TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 51, 2 March 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

in the first chock of tho news of the loss of the PenThe gum, and when the Union Company's details of the disVindication. aster were very imperfectly known, there seem to have been many unfounded rumours in circulation, and free apportionment of blame, some of which was directed against the Union Steam Ship Company. A curious example- of this came to light at the inquest, when the coroner stated that he had received a letter to the effect that the company knew quite well where the- wreck lay, and could find it in half-an-hour. Loose assertions like these, however confidently they may be repeated, are not to be taken seriously; but what was more-in-jurious were the hints that the company had failed in its duty to succour the survivors and in taking its due part in attending to the bodies of tho dead. The company made no effort to defend itself while the enquiry was pending, but at the proper time the local manager handed in to the coroner an account of the action taken by himself and under his direction; not an account specially prepared for the enquiry, but a copy of the official report forwarded to the head office. This plain and straightforward statement was published in Tho Post last evening, and will, we are sure, have been read with tho greatest interest. Moreover, we think it will bo recognised as completely vindicating the company from the aspersions which have been cast upon it. To attempt to recapitulate details occupying moie than a column would be needless. The wreck occurred on a desolate coast, a distance of four hours' journey over some of the roughest country in the district, and in a condition of weather the most adverse to travel Even with tho improvised extension of the telephone to the Oterangi cablo station, communication with the scene of disaster was difficult and uncertain, and Mr. Kennedy, in Wellington, with the co-operation of the police, the Telegraph Department, and the press representatives, found it a matter of extreme difficulty to know what, was being done at the other end. It is clear that neither expense nor trouble v.'as spared on his part, that prompt relief was given to the survivors, and that m face of many difficulties ho secured the decent transit of the bodies by sea, avoiding the difficult and p?inful alternative of "packing" them over dangerous and almost impassable mountain roads, although provision had been made for that method. With after-knowledge, criticism is easy. The aptitude of the Heathen Chinee for "ways that are dark" Chinese and tricks that are not Smugglers, always in vain was well illustrated by the news that reached us from Sydney yesterday. If the front door of Australia is closed against the Chinaman, he has ivit enough to utilise a subterranean passage which gives him access by the back door. The message in qiiestion states that large numbers of Chinese are being smuggled into the country, and that the agents of the system are reported to have boasted that they passed 2000 in last year free of poll-tax. As the profit on these yellow goods is .ibout £125 a-piece, the syndicate must have netted about a quarter of a million on its operations for the year. It is surely a long time since the unsophisticated wl'iits man found such a fortune in smuggling. The procedure is to purchase naturalisation papers in Australia at prices ranging from £6 to £15. and to forward them to the Flowery Land, to serve as passes for new undesirable immigrants. So far as the Commonwealth is concerned, the investigations which have been made have resulted in the arrest of twelve young Chinamen who have been endeavouring to negotiate the papers of their naturalised elders, and the syndicate may soon be driven into liquidation. But i 3 New Zealand free

from the danger? We have heard it stated that the same trick i 6 played here, and Australia's experience should induce our authorities to keep a sharp look-out for it. A remarkable influx of Chinamen has recently been reported from Masterton. Would, it not be well to enquire where they came from and when, and how many of them possess naturalisation papers? and at the same time to ascertain what possibilities there may bo for the smuggling business in this country? In view of the great difficulty experienced by the Western eye in differentiating one Chinaman fTom another, identification by fingerprints seems to bo the only sure safeguard against fraud. Tho perennial problem of domestic service is again under the Lack of discussion in ChristDomestic Help, church, where a few days ago a largelyattended meeting of ladies parsed the following resolution :— "That a monster petition from the women voters of New Zealand be presented to Parliament for the restoration of State free immigration of single women suitable for .lomestic service." The matter, with the many side-issues involved, is being discussed at great length in the local press. The need is fully recognised. There are many housewives with families who find themselves overburdened with duties which it would be quite for them to superintend. They are able and ■willing to pay for the household service — they have more than they can efficiently perform with their own hands, and they are oppressed, not only with "much serving," but too often with the sense of duties unfulfilled. In most other departments of life hired assistance can be secured; but this is the conspicuous exception. If there were an excess of efficient domestic help in .Britain, the balance might be adjusted ; but \, like problem exists there, and the immigration agents have extreme difficulty in finding respectable young women of the right class— they are too much in demand at home. A very interesting correspondence, thirty-three years old, has been reprinted in this connection. The ■Agent-General was at that time being besieged to eend female domestic servants to Canterbury, and the Christchurch Immigration Officer, Mr. J. E. Marsh, despairing of a supply from abroad, respectfully suggested "the advisability and necessity of having domestic work taught in some of the public schools." The idea is now a commonplace, 'but it seems to have been too revolutionary for the late Hon. W. •Rolleston, who, while admitting the force of the suggestion, thought it much too far in advance of public opinion to be practicable. Th© dislike of young women to domestic service, as has often been pointed out, arises from a feeling with which it is impossible not to have .some sympathy. In other department* of service, possibly iess highly remuneratedi girls have fixed hours and a privacy which they value. They may join clubs, choirs, and other societies, without any "caste" questioa being raised— the young woman in domestic service, whatever her education or personal qualifications, is liable to be made to feel "in various ways that she is esteemed as a social inferior, and her self-respect is wounded. With all sympathy for the ladies who are willing to pay libera'ly for domestic help, we fear that they are expecting too much from immigration. The department no doubt will do all it can in reason; but those who ask for "free immigration" should be prepared to find at least part Of thO CO3't. A scheme is on foot by which New Zealand may ere long The Wood-pulp supply all its local Paper Industry, requirements for printing-paper for its daily press, beside producing a sur-* plus for export. The older methods of paper-making, still in use for the finer grades,, in which linen and similar fibres constituted the raw material, have long been hopelessly inadequate to the demands of the daily journals, which now rely on wood-pulp. Wherever there are large timber areas — in Norway, Russia, Canada, and the United States — the forests are being converted into rolls of printing-paper, and so great is the demand that some of the sources of supply are being worked out. It is estimated that im thirty years thi American forests will be exhausted. Only a fort-night ago we had a. cable message from the United States stating that newspapers were beginning to raise their subscription rates on account of the enhanced price of paper. Some years ago attention was directedto the soft-wood forests of the South Island as a raw material, and samples of the wood were tested abroad with satisfactory results. With the co-operation of the Westland Land Board and the Government, an area of fifty thousand acres of bush has been set aside on the Midland Railway line, some twenty-five miles from Greymouth, for wood-pulp manufacture. Of this area, thirty thousand acres has been leased by a syndicate, which purposes to erect mills run by electric power supplied by waterfalls eight miles away. Three thousand horsepower is required, and the estimated output is forty tons a day, or double New Zealand's present consumption. It is expected tLat the works would give employment to between three and four hundred people, including boys and girls. Our import of printing-paper amounts to £160,000 a year, so that there is a good market on 'the spot. The manufacture of the -wood-pulp is only the first stage in the process. The sheets of pulp as (hey pass from the rollers,, are not paper. They have to be re-pulped and mixed with clay and certain bleaching agents. There is plenty of the white clay required on the company's leasehold, and another important material, sulphur, is a native product of the North Island, abundant and cheap. Altogether there seems to be the prospect of the founding of a new and flourishing industry — one which should be fairly certain of a steady market. The sole drawback seems to be that of the more rapid j disappearance of the forests, the climatic importance of which is becoming better recognised. Afforestation will become a more pressing necessity than ever as tho natural growth disappears.