TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 131, 30 November 1911, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

If conscience can make cowards of men it can also make Municipal heroes. Conscience Prize Fights? can be made a ( general servant, to fetch and carry in any cause, noble or ignoble. Thus the City Council, consulting its corporate conscience, imagines , that by sanctioning professional boxing in the Town Hall — fights with gloves for I money — it has not officially approved prize fighting. If a padded glove is put upon the hand, then the hand is made innocent, according to the council. Many a man has been, killed in a glove fight. A man can swing a heavier blow against another man's head or heart with a glove than without one, for two obvious reasons :—(1): — (1) The glove adds weight to the drive, and, therefore, intensifies Iho concussion; (2) the puncher has hie knuckles protected, and therefore feels that he can go "all out," without fear of injuring hie hand. We share Councillor Atkinson's diffiqulfcy in failing to understandthe contention that a contest'between boxers for a, big money prize ib not a prize fight. "When is a prize fight i>ot a prize fight?" now takes its place beside "AVhen is a strike not a strike?" and a few similar conundrums. The counci 1 has deliberately blinded itself to the grave question of principle, ' the serious matter of public golicy, and seems to have been more interested in the hire of the hal) than in setting its municipal face against professional pugilism. The manner of reaching the decision Was on a par with the council's previous pose of thoughtfulness. Various councillors rose from the meeting place, and went and witnessed the first three rounds of the Hannan-Gault combat. This was enough.. They went, they 6aw, and %ey were conquered by the beauty of professional boxers. The allegation that a great scientist modelled the frame of a prehistoric monster from a single tooth presupposes no more remarkable cleverness than those city councillors displayed in judging professional boxing on three rounds of the HannanGault fight. The council stultified itself some Weeks ago, and emphasised its lack of dignity and lack of common-sense last night. That solemn procession to thA scene of the Hannan-Gault encounter is one of the most comical things ever done in the history of municipalities. The old-time wool sales in tha Art Gallery (not the council's fault) and the proposed placing of a stable bn the crown of the Botanical Gardens are capped now by this' official approval of professional pugilism in the Town Hall. A very strong argument in favour of . , compulsory military' x mi , B °y e training was given. to lake Charge? at the Lower Butt , , by about a hundred senior cadets on Tuesday evening. The report of tho swearing-in ceremony in yesterday's -Post gave details of the laxxikmism of a majority of the youths. Ihejr wild conduct proved plainly that the- "msurrectos" would benefit by a strict course of disciplinary exercises. We do not know whether the disturbance was "engineered" or not. Our impression is that a, f6w malcontents managed to induce their comrades to have some- "fun," which consisted in hooting, jeering and damaging the furniture of a church schoolroom. The mutineers were allowed to take full charge, both inside and outside the building. After contemptuously declining to do the part officially assigned to them, they formed a procession, and went homewards, "suigmg and shouting." The police, it is stated, were not represented at the | rough-and-ready entertainment, because Ino notice- was sent to thorn. We do not blame tho police, but we do blame the authorities above the police. The least bit of imagination, the least bit of thinking, should have led the authorities to anticipate some rowdyism, by frolicsome youths, keen to take a chance to "play up." The trouble in the Petone-Hutt district some weeks ago should have served as a warning. Boys have been urged by "anti-militarists" to break the law — and "boys will bo boys." If callow youths are allowed to flout the law openly, without punishment, the administrators of the Defence Act will be _in for a time of perpetual worry. This latest piece of evidence from the Hutt can be joined up with other reports in an accusation of laxity against the Government. In various parts of Now Zealand it is complained that cadets and Territorials are permitted to take a cavalier notion of their obligations. This lawless spirit must be promptly checked, if the defence scheme is to be saved from wreckage, and the Government should begin before the General Elections. The satisfactory condition of the London wool market, as mdi The London cated by the cables, Wool tSaks. will afford great relief to the grower and all concerned in the production of wool in Australia and New Zealand. It was confidently expected that there would bo ao gdvatico oven H there wac no dpcling

in the rates of the previous sale. Signs have not been wanting of late that the banks and other large lending institutions were becoming rather afraid of wool. A dearer money market was probable, too, especially in view of the dry weather in parts f of Australia. Not only has she wool market improved, but the drought has broken in those parts of tho Commonwealth which wore suffering most. Political and Labour troubles in the United Kingdom and (to a certain ■extent) on the Continent exorci&ed deprcbsmg influences upon the market, and at thfi September sales in London this fact was distinctly marked when thero was recorded a drop of from 5 per cent, to 7i per cent, on tho July rates, to the level of which (according' to the cablegrams) those of the Bales now in progress- have reached. American buyers are reported to be operating, but to what extent is not indicated. The. news ia encouraging to growers so far as it goes, but the sales are not yefc ovor. In any case, the effect on tho coming local sales •will bo beneficial, as ,was to be seen in- Napier yesterday, and, it is hoped, will be seen in Wellington oii Monday next. *