SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1908. THE HUTT TRAMWAY PROJECT. Evening Post

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 09, 11 January 1908, Page 4

SATURDAY, JANUARY 11, 1908. THE HUTT TRAMWAY PROJECT.

Evening Post

The question of providing Lower Hutt and Petone with an electric tramway and an electric lighting system is, of course, almost entirely a question for the two boroughs primarily concerned, and it is for the local councillors and ratepayers to say whether they are prepared to find the £80,000 estimated to be needed to provide tlieso luxuries, or whatever larger or smaller amount further investigation and discussion may prove to bo necessary. But our report of the combined meeting of the Lower Hutt and Petone Borough Councils, which was hold to consider the matter on Thursday evening, shows, as we pointed out yesterday, that there are questions of principle involved which are of the highest importance to the whole country, and upon which it is eminently desirable that Parliament should give a definite lead. As between private enterprise and municipal control in a matter of 'this kind, it is no doubt too early for Parliament to make a pronouncement which will bo absolutely and universally binding. In course of timo such a bargain as the misguided citizens of Auckland have made with a private company for the construction and management of their tramways will be bo univeroß.lly con* duffiAgd J^LJUibUs,pfiUV9B that jwitft'

tion of this evil example will be impossible, and it may be that this feeling will ultimately find expression in a decree of the Legislature prohibiting the future surrender of public rights of this elementary kind. But at the present time, at any rato, it would be rash to establish a rigid and general prohibition, since there may be risky undertakings, especially in sparsely populated districts, which it would bo well to havo pioneered by private enterprise without committing an impecunious local body to uncertain and possibly oppressive obligations. Such cases, however, must be comparatively rare exceptions oven now, and they will become raver as development progresses. 'There is a strong presumption in favour of public ownership and control, which it is for the advocates of private management to rebut in any particular case before their argumont3 can be accepted. In the present case the choice so far presented is not the ordinary one between private and public control, but between a municipal scheme, supported by a private guarantee, and one financed by the local bodies without any such voluntary aid, but on some more scientific method of enforced contributions than existing methods of taxation provide. The only definite proposal submitted to Thursday's meeting — the much-talked-of syndicate not having yet come to the pomt — was that the boroughs should} un- | dertake both the tramways and the electric lighting works at an estimated cost of £80,000, accepting from certain owners of land a guarantee up to £20,000 against any loss that might arise during the. first ten years. ' We are not in a position to express any opinion as to either the soundness of this estimate or the probable- liability of the ratepayers after getting the benefit of tho £2000 a year guarantee for ton years. But we regret to see that at this eaa-ly stage of the proceedings, when the information at the disposal of the local bodies is avowedly incomplete, the Mayor of one of the boroughs concerned should, be giving a definite support to the proposal above mentioned. Sound policy seems to us to require at any rale a thorough examination of the alternative suggestion made by Mr. M'Ewan, tho Mayor of Petone, viz., that the councils should construct the works without a guarantee, and get a contribution from the landowners by what he called a system of "differential rating." The Mayor of Petono deserves the thanks of tho public for his advocacy of the principle of betterment in a case which is well calculated to impress its importance upon tho country's attention. The immediate object of all works of this kind is to p-ro-rnote the public 'convenience, but a. secondary effect invariably is to put enormous sums into the pockets of tho owners of surplus laud. In a majority" of cases these owners are content either to stand by till the ratepayers come along with their bonus, or to promote the work by an agitation which, if it takes any public shape- at all, professes to be based solely on public grounds. Tho landowners of the Ilutt Jtorough are \o bo congratulated upon escliewing subterfuge, and making a substantial offer in aid of tho undertaking, admittedly based upon their own expectation from the work if carried out. The offer is obviously far better than nothing, and if there is a loss of £2000 a. year for the first ten years the ratepayers will, profit by that offer to the full extent of £20,000. It would be ridiculous to re-ject the offer, and make the' landowners an unconditional presont of the additional value which t)ie trapiways iwill put upon their lands. But is it not time that a, scientific system was' devised whereby without bargaining the pub,lio which pays for the work shall be aole to secure towards tho, cost of it a fair shaTe of the extra vajue which it has created? Further argument on the point, which is really of vital ! concern to evriry taxpayer of the Dominion, must be reserved for a future article./ CHRISTIAN SCIENCE. c It is' no longer necessary to couple the toast of Christian Scienc3 with the preternatural name of Mrs. Mary >G. Eddyj. What sho has done in the darkness, dismally, is now being attempted in the full light of the ecclesiastical mm That honourable orb, in America, shines with a radiance intensified by modern reflectors ; and the Emmanuol Episcopal Church of Boston has recently said tho last word in the way of polish. Its pastors and masters, the Rev Dr. Elwood Worcester and the Rev. Dr. Samuel M'Comb, are adept not only in theology, but in neurology and psychology. They read their Bible and the records of tlie Nancy school of therapeutics. They see that the healing of the sick was included in the practice of apostolic religion, and they affirm the probability that the disciplined < sick were healed by mental suggestion. So they prescribe the medicine of 'the mind. Many psople, they say, come to the minister's study, not 'for the solution of religious doubts, but for the relief of mental worries. They havo sinned against the body, and are suffering. They Jmvo been beaten in the battle, and are depressed. j They haye been drawn into the busii ness maelstrom, and have lott control of their course. Their disordered nerves aro breeding irritability, bad temper, I selfishness, animosity, and a hundred i other faults destructive of Christian . virtue. They may be trembling on the ' brink of suicjde, hearkening to the call to crime. They come to the Emmanuel Episcopal Church of Boston for succour. Tho Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester is calm and strong. The Rev. Dr. Samuel M'Comb is sano and scientific. These say to tho suppliants, "Be I M'ell !" — and 10, they are wLll. "Forget nil your troubles!" — and behold, tho troubles aro forgotten. Singly or to- [ gether, the Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester I and tha Rev. Dr. Samuel M'Comb cure hysteria, alleviate insomnia, and reduce the vibration of creeping paralysis. Their science is Scripture, and their , Scripture is sense. Thus they end the famous conflict, with the simple plan |of superposition and the consequent proof of identification. By the conversion of pessimists into optimists, they may by-and-by make Boston a suburb [ of Heaven, instead of a coulisse of culture. Their Wednesday evening classes, well attended, aro chart and compass to save unseaworthy vessels from nervous shipwreck. They inculcate peace and joy and love, and hurl against worry I the lessons of the last pampjilet from I the University of Genova. Everybody J should tell one funny story at breakfast, they say ; and those who know moio | should tell two. Tho sense of humour should be cultivated in women and children. Happy thoughts should be sedulously fostered ; disagreeable impressions should be deliberately dodged. These, or maxims akin to these, are the staples of Emmanuel Church teaching on tho social side : an American head-lino calls its theory "Christian Science without the mystery." And in practice) tho theory is proven true. All that the Rev. Dr. Elwood Worcester claima to do has been done, and is being done. All that the Rev. Dv. Samuel McComb encourages will be encouraged more and more by progressive humanity. Physical leHgion is the best foundation for spiritual religion The man who sheds hapfiiness around him here is unlikely to ivo under uncomfortable conditions .fefiKfiflJifib £h£ JUUtIQA jHko it ft £«ltrjs

