The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1903.

Evening Star, Issue 12028, 28 October 1903, Page 4

The Evening Star WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1903.

; Tbe most recent, news from the Balkans is distinctly reassuring. We I Order out of are no longer called upon to j Clnias. “ sup full of horrors ” either j genuine or manufactured by the exigencies of desperate leaders of a Most cansc. On the contrary, the ; reiorms first banded to the Sublime Porto j early in the present year by Austria and | Russia seem upon the point of realisation, j unless the Saltan is prepared to face the j consequences of their rejection-on extreme I course that is recommended by Ids Advisers, j Those reforms, it will be remembered, ia- ; eluded a measure of autonomous government, which, the Saltan—who, whatever else he may he, is not a fool—perceived contained the germs of ultimate independence for Macedonia. I hey were still another handwriting on the wall. Bit by hit Turkey has seen her territorial limits restricted, her administra- , tion curtailed, and her provinces pass to I the stranger. To-day she exercises but a j shadowy suzerainty over Bulgaria ■ Austria is the real master in Novi-Bazar ; the Lebanon has slipped from her hold ; Crete and I Cyprus are in the grip of the Frank; Fng--1 land is supreme in Egypt; the desert tribes jof Arabia are openly defiant; and the j Orescent pales before the rising orb of ’ a i new dawn. And to these, Macedonia will ; shortly bo added. The Austro-Russian i reforms do not involve so complete an i advance as that demanded by the Macej (lonian Committee, of whom Boris Farafotf was the daring leader; but that they point j to eventual self-government may be rcasonj ably assumed. The collection of taxes and j their control-perhaps the most fruitful j source of past cruelty and oppression-—as well as the payment of all officers and troops engaged, is to pass from Turkov to a mixed Christian and Mussulman Commission ; the gendarmerie—probably as corrupt a body as can lie found anywhere in the world ontside an American city—are to lie placed under a number of officers selected from the subjects of neutral States ; and a general of high standing, absolutely independent of the Yildiz Kiosk (i.e.. the Suls Palace at Constantinople), is to exercise control over the administration of Macedonia. Other messages add that the joint reforms provide for the establishment of communal autonomy and a rearrangement of the boundaries of existing communes. in order to permit the creation of spheres wherein the different creeds and l nationalities may i>e placed together, in- | stead of continuing scattered in small , bodies throughout the disaffected districts. ! It is this diversity of tongue and faith I that adds to the intricacy of the problem I and the improbabilities of a thoroughly | satisfactory settlement. The Balkans are | not l he home of merely two creeds and j peoples—Christian and Mohomedan: they ■ are given over to the jarring discords of at least half a dozen forms of religious belief anct nationality. • There arc" the Bnlgars, the Servians, the Greeks, the, 1 Wadis, the lurks who are Mussulmans, the Mussulmans who are not Turks, and a large number of .Tews. Ignorant, passionate, bigoted, easily persuaded, hating each other with that zeal which is born of ; intense racial and religious fanaticism, a measure of sympathy, under ordinary cirj cimistances, would be extended even to I the lurk when called upon to govern so ; heterogeneous a population. Bub sympathy disappears when tire methods of admmistra tion become familiar. From palace to hovel a system of unspeakable rottenness prevails, and the slaugixtc-r of officials, the incipient insurrections, the brigandage, and pillage are but its fruits. To reform these things, to bring a measure of civilisation, Ito restrict still further the area of the ; Sultan s rule, to give to Macedonia some, j if not all, of the blessings which within our j own day have come to Bosnia, Herzegoj vina, Crete, and Egypt, is the task of j Europe. Turkey lias wonderful powers of 1 recuperation. Time and again it has been j said thta die was done for, or that she was j bankrupt, and waiting like an over-ripe j fruit to drop into the hand of the first to ; rt. She has been collapsing for I Wo generations; she lias been kicked and j scorned by every nation, from Russia to j Greece; yet she still pays her way, eol- , lects her taxes, puts a ‘ half-million men into the field, and extorts the reluctant admiration of her judges. And if these things are possible under the eternal simmer of discontent and the pitiless extortions of the tax-gatherer, what may the provinces of South-eastern Europe not become under a rational government adapted to the, needs and aspirations of the governed? The Austro-Russian programme simply asks that the supreme authority shall treat its dependent peoples as human beings. There is really not very much in changing the masters and police force necessary to supervise the collection of taxes, and the gap between this and the commonplaces of our own everyday existence is sufficiently startling; but such as the changes arc, they contain the promise and potency of future enfranchisement. They are, as we liave already said, “the rich dawn of an ampler day ”; and our belief that this is so is strengthened by the reports from Constantinople that the acceptance of foreign control is very repugnant to the Porte, and that there ia a feeling abroad that the present AustroRussian reforms are but the foreshadowing of the beginning of the end.

At the Magistrate’s Court Mr E. H. Caiew, S-M., granted the following renewals of old age pensions:—Six at £l°B, one at £ll, and one at £7. Two applications for renewals and three for fresh wero adjourned for report by the"deputy registrar. Six fresh applications at £lB and vtmo at £l3 were granted.

