TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 40, 17 February 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

* Australian visitors have smiled dryly at various New Zealand The Dry Days, districts' concern about the present, "drought." It is only a little one by comparison with Australian experience, but it has been big enough to cause much, mischief, North and South. Three years ago, at about tnis time of the year, the •skies w.&r« similarly cl«ar, and lire swept .through many acres of parched country. Yet, ev-en then, there was a credit side to 'the drought as well as a debit. In rural areas fire rapidly prepared some rough ground for sowing. In Wellington the people were convinced of tne need o£ larger water storage tit Wainui. This yaar a similar demonstration is being given at Nelson and other places. However, the Government ©nice has referred to portents of rain believed to be advancing towards the coasts, and great tracts of country on the east, side of each island will be gla.3. to get the promised water. The West Coast regions have tared better. Th« westerly low pressure movements have delivered some rain on the west, side of tlie 'main ranges, and the drained winds lia-ye then pitilessly moved on to the other side and helped the sun to bleach the grass. Otago, East and Central, is the chief sufferer. The Government is doing something with an irrigation policy to help tho Central pan, but it may be advisable for come ' of tho settlers to study the "dry farm- i ing" methods, as practised in arid areas > of the United States. Mr. Bates has re- ! f erred to "dry farming" in his weather i reports. Possibly, while he is in the South, he may see cause to give this | subject some promineaco. It is an. old allegation, a-bout political religions that one Faith and must have faith in tho Public Works. Government to assure public works. This us only a variation of the old assertion, "spoils to tha > victors." Faith in the Government (its opponents say) can i move bridges to the banks ot great rivers, and move railways into wild country. A special telegram from Auckland in Tho Post to-day mentions that ! delegates at a conference of local bodies have been perturbed by the present sys- j tern of grants. It is stated that w,hen local bodies, which should know their districts' needs, have failed, a private individual has "pulled" off a success. ! The local bodies like not the spectacle of the lobbyist in secret places, except, i of course, when the lobbyist happen* to be working his wires for their special benefit (not a rare- occurrence). When Parliament is in session the carpeted stairs and corridors, the ants-rooms and Ministerial cosy corners, are besieged by people who have many arguments to prove that public money can be spent j nobly in certain quarters. The Representatives mostly have to hustle to get j things put on th© Estimates, and many of them, including aome Ministerialiste, profess to be thoroughly weary of special pleading. The demand for a Public Works Board to examine difitrict claims, and apportion the funds according to the merits of the application's, grows stronger year by year. The Government, however, clings tenaciottsly to the old order, because it gives it some power over both members and electors. The urgency of reform has long been plain for everybody but the Government to ccc. From South to North Mr. M. P. Cameron is working Examining t>he in fulfilment of a Iron Industry, promise made by the z " Minister of Customs to have a sufficient enquiry as to the causes of the alleged decline of the ironfoundry and engineering trades. The principal cause put forward in Wellington by th© large representative deputations last year was tlie present tariff. Employers and workers asked for 'a larger measure of protection against outside competitors. The Prime Minister said thati it was nob possible to touch the tariff last session, but ho would ask Parliament to consider the matter next session. We have already expressed onr doubts about the possibility of any tariff revision during a short pre-election session. It has to be remembered, too, that "high protection ' does not command a majority in the present Houss of Representatives. It beems that the tariff is to be left as one of tho election issues, and it ie likely that any proposals for amendment of the schedules will remain over for the new Parliament. In the meantime Mr. Cameron is gathering a large store of information concerning all aspects of the iron tTade. It is probable that he will make better and quicker progress than a cumbersome and costly Royal Commission could have done, The iron-

masters are now in the position of stating a case to convince the public that a raising cf the tariff will benefit New Zealand as well as the industry. Th© politicians will take their cue from the public. France has fine battleships, but the fact that five out of six enMan— or gaged in firing practice this Machine? week were disabled during the exercise, "gives one furiously to think." In the late Samuel Butler's philosophic and satiric romance, "Erewhon," it is written that in that land of inverted ideas railwayshad been converted into highways and machinery of every kind abolished, tho people having concluded that perfection in machinery involved degeneration of humanity — that man was becoming the vassal of mechanism, be•sides gradually losing self-reliance, initiative, and the faculty of swift decision. Ruskin and William Morris held a similar view in all seriousness and personally endeavoured to give it effect, while only recently a prominent man of science declared that in civilised lands the human hand already was losing it« ancient cunning. There is a certain foundation in truth for these misgivings. The artisan does not commonly glory like his ancestor of old in the perfection and beauty of his work, . and his helplessness when his- machine 'gets out of gear is sometimes deplorable. The niore the modern factory system, with its admirable subdivision of departments, is perfected, the less does the individual count, and tho less is his personal skill called upon for exercise or development. On sea, as on land, a lifetime has witnessed changes which have made the old ai-ts, in great measure, obsolete, and more than beauty has passed with the "wooden walls" and the white-winged mercantile navy. Mankind has devised a Frankenstein creation, to be at his behest. The modern monster has a sensitive brain in his conning tower and electric nerves extending to the remotest portion of his frame— his mechanism is as delicate as that of a Royal Observatory, his wireless messages to and fro rival telepathy; but alter all, he sometimes proves a "tricksy sprite at critical junctures. Where is tlie old staunchness? The oaken Bellerophon was good for three generations—his upkeep imposed no crushing burden on the State. In time of peace, and when the skies are clear, his overdeveloped successor goes only too readily to the bottom with his crew, and failing accident is so liable to be superseded that he can not look forward to more than ten years of active service. "A fleet in being" is costly and splendid, but with all its marvellous perfection of detail i* can not inspire quite the same confidence as the obsolete oaken ships that were so thoroughly under control and came home victorious after structural injuries, a tithe of which would hays been fatal to the floating steel castle of to-day.