TOPICS OF THE DAY

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 112, 7 November 1912, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY

Death's toll in the Balkans grows vastly. It is a horrible record The War. of carnage — and many thousands are yet to fall. Even if the guns and bayonets were put aside at once, the list of the doomed must be greatly extended, for thousands of the wounded have the seal of death upon them. Balkan wars in the past revealed a terrible mortality among the •wounded, especially the Turks, who have no modem scheme of surgical aid and hygiene. The Lancet says that the mortality from disease is likely to be enormous, and this is a sale prophecy. It is reported that disease is rampant in Adrianople, where the people are drinking polluted river water now that the ordinary supply has been cut off by the besieging forces. Constantinople is in similar plight. Some 36,000 wounded have returned to the capital recently, and if the past is a criterion a huge proportion will die. Straggling away fvom fields of battle great numbers of wounded Turks perished of hunger, cold, and neglect — and now the winter's bhows are mantling the mountains. The Buigars are working briskly towards Chataldeja, and here will be another shambles soon. One strong force of Serbs is pressing towards Monasfcir, ahd Salonika is closely invested. Ihe Allies are winning always; it is merely a question of how many more deaths before the Turk defmitoly sues for peace. Anarchy in Constantinople is anticipated, and therefore British bluejackets are to be landed there. No doubt all the Powers are taking similar precautions. The end of the war appears to be near— and then the Powers must take up a heavy burden. After admitting that work has to be stopped on some of the many Pot and branch railways which the Kettle. Liberal Government was „ pressed to undertake, the Massey Government has produced a little list of its own. However, these lines (nearly all branches) scheduled in the Authorisation Bill are to be only on paper for a time. No appropriation is being made for them* this year. The Government has contented itself, for the present, with obtaining Parliament's approval of the projected construction. The Prime Minister and his chief lieutenant (the Hon. James Allen) have to bear a little banter, because each has a branch line mapped out for his district. Mr. Massey is to have a cockspur—which no doubt the quality of the country deserves— from the North Island Main Trunk to Waiuku (twelve miles), and his colleague is to have another from Balclutha to Tuapeka Mouth (about twenty-One miles). Probably Mr. Massey can make out a much better case for his line than Mr. Allen. The Tuapeka Mouth proposition caught some caustic comment Tuesday night from the Hon. R. M'Kenzie, who described it as the worst political railway proposal m this country's history. Here is Motueka's ex-Minister daring to wage war in an arch-Reformer's territory. Mr. Allen has lived to be accused of the political sin which he never wearied of censuring in former years. He can plead that the needs of Tuapeka Mouth demand a railway. But was there ever a railway in any poor district without warrant? Nearly every member in the House of Representatives can furnish proof of the urgency of railway construction or extension in his district. Possibly Mr. Allen may be able to silence the outcry against Tuapeka Mouth' by an elaborate statement of the district's natural resources, but more likely his strongest defence will be by tu-quoque or pot-and-kettle argument. He can point to a number of political railway schemes adopted by his predecessors, and he will not lack invitations to exert himself to defend that southern branch railway at this stage. In some year the workers in hotels and restaurants will work bix Waiters ! days a week ihst«ad of seven, but they are again ordered to wait for that measure of common justice. They had cause to hope that this session would bring that fair treatment to which they are obviously entitled in this much-boomed humanitarian era, but once more they are fobbed off. The Weekly day of rest recedes like the horiaoti. The "Reformers," who had such soft and soothing speech for Labour before last ycar"s battle of the polls, are not offering 'much comfort to the cooks and waiters. Recently tho Prime Minister seemed to be in a mood to legislate this session. The Bill was referred, to a committee, and evidence of hotelkeepem was taken, lestevday that committee presented a teport favourable to the Bill, and then it was asserted that the cast) for the objectors was not complete. Mr. Massey had pledged himself to allow ample time for all remonstrance to be voiced, and it was contended that all expostulators had not enjoyed an opportunity to be heard. Strange ! Five years have passed since the Bill was introduced in the House of Representative., Th.« Jaarji«u of ihg h&uss, s».

tain evidence'of hotclkeepers 1 objections, which, as the Hon. V. M. B. Fisher admits, must be the same to-day as they were long ago. Yet Parliament must wait for a repetition of all the objections before the Bill can become an Act, and many people must continue working on seven days a Week. It is very Tegrettable that Mr. Massey allowed himself to bo persuaded into giving that pledge which must necessarily injure his party. He had no right to give a pledge which prolongs a term of injustice for a large number of workers. Here w another question for the reforming Government to answer. Are objectors to a six-day week to be allowed to block a fair reform! Is it conceivable that the public will tolerate such an absurdity in these days? Naturally the Opposition took the chance yesterday to heckle the Government, but the criticism, though just, lost much of its weight by the fact that the Liberals, when in power, for over twenty years did not insist on the principle of a six-day week. From 1907 to 1911 a private Bill figured session after session on the Order Paper, and year aiter year it was left among the- slaughtered innocent*. The waiters can thank the Opposition for nothing except for chiding the Government for neglecting what its predecessors also failed to do. Mr. Massey has at least to bo given credit for pledging himself to do his best to pass the Bill next year— that is, within fifteen months of his accession to office.