Alhambra Theatre continues to <lo satisfactory business, the management leaving no reasonable work undone in order to please patrons. The present week’s bill is a good one, and ■will be again presented tonight. .

question of the work performed by toe office staff of the Mornington Borough Council came up for discussion at the meeting of the Council held last evening. The town clerk (Mr P. B. Smith) submitted a statement of duties imposed on and carried out by him since bis appointment on March 23, 1833. This statement mentioned, inter alia, that the system of tramway bookkeeping so much commended by Mr Peter Barr was the system which he (Mr Smith) had inaugurated. In enumerating his multitudinous duties, Mr Smith confined himself to a bare category of facts, and the arduous nature of his position may be gathered from the circumstance that the enumeration of duties filled sis foolscap sheets of typewritten matter. As Mr Smith read Lis statement it seemed to dawn on the councillors present that their town clerk was, all things considered, a very hard-worked man indeed, and in the discussion which followed the mayor stated that the fact that the Council had granted Mr Smith a month’s holiday had helped to give currency to a rumor that that gentleman had been suspended. That was not so. Or Lochhead subsequently moved that the mayor he empowered to procure a typewriter immediately in order to facilitate the carrying on of the office work, and this was agreed to. The San Francisco mail reaches Dunedin by the North express to-night. There was a preliminary conference at the Town Hall yesterday afternoon between delegates from the City Council and the Drainage Board. The Mayor of Dunedin is of opinion that the result will he to render clearer several of the matters in dispute between the two bodies, and that an amicable arrangement is likely to bo reached. The Committee of the Dunedin Competitions Society held a meeting yesterday afternoon (Mr J. A. Park presiding) to consider a protest lodged against Mr Coghill being declared the winner of three prises in one' of the art sections. After much discussion, it was decided to defer consideration of the matter till Friday evening, in order to ensure a full meeting of Committee; in the meantime Mr Coghill to be informed of the nature of the objections lodged, and the attendance of the objector to be requested, 'The Committee also decided to take, action on then 1 own initiative, as the rules prescribe. in respect to the stodu? of three other prize- vrianere.

T friends of Air Tbcmas Tail, baker, of Ravensbourne, are concerned about his disappearance from hi* home at Ravensbourne. *^ r home on Monday last to catch the S.oO a.m. train for Dunedin, .and .intended to proceed to Caversharo, but be has not since been hoard of. When the question of allowing costs came up in_ this morning’s old ago pensions case and 50s court charges were .allowed, Mr Hanlon, who appeared for the defendant, protested strongly. It practically amounted, be said, to lining bis (.Tent for l>eing innocent of what she bad been charged with, if costs were nofcjdlowed the Govornmon t would simply take 50s out of one department and hand it over to another department, re that no one would be out of pocket. It was bad enough to pay lines when you were guiltv, without paying them when you \vctc innocent. Finding that the professional foes amounted to £2 12s, His" Worship subsequently remitted the court com-,.

Mistakes V, id Happen ’ attracted a largo downstairs and .good circle and gallery audience at the Princess's Theatre Vast nigh.. As the. ii’gbl was disagci cahiy wet. perhaps no better testimony could be given of the popularity of this' humorous comedy. The number of people in the world who profit by the mistakes of otheis is l-.gmii, and those who were present at hist nights per'oirnance profited to tie extent of a good heartr laugh over tbe ludicrous complications that resulted from the mistakes oi the eight cr nine characters represented in the comedv. In addition to rim excellent work put in or the nrinupa.s Miss Hardinge-M.altby deserves a special word of praise for her'excellent .and wed-sustained Dutch patter. O n Friday nighty ‘ I ops* 1 urvy * will replace the comeny now- occupying the boards.

~ b-peaking at Ravensbourre Ft night r-f roc many : lc . ts bravery during the' Boer • '■o tii.it Jim. Kcc-wiinly gi.iiy unrewarded to- any special distinct:..::. Captain G. W. Macdonald cited an ire’,cnee that: occurred at Kaenosu.-r Knp. There a man of his own vo.nntcer corps—-an ambulance man—while stationed on a hid under a hot tire, saw one of hi lS comrades shot in tie' buck. De dared not get up and cxudm: himself, and so nc rolled down to tie- wounded man and built stones round him to shelter him from the bullets and to rest his hick. Captain CiawsLaw was Hot next, and this‘man roiled over to him and bound him tin. Then Trooper ih.alii. Dunedin, was shot tnrough the left ami, and would have bled to death irom a severed artery, but that the ambulance man got across to him and attended to him. In trying aftcrwaids to get to an anthill below, this plucky one, v. ho had done :ul these things tinder a heavy fire, was shot through the body. He is now Lieutenant Hiiiey. of the 'North Otago Rifles, and, said Captain M’Donald, ‘"if any man deserved I he* Victoria Cross, surely he did.”

Mr D. A. De .'dans, J. I’., presided at the Pert Chalmers Police Court this morning, when a first offender was fined ss. iu -lefeult twenty-four hours’ imprisonment, for drunkenness.

