TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVII, Issue 133, 12 June 1909, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Dr. Newman has not yet justified his use of the word The Mayor and "ugl.y" in reference the ex-Mayor. to the' facts of the city's finance. The Mayor's contention about the diversion of the abattoirs loan has been vigorously rebutted by the ex-Mayor, who has quoted chapter and verse to prove that the £15,000 sanctioned by the ratepayers for the abattoirs was uped for that purpose and nothing else. Mr. Hislop's statement stands ; it is not refuted. He has given the names of the institutions concerned in the transactions, and he surely would not have been so frank if he had anything to fear. His words have been substantiated by councillors, by Mr. A. S. Biss (an ex-councillor), by the City Treasurer — and Dr. Newman's reported rejoinder is : "I am not going to worry I am quite content. lam quite happy." Why the splendid calm? Does the Mayor believe that he has fully discharged his duty by urging the council to face "facts, however ugly" ? He must surely possess a very philosophic temperament if he is happy, if he is content to let a vague charge of mismanagement rest, without proof, against his predecessor. Dr. Newman's stress on the "ugly" has received wide publicity. It was a word that a gentleman in his position should have hesitated to use unless he was' ready with solid facts to make it good. He may be holding a trump card in reserve, bnt surely he should show his hand promptly, now that the call has unmistakably come. We believe that Dr. Newman would not consciously go out of his way to behave unfairly towards any public man, but his philosophic calm in this emergency which demands action is diffii?nlt to understand. If he has anything in refutation of Mr. Hislop's arguments, it is his plain duty to speak, straight and to the point. If his statements were the result of a misapprehension, it is his « plain duty to make amends by an adequate qualification of his somewhat alarmist words. Burglarious man has had reason to fear woman in New A Woman and a Zealand. It is False Alarmist, not many months since several housebreakers drew the wrath of indignant woman upon them, and fled in dismay, with revolver bullets or other missiles whistling aboiit them, and they were thankful to escape with their lives. Still another woman has made herself meritoriously conspicuous by the capture of a false alarmist, a person who seemed to find fun in calling out the Fire Brigade on a fool's errand. The woman saw the stupid individual breaking the glass, and had the courage to grapple with him. Even when roughly shaken off, she was Hot vanquished. Fired by the consciousness of duty to the community, the belief that an obligation was upon her to use all her strength to bring a mean delinquent to justice, she pursued the retreating practical joker, -whose sorry jest was costing the general public some pounds and much annoyance, and sho had the satisfaction of finally seeing him punished, as a warning to others who may imagine that it is comical to send the firemen out at tho gallop to nothingness. The fine of £3, with 25s costs, imposed by Mr. ■Riddell, S.M., yesterday did not err on the side of severity. Naturally, it is «_tiemely difficult, to detect the sneak false alarmist. By a miracle, a valiant woman happened to be in Hop-per-street last Saturday night, but the breaker of the glass had a thousand-to-one chance on a clear escape. Women of that calibre aie not generally handy to grasp alarmists by the coat-collar, and men of that temperament are not usually near the box when the button is maliciously pressed. Of course, it is not known for a minute or two, even by people near the spot, whether the alarm has been false or not, and in the interval the offender has an opporunity lo cover up his tracks. It is, therefore, very necessary that culprits, when caught, should 'near memorable words from the magistrate. The impression of justice should be firmly driven into tliem. The false alarms have natablv increased during the past two or three years, and, apart the waste of money and energy entailed by them, there is always the risk that while the brigade is investigating a will-o'-the-wisp in a remote part of the city, a real fire may be making its appearance afc the other end. Mr. Massey raised some laughter —in which Ministers may Critics have joined — by his critiand the cism of "the Ministry of Criticised, all sorts," as he termed the Cabinet yesterday. The Leader of the Opposition might have still further added to the merriment by seriously picking a Ministry or two and offering the members to the tender attentions of the House. Reasonable criticism of public men should be good for them, and good' for tho public, but reiterated ' destructive" criticism may be a weariness to both and a hindrance to impiovement. Time and the hour have put in Mr. Masscy's way some valuatia opportunities for constructive criticism in recent weeks, but has he always used them elfectively ? How much transcendental Ministerial material is •there- in the present House of Representatives, either on the Government or Opposition benches ? The paragons are rare — and the best way to improve the iaulty is not' by harping eternally on their rtaficiencjfls, but by sune efforts to leud a kindly, helpful light. Theie

• 'have been occasions, of course, when the education of the Ministers and the good of the country called for wise criticism, and the need may soon come again, but it must be admitted that they are in earnest in trying to well serve thft country. Ihere are times when public men have to pay a heavy penalty for their prominence. Their conduct may be assailed forcibly by critics who have taken no pains over the investigation of alleged mistakes, and in all the uproar of the critics the criticised may listen in vain for one word of helpful advice. Sound healthy criticism, following a fair examination, is naturally desirable, and the criticised should be grateful f or it, because they are thus helped to minimise their mistakes, but how much of the criticism so lavishly levelled at public men assists them to better serve the public ? The sequel to a ceaseless now of ill-considered expostulation against public, men in any capacity may be a delay of progress by the stirring up of bitterness, and also by the reluctance of capable men to come forward to undertake thankless tasks. The State visit is as oid as history. Howover varied in detail of pomp A Sign and circumstance, there is no of the essential difference between Times, the Queen of Sheba's visit to , Solomon and the formal meeting of two twentieth-century emperors. But the corporate visit, now so greatly in vogue, has v. ithin it a, new element. Precedents may possibly be found by those who seek — indications, it may be, that the germ idea is not new; but it has never before been a fashion. One gathering after another, as, for example, the Imperial Press Conference, now in session, has been aole to claim tliafc it h the first of its kind ; and one has but to look back a tew years to recall worldgatherings of many kinds — parliaments of religions, of 'peace, oi labour, besides church- assemblies of a scope without precedent ; and lastly, but far from least, the interchange' of visits of companies of editors, mayors, clergymen, and others, between England and France, and England and Germany. Three such international visits are referred to in as many different cable messages to-day — a coming visit to England of five members' of the Russian Council of Empire, for whose reception great preparations are being made; the return of a company of British labour members from Germany; and the arrival in Berlin of a hundred and forty English ministers lelurning the recent visit of the German p«.stors. Soon, apparently, it will be no light task to keep track of these friendly visits. The question naturally arises v hether any real - significance is to be attached to_ them. He would, be a dreary pessimist indeed, we think, who should seriously doubt it. Their spontaneity proves their vitality. They are no^t "engineered." 'Every mar taking part in such a company returns with fuller knowledge, wider views, and kindlier feeling. The living Briton, German, of. Frenchman whose family circle -he has entered and whose salt he has eaten, is a different being altogether from the abstraction built up unconsciously in his mind from the descriptions of novelists and sketches of caricaturists. Kindly feelings are evoked, and saner judgments. Note to-day the warmth, of reception of the English pastors, the enthusiasm of the returning labour, delegates, the cordial articles in the St. Petersburg press. It is impossible lo overlook the darker side of the picture — those developments of reckless ambition which are crushing the souls out of whole communities, and threaten, to use the phiase of an English statesman, a leversion to barbarism. But it is not usually the conspicuous forces that are the stronger. In this new desire of the people to meet and understand .each other — this significant reaching out of biotherly hands .through the dark — there may be the tokens of an awakening force that shall yet exorcise the war spirit from the minds of men, and cast off the intolerable burden it is imposing upon them