TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 24, 29 January 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

* Wo have read with attention the explanations made by the Mm Ministerial ister of Labour and by Excuses. the Premier, in regard to the delay in bringing the Denniston collieries position into conformity with the decision or procedure of the Arbitration Court ; and we regret to be of opinion that the defences raised are insufficient. The Premier says it was not possible for him to have taken previous action in the matter, for the reason that he was not asked by either side to intervene. Our remarks in this particular did not concern tho Premier. It is the Minister of Labour who is charged with the administration of tho Industrial Acts; and though we do not wish to suggest that the Premier would have intruded upon that Minister's especial domain, plainly it was only with the concurrence of the Minister or in view of grave circumstances arising that the Premier could properly have acted in the first instance. We must recall the facts, which are that on 16th November the Denniston miners broke the award of the Arbitration Court, and continued the breach. On 4th December the Arbitration Court, on a referonce by the' employers, affirmed the breach, and later maintained the award, and threatened penalties. The men nevertheless continued tho breach, j defying the court. Up till 22nd Janu- ■ ary nothing was done either to uphold or to vary tho judgment of the court, j The Minister of Labour said yesterday that he had been "negotiating for three weeks to offect a settlement. " That brings us back to the beginning of January, and leaves three woeks in December during which apparently the Minister was not negotiating to effect a settlement, and during wnich, in our opinion, he should have been negotiating or otherwise acting. On 22nd January the Minister of Labour %yas travelling in the South, with a train of engagements in prospect. On 23rd January he appeared suddenly at Ohristchurch, and announced that his engagements were cancelled, and that he was hurrying to Westport in consoquonco of urgent telegrams from the Premier. At midnight on 23rd January the Premier left Wellington, for Westport by special steamer. On 25th January a conference was held, and the dispute was settled. In view of the necessity for maintaining the credit of the Arbitration Court unimpaired, arc wo not right in urging that earlier action was imperative) and that calmer action would have beau xnoie dienifiedj

