TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 41, 18 February 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Wisely the, Wellington Harbour Board has decided, on the A motion of the chair; Wise man, to instruct its Resolution. solicitors to prepare a Bill providing for the compulsory purchase or the Patent Slip and all its appurtenances. The Hon. T. K. Macdonald was hoping that it would be possibly to come to terms privately with the Union Company, which secured tho bulk of the shares, but seemingly the company has not yet responded to the invitation for a re-opening of the .negotiations. It is possible, of course — and is certainly to bo hoped — that privato treaty may yet accomplish the purposo sought in tho proposed Bill, but in tho meantime the board was well advised to take independent action. This, delicate position very forcibly emphasises The Post's argument that the placing of the 1 company's counsel, Mr. T. M. Wilford, M.P., in the Harbour Board chair, would be no fairer to Mr. Wilford than to the general public, and could hardly be a procedure which Mr. Wilford in a moment of "philosophic doubt" would counsel. Other great projects are soon to be di&cussed by the new board ; there aro strenuous days ahead for the pilots of the port. The good business sense which Sir Joseph Ward exhibits (when National there are no political obstaWater cles in the way) was well Power, shown by his reply to the Hamilton deputation. Representatives of tho local administration, with others, urged the Uovernment totako up the question of utilising NewZealand's immense natural water power for the provision of mechanical energy. Ihe Premier definitely replied that the work would be thrown open to private enterprise. The State, loaded with a heavy debt, could not face at tho present time the expenditure which a comprehensive scheme implies ; and would not delay a work of such importance. "Tho Government intended soon to gazette regulations under which water power could be acquired by the Government or by privato individuals, with an equal rate for users." The Post would reserve also power to tho Government to resume at any time any rights, on payment of compensation assessed by independent valuators, omitting unearned increment. With that provision, municipal and private enterprise may safely go ahead. The work probably will be done more cheaply and more efficiently than the State can do it. Wo take it, of course, that tho leases of water power will be subject to reappraisement at moderate intervals; that our magnificent scenery will not be needlessly interfered with in the vicinity of a town; and that no opportunity ""will be given to a shark-syndicate to acquire a monopoly in a populous district and live on the profits of taxed industry. We believe in private use, but there must be no public robbery. Man's first task was the subduing of the earth, and then his The Conquest ambitious soul aspired of the Ether, to the conquest of Old Ocean. Bolder still, he turned his eyes to the fields of air ; but there his achievements have not been great, and birds of heaven may still look down upon him with conscious superiority. But there are now and immeasurable regions, exploited for the first time littlo more than a century ago, which are his alone, and await his dominion. They belong to the invisible, intangible, imponderable realm known as the ether — that subtle and mysterious entity extending beyond the bounds of the furthest star, interpenetrating all things, not only bringing the remotest into "touch" with each other, but binding tho wholo into a unity and demonstrating the truth of the ancient conception expressed in the word "universe." Electricity, magnetism, and immeasurably subtler and more potent agencies, unsuspected oven a generation ago ; are now ha mossed to tho car of the intellect and fulfil tho behegts of tho human, will,

Not many days since tho subject was brought forcibly to tho notice of our I own community by the transit of the c first wireless message between New r Zealand and Australia. Our cables to- t day record tho receipt by The Times of a, Marconi message from New York a . column and a half in length. The wires — aerial, subterranean, or submarine — ' forming a visible connection from point l t,o point, served to veil +.he mystery of ' the secret power. A clever mechanician, 1 fitting Edison's electric light, asked how ( he "got tho oil along the wire!" But ' wireless communication oiu never cease ' to be a wonder, even to those who de- ' velop its capabilities. It is some four ; housand years since it was said : "There ' is a path which no fowl knowetli, and ! which the vulture's eye hath not seen : ( the lion's whc\lps have not trodden it, 1 nor the fierce lion passed by it." Singu- < larly appropriate to tho etherial region ' so lately opened — the "path" to which ■ man alone, of all creatures, has gained or may hopa to gain access. In New York the teachers of primary schools have voted against tho Spare use of wood, such as the cane, tho for the betterment of the