TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 109, 10 May 1909, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

The post office troubles in Paris are by uo means over, and Labour Unions further developments and the State, are recorded to-day. The Government, it is true, has gained a partial success ; but its elaborate provision for possible | contingencies indicates that it- is far from confident that the. difficulty is settled. It has dismissed a number of insubordinate officials, and, declaring the union of postal servants to be an illegal combination, has decreed its dissolution. In the fa«e of wide-spread sympathy with the claims of the union, the Administration might not have ventured to resort to so arbitrary a measure but for the fact that a post office strike causes such extreme inconvenience and loss to the whole community as inevitably to lead to a speedy breakdown. Hitherto, though the union has been unrecognised, the State has not taken the responsibility of declaring it unlawful. It has been urgently required that the position should be denned. Neither party knew just where it stood, and though the question has been repeatedly before the Chamber of Deputies, that body has always shrunk from facing the problem. It has laid down no principle, and has left it to- the Ministers of the respective departments concerned when any trouble arose to patch up the difficulty as best they could. It may be that the British system of allowing State employees, under certain restrictions, to be represented by unions, might not answer in France, where, as the Spectator points out, the ambition to possess the authority and distinction of a "fonctionnaire," on however small a scale, is far more general than in England. Discipline must, of course, be maintained or anarchy will follow ; but the wisdom of the Government in the bold course it has taken has yet to be proved. It appears to be girding itself for a conflict, and the attitude assumed by the 'railway unions is not reassuring. Not 'only have they decided to support the post office officials — they are attempting, by the threat of a general strike, to coerce Parliament into passing an Old-age Pensions Bill. Hitherto the Administration of M. Clemcnceau has dealt firmly and successfully with the anti-social elements in the Labour party ; but if there is not to be perpetual friction, it would seem that the rights and limitations of Labour orgauisations must be better defined by Parliament. 'As a means of detecting crime, the finger-print system Convicted is playing a big By Their Fingers, part in present-day public methods. "The moving finger writee, and having writ," the piint is photographed by experts in the Police Department, and carefully filed and indexed. A typical illustration of the far-reaching effects of the system — and incidentally a tribute to the police organisation — was furnished in a case heard in Wellington lately. •Over two years ago the accused committed two burglaries in the city. He took away some valuables, and left some change in the shape of finger marks. The prints were developed, and the photographers knew they were concerned with a man unknown to them. It was a case of patience — the careful comparison of the unknown man's "fingers" with the impressions of digits owned by individuals who found themselves sentenced from uime to time, and at last an answer was discovered. The "long arm' of tho law" gripped the fingers of a, man for offences more than two years old. The system 4ias worked very well in New Zealand ; the officers entrusted with the development and scheduling of the records have done their duty skilfully. More than one bold, valiant housebreaker has been brought low by a finger tip. It is a "well thumbed" library which contains vital evidence against breakers of the law. The classification is so inteflifently done that one may select a card rom the host stored in the- experts' little office. Merely the print of a thumb is shown to the librarian, and he gets to work briskly. Very soon he "places" the print, and reads oft the biography of the thumb's owner. Thieves and cracksmen sometimes use gloves to minimise the evidenco against them, but this expedient has its risks as well as the naked fingers. The hands of the malefactors are ever working against themselves. Ever since Lieutenant Knox, for some years an officer in the A Light for Royal Navy, suggested Terawhiti. in The Post that Terawhiti should be lighted, the subject of an extra guide for mariners along the dangerous coast stretching_ from the cape has been well debated. The Penguin disaster caused the topic to be much discussed by seamen and landsmen, and the advocates declined to be put out of court by the Marine Department's declaration that a light was not necessary; or (the official response hinted at the- time) if a light was necessary at Terawhiti, then lights were much more necessary at other points, where danger lurked by night. The departmental attitude is that the illumination of Terawhiti is not a work of urgency j other headlands have preference, by natural right, and Terawhili must take its turn. This opinion, however, does not tally with the beliefs of some navigators who are in and out of Wellington frequently. Lieutenant Kiiox informed a representative of The Post that he had sailed from Wellington into Cook Strait, and from the Strait into Wellington, by night, several times, and he had watched the coast closely. His observations, backed by long maritime experience, convinced him — as other master mariners have -been convinced — that a, light on Terawhiti would well justify itself, and he urged that the people of" New Zealand sho\ild set up a beacon there in honour of Captain Cook. Such a memorial, he said, would be^in the highway of a great traf- | fie, and in addition to valuably assisting to keep ships on a safe course, would be admirable evidenco that New Zealand had not forgotten the imperial

service rendered by the famous navigator. Failing something being done by the department, it has been suggested that it is a case where private enterprise, the spontaneous offerings of people throughout New Zealand, could be well combined with Government action, in a future not far away, when money recovers from its temporary fit of shyness. (Motor-cars are doing a full share in "modernising" some conThe Ameer servative countries. Tne and lands that use petrol do the Motor, not petrify. Various potentates in Africa and Asia have come to believe that motor-cars are not the embodiment of evil spirits — though in this up-to-date belief they differ from many anti-motor zealots in Great Britain and the Dominions Overseas — and they have grown bold enough to take a ride. The Ameer of Afghanistan is the latest convert to the cult of speed. "He has imported motor-cars and a London chauffeur,"' states a brief message today. It is not long since the' Ameer was busy in suppressing a couple of plots against his despotic power ; in fact, it was mentioned that some of his subjects contemplated giving him a longer send-off than he could hope to get in any motor-car. Does he fancy that the new machine will enable him to circumvent the conspirators? Will the whirr of the wheels, the honk of the horn, the clang of the gong, and the fumes help to strengthen his claim to the divine right of kings and abash those men who have yearned for constitutional government'/ It is a chance for tho Ameer, but it is a better chance for the people. The motor-car will give the East a strong taste of the West, and an appetite for more. One wonder creates a desire for more wonders ; one miracle is the fore-runner of many miracles. One motor-car — barring accidents — may valuably assist in the evolution of Afghanistan. So much for the Ameer and his. people ; but what of the chauffeur? If the' plots so often developed in English stories have any substratum of reality, an ambitious young attache of the War Office will get the job, and the retina of his eyes will be as the plate of a camera, retaining all the panorama spread before him, and the drums of his" ears will be as the cylinders of phonographs, faithfully recording all sounds of moment. The potentialities of that motor-car and that chauffeur give material for more than a short story.