ON THE WATCH TOWER.

Evening Star, Issue 14574, 24 May 1911, Page 7

ON THE WATCH TOWER.

[By Ariel.] What has been the most impressive ami ■pleasing event in the gathering of the representatives of tho Empire in the Homeland ? It was net tho visit to a royal tomb. It was not taking tea with the King and Queen. It wins not any of the splendid funetiuus or brilliant dinners redolent of luxury and ablaze with jewels. It was just the return of a plain man, in no Windsor uniform, to Glasshouse Village, his Scottish birthplace. The man was Mr Fisher, the Premier of the Continent of Australia. I think he did not want to talk as the motor swept into the old familiar roads, and every hedge and building called up trooping memories. What is it in that old mill, or that old Dak, or yon tip-head that brings mist into the eye and a lump into the throat ? Ah, reader, if you have a heart, you win never tear out of it the roots and fibres of the first little world that you learned to know in childhood. Von may have suffered there, yon may have been insignificant there, but you want lo sec it again. Air Fisher broken his birth's invidious

Vot feels, as in a pensive dream. When all the active powers are still, A distant dearness in the hill. A secret sweetness iu the stream. The limit of his narrower fate, Wliile yet beside its vocal springs He played at counsellors and kings With one that was his earliest mate. Who ploughs with pain his native ioa, And reaps the labor of his hands. Or in the furrow musing stands : “Does my <•!<! friend remember me? ' * * * * -x -x The miners, fresh, from (he pit, the triliagers. and school children welcomed him. He met miners who were comrades of his in his enlliei’y days. 'I he old women wrung his hand effusively, the school children singing ’ A man's a man for a' that.’ Such is the cabled report. It would take an lan Maclaren l-o do justice to the incident. 1 am not strong in pathos myself. hut my eye got dim as I. realised that scene. If the truth were known, it wasn't the King or the Imperial Con fc-rence that Air Fisher fell- most interest iu as he voyaged from tar Au.-iraiia, but just this village and there simple tolk. 'Vet it is not mainly, .Mr Fisher's reelings that fetch me. It k the loyally and love of the less fortunate ours who stayed at Crosshouse. There was no envy or jealousy in their creeling. They knew Unit he had not. deserted them, and they saw material Led in him the spirit of this age of liberty and opportunity, and of this Empire, that despises none. Right well they expressed it in tbs children’s song ; Is there, for honest poverty. That hangs his head, and a' that ; The coward slave, we pass him by, We dare be poor for a’ that I For a’ that and a' that. Our toil's obscure, and that: The rank is hut the guinea stamp. The man's the gowd for ;T that. WT.it tho' on inanely fare we dine. Wear ii«mls 1 in' grey ami :T that; Gie fools their ,-ilks. and knaves their wine, A man’s a man lor a' that. For a’ that and a' that. Their tinsel show and a’ that. The honest man, tho’ e'er sac poor. Is king o’ men for a’ that. . . . Tie n let us pray Unit come what may. As com- it will far a’ that. That sense and worth, o'er A the earth. .May h-ar the gree (ntrrmj tor a'that. For a' that and a' that. It's coming yet for a’ that. That man to man, the world o'er. Shall brithers he for a' that.

Ves. 1 readily believe that, as the <-abli, says. Mr Fisher was much mo veil. **»**■»*