Hod. rising generations, and thiß attitude will no doubt be approved by New Zealand, if that will do any good to America. But what about the strap? It is conceded that the stick, which leaves a wake of purple and blue after its passage across the hand or other portion of the body, is brutal, but the- strap has many friends. Its advocates say that the physical effects are beneficial rather than harmful. There is initial pain, th?y calmly admit, when the- leather is applied, but tho tingling is well distributed, and the tissue is not damaged. Wellington's inspectors favour the use of tho strap in moderation, under regulations which prevent abuse. They contend that it is good to havo the strap in the background, and that its actual potency is required ocasionally for mending the habits of certain boys. In the olden ' times it was "Spare the rod and spoil the child," but in tho olden times tho boys were, apparently, more tough in the rind than they are now ; the modern form of the adage is "Spare tho strap, and spoil the child." There are persons who clamour for the exit of even the strap, but tho weight of evidence, so far as a representative of The Post could estimate a few months ago, was against the total abolition of corporal punishment. The general verdict among teachers and inspectors was that it was desirable to roach a stage at which the strap would not be needed, but that golden ago had not yet arrived. Whether the movements of human thought tako the form The Oracles of cycles or spirals, are Dumb." they certainly tend at more or less distant intervals to return to points of view long since left far behind— it was supposed, for ever. The belief in witches, fortune-tehlrs, and soothsayers has never quite died out, but it lingered until very recent times chiefly in remote districts, and among the 'uneducated and illiterate. A few months ago, when Scotland Yard was baffled in its quest of a murderer it had recourso to a clairvoyant, who had a vision of tho criminal, then on his voyage to Australia, and described him so minutely than an officer was actually despatched to take him in charge. (We have not so far heard of his arrest.) We hinted then that planchette and crystals might yet form part of the equipment of <i thoroughly up-to-date detective office. It is not a department tfys time, according to our cable news, but "a hHi official, who has followed the example of King Saul in his despair. The Ulster King of Arms, who seems to have been lax in his guardianship of £50.000 worth of Crown jewels, and from whose custody they were stolen, resorted to a clairvoyant, who sent him on a fruitless quest digging under gravestones and violating the tapu of the churchyards. Then he tried a dreamer of dreams, and imparted to the police hi 3 suspicions of a journalist, who has been completely exonerated. All this is very pitiful, and the pity of' it is ill relieved by the touch of farce. Such proceedings by a King of Egypt in the days of Joseph or a Babylonian monarch in the time of Daniel were appropriate enough according to v the- wisdom and knowledge of the day, but they are an almost incredible anachronism in the twentieth century of tne Christian era. "The oracles are dumb," wrote Milton in his Nativity Odo. > They ure becoming voluble in our time— and what adepts they are at lying! ' Mr. R. Monk is a gallant kniglit, very much erranfc - He^is a capA Knight tain who is marshalling the Errant. ladies to fight for the .freehold. "Let them realise," he cried to the fair of Franklin, "that the policy of the Government was to take away the charm and endearments of home, the right of the man and the woman to call that home then- very own, to put the freeholder on all-fours with the State tenant."' Mr. Monk has not changed. He is the genialj lovable Mr. Monk of old. He is like the pet boy of a family, tho most wilful but tho best loved. Mr. Monk believed all he said, and belief is an admirable thing in these days of doubt, even when the belief is as wrong as Mr. Monk's. It is a very diolj picture which the veteran orator has dTawn— women unable to have a hearth and home of their own, men despondent in wildernesses of State' tenancy. Is it such a dreadful thing to be a State tenant on terms which suit the lessee admirably? On the material side the advantage is rather with, tho tenant, since he is not obliged to find the capital for the freehold or become an anxious mortgagee, and therefore,' in order to find excuses for Mr. Monk's argument, one must look for suspicion of moral delinquency in the acceptance" of a Stato tenancy. Men have sinned in this way; they have trafficked in tenancies at a great profit, but that is not what Mr, Monk means. What does he mean ? His plea amounts to a. confession tha,t it is better for the few to have "the charm and endearments of home"— the privileged, landlording few— than for the many to get a decent roof over their heads and enough space to nurture the cabbage and the cow. Mr. Monk is aknight errant ; the knights errant of old mostly .took stock of only high dames.