TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 49, 27 February 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

j It is difficult to stavo off a conviction I that several of tho city Foes councillors are private of the councillors on at least one Market, issue — public markets. Tho markets seem to bo like, the milk. Tho debate promises to be always with us, but ultimate salvation is as elusive as the horizon. Twice a committee has recommended that the foreshore now occupied by a couple of boating clubs and a naval volunteer company should be resumed by the corporation, and twice the report has been referred back. It i 3 surely absurd to suppose that the present lessees could not find a house and home on ground less precious to Gi eater Wellington. They arc. entitled to sympathy, but it cannot bo expected that tho f rail boats of n, few arc to be for ever a barrier betwojn ths general public and a gieat boon. Councillor Morrah declared that if a poll were taken the decision would go against a market. We rather belicv? thnt even thclackadasical ratepayers would take tho trouble to favour a market, but this test would not bo convincing. Very many of tho persons who would most benefit by a public market would not be entitled to vote on tho issue. However, that in a side track. The important fact'at present is that the "city fathers" are liable to <in indictment for unwillingness to make proper provision for the support of thfeir children, and the children should lift up their voices abort it. The blessed word ''compromise" is written large across Tho the face of the DeBlessed Word fence Estimates, wliicli "Compromise." have just been submitted to the House of Commons. Difficult indeed is tho task of providing tbe millions that are Tequired for old-age pensions and the other points iv tho social programme of the Government, and at the same time of making that necessary provision for the national safety which is unfortunately resented by tho LibeTal Left Wing almost as much on the ground of "militarism" as because it consumes the funds needed for other purposes. That for the present and the immediate future tho position is safe from the point of view of the "twopower standard" is clear enough, but ii-ou-clads are not built in a day, and Germany's great shipbuilding programme must be speedily answered in kind if the standard is to be maintained. .Nominally the Naval Estimates show an increase of £900,000, but a third of this is provided by a reduction of the Army Estimates, and even so tho total is evidently far below what the Admiralty demanded. Tho actual increase, according to The Times, which, though bitterly opposed to the Government, has not been among tho panic-mongers in this matter, is only £14,000, "the Test being automatic and inevitable." Among the inevitable causes must b© classed the increased cost of coal, food, and material, to which special reference is made in apologetic fashion by Lord Tweedmouth in his memorandum. The ideal of tho Navy League is that Britain should lay down two Dreadnoughts for every German one, out for 1908-9 Britain will be laying down a single one to Germany's three. It is some consolation to know that "all the newspapers" — does this include the Daily News ?— "realise that the Naval Estimates arc temporary and anticipate a great increase in 1909. ; ' But as oldage pensions and other popular items in the Government menu aie not temporary, will not tho pressure bo just <is great next year as now ? Mr. Thomas Mackenzie's reference to the state of parties in his A Hint Waikouaiti address is nr>for Labour, likely to make the advocates of an Independent Labour Party pause ; but it may make them think. Air. Mackenzie, for many excellent reasons which he gives, and possibly for some excellent reasons which he does not give, has decided to cast his lot with the Government party. For bomo time he has been more or less a member of the Opposition party, but gradually his convictions havo changed — or rather, owing to fresh illumination, he ha 3 come to believe that the convictions of a thoughtful member of the Opposition are no loss bsfittinsj on the other side of the House. Pondering life and death and politics profoundly, he understands after much meditation that he is Sir Joseph Ward's intellectual brothcr-in-arms. Ho has not relinquished his principles ; the Government has not relinquished its principles ; but on the way to Damascus or Clutha a great light has shone upon Mr. Mackenzie, and he has realised that, the two principles arc rpally one, or at, least harmonious. -Mr. Mackenzie points out to the Independent Labour Party of the futuro that what he

has discovered other quasi-members of the Opposition party msy also reasonably discover. If there is a coalition, the Independent Labour Party will be an important minority. The argument returnu to The Post's conclusion that Labour will do much better to stay where it is '.veil off — in alliance with the Liberals — instead of throwing away the bone for the shadow. As it .was the failuro of the Ship Subsidy Bill in the United 'Frisco States Congress some or All Red? fifteen months ago that administered the finishing blow to tho Spreckels Company's forlorn hope with the San Francisco Eervice, so is the hopa reviving now j with tho introduction of a similar measure, which proposes to pay 16s a mile for tho outward voyage to secondclass vessels running from an American port to Australasia and the Philippines. What tho prospects of the Bill may be is quite beyond our calculation, but it is none too soon for the people of this country to consider tho possibility of the re-establishment of the San Franckco service, the sum that they are prepaied to pay for it, and tin effect that it would have, upon present and proj?cted arrangements. On tho whole tho existing service via Suez, t=low as it is, has proved sat isf actor}', and its froquencv and regularity scorn precious indeed when contrasted with tho lnnddening vagaries of the San Francisco sorvicb in its latter days. But tho chief problem roused by yesterday's message from Washington is with regard to tho "All Red" route. This rouU» must certainly ba given the preference; over any foreign rival, if it is a possibility, but is it? Sir Joseph Ward made a great splash about it at the Imperial Conference, but ho has not found timo to raise the smallest lipplo in tho local waters since his return. If he or his colleagues retain the slightest interest in the subject, they should take their fellow-colonists into theii confidence at once, and arouse pubhe sentiment in its favour. It will be little to the credit of the colony whose Premier first gave the matter prominence if its apathy joins forces with a foreign subsidy to kill a great Imperial project. Tho other day some new scenery was discovered in the Is it a far south. AlBegging Petition? rexdy New Zealand had enough scenery to provide every man, woman, and child in these islands with a liberal portion, and to leave much for export. Now there is talk of a new health resort. It is reported that "fully three hundred" people at Hastings havo resolved to get signatures for a petition to the Government praying it to acquire the land adjacent to the foreshore at Waimarama, "for the purpose of a public watering ptero and health resort for Hastings and Ilawkes Bay." There is no objection to any procedure designed to secure the resumption of land for legitimate settlement purposes, on a basis that will not leave the general taxpayer lamenting, but this proposal from Hastings introduces another element. Apparently the people have been impressed by the Premier's oft-repeated assurance—"the financial position vas never stronger"— and they are hoping that a little cash can be spared to give them a place for merrymaking. The people who pay tho bills will bo curious to have more information about this burden which Hastings folk are endeavouring to put upon the "big fellow's" back. If they come forward with a sound payablo proposition, the heads of the State may listsn to reason, although health resorts arc fairly numerous. There, are more important health matters than resorts needing attention. At last th<j pilferer, tho mean saeak thief, has run against The Pilferer's a wall. At OhristDeserts. church yesterday Mr. « Justice Denniston sent three young mjn to prison for six months for pilkiing cargo at Lyttelton. In issuing this salutary decree his Honour remarked that nothing had struck him moro than the easy and' tolerant attituda winch people adopted towards this offence. "It was alluded to as a comparatively venial offance,' ho added. | "but he knew nothing more demoralising, more injurious to the commercial community." To many persons the cargobroacher is a kind of Robin Hood who robs the Tich, but the petty modern thief, unlike the picturesque outlaw, does nob distribute the "Spoils among the poor, and probably lie would not hesitate to lighten tho load of people not overburdened with this world's goods, if he saw a chance. The masses are- inclined to look upon pilfering with the kind tyes which se^ no moral wi-ong ir "beating the Customs," which is the same Ibing as robbing the State. They forget that a thief rapidly progresses, and develops boldness, and that the immunity resulting from a, lai public opinion helps to make the dishonest increase and multiply til' the tolerant are threatened with a heavy penalty for their folly. It is some time since much was said about the sly plunderer, but his business has not slackened, It will require a few more sharp lessons to effectively check a practice which has gained a wide vogue.