtless with chagrin, that once upon a time they easily won Port Arthur only to relinquish it at the behest of some of the Powers, and win it back after months of labour which involved great loss of life and much treasure. "You cannot catch old birds with chaff" ; Japan was young then in tho ways of Western diplomacy — to-day sho can perform fairly well on the whole gamut. .She had. prior to the war with Russia, many ihtorcsts to defend in the Korean "Empire ; now her intc-rests aro greater. The new Coavention which has been signed makes Japan, ipso facto instead of inferentially, cuprnno in Korea, and Russia — tho only one of the Powers besides China which must feel mpro or less sore — has, we are told by to-day's cables, calmly eaten the leek. The Tm-'s Government could haidly do anything else, for the Japanese aro in * possession, while Russia i&, f,o to speak, ttill jn splints, and has a gwd deal thii mu&t occupy hei attention at homo. Tho recent defections from, the Irish Parliamentary Party will The Irish be severely "felt by tho Party. leaders of that party, however much thoy may profess to treat them lightly. In Sir Thomas Eamonde, who so long and ably represanted North Wcxford, the Nationalists had a tried, warm friend, one whoso retirement must have come as a surprise to even those who professed to know him bast, for hp was one who, while eloquent, never indulged in that ■ variety of fiery rhetoric that many persons have come to look upon as characteristic of Irish Parliamentarians. Mr. Blake's retirement. has been occasioned by ill-health, but it is just possible that tncro are other reasons which he deems it politic to keep in the background while tho momber for North Lc-itrim, like Sir Thomas Esmonde, evidently thinks that the time has come when "Ireland must give up bargaining with 'bated breath in a foreign Legislature with foreign popple for the restoration of stolen liberties." This language is reminiscent of Henry Grattan, the grandfather of Sir Thomas Esmonde. In April, 1782, Grattan moved a resolution in tho Irish Parliament, the main purport of which was the repeal of tho statute of George 1., by which England claimed a right to legislate for Ireland. Tho resolution wan short but pithy — "That no power on earth could make laws to bind Ireland except her own King, Lords and Commons." Tho Sinn Fein organisation claims to have in its ranlcs many budding' G rattans.