TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXI, Issue 41, 18 February 1911, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Wellington bandsmen's invasion, of Palmerston North, has brought Victorious much. glory to tho Bandsmen, musicians and the capital. The Garrison Band monopolised the honours in tho top grade, and the Tramways Band was awarded the premiership in tae B class. While warmly complimenting the- winners, Wellington people can spare, hearty sympathy for the valiant Wanganui Garrison Band and Wanganui's- people. Next to their own bands, ihe Wellington people would have liked to sea the palm going to th© Wauganai Band, which, played so splendidly, triumphantly, for itself and New Zealand in Australia a few months ugo. Perhaps the. penalty of that triumph is now the loss of pride of place in New Zealand, for Wanganui's remarkable success across the Tasman Sea must have stimulated the Wellington Garrison. Wellington's band was certainly set something to beat. No doubt the* citizens here feel that they have a share in the victory of their representatives. It is- a baaidloving public in WeUingtoa, and happily the City Council has recognised this fact by subsidising the barid& to play in public places on Sunday afternoons, it is a happy municipal combination of fresh air and melody in pleasant places —healthy delight for every sense. The results of th& recent contests cannot fail to give a fillip to baud work. Wellington's remarkable success must command a challenge. The double honours will beget a strong, respectable envy, for which, the people here and in other parts of New Zealand can be grateful. It will all be good for music and good for the people.. Not many years ago there was no pakeha Taumarunui in Taumarunura the King Country; toProtest. day the white men in Taumarunui township are said to outnumber the Maoris by ten to one. The white people have advanced to a Mayor and council, and the brown people have their own local government by a Maori council, which has its headquarters at Wanganui. A special tele.gram in The Post to-day mentions that this division of local control is regarded as a grievous nuisance by tho wliite population of the borough. 'For example, it is complained that the Borough Council has no power io make the Maori inhabitants observe the sanitation bylaws, and thus public health may be threatened. Taumarunui'* plea is that the Maori burgesses should be obliged to have respect for by-laws deemed necessary for the comfort and safety of the borough as a, whole. This claim again raises an issue which was very prominent during last session. It was argued m Parliament that the time had come for one law for .br< v wn and white in land and other r alters. This declaration was pub in the semblancG of kindness lor the " brown brother," but at the time The Post gravely doubted the motives of those who wished to offer this gift of an " equal law " to the natives. We saw good cause to agreo with much that the Hon. J. Carroll said in favour of the need of protecting tho natives against schemes which might bring abundance of money to the Maoris for a, brief period, and leave many of them in a precarious position in a few years hence. This agitation for the " equal law," on the largo scale, has been revived in the Far North, but Taumarunui'e local case is not on all-fonrs with the larger one. If Maoris and pakehas are to live together in one township it is only fair to hav n the natives made amenable to living regulations designed for their own protection as well as for the peace and comfort of their European neighbours.

A melodramatic school of pseudo-philo-sophy has developed in Alas for Europe, with its headthe Past ! quarters in Italy. The new apostles, the Futurists, teach that the Present should totally forget the Past. Their great axiom is a literal interpretation of "act, act in the living present," and let the past remain in n dark grave, covered with an impenetrable slab. The new doctrine is scarcely worth serious refutation ; il amounts to a contention that the visible leaves of an apple tree can live along without the aid of the hidden roots. However, it is almost fair to suspect sometimes that the Government has lentr a foolish ear to the Futurist tenets. Some j justification for that suspicion may L>e ' found in the Dominion Museum, as ar> article in The Post's news columns today shows. _ In this old building, where the new paint vainly tries to hide the decay, the visitor may smell the past, and get, a vivid impression of the relentlessness of Time's tooth from the muchgnawed timber. The building gives some body to the past, but no soul. Much valuable treasure, much to inspire, much to thrill, much to promote and foster solid New Zealand sentiment, lies in those old rooms, or is packed away in dusty seclusion. The relics, the souvenirs of old activities, have no respectable opportunity to sfJeak their message to the people of this generation. _ Vague promises of betterment, a "national museum," somewhere, some day, have been given and repeated from time to time, and in the meantime irreplaceable specimens are drably housed in a mouldering timber-box. We should like to see public opinion thoroughly aroused ; there is need for a stir among the people / of Wellington city and province— and other provinces, too— to galvanise the languid dilatory authorities. Cynics may 6ay that patriots may be roughly grouped into Patriotism two classes— (l) Those or who quietly do the Emotionalism? work, and (2) those who make the noise. This generalisation is not fair to some patriots who raise much noise aud yet do