of solace in this world is an improbable aubject of peculiar pangs in the next. Mrs. Eddy was in tho right, if not. in the light. It is because her help was real that her creed was successful. She did strengthen the weak, heal the wounded, and lift up drooping hearts. And Boston I shows intelligently, how Mrs. Eddy may be outdone. For mental suggestion is worth all the drugs in the pharmacopeia. When a doctor fires colocynth at a patient ho is aiming a missile he does not understand at a target ho cannot see. When ho hits the pigeon with calomel he is never sure that he has not killed an invisible crow. If the dose and the patient agree wiih the medical doctrine of averages, all may bo well with the disease, but the doctor does not know what obscure predispositions to disease he has set up in its place. All he can say with certainty is that man is mortal, and minerals are in the human aspect immortal, and that when he has shuffled an immortal substancs into this mortal coil, the patient has increased hi s hope of immortality. Flesh is grass ; flowers fade ; poor shuttlecocks of destiny aye we all. But good doctors do not anticipate the inevitable end. As little a 8 possible do' they thrust drugs of which ! they know little into bodies of which they know less. That is why a suffering New Zealander, who went a,ll the way to London to consult an eminent uuthority, received the simple prescription:"^, glass of water every morning." "Anything else, doctor?" "Yes; another glass of water." Mental suggestion has a healing basis even simpler : it demands not even a glass of water. It teaches the individual to rely the race : it calls all the generations # of the past to aid tho anxious generation present. When the conscious mind is bothered, it tells the subconscious mind — that healthy heritage of laborious fathei-s — that there isn't any bother ; and the subconscious mind, if the suggestion is strong enough, sets to work to govern the body in full belief of the suggestion. There is no panacea. But often small worries and controllable ailments fly like magic. And these are the roots of much of our misery. " 'Gainst minor evils let him pray Who Fortune's favour cuiries: For one that great misfortunes slay, Ten die of Little Worries."