TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 25, 31 January 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

«. | Will it really happen? Will the new Wainui - reservoir be An Example opened without cereto be mony? Will the water Followed. flow citjrwards without the official benison of Mayor and council and their w.ellwisliers? The Mayor (Mr. Wilford) has valiantly said' that "there is no present intention of having an opening ceremony," and it is indeed to be hoped that the promised exception to a tiresome rule will not long be solitary. Opening ceremonies, withm reason, can serve good purposes, but they went out of reason, though never out of season, in New Zealand years ago. A local body, the other day, had a. ceremonial opening: of a quarry or a stone-crusher (one or the/ other, we forget which), and similar unpretentious things, hundreds of them, nave been opened with, pomp and a popping of corks, and long dusty speeches, during the past twenty years. Mr. .Seddon was the first to notably sees the political value of a good and true, foundation stone-laying, tablet-unveil-ing, picture-hanging, opening — anything that could draw a crowd — and {secretaries and clerks had to bustle for bombs of statistics, which the Premier fired at tlie assembly. Very many thousands of" pounds have been squandered on minor openings, and one would not churlishly bemoan the outlay if the money had done any good to the taxpayers andratepayers irom. whom it was so cavalierly taken, but these convivial rallies, while pleasant to the few, have beeit worse than useless to the many. If the. council feels that it has a few poundw to burn, we should much prefer to sco the money devoted to a picnic across the harbour for poor children, or to more tree-planting on the people's estate. The great Waihi mine caused some thrills throughout Ne.fw The Drop Zealand last year when in Waibis. the stock declined shaift)ly, but (according to ."reports from thei North) the public vitas assured by the mine authorities- that aao solid reason existed for a loss of confidence in the golden ground. The Don- , don directors are now acting as candid friends of investors, though we are not inferring that they were not cau'-did months ago. It is announced, as the result of a report by Mr. E. G. Williams, that shareholders must bo prepared to receive reduced dividends for a time. "This mine," stated Mr. "Williams, "during the last eight months^, has been under a cloud, and the map.agement has been blamed for not giving all the information." Commenting om the report as a whole, Mr. Hull, chan/man of the Auckland Stock Exchange, complimented the London directors on their present frankaess, but he asked mi important question regarding Mr. Williama's reference to a "serious sei r back in the history of the mine," on INb. 9 level. "At what date was thait. fact known to the directors'?" asks Mb. Hull. This commentator also touched cm another important point. When the Auckland Stock Exchange closed foil? the Christmas holidays Waihi sharei;. were quoted at £5 16s, and am v.pf?arel, move■vvas expected for the New Yea r, but during the holidays they fell to .£4 12s 6d in London. Why? Mr. Hull's natural deduction is that London was better informed than New Zealand about Waihi. Has any leakage of information in London been responsible, in any measure, for the publication of tb c circular, of which the text appeared kijfteaturday's Post ? . Mr. Williams submits that the management in New Zealand has not withheld any informs jtion to which the public was entitled. "In my oxfieriencv' he stated) "no manager is

thanked to prophesy as to the future, but must give as his duty a true statement of facts as they occur in the course of developments, avoiding comments open to criticism. This had been done, and the value of each foot of ground penetrated has been reported to and published by the directors, so that the public have had placed before them the actual results of all developmental work even more fully than I have known of m any other mine." Yet is not the publication of Mr. Williams's report a departure from the rule to which, in his judgment, mining experience enjoined adherence ? Laymen may be pardoned for feeling a little perplexed, lno case calls for a little more explanation.

Britain has for many years been recognised as leading the ■m-.w^ •"l" l Vol^ d in lan dscape paint MWhirter. ing, and that branch of art has now lost one of its toremost exponents. Yesterday's cable news recorded the death, at the age ,of 71, of John M'Whirter, R.A , whose repute is world-wide, and whose name has long been familiar to those who take even the most casual interest m national art. Conscientious and industrious, his ideals were too high to allow him to descend to woo cheaply gained popularity; but popularity ho long since won by force of sterling merit- , No mere transcriber of the scene betore him, with profound love of natural beauty and a fine sense of colour, he combined a sympathy with Nature's moods, and painted his trees as if he knew the associated dryads of every grove. Probably no other artist has so perfectly reproduced the fairy lightness of his beloved birches — always striking subjects in the varied treasures of a high-class print shop. He painted them at every _ season of the year; in isolated summer beauty as "the lady of woods," as "a wintei fairy" with snowy branches ; in contrast with the gnarled oak in "crabbed age and youth," and erect in slender grace, the solitary uninjured object in the ruined woodland "in the track of a hurricane." But his scope was wide, and his Highland subjects were varied by themes supplied from his annual visits to Italy. Rocks and cataracts, city scenes, animal subjects — all came within his scope, and it might be said that he touched nothing that he did not adorn. "The Highland Auction" and "A Highland Washing" were ! ventures in a line allied to that of Wilkie. His minute accuracy in his j youth was almost pre-Raphaelite, and some water-colour studies of flowers made in_ Norway, brought under Rus- ; kin's notice, awoke the critic to unusual i enthusiasm. It was "wonderful work," he said, and he borrowed the sketches and took them to Oxford "to show what foreground study should be." Some of them he bought for the Oxford School of Art. "June in the Austrian Tyrol" j (1896), and "An Alpine Meadow" (1897), are marvellous examples of his delicate foreground work.' But it is needless to particularise the noble works which adorn so many public galleries and private collections. A fine painter, a good and genial man, M'Whirter will be widely regretted. . By train and by\ motor-car the Prime Minister is invading the Political territory of the OpposiPoachers. tion's Leader. Sir Joseph Ward has vigorously begun the battle of the 1911 polls. Whether the inauguration, of the new defence scheme has set him studying military tactics or not, or whether he has or has not received any tips from war experts, it is plain that he has '•esolved on a campaign of boldness, the swift march, in the manner Napoleonic. So he is speeding the war chariot into the enemy's country, and though he has not yet done conquering, he has hopes. Some of Mr. Massey'g friends have urged him to retaliate with a raiding of Awarua. Will he leave a trusty lieutenant in charge of the defences at Franklin, and himself j make a dash to the south, and at long Tange bombard Sir Joseph with every one of the five million pounds? Last New Zealand had some merriment (which eventually decayed to boredom) out of the clashes of the rival leaders, and this season the antertainment promises to be more exciting, for larfer issues are involved. Last year j Mr. Massiey swept into the South Island, | and made a sudden flank movement to the West Coast, surely a Ministerial stronghold. Mr. Massey discovered many virtues in the Coasters, many beauties and glories in their country, and told them so, frankly, even though the telling did involve on© late sitting in licensed premises, at a banquet, which the unsympathetic police rudely dis- , turbed. Mr. James Allen also had a run along the Coast^ and he and his chief left with hopes of "developments." Mr. Massey, no doubt, is preparing a plot of superhuman subtlety to disturb the Prime Minister's life-lengthening optimism.