much good work. The noise, they say, is necessary to "stir the people, '*' and they quote impressive precedents. Still, even the making of noise and the flashing of limelight in an Imperial cause have io have their limit. When tragedy goes beyond one dread degree the audience may have a caH to laugh ; when the spectacular passes the point of good taste grotesqueness intrudes. So the dignity of 'a Coronation may be imperilled by enthusiasts whose sense of propriety and perspective is hopelessly lost in their boundless ardour. Some of their "notions" may give pain to the sober loyal, and material for gibes to the disrespectful. Hence it is comforting to have the news to-day that "t3ie Federal Government has formally rejected the proposition to erect an arch in one of the London streets for the Coronation." The Federal Government is doing something better at Homo for the King and Empire. It is not building an arch of flowers and leaves for a day for a, curious crov/d "in London's streets; it is building up defences, by land and sea, for all time. By keeping a curb on emotionalism the Federal Government is doing a muchwanted Imperial service. Individual emotionalism, in excess, brings its dull and limp period of jadedne&s, and the same law of action and reaction applies to a nation. Is it not better to have the nervous force given to things ,that endure rather than, wasted on an arch that glitters for a day? (

The official trial of the first section of the Karori borough tramway extension (cemetery to Borough Council offices) was conducted this morning by Mr. Vickonnan, Inspecting Engineer for the Public Works Department. It is understood that the section will be available- for traffic next week. Some adverse comment, on the score of public safety, was provoked among Eeopls on Lambton-quay this morning y the advent of a "bottled" man — a complicated form of the " sandwich " — groping along the wood-blocks by the kerb. The pilgrim was palpably "hobble-skirted." He was completely enveloped in the narrow placarded oblong frame, and had to rely for an. ' outlook on two little holes at the front on a level with his eyes. The " makeup " had a distinct savour of danger, | both for the "bottled" man and other j users of the busy street. In a speech which he made at Cambridge last week in connection with the v/ork of organising a sy3tem of universal training, Mt. D. R. Caldwell, of the firm of Macky, Logan, Caldwell, and Co., Wellington and Auckland, spoke of the impressions gained during his tra- \ vels, one of the strongest of which was that Germany fully intended to fight England for her colonies; the Germans never disguised the fact. There was, he added, a real danger in this direction, and the thing to v be carried out was a system of national defence; nothing else would save New Zealand. He deplored the lack of patriotism in these new lands, but thought probably it was due to the fact that we were such a young country. The commission case, which arose over the sale of the Birehhill Estate, was concluded' yesterday afternoon. The parties were, Frederick Hales and others, plaintiffs, and Dsvereaux, King and Co., land agents, defendants. After a retirement of two hoars, the jury returned a verdict for defendants, and Mr. Young moved for judgment with costs. His Honour Mr. Justice Chapman referred to Mr. .Blair's non-suit point on the ground that misconduct by Devereaux precluded him from recovering any commission. It was decided to further argue the nonsuib point at a later date. Mr. Blair asked to reserve leave to move for a new trial on the ground that the verdict "was against the weight of evidence. His Honour agreed to do this. In discussing the question of East Coast railway communication, at Gieborne on Wednesday, the Hon. James Carroll stated that engineei's were already locating a route between Gkborne and Napier. He admitted the importance of a Railway League, but stated that this should keep alive a broad policy, and not suggest the construction of any particular section. "Very well! (says ' the Wairarapa Ago). What should be the broad policy * of an East Cozust Railway League? Should it not be to hammer at the Government ia season and out of season to secure justice for a shamefully neglected district? Wakaespa and the Forty-Mile Bush should join with Hawkes Bay and Poverty Ba-y at once in keeping alive a 'broad policy' which will secure the deviation of the Rimutaka at-the earliest possible date." "It does not follow," remarked a member oi the Stratford Hospital Board at a recent meeting, "that the offspring of degenerates will be degenerates also — nature has a marvellous way of evening things up." Tho speaker was criticising the proposal of the Canterbury Hospital Board that a State school should b& founded for defective girls '• and a, Stats home for women of feeble | mind. He farther said that the trouble ! was an old one — it had come under the notice of ths Romans and gone out again — and there would be great difficulty .when one section of the commun- ' ity laid dawn how anothar should live. It was hard to make interference agree iwith people's ideas of the rights of the subject. The chairman said he wanted to know if the homes would be paiH for out of the Consolidated Funcl or out of local rates — if it was being done out of national funds he did not see that they should trouble' about it. Subsequently it was moved that the board's delegate to the conference be instructed to support the resolution of the Canterbury Board. The motion was, however, rejected, the delegate being merely em^ powered to "sympathetically discuss" fche proposal.