Mi A. R. Bari lay i- a. great admirer of Jill :■ leavers. Tiny are the hope of the T. 1.1 |J. Wiitels of lid ion ate said to bo at their best in describing emotions and ;is[ .nation-. and qualities that they have felt .-utgir.g and iHailing i.t their own .souls. In Has then;':. ' Sr at lot Letter’ the Puritan preacher ’< mo-; quci.t on thot-e .1.-pc A of mil; that wme hi- own terrible secret. Fr.gciv Aram oil'll-,; the blood as he tells the story of in-- crime in the guise of a dietiisi. George Flint laid a stain on her name, and how vividly Aio draws poor Hetty hi Adam Bed.'. Whether the same prim'pic apply.-. ir.. I#. more or less Jii-t. rival. of lhe aeilii vcments of Mr Lloyd Gjingo I n..i know, Tliete are Hewers bora to blush im.-i Thou- may he other la-wyets oi iliad'-quale stature who would fain lie ima-ravii by their mind, and who me L-ig with tiiisuspeclod possibilities. i! majeririrv- n |i.\c> their coble tage am! freeze the m-i.l.d euneir. in their .-oak It may ho. .-'tiil. a! 1 those who wore Byron cravats v. m-.i that craze was on were not Byrons: nor ate all lawyers who are disloyal to tiieii country when she a- at war Lioyd Georges, be they ever to little, •fc * TT -K- >f* * Tin- Liberals aio dealing well with the Xaticn.il Debt, though Mr George lias annexed part of the. staking hind. To have . pai<l -A' seventy-on- millions. i-inte they i-irue into office i- net k rut work. If th is rate "t payment, witn the interest saved added every year, wue maintained thitiy or forty years tin- deb; would la- near the vanishing point. Mi Lloyd George, during tin- thice yearn of his (. jiaucellorship. )ia : riiscd thiili'm! millions a year for old age pensions, nearly ten millions extra fur defence, and ha-, paid off nearly twentynine millions; of debt. It is not a had record. It given the little colonial a view of tho size of filings in tin- big wotld outside. To pay off in about eight years a debt equal to the whole debt of .New Zealand seems amazing, when we remember that they look it in their stride, without effort. Compared with this, tho AViv Zealand Debt extinction scheme seems absurd. We add otto hundred thousand a year to the sinking fund, and then borrow fifty hundred thousand at otto stroke I ****** * Tho Supreme Court, has been interesting with it.; feminine prisoners, and people have flocked to see the woman who did. In Christchurch, whore a woman was alleged to have been done to death by men. there was still more interest and excite-nn-nt. especially among women. wh-> jumped seats in a double sense. [ wonder if any of them will propose to Jack? Or C it only men who fall in love with ]-er:-vn.s accused ? Bin Christchurch has ff> hide it.- diminished head when wo remember the Camorra trial. What must it be to be there! .1 can’t quite make out whether it is tho Italian GoveniniP.nt or Italian society that is on its trial. The illustrated paper; show a crowd of evil-looking men in a groat iron cage. I suppose they are grand jurors or witnesses, whom it is necessary to protect while they do their duly. What office in tho- court Is held by the tragedians who pray on their knees that departed brothers may Ik; suitably avenged, and who curse in the name of the Trinity, I do not know, but it does not appear to be anybody’s duty to call for "Silence in the Coort.” Priests, by the way, seem to keep strange company. In the great willforging case in Russia one, at least, of them seems to be mixed up with four lawyers and several noblemen and officers. # "If # if -Jp -jf if What are those mysterious Japanese about? They dropped into Wellington like innocents abroad. They were going to the •South Pole barefooted and in cotton shirts, so to speak, which seemed simple. They also talked by signs, not knowing a worcl of English. Which we had a small game, And Ah Sin took a hand. It was euchre ; the same ~ He did not understand ; But he smiled as he sat by tho table With a smile that was childlike and bland. Before leaving Wellington ono of them bought some of W. W. Jacobs’s books. The same he did not understand! They went down to the ice—at least they say they did—and finding it was not suitable lor rice-growing, they came back to Sydney, whence their leader goes home to ■ report and get fresh orders. Meantime . the crew spend their leisure in reading the jpapeo ana in conversing ja very good

