TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 111, 12 May 1910, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

'New Zealand is figuring prominently in the sporting world thisThe Tennis year. Arnst is going to Tournament, the Zambesi River to defend his title to the sculling championship; a New Zealand Bugby team is to invade Australia ; Californian footballers are to strive in Australasia, and a British professional team is to tour these regions. Perhaps more 'important to many people than any item on that programme is the prospective struggle in Wellington for the world's tennis laurels, the contest for the Davis Cup._ Chrischurch has been keenly disappointed at the non-selection of Anthony Wilding's native city for the convincing ground, and the complaints -have sounded reasonable enough. However, Christchurch, as usual, is not proving petulant in the matter. The protest was manly, and the resignation to the inevitable is equally manly. The Management Committee of the association has issued a statement covering the .whole controversy, and the committee must at least bo given credit for a desire to act for the general good of New Zealand's tennis. The geographical argument has been used to justify the choice of Wellington, and though geography should not always be the deciding factor, it seems that in this case, the first battle for the great trophy on New Zealand soil, a central court is advisable.^ There are very many people in the North Island and in Nelson who are eager to witness the prowess of Anthony Wilding and his partner Brookes in keen combat with formidable opponents. Wilding and his father naturally wished to have the play, in Christchurch, but they have announced that there is no foundation at all for the allegation that Anthony Wilding intended "striking" unless the fixture was allotted to Christchurch. They have promptly scouted a' rumour which had already been discredited by people familiar with the solid sportsman qualities of father and aon. The Tourist Minister, the Hon. T. Mackenzie, has been The Drought speaking sympathetiat Mount Cook, cally about Mount Cook (the Westland Mount Cook). After referring to the things done by a paternal Government for its favourite child, Rotorua, an ungrateful Rotorua, he said : — "Yet how does Mount Cook fare at the present time. They have not even a good supply of cold water. They havenerthei bowling greens nor tennis lawns." The hearb-of glacier land, the region of perpetual snow, that hermitage near the frozen solitudes, has no proper supply of cold water. The man with a "flask has to run a Tisk,_ apparently, in mixing it. Rotorua, warm, balmy Roto'rua, has just to press the button to satisfy any need, and poor Mount Cook is out in the cold (though minus cold waterj. But a change may come. Somo time a-go plans were prepared for an impressivemansion in that Alpine wilderness, but retrenchment bi ought a pigeon-holing. However, the Premier's Tecent- discounting of the need for a continuation of economy has stimulated the Tourist Minister. "Theie is a magnificent site,'' he said, "that should be, when funds are available, used for a comfortable chateau," and it will have not only cold water/ but hot water, and possibly some statuary. Yet perhaps the Government will get only maledictions for its pains, in the long run. Spoon-fed /Rotorua is continually grumbling. Public expenditure on the town has relieved the burgesses of all rates except foi\ water (cold water) a-nd lighting, and the unearned increment on land leased for ninety-nine years from the Government has already amounted to 800 per cent. Rotorua is a spoiled child of fortune, at the expense of the general taxpayer. The Presbyterian Assembly, sitting in Sydney, has been shocked A Curious by an alleged plot to asIncident, sassinate a Christian Chinese minister because of his objection to worship of Confucius. The cablegram states that trouble first arose through a teacher having compelled children to bow down to an image of I the Sage. The parents of some of the i children objected, and among them the j Rev. Young Wai, whose life, it was said, was in jeopardy as a consequence. It is not clear whether the teacher com- | plained of was employed in a Christian school, but it is stated that Confucians held a "court," tried Young Wai, and ! plotted his destruction. If the story be i true, it is extraordinary, because religious intolerance is by no means a feat- j ure of Confucianism, which, in any case, ! is a philosophy, not a religion. Arising j out of it is, of course, ancestor worship, and this, with belief in spirits, good and evil, constitutes about all that is real in j a Chinaman's religion when he is not a Christian. Perhaps the worship of the j silver dollar comes next. It is hard, j then, in the absence of fuller information, to understand these zealous Sydney i Confucian Chinese in their attitude towards Young Wai. Probably there is some other reason for their dislike. He may know too much, and in that case his removal might be considered expedient. It is certainly difficult to believe that religious fervour is at the bottom of the plot. Almost every Chinese, rich and poor alike, is a member of come secret society. The same holds good of Wellington as other places where the Chinese dwell together in large numbers. As a general rule some of these societies are used for no other purpose than for blackmailing the decent-living, succussful Chinese trader. Wellington can tell its own story of factions, conclaves, secret trials, and- extortion ; but it is all below the surface. Money and women figure in most of the "plots" among Australasian Chinese, patriotism to a very small extent, and religious zeal as a cause is as rare as radium. More information about the Young Wai incident is c-ertainly necessary before concluding that zeal for Confucius, and not some personal grudge, is at the bottom of the plot.