The annual battle between Wednesday and Saturday, as the Wednesday day for the weekly statuor tory half -holiday, 'has Saturday, been fought in Wellington, and again Wednesday has won temporarily. Large firms favour Saturday, but the smaller shopkeepers are almost unanimous in their advocacy of Wednesday. They claim that a change of day would lose them business, and that while matters were adjusting themselves many would suffer severely. They contend that the general public also favours Wednesday, and Councillor Smith has declared that "a great number of the assistants prefor th© Wodnesday half -holiday." It is very questionable, however, whether a majority of the workers would place Wednesday before Saturday. The Mayor (the Hon. T. W. Hislop) made a most sensible suggestion. lie mentioned that the Shops and Offices Amendment Act gave the electors power to alter the diiy of the half-holiday by a poll, and he considered that the choice should be left to the citizens as a whole. The people should be able to decide about the arrangoment which would suit them best. It is not "-c citizens who must act to suil tho traders ; the traders must adapt themselves to the desires of the community. That is sound doctrine the world over. "I don't think relief should be granted to wives who will not Subjects take proceedings agfor a ainst their husbands Penal Colony, for maintenance." At first sight this dictum, laid down by Mr. Bolton at yesterday's meeting of the Benevolent Trustees, might seem unassailable ; but the board thought otherwise. There are strong ' reasons against any such hard-and-fast rule — reasons which will occur at once to any one who has had practical experience in dealing with the problem of destitution and its relief. The board had under consideration certain cases of incorrigibly lazy able-bodied men, utterly indifferent as to how their families were supported, or whither their children might drift, so long as they themselves had their due share of the comforts of lifo and a little ready cash, without the trouble of earning' them. One result, which the public has begun to note with no little concern, is the appoarance of juvenile mendicancy in some of our streets. The secretary of the board had consulted the police, who replied that no charges had been laid against the defaulting husbands. Theor- '<■ etically tliis unpleasant duty falls on the ' wife, who occupies tho position of "buffer" all round ; for the well-fed husband usually knows better than to make personal application for relief, and submit to the accompanying inquisition. Leaving out of consideration those cases where the woman has no more self-re-spect Or sense of doty than the husband, it does not seem fair to throw the onus on the wife. The better wife and mother she is, the more she shrinks from exposing him and her children to open humiliation. Every police court is familiar with the hulking brute whose battered wife declares that he is "the best of husbands when sober," and who insists that her black eye and damaged head were caused by "a fall down the steps." Sometimes, it is not so much wifely affection as terror that prompts the perjury. She knows what to expect from him if she tells tho truth. While all will admit that the chairman was right in his contention that tha children, must not starve becauso the wife will not take proceedings against the husband, the fact remains that in the interests of the public and the children whose lives are being ruined, such proceedings must be taken, and that these, loafers, unworthy the name of men, should be compefled to earn the bread they eat — even though it be in gaol. ' Mr. A. C. Pearce, with his scales of tho old and the new, The and even with his quoUnderpaid tation of Sir Harry Probationer. Burdett, is unable to . cnange our belief that the Hospital Trustees are unwise as well as ungenerous in giving benefits to the senior nurses at the expense of the juniors. We conceded, of course, that the seniors — those who had successfully completed their three years' trainingshould be encouraged to stay on, bub this inducement should not be the product of the disheartening served out to the probationers. Under the old scale a girl who desired to enter the hospital signed an agreement for three years' sorvice, rewarded with £63 10s, but under the new regime the total wiJl be only £62, and most of the decrease comes in the first and second year. The probationer sinks from the lordly £13 10s to the munificent £12 per twelve calendar months, and in her next year she is to get only £20 in place of the £26 of the past. This is not a fair dispensation ; one right (justice to the seniors) and one wrong (injustice to the juniors) do not make two rights. How is a girl to dress herself, buy books for passing examinations, and purchase the odds and ends necessary to even a moderate amount of plain comfort on £12 a year? Mr. Tearce again steps into another error. Wo had occasion to remark previously that Mr. Pearce's "allegation shows that he knows little about the internal economy of tho hospital. " We repeat the words, for Mr. Pearce's letter has given no good rea- i son for their withdrawal. "Ev«ry ward," he states, "has its own maid to do rough work such as floors, walls, scrubbing, blackleading, washing-up, etc.— the work that probationers do is simply sweeping an/1 dusting." The "simply sweeping and dusting" includes four or five sweepings of a ward during an eight-hour watch, bedmaking, cleans ing brass, sousing down -walls, swabbing floors occasionally, and other details which are usually done by a "general." For tho amount of work which they do in this "charing' department alone the probationers are worth at least; 10s a week. The link of steel which binds St. Petersburg to the far Duplication distant port of Vladiof a Great vostock is more than Railway. 6000 miles in length. By far the greatest railroad undertaking in tho world, it has not, owing to the drawback of a single track, fulfilled all the Russian Government's expectations. In May last year the. Council of Ministers decided upon duplicating tho track, and now the Duma, so we learn by cable, is being asked to approve. Nearly sixteen millions will be required., and doubtless, as on many occasions in the pa-st, the long stocking of the frugal French peasant will bo drawn upon. The doubling of the Siberian railway has both a military and an economic aspect. It will give Russia additional security against attack on the weakest pa-rt of her extensive front, and it will prove a mighty factor in promoting tho development of Siberia. Perhaps one of the most effective methods ot defending tho vast possessions of Russia in Asia is by transporting thither a numerous and sturdy yeomanry. Hence during the past ten years the Russian Government has encouraged thousands of peasants to emigrate to Siberia. In their wake, too, have gone large numbers of highlyintelligent Danes, Swedeo, and Germans. The extension of railway facilities means the dawn of a novr era for Siberia, which, with its fiv» million square miles aw&iting development, provides a wonderful outlet for tlio overcrowded nations of Central JBhirons,

It is fashionable for the moment to formulate schemes for the A Futile importation of labour. Proposition. The fanners are shorthanded, "generals" are a. little scarce among the armies of families ; therefore it is proposed) to galher in recruits from the Old World, at any hazard. The latest and about the least desirable of the suggestions comes from Aufkland. A lady has written to the superintendent of Dr. Barnardo's Home in England asking whether a number of the boys, instructed in household work, could be sent out to Now Zealand for engagement. This country, however, does not want Baxnardo boys. The people arc prepared to believe that the kds are healthy in mind and body, but they are equally prepared to struggle along without them. It may be taken for granted phai, any suitable boys in the home have been absorbed in London, which lias a domestic service problem as acute as Auckland's or Wellington's. , Ihe signs of the times indicate that mistresses will have to learn to be hous*. keepers ; if there is any "scarcity" at all, it is more among mistresses .than servants. The heads of housekeeping departments will be obliged to learn domestic economy, and put their knowledge into practice, if they desire to retain any semblance of home life. Mary Ann's revolt will necessarily bring abont boius popularity for the simple life