English! When Bill Nye vent for that Heathen Chinoo—

The floor it was strewed i Like the loaves on tho strand ! With the cards that Ah Sin had been liiding In the game he did not understand. Now, what are these Japanese hiding, and what fort Wc cannot set them down as practical jokers. What are they after? Is it possible that a certain amount of primitive simplicity is still in power in Japan, and that this simplicity does not wholly believe in the Antarctic, but fancies wo have a good thing on down there—a second Australia, perhaps —and just- wants lo know, you know? -x- -x- -x- * -x * * The most humorous item of the past week fell from the lips of a Supreme Court Judge in Auckland. The question was whether Cash could inherit his wife's cash, ho having murdered her. A precedent was found in the Crippen case. If Crippen could have inherited his wife’s belongings, they would naturally have passed to Lc, Neve, the second wife. The said belongings were not allowed to, pass to Le Neve, because it was held Crippen could not inherit. So far all is clear, bat there arises the question: “Is the’condemnation and execution of Crippen proof that he did murder his wife?” This is a real staggerer! If Air Allen, M.F.. had said it in his speech up North, Air Fowlds would have had to reply to such an attack on the administration of justice. But coming from a Judge, who is behind the .-cones, it sonnis like what is vulgarly called “fouling your own nest,” or, still vulgarly. " crying stinking fish.” The learned Judge continued : “ Evans F. had held that these incidents in Crippen's career were prima facie evidence that he did murder his wile.” That is, they beget a kind of suspicion, as it were, in one’s mind. They would justify Crippen’s arrest if he were to revisit the glimpses of tho moon, and would even justify a magistrate in committing him for trial. There is nothing conclusive about hanging. The man's guilt is still an open question in the eyes nl the law. Poor Cash, however, got no benefit from the legal logic. The question did not even arise whether his condemnation and penal servitude were proof that he really did murder his deceased wife. But why didn’t it arise? Ought hr. lo have been deprived of his wife’s estate ou prima facie evidence? ■»*»****

1 Fur line and amusing distinctions, next j to tho learned Judge, commend me to the I Single Tux Minister, .Mr Fowlds. Hear him ; "No Single Taxer proposes to tax the land at all. That is simply a hugey created by the land speculator and monopolist for the purpose of drawing to his aid the bona fide fanners. The proposal is to tax land value, not land.” This oracle will he as consoling to the •landowners as ” Evans P.’s” scruple will bo to the shade of (happen as it wanders beyond the Styx. If your land is of absolutely no value, and yon can convince the Government vainer, why, then, yon won’t be taxed. It is only when the confounded stuff is of some value that you will have to pay when Single Tax becomes the law of the land. In other words, it is not the land that will be taxed, but only the owner of it. You see tho distinction? Why, then, rejoice therefore. The Hon. David Bnddo ha# been d.wn at Urepuki. "sweetening tho South.” Mow. the same Hon. David has supplied Mr Fowlds with a table for lighting purposes—not that I would imply that Mr Fowlds, who is a Prohibitionist, is given to smashing furniture when he wants a weapon. The table in .question is a statistical one. and the "Star' has printed it as .Mr Fowlds requested. Xow. this table let the cat out of the hag. It shows that the difference Between the selling price of Jam! and the Government valuation for taxation is 57 per tent, in Auckland. That is, if you have land worth £I,OCO in Auckland, you are taxed on £655. In Otago the margin is only 24 per cent. That, is. if you have land worth £I,OOO in Otago, you are taxed on £BO6. Canterbury's margin is 27 per cent.. Southland's 52 per cent., and in the rest of the Hoininion it is only 15 per cent. Hid Auckland's margin i.- 57 per cent. I Then people wonder why the South is not retaining its population, and why Auckland is booming, in spite of all the injuries that the partiality of tho Government inflict on her! If Mr Huddu is going to sweeten the South after his table ■ has been digested, he, will require to carry a hj : of sugar with him. » -x -S * # * * Taranafci Las to pay a tax on £867 out of etywy £I.OOO of selling value. That is rough on butter, and is an incentive to leave more than 16 per cent, of water in it. Tiie Hon. R. McKenzie has been at Opiiiinki “sweetening” the Kgmont region. Tiio simple people there, being thirty miles from a, railway, asked for a branch line. "Hut,” said the Hon. Roddy, “you always send men u> Parliament who vote against loans. You can't have railways without loam. Send men to vote lor loans”— or words to that effect. But .surely wo have loans enough. The live million loan is hardly cold yet. That the horn gentleman thinks that loans must go to those who vote for them, uot to those who pay for them, is clear enough. “Send ms a vote and you’ll got your share” is what ho means. But I would like to know v.liai Ids views are on the limits of burrowing. More votes more loans is clear enough, hut is there no limit? If I remember rightly, only about a third of the live million loan goes to railways. That is the weak spot. There are too many new post offices with chiming clocks, which may gratify local vanity, but do not add to the productiveness of tho country. That’s my opinion, and as good as another's. but neither here nor there for all that. What I was aiming at when I started on the three politicians was this; Roderick, with his votes for loans and lines for votes, and David, with his table of untaxed margins, .and George, with his lucid exposition of Single Tax. are not a. j good substