TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIV, Issue 115, 11 November 1907, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The complaint against Wellington, that its people do not- attend A Plea for the. recitals of visiting Boeotia. musicians, , is not usually hurled straight at the mark. It may be admitted that, in Wellington, with 60.000 population or theieabouts. high-class music is poorly appreciated, and tho high-class musician, at every season of the year, anticipates frost. But such a frost is not unknown in Sydney or Melbourne, with eight times the population : it is not unknown in London, with eight hundred times the population. Everywhere in the world, the fineif.tE'e art, the fewer the audience. We have no monopoly of the simple tastes- of Bcsotia. Shall we blame Wellington, then, for what m tho nature of things Wellington cannot help, and for what much greater cities do 'not always! avoid ? As we. get more people, and more wealth, and more leisure, or course we shall get more people with refined tastes, and more patronage for visiting artists. Judging by the examples of other new countries, still busy a'i 6j>adework, the state of things in Wellington is the normal state of things. As it exists, the fair inference is that it is right that it should exist, and the faii assumption is that energy is being applied in other spheres just' as useful as the artistic sphere, if not preci: r ly as decorative. There is a great deal of practical poetry in Wellington wharves, for example ; and the Manawatu railway was not without its modicum of pioneering art. And Wellington, at least; is not hyprocrital. It does not profess mock raptures at t!:e music it cannot comprehend : it simply stays away. Tnss, pictures, pass, ami music cca^c, And knve our commerce to its peace. Of course, public interest in the arts should be encouraged : we encourage it ourselves, from our own pulpit. But the pulpiteer must not forget that, as honest Fluellen remarks, "There is occasions ana causes why and wherefore in everything" : he must not forget the law, of compensations, and the symmetry of Things As They Are.

*Sho stupendous error of a, small holding of bullion as the basis That Bank of a gigantic commerce Rate. is beautifully exemplified at the present time. America, having overtaken her capital and credit, scours • Britain and Europe for gold. A few millions of the precious stuff is shipped away ; the Bank of England's tiny stock is whittled down, and Threadnccdlc-strcet and its inhabitants get "nerves." Up goss tho rate of discount, arid every manufacturer, merchant, trader — <iyc,down to the humblest, citizen — feels the effect of ths financial "sand-bagging." Yet a few miles away from London is Paris, and we do not* sse the French trader similarly menaced and crippled. His discount rate L« a steady, stable affair. Why should two great centres such as London and Paris present such a contrast of ferment and calm? fln the case of Britain the great stream of, gold from depositors, which! at its widest point represents some 800 millions sterling; has, by the time it reaches the Bank of England been so tapped by the intermediate agencies that only some 30 millions remains. This latter sum, with perhaps 50 millions of "till" money in the town and country banks, is all thnt is left of 800 millions. Hence the palpitation which J seizes the Directors of the Bank of j England when a* f e\V millions is shipped j away. France, on the other hand, has in tha strong rooms of the Bank of France 150 millions in specie, and v ' tremendous note circulation of 160 millions, nearly five times that of England's. Thirty years ago the Bank of England held a greater stock of gold than it does to-day, although its liabilities are so much greater. Tho whole position in London deserves — nay, j insists upon — close inspection, as a very [ large amount of New Zealand money is at present utilised there on account of the handsome profits possible. Once more King Edward has graciously given the quid pio quo. Honi Soit He Im6 distributed a Qui couple of Knighthoods, Mai y Pense. several Knights-Com-manderships and a few Companionships, in honour of his attainment of his sixty-sixth year. The Knights are a striking pair— John Hare, comedian, and Charles Santley, singer. There is something Gilbertian about the knighting of a comedian in these days, and the act was never more Gilbertian than when the immortal Gilbert himself was dubbed Sir William. Of co.urse, actually there is more justification for the knighting of a raiser of laughs than of a brewer of beer, or a maker of soap, or a blender of tea. Tho funny part does not lie in the knighting of a merrymaker; but in the • memory that tho comedian in his time gently gibes at the whole theory of lordships. Sir John Hare, oblivious of the past, may be happy to-day, far happier than many who rose early this morning to gjance at the papers. * ".Many a heart is breaking" for the moment. In his dreams many a successful manufacturer or politician has seen the "Sir" and his wife has doted on the "Lady." Year after year they have eagerly awaited the morning paper after the annual harvest of honours, and the golden words have been missing. "Nest time," they say — "we shall get them next time"; and Again their hearts art sickened with disappointment. It is significant that no new peers are on the list. The peerage business ' has been the .subject of acrimonious debate, charges and recriminations; possibly there will be a slump till the politicians find another biick-bat to hurl at one another. Immigration to tho Commonwealth is at a deadlock ; and at | Commonwealth the Lord MayorVbanj Immigration. qnet in Melbourne on Saturday the I'iimo Minister, according to the cable message publis.hc-1 to-day, promised to at>k Parliament fur a ! golden key. lie b.vid ho had placed on Use estimates £200.000 for immijrraiion purposes, and he proposes that "the Commonwealth shall bear* the whole expense of the immigration policy now being earned out, more or less lukewaimly, by several of the States. This, of course, means Commonwealth control, and it is nol clear that either Mew youth Wales or Western Australia, for example, will submit to Commonwealth control. What then? The Commonwealth cannot dump down immigrants in Perth or Sydney without some piovision for fixing them on the land. And tha State Governments control tho lands, and New South. Wtilcß does not -find land caouA'a ton it* own immkrimtj,. gr fyr

the sons of its own settlers. The 1 spectacle of an overcrowded ballot for vacant laud, with hundreds turned away, has occurred as oiten in New South Wales as in New Zealand. If any good land were open now, there are land-hungry settlers, Teal working settlers, already in Australia, waiting their chance. V/hy give preference to outsiders? they atk. Or if the Commonwealth imports labourers, and the Arbitration Court's deci&ion last, week applies to agricultural and pastoral labourers as to others, how many people are prepared to pay an unskilled i new-chum 42s per week? The Labour parties look askance at_the whole project, dreading city competition. The Commons ealth m:iy be able to handle the ! Northern Territory as an immigration fie,ld ; but the difficulties are great. What is wanted at the moment is a i comprehensive plan of immigration, and a practical plan. A £200,000 vote will ' do no good unless its profitable applica- j tion is ensured beforehand. | "Thirty thousand people witnassed the i defeat of tho New Tha Boys Zealanders," states a of the cable message to-day. Gold Brigade. Ever since this* country's ' professional campaigners invaded Great Britain the cable despatrher has not burdened the wires with details about their victories, but now that tho victorious march has been stayed for a clay a few more sops of news nre thrown to the antipodean public. Tho chroniclor says that "each side was represented by its strongest possible team," and "tho pace was tremendous throughout." It looks as if the Dominionals were caught on the hop. They t may have underestimated the strength of Wigan. which secured fifth place in the Northern Union League competition last year. The report indicates that . Wigan was wide-awake, knew tho calibre of tha visitors, and trained hard for the combat. The j home men, with limbs fit and "wind" j in good supply, made the pace merry at the outset, and did not even slacken all the game; it was "tremendous." Some critics might look for other explanations of the beating, but excurj sions into the realm of the unknown I are not necessary. An encounter with | an exceptionally fast set of sturdy men | is quite to account for the rebuff. The Now Zoalanders have now played ten games, of which they have won eight, lost one, and drawn one. Their hardest fights are yet to come, and the probabilities are that they will not easily be- beaten. Even tho' bare reports of previous matches have shown that the team has struck form, and has developed a strength exceeding local anticipations. Spontaneous combustion has been given a fair trial on tha Pipes and charge that it has been Fires at Sea. responsible for fires at sea, and the accuser has not bsen able to get tho jury to bring in a verdict of guilty. Experts rather incline to the belief that the common wax match or a spark from tho übiquitous pipe is the cause of the mishaps. Among those who hold that the careless smoker is answerable for much destruction of property is the Auckland Chamber of Commerce, which is urging the Harbour Board to prohibit smoking and the use of wax matches on the wharves. One theory to account for tlie fire on the Tivrakina was that loore matches, dropped by smokers, found their way into tha bales of flax. The ship's officers wore sure that uo employees smoked i near the goods, and as the experts discounted the notion of spontaneous combustion, the culprit has to be sought among the smokers ashore. It would bs difficult, of course, to enforce such a bylaw as the one proposed in the North, but it cannot be denied that greater precautions need to b3 taken against the irresponsible smoker. "In or about the sheds" in Wellington the pipe and the cigarette are banned, but people arc free to burn tobacco and drop matches almost anywhere else. It does not require a very wild imagination to see a picture of disaster traceable to a vesta that has slipped from the t pocket of a casual lounger.