The weekly meeting of the Benevolent Trustee* was held this afternoon, and was attended by Messrs P. Tresedcr (chairman), R- Wilson. Vv. Talbots, W. Burnett. R. M. Chirk, Hod. H. Gonrlev, and A. E. Tapper. 'llk- secretary reported that during the past week no deaths had occurred in the Institution. Bv.< nty-one cases of relief were dealt with. The Chairman intimated that lie, in company with Mr Clark, waited nn the Charitable Aid Board re tbe In.-’ti-tution’s female refuge. It was considered by many that the different maternity homes controlled by different boards were overlapping each other's work. The remit of the conference was that further action lx- held over until another conference had been held.

The question of borough rates in arrears came up at last evening’s meeting of the Mornington Council, and on the motion of the Mayor, Mr C. J. Payne, solicitor, was appointed to recover same. The Mayor mentioned that there was no intention* of inflicting a hardship on ratepayers in stringent circumstances who were unable to pay immediately,’ and a.-; a matter of common humanity some of the amounts might not lie pressed for. That was a matter on which investigation would have to be made. At the same time a. number of ratepayers were holding back mi-s which they were well able to afford, and he remarked that there was a bad time in store for some of those people. The town clerk, in referring (o this matter, said that- the greater portion of the amount in arrear represented unoccupied land, the owners of which were noc resident in the liorough, and the only means of obtaining payment was by selling the land, which is a costly and troublesome process, and one not usually adopted by municipal councils. This the Council had always recognised.

The Mornington tramway manager's report submitted to Die Council last evening showed the revenue from fares for the halL year ended on Saturday, 24th inst.. to be £2,865 5s 4d. Down ■ trips had totalled 109,514, while up fares had aggregated 212.150, the average weekly earnings being £llO 4s. Seventeen weclrs’ Snndav traffic had averaged £5 18s per Sunday. While the extension cars had not kten lunniug the main line had only earned £lO5 9s 1 Jp] j>f T week, as against £llß 0s 8d per week after the extension lino recommenced work. The last-mentioned figures seem to show that the managers contention that tire; extension line helps to draw revenue to the main lino has some foundation in fact.

A false alarm of fire •war given siuurtlv after eight o’clock last night. The door of a boiler furnace in the shop of Mr Patrick, butcher, in Maclaggan street, was left open for a few minutes, and the smoke therefrom found its way tlifough tho iron grating in the footpath. Some passers-by conjectured that the building was on fife, ‘and an alarm being given, the brigade turned out, only to find that their sir rices were not nquired.

Mr K. H. Garew, S.M., presided at the Magistrate's Court this morning, when all the cases called on wero either adjourned, confessed, or struck out.

Cricketers’ carnival and -art union, show week. Sixty prizes, valued £258 10s.—[Advt.] . Tiro Railway Department .advertises in this issue that to-night and to-morrow night a special tram will leave Dunedin for Port Chaim res at 7.10, leaving Port Chalmers again at 10.15.

Photographs of children are made a sped* »dy by Mr Morris, photographer, Pncota street. CLaraes.' 21s per dozen.—fAdvt.] The annual meeting of the Otago Employers’ Association will be held in the Chamber of Commerce on Friday next at 4 p.m.

Visitors to town will find Handy’s hairdressing rooms replete with every modern comfort. Nine thoroughly competent hairdressers. Gentlemen’s haireutting, 6d. [Advt.] A meeting of members of the B Battery, N-ZJF.A., will ha held in the orderly room this evening after parade for the purpose of electing a lieutenant. The D.I.C. are now making their second grand display of spring and summer novelties, a large shipment ex s.s. Wakaaui having just come to hand. The millinery department is replete with everything choice, new, and novel, from the stylish picture hat to the French sailor. In straw hats an immense assortment is being shown, including Swiss capelines, curacoas, sailors, etc.; also a large assortment, of children’s hats in galateas, white and speckled, and mushroom hats in white and burnt, suitable for school or holiday wear. The D.I.C. are also making a very fine show of ladies’ underwear and children’s garments.— [Advt.J Hongkong advises that direct cable communication with Canton is interrupted by a typhoon. Everyone interested in .artistic house decorations should inspect the metal ceilings and wall coverings at Briscoe’s. —[Advt.] The members of St. Joseph’s Ladies’ Club intend producing the operetta ‘ A Dress Rehears?-! ’ at the Foresters’ Hall, Port Chalmers, on Friday evening, in aid of the convent building fund. The railway time-table will be suitable for visitors from Dunedin, particulars cf winch appear elsewhere. Gresham and Boot, dentists, 63 Princes street (opposite Bible, Tract Denot). —[Advt.] A notice to members of' the Loyal Orange Lodge, No. 39, appears in this issue. If you desire a good head of hair use Iles’a cautharides and rosemary, as used by Ladj Raafurly.—[Advt.] Mr Ernest Boot, surgeon-dentist (late of Hunter and Boot), has resumed practice in Central Rooms, above Montague’s (opposite Citv Hotel). Entrance from Moray place.— [Advt.]