COMMENTS ON THE CABLES

Evening Star, Issue 12943, 5 May 1908, Page 4

COMMENTS ON THE CABLES

India is again the focus of all eyes. On the Afghan border the most Sedition in serious rising—possibly Ln,Calcutta. vasion—for many years is brewing, and from the extreme east comes nows of internal revolt charged with greater causes for uneasiness than any which so far has reached us. The rioting and sedition of last year were suppressed, not cured. The policy of forgiveness and toleration has failed. The protesters against sharp measures and the advocates of trust and kid-glove methods have been proven wrong, while Calcutta and other centres are declared to be the hiding places for cartloads of bombs, electrical appliances, anarchistic literature, seditious sheets, revolutionary incitements, and plots to kill Lord Titchener. How much, or how. little, of this represents the actual truth of the matter it is yet too early to say. There is, however, one aspect of the situation on which all the messages seem to agree— the pernicious influence that is

exercised on a section of the populace by the worst class of the vernacular Press nnd by the utterances of the Extremist leaders. A peculiarly revolting and terrible illustration is to hand. The youth who confessed to throwing the bonib by which Mrs and Miss Kennedy and a coachman lost their lives, and which proved the immediate cause of the discovery of the weapons and organisations of anarchy, now admits that he was chiefly impelled to his crime by the teachings of the orator Babu Bepin Chandra Pal. This man, who came into prominence last year as a preacher of the Swaraj (Home Eulo pure and simple) movement, has already served a term in prison. He is an Oxford graduate, a traveller, hasdectnred in America, and since his return to India has been politician, newspaper editor, and preacher. He is described as a “ stump orator of volcanic force and volume,” and one who exercises his abilities to some purpose among the younger members of the community, who are dissatisfied with the older and slower “ constitutional ” leaders. And Babu Bepin is but one of many to whom the common people turn eladly. These men' are demanding more than can ever bo granted to them. They are impatient of the restraint under which they live, and they allow their passions to run away with them when they are writ ing articles for the vernacular Press. Hence assassinations as wicked and as cruel as they are stupid .and useless; hence, 100, a strong undercurrent of resentiment wherever largo numbers- are gathered together.

Wn.L there be another Indian mutiny? It is strange that the question An Old should arise fifty years after Question. that awful rising which for a few weeks—though a few weeks only—threatened the existence of the British Empire in India. The back of the great Mutiny was broken in 1857. but it was late in 1853 before the last embers were stamped out, the “John Company” dissolved, and the country brought- under Imperial rule. The advance in peace, prosperity, and intellectual well-being of the people of India since that hour is°one of which all Englishmen hove cause to bo proud. \\ e know what critics say, and we have rend what American platform speakers would do, and we know the familiar lines along which such criticism runs. But when all has been said that is possible, the rule of the Briton in India stands unique arid glorious among the governments of subject peoples by their conquerors. India has been administered for the past fifty years for the benefit of the people of India, and we do not look for a repetition of the horrors of 1857. In the first place, a successful native rising is hardly possible ; the fighting races are loyal and the conditions to-day arc altogether dissimilar. The men now at- the head of affairs are not likely to repeat the blunders of their predecessors of fifty years ago ; there is no such disproportion between native and white troops as then ; the artillery is exclusively in the hands of Europeans; and communication is much more swift and sure. But, says Sir Charles Eliot, who recently published a series of articles after his tour of India, there are dangers. A disturbance of the delicate organisation of the Indian system of government would cause serious embarrassment. All tho lower brandies of the Civil Service are worked by natives; ir they were to refuse to enlist, or if tho native flung the whole burden of government on the European, there would be grave trouble. Again, the majority of the educated Indians are discontented, and their influence, ns we have learned, over the uneducated masses is deep and farreaching. What, then, is the cure? Impatient observers fall back on Labouchere’s saying “What is won by the sword must he held by the sword,” which means that iTidla can he held only so long as the fighting races are loyal. But this is contrary to the spirit and word of British polity. We say that India is governed only by the consent of tire population. All ” the' past work of Englishmen in India leads up to tho government of India for and eventually by the people of India. The sword, then, is not the symbol of our rule, though the sword may have to bo drawn if need arises. All of which hut serves to indicate the tremendous nature of the problem that awaits solution.

Intelligent Englishmen and rational Americans may assert at Tim great international func-Spread-Kmili' tions that war betwcn the - *mun. United States and Great Britain is unthinkable, and the sober Press on either side of the ocean may refer to “our cousins” and 11 friends,” but neither can guarantee the policy of the Yellow Press, nor what form the campaign oratory of the Presidential candidate will take. Twisting the Lion’s tail a.nd rhetorical flights of lurid spreadeagleism continue to influence votes and to inflame audiences) during times of political passion. The difference to-day is one of quality rather than quantity. It is no longer respectable for statesmen like Sherman to write “ sliirt sleeves” letters, or like Benjamin Harrison to openly bid for the Irish vote, or like Grover Cleveland to give an ambassador his papers, or like Olney to defy a British Premier over that wretched thorn in the flesh to so many Bowens—Venezuela. But deliberate appeals to dislike of Great Britain, unashamed incentives to racial hatreds, and unmitigated balderdash in the shape of spread-eagleism are persisted in by the baser sort. Mr William Randolph Hearst, the millionaire demagogue and owner of a string of yellow journals that extend from New York to San Francisco, has no hesitation in proclaiming that “ the deeds of England have always been hostile to America, and intelligent citizens of this nation know that England would be as ready to encourage Orientals to make war on this country to-day as she was to incite the Indians to murder the wives and children of American colonists in the days of the struggle for American independence.” And stuff of this sort, wild and disgustingly false as it is, is swallowed by all who care not wha,t weapons they use if only they are effective against their opponents. How far Mr Johnson, Governor of Minnesota, and a Presidential candidate, has gone in his campaign of buncombe and drivel we cannot say.“ The cable merely advises that he is preaching spread-eagleism in those States where he is best known, and that his evangel includes the obliteration of the frontier line between Canada and the United States and the supplanting of the Union Jack by the Stars and Stripes. “I hope,” declared this typical, self-made American, “to live long enough to see the American Hag float over Montreal, Ottawa, and Winnipeg, and the whole of the Saskatchewan region. Not the flag of the conqueror, but tho flag of friendship, alliance, concord, and amalgamation.” We acknowledge Mr Johnson’s honesty. Men of his stamp sincerely believe that a country in which they have risen from nothing to be the Governor of a great State is the greatest, grandest, freest country on earth. And they proclaim their faith from the housetops. What, so far, they have not shown is tho superior!ty of theu land and in all thatmakes life worth living to the land they affect to patronise. Mankind has nothing to gain by the substitution of tho Stars and Stripes for tho Flag of England. The people of the United States have yet to learn the elements of government, of justice, and of liberty, and there is only one flag that stands for the protection of the oppressed in every dime.

A letter was received from Messrs Noyes Bros, at a special meeting of the City Council held in committee lost evening, covering an offer to reduce (without prejudice) their claim against the City Corporation to £9,500, their original claim being for £11,619 5s 4d. A.motion was proposed that the Council offer £9,000, and an amendment that £8,500 be the sum offered. The amendment was lost on the casting vote of the mayor, and the motion was negatived by 11 Votes to 6. the minority being the Mayor, Councillors Scott, Cole, Rutherford, Sullivan, and J. E. White. Gr .Stewart, with the unanimous consent of the Council, moved a further amendment that £8,501 be offered, and this was carried by a large majority. Crs Cole and .Scott voted with the minority on the_ ground that the offer was an imjustifiable one, and Cns Small and Burnett also

voted against the amendment afi a protest against increasing what they regarded as the Coimcirs irreducible mmiiniun, afid as being contraay to the city solicitor’s advice and the opinion of Mr Bell, K.C. who had been retained in the pending lawsuit. All the councillors were present except Councillors H. H. S. White (who is indisposed) and Tapley (absent in Wellington). It is not known whether there is any prospect of the offer being accepted. A Christchurch telegram states that the Now Zealand Flour Millers’ Co-operative Association have advanced the price of bran by 10s per ton. It is now quoted at £0 IOS. r A warning to boatmen. In delivering the Nautical Court’s decision regarding the fatal collision between the steamer Lady Roberts and the Matak'ana, a motor launch, Mr 0, C. Graham, S.M., in the Magistrate’s Court this morning announced the Court’s opinion “that the regulations with regard to carrying lights should bo strictly enforced in future* on all occasions.” The Hon. R. M‘Nab arrives by the first express to-night, and goes south by the first express to-morrow morning to attend the funeral of Mr J. Bennet, M P The funeral will leave Eae’s Junction about ten o’clock in the morning so as to enable those attending from Dunedin to return the same night. Mr J. F. Arnold, M.P., will accompany the Minister of Lands. Tenders are being called for the erection of a building 74ft long by 25ft wide for the State coal depot to be established on the vacant land alongside the Jetty street wharf.

The important business to engage the attention of the City Council to-morrow evening is the appointment of a librarian for the Carnegie Free Public Library and the election of committees for the ensuin'* year. °

A telephone office and bureau has been established at the Waipori Falls. It was in the Anderson Bay Cemetery that the boy A. Edgar M'Phee was buried yesterday. Many mourners followed; amongst them Mr Langley Pope and the senior boys of the St. Clair School, four of whom earned the coffin from the gates to the grave. The girls of the school made three very pretty wreaths under the direction of Mrs Pope. These marks of respect were truly a labor of love, little and his brother being very much liked'’in the school. The next meeting of the University Council will consider the following very important motion, of which notice was given yesterday by the Rev. W. Hewit--8011: —“With a view to relating the primary and secondary departments of our educational system, and also the general community, more closely with the Universiy, it is desirable that the constitution of the Council should be amended so as to include not only representatives of the Government, the Professorial Board, and the graduates, but also representatives of (1) the Education Boards of Otago and Southland; (2) the primary school teachers of Otago and Southland; (5) the High School Boards of Otago and Southland; (4) the secondary school teachers of Otago and Southland; and (5) the City Council of Dunedin. Further, it is desirable that the term of office for all representatives should be three yearn.” Port Chalmers councillors at last night’s meeting were inclined to think that the municipal escutcheon had been blemished. The indignity consisted in the appointment of a representative on the Dock Trust without their being consulted in the matter. The Minister of Marine had made the appointment, lawfully, it is true, but so suddenly that the name of the Council’s nominee arrived in Wellington too late to influence the Minister’s choice, although forwarded by telegraph. Five councillors supported a motion of resentment, but four councillors were actuated by more kindly emotions, and the mayor’s twofold vote put them in the ascendancy.

“Get the name of the man, and put him away from the ground ; that will do him good.” So said Mr Campbell at the Rugby Football Committee’s meeting last night with reference to smokers in the grand stand. The mail despatched from Dunedin via Brindisi on March 26 was distributed in London on the evening of the Ist inst. Mr E. G. Allen, M.P., endeavored to impress upon members of the Harbor Board last night the advantageous position the Board w-ould be in if they assumed the functions of the Dock Trust. Auckland, for instance, paid £250,000 for its dock; Wellinjrton had let a contract for a dock for a similar sum; and Lyttelton dock cost £105,000. Lyttelton, he said, paid 6 per cent, interest, and its annual loss on its dock was £6,403. The Otago Harbor Board would get two docks, an endowment worth £I,OOO a year, and works of all descriptions for no more than £BO,OOO. Several members replied: “Oh, no.” and .Mr Duthie mentioned that £BO,OOO had been borrowed already. Mr Allen said that if there had been no dock the custom of the Union Company would have been lost. He would say £85,000, and in order to secure the great adjunct to the port they should not be 100 exacting over minor details. The outstanding feature of the Harbor Board’s keen and interesting discussion last night on the question of amalgamation with the Dock Trust was the perfect unanimity of belief that the interests of the people and port of Otago would be best served if the Harbor Board assumed control of the new dock at Port Chalmers. The' temper of the meeting was even and cool, and the discussion, on which, it may be conceded, hinged the future prosperity of the port or the opposite, was carried out in an animated but pleasant spirit. It was clear that every member had devoted long, earnest thought to the many-sided subject, and that the mind of each was set singly on the interests of the community. The points on which members agreed tp differ emanated from a common centre —finance. _ The opponents of immediate amalgamation seemed easy-minded respecting the obvious financial position, but appeared mentally disturbed as to things unseen. The pronounced common opinion, however, was the desirability of conserving and furthering the interests of the port and people. The Church of England authorities have arranged f or a course of lectures at St. Paul’s Cathedral on Sunday afternoons. They will begin on May 31. The general subject will be ‘The Kingdom of God and the Twentieth Century.’ The lectures will deal with various matters of general interest. Our special corrcspoudent wires that there was a little mild excitement in Invercargill this morning, caused through Mi Tom Leyden, an old University footballer, finding near the Hoads - a largo piece of what was supposed to be ambergris. It weighed 441b, and the value was estimated at £3,000. The stuff, however, turned out to be nothing better than a lump of paraffin, jettisoned from some passing ship, and worth about half a sovereign. l*he finder carried his prize ten miles, so that instead, of being rewarded at the rate of £3OO per mile for his labor he gets only one shilling. A report compiled by the Director oi the School of Mines states that the number of remunerative appointments obtained by old students was greater last year than in any other year since the establishment of the school. Of the six inspectors oi mines employed in the Dominion by the Mines Department three are New Zealand mining graduates. In an article on the Otira tunnel the ‘Lyttelton Times’ says: “To be exact, tin length of the tunnel will be 5 miles 2; chains 12ft. It will be 17ft high ami 15ft broad. It will bo quite straight with a dip from the east to the west The eastern portal will be 2,435 ft above sea level, and the western portal 1,585 ft giving an incline in the 6 miles of 850 ft or Ift in 33. Messrs John M'Lean am Sons have contracted to make the tunnel for £599,794. Extras will ably bring the total cost up to It has been calculated by a person fond cl figures that the tunnel* will be 532,640jf long, and it will cost nearly £2 an incl along its whole length. The workraer inside the tunnel will be, on the average 7Coft below the ‘ mountains, hut at ;m spot, beneath Warnock’s Knob, they wil burrow at a depth of I,looft ”

According to a Northern exchange, a phantom of the stranded Tavitmi wag apparently sighted off Farewell Spit tie other morning. _ The lighthouse reported that the.Taviuni passed ehSt! The question of church extension was discussed at the 'meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery to-day. The Rev. D. Borria spoke very strongly about the poor support given to a special meeting called for the purpose of considering the matter. It was a disgrace and shame, he thought, that the Presbytery and the various church elders should have been so poorly represented. The meeting on that occasion was so poorly attended that it was resolved to hold another conference, at which it was hoped there would be belter support. The meeting was this mortiing fixed for the 26th ipst. The tramways extension to the Carisbrook Ground will be completed in about a fortnight, so that all doubts are now set at rest as to the line being open for traffic for the British football match at the end of'the month. Mr Robert Scott, president of the farmers Union, made up his mind to-day to ,. s^ aild / or the Tuapeka bye-election, which will take place in a few weeks’ time. We understand that Mr John Bennetts will also be a candidate at the bveelection; he will be standing as a Government supporter. Nature’s harshness, which lays waste the fruitful plantations of the South Sea Islands occasionally, is nothing compared to her lavish kindness generally. A gentlemart who knows the Islands well tells us thifc the recent hurricane at Suva will not disorganise the Island fruit trade to the extent generally calculated. The recuperative power of the sun-bright isles is prodigious. A few months after a devastating hurricane the signs of ruin are hidden by gladdening fruitfulness. In the Islands, it would seem, one has but to plant a tree sleep a while, dream, and wake, and lo! the ripened fruit awaits the gatherer. Lei us go there now! It was common talk in town to-day that the brewery business for so many years fun under the name of Strachan and Co. had b-cn bought by Speight and Co. Tim is not correct, but we understand that it has been taken over by some shareholders in the latter firm.

Those premises, No. 121 George street, are now occupied by H. Sanders and Co., hbdse furnishers. [lß7l A golden opportunity to secure cheaply handsome-framed bevelled-edge mirrors. We I have in stock, and desire to clear right out, 1 a few very slightly-blemished plates, scarcely I perceptible when framed, which we are offerjmg at greatly reduced prices. Splendid j value. Call and inspect. Smith and Smith, } Limited, Octagon.—[Advt.] ! The annual meeting of the Gaelic Society | will bo held in the Oddfellows’ Hall, Stuart ! street, to-morrow evening, at eight o’clock, j A glory that every woman desires to possess is an abundant growth of beautiful, I glossy hair. The desire wilt be fully gratified j to all who Use Hendy's celebrated Juleptia, i which produces a wonderful effect on weak lor impoverished hair. It’s worth a trial. ! Bottles, Is, from Hendy, hair specialist, • Dunedin.—[Advt.] Have you seen Young and Anderson’s I “Camp Coffee’’ window? Have you yet made : a trial of Camp Coffee? If not, there is a treat in store.—[Advt.] For painless extractions go to Mr J. A. I Jordan, London Dental. He does not pull teeth, but extracts them carefully and scien- , tifically.—[Advt.] I There are some new art portrait studies in vestibule of Morris, photographer’s. Mr Morris considers they are the beat he has ever done. He is also sure that the novel effect of lighting and modelling is quite out of the ordinary, and considerably above the usual everyday portraiture.—[Advt.] It is absolutely well known that the handsomest advertising of to-day is really good work. .You get the most exquisitely-finished photographs that can possibly be produced at the “Acme” Photo Company, 175 George street. See specimens.—[Advt.] Ladies, all Miss Helena Rubinstein’s Valaze ■ Bkin and Toilet Preparations are sold by j Wilkinson and Son. chemists.—[Advt.] *°~™* -