TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXV, Issue 98, 25 April 1908, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The members of the Blble-in-Schools League are irrepressible. Parents, Their latest effort against Attention ! tho free, secular system, which makes for peace in this mixed community, is as subtle as it is dangerous. Members of school com-, mittees have received circulars setting' forth the old arguments for the introduction of the Bible into tho State schools, but there is a new appendix to the_ time-worn story. "Our reason foi* asking this question (whether you favour the introduction of the Bible)," runs the leaflet, "is that you being a member of a school committee, and likely to seek re-election, wo desire to be in a'position to acquaint our members residing in your district with the views held by candidates for the school committee." A •menace may not be intended, but an avorage reader of the circular can see a threat latent in the ukase. By hook or by crook the league appears determined to make the Bible "creep and intrude and climb into the fold" of the State schools. We are not opposed to Biblical instruction on the lines of tlio examplo Fet by Nelson, where the Bible is an optional 4 'extra," outside the hours of the ordinary curriculum, but we do believe that; success to tho league's efforts would bring no happiness to New Zealand. The people^as a whole, do not desire to have, the present system disturbed, and they should therefore take all care to muster in strength at Mon- ' day night's elections, and defeat the party which is striving so hard to have its way m one direction, regardless of all others. Faintly through the reverberations of r:r the >Mayoral contest Harbour Board comes an echo of tho Still Busy. Harbour Board's , strokes for the people. Quietly the reclamation scheme for Evans Bay is advancing, and still more quietly tho board's hands are taking possession of the patent slip. If the report in our now 3 columns to-day gives the final phase of the negotiations the people's representatives . and the plenipotentiaries of the Union Company can be praised for a peaceful settlement of a difference, which once threatened costly adjustment at law. Tho I Harbour Board, through the ex-chair- 1 man, the Hon. T. K. Macdonald, said that the slip must be got for tho people, but between this determination and realisation thero was difficult ground to «:over. The way, however, now seems clear for the great local body to add a valuable property to its splendid assets. This, it is hoped, clones gently a chapter of stormy municipal history. Great things such as the dock and tho King's Wharf aro still advancing, and comparatively little things — but big enough to interest the public — are not Deing ignored. Tho board is undertaking to establish baths, cither plunge, or showers for workers, and set aside a better waitingroom for the-m — with an "if possible" as a qualification in each case. The baths should take precedence; the waitingroom can wait a littlo longer. Improved lighting and other conveniences are looming up on the wharves Wo have not yet been told when Mr. Churchill's fate in> NorthEnglish west Manchester is to be Licensing decided, but the struggle Problem, has already developed into one of the keenest of recent years The special correspondent of The Times confidently anticipates his defeat — a fairly safe prophesy after the result at Dewsbury, where Mr. Runciman's majority in a consistently Liberal constituency has been reduced by about a- thousahd more than would suffice to loso Mr. Churchill the seat which he won two years ago after the Conservatives had monopolised it for twenty years. Wo have oeen told surprisingly little about the part that the licensing question playing in the'fight. Except for Mr. Lloyd-George's appeal to the electors to resist the claims of vested interests, both on the education and on the licensing questions, there has been ao reference _to tho subject at Manchester sinco the issuo of Mi\ Churchill's manifesto. But an item in yesterday's cableerams shows the extraordinary strength of the opposition which the Licensing Bill has aroused. London's petition against it is six and a half miles long, weighs six, hundredweight, and contains 517,000 signatures ; and Manchester may be expected to make a proportionate rosponse to the solicitations of "the trade." A good deal of the outcry against tho Bill has undoubtedly been absurd in its extravagance. "The Licensing Bill, whatever it may threaten, has not killed the brewery market; the market was dead bofore, and dead as tho result of the speculations by brewers in tied houses which culminated ten years ago, and has been collapsing year by year ever since." Such is the answer of so unimpeachable an authority as the editor of Iho Times Financial Supplements the cry of which we have heard most. Nevertheless, the fact remains that "the ■trade" is panic-stricken and is fighting as for very life ; and, so fai' as wo can sco, there is no comparable force of moral enthusiasm to rally tho supporters of tho measure. Tho Premier, if he is wise, will make- tho Bill the first older of the day when he meets the House, and dispose at once, in one way or another, of tho question, which will dominate all others while it remains in suspense. There is a common improssion that the Maori race is "dying The out"; and laments for Maori Race, this decadence of a valiant people are by no means uncommon, both within and beyond New Zealand. Sir Robert Stout, m tho speech of excellent advice which he delivered last week to a Maori assemblage, mentioned the decadence as a fact, and said that the Maori race today was fewer in numbers than when he know it forty years ago. Forty years take us beyond tho census enumeration , and Sir Robert Stout's impression may bo correct. But it is right to emphasise that in more recent years the census Rives no warrant for tho belief that the Maoris tire diminishing : even they appear to be increasing. It is true that the Government Statistician considers that "the increase shown by the censuses of 1901 nnd 1906 in the Maori population cannot be considered as proved." It is possible, though not in all ensen probable — since there is tho count of six separate periods, from 1874 to 1896, against the argument — that early enumerators failed to count every hc.nl. Nevertheless, as far us tho available Gu-

ures go, the race is adding to its numbers — and in the last ten years apparently with a regular progression. At tho ueiißus of 1874 — the first Maori census — the Maori numbered 45,470. In 1878, they were 43,595; in 1881, 44,097; in 1886, 41,969; in 1891, 41,993; in 1896, 39,854; in 1901, 43,143; and in 1906, 47,731. The half-caste population has increased from 4865 in 1891 to 6516 in 1906. We do not desire to press the figures farther than they may justly go; but at feast they must cause a suspension of judgment regarding the alleged "death of the race."