TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 78, 28 September 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Newtown happens to bo the lucky suburb that harbours the Lucky Petherick Museum, which Newtown. includes various kinds of curios and curiosities. Plans have been drawn by Mr. Petherick for extensions to the Newtown Library buildings, so tha£ more space will be available for the storage of moa bones aud greenstones that may swell the- municipal collection. These plans, which also make provision for a lec-ture-hall, have been referred by the City Council to a committee, and the Post hopes that the building schema will be considerably modified before it is finally approved by the council. Reasonable people will not quarrel with the council over its desire to increase t|ie library accommodation at Newtown, but faw persons outside the fortunate suburb which shelters "King Dick," wiU agree that the time has come for a lecture hall or for an enlaigement of the museum quarters. During the winter half-a-dozen "library lectures have been given in a hall at Newtown, and it is saf3 to say that even in a very busy year only about a dozen discourses would be delivered. A special hall is surely not necessary for these entertainments, however valuable they may be. As for the proposal about a bigger building for the Petherick treasures, the notion rather recalls the story of , the man who bought a bicycle to match a pair of trouser clips which he had picked np in a street. Presently there will bo a national museum on Moiint Cook, and anything in the Petherick store worth preserving could find room hi the larger place. In the meantime, Thorndon, Kilbirnie, and Island Bay will be asking for library facilities, and these conveniences should be given before Newtown gels a lecture-hall or a larger "museum." • These have been much in evidenco of late years, and the tenMaritime dency to amalgamate opCombines, posing interests so "as to 'do away with rate-cutting appears to be a growing one. Henco the attention such aggregation of interests are receiving from politicians. Perhaps the shipping combine most conspicuously successful and notorious for its bludgeon, ing of livals is the Union-Ca6tle amalgamation, which controls the South Afn<can trade. Despite Royal Commissions and repeated protests from mercantile organisations, it keeps on exacting the utmost tolls from shippers and importers. It does not follow that, bocauso Britain and South Africa submit and content themselves with an official protest, similar immunity from intei'feienee will be enjoyed b}' trusts or combinations which venture Iq uee their strength to crush out honest competition in waterborne carringo in this part of the world. The" cabled discussion in the' C'omtri&ftwealth House of Representatives shows the contrary, and if the Romper of 'the representatives accurately • reflects thai of their constituents, we believe that any ascertained combination which tends tor repress legitimate competition will be resisted with all the powers 'of the State. "Passenger rates have been increased by th© mail lints running to Australia oy ten per .cent. People can , however, please themselves in most instances whether they travel or not. But tho. products of the country must be chipped away, and even n fractional increase of freight swells into a handsome aggregate amount. For example, the new butter contract will burden, the Commonwealth producer with an additional £300,000 per annum, which, we understand, wiU hold good until 1910. Hence the necessity to Match closely tho operations of any "reputed maritime combine. , The time is scarcely ripe for such heroics as State-owned steamers. Legislative enactment of strong antitrust laws is cheaper and can be made effective. What are the causes that make for such combines in shipping? (The Other The&retically it se^ms imRide. possible for any union of interests, however powerful, to control effectively for any length of time the commercs of the ocoan highways. One inclines to the belief that whenever fieights exceed a .certain level a fleet of hungry ''tramps'' will converge from all parts of the globo upon the ports temppiarily dominated by a shipping trust, for, despite the magnitude of the world's trade, the tnaiitime transport facilities have grown in a greater -ratio. The measure- of success that .has attended the ring's operations is almost entirely attributable to the phenomenal increasein the price of coal. Minor elements, of course, we higher cost of lubricants, wages, and port charges, which latter aro steadily creeping upwards. Tho gieat outlay is, however, the coal bill. A modern mail steamer, embodying the most improved devices foT economising coal consumption, will yet use from, 100 to 120 tons a day. This runs into a lot of money, with bunker coal ' almost 33 per cent, higher than it was at tho beginning of the year. For example, six months ago Admiralty coal at Caidiff -averaged 15s 6d per ton, now the current quotation? are 20s 6d. In the face of the high * prices ruling for coal, shipowners maintain that unless they can get improved freights, whether by combination oi other method, they will bo compelled to lay many steamers up With unrestricted competition, and in the absence of v working agreement, owners iv self-defence must pinch in nil departments, and th« sailors and firemen would suffer from competition's rack and thumb-screw xn poorer wages und oven poorer food. The number of steamers with insulated space for dealing with perishable produce is limited. On the other hand, tb/.re is an unlimited amount of tonnage for wool, wheat, etc. Accordingly the regular liners are driven to a narrow circle in order to increase theiT 'revenue, now t,o largely cut into by higher costs ot everything, and those shippers to whom regularity and promptitude are essentials must 'pay moie for the privilege. That, at all events, is the shipowners' view. - A cable item from Sydney, published . . in yesterday's issue, Uhristian strikes us as i being of Unity. ' deeper significance than may appear on tho surface. No question has been more manifestly " in the air " of late than tha,t of church union. That tho diverse and often conflicting methods of numerous bodies whose ultimate aims aro identical are productive of waste of energy a»d even gi eater evils, is generally recognised and deplored ; and many Bchemes of co-operation, federation, amalgamation, and union havo been, suggested, and in some small degreu effected ; but the more ambitious plans, such, for example, as tho "oigamc union " of the evangelical churches of New Zealand, advocated some years ago, have been found impossible under existJ_ujg conditions. .Certain ma\or points of

doctrine present insuperable barriers when anything is attempted beyond friendly co-operation; and this is never more clearly seen than when it is. proposed, as was lately done by an American layman in a book which has attracted some attention, that all doctrines on which there is any conflict should \>t abandoned as non-essential. In Australia, however, there has been a serious attempt on the part of tho leading churches, episcopal and non-episcopal, to bring about a better understanding, and a report by a joint committee was drawn up in March last. We now learn that the recommendations have been accepted by the Diocesan Synod of New South Wales. The churches, it seem 6, see their way to co-operate in matters of social reform, such as temperance work and the elevation of the lapsed masses. The platform is practical, and its adoption will almost certainly lead to closer approximation of bodies which have been standing too far apart. The sign is a hopeful one ; for it is not too much to tay that even this measure of union would have been impossible a quarter of a century ago. Doctrine has its necessary place, and is an essential ; but it is not the real bond of union. Mere and more the churches aro realising the truth of tho dictum : " All re ligion has reference to life — and ths life of religion is to do good." Again th'e friends of the pigeon and the hare aTe vigorous in Safety in their campaign against Field Sport, shooting matches and coursing. Members of the Legislative Council yesterday descanted upon cases of alleged cruelty, but presented only dark sides of the pictuTe. Occasionally th-;Te may be a disagreeable incident in one of these exercises, but should they be wholly condemned on that account? Is a man to be hanged because he has a pimple on his nose? When tk-e idyllic times sung by the poets come at last, there will be no slaughter of birds for ladies' hats or for the epicure's table, and the sheep will not havo its throat cut to bring into the cheeks of the fair. The nations will not war upon one another; we shall all livein peace upon nuts, berries, bananas, and kalo ; but, alas ! this paradise is still far away. In the meantime, New Zealand is a land! where tb» people seem loth to make a sth" for national safety. While we so childishly rely upon out Granny Britain to shield us under her apron when the bogie man comes along in earnest, we should not discourage the ir.3n who go into the fields to shoot. Critics may say that there are the litlebutts and clay pigeons for tho gunner, but all the men who like firing shot will not go to the ranpe nor spend powder upon inanimate things. Tho time will arrive when all will be content with this kind of bombardment; but meanwhile it is desirable to put no obstacles in the way of persons who aim at making themselves skilful with firearms. Mr. Ben Tillett is here agaiu — the Ben and the Tillett, the whole A Stormy Ben Tillett and nothing Petrel. but the Ben Tillett. But that is a lot. Mr. XiUett is a bomb fired over the sea. The raonient he fell upon the, Auckland coaet he exploded, and some of the fragments travelled as far as Wellington; they aip. in another column of this issue. Ben is still tho same old Tillett. When he was. here before he was a 6tormy petrel, and he has not moulted a feather in the interval. He is a tempestuous orator. IJe.^can, undertake to, give a history of the whole industrial world while you wait— just 3,'miilute. It i& a dreadful world, says Ben. It is a place where there is a tendency among tho workers to "hang on, and bo satisfied with small advantages," and this trait disgusts Ben. He wants to punch Vi bloated capital" in the large neck, and found an Empire where work will^be added to the list of deadly sins. In his desire for a millennium by tho stroke of a pen or a swing of an alrm, he forgets that eolid progress is made slowly. '"Ye shall fall by Httle and little," is a scriptural 6aying, and the corollary is "Ye shall ri»« by little and little." Incidentally Mr. Tillett makes the usual affirmation about the "rich land and glorious climate," but declaree that New Zealandws are too stereotyped, too smugly content. It does not pleaee Ben to find us content ; that is a sin, according to his code, and he will therefore set us on to one another. Ben promises to amuse the people, even if he leaves them no wiser than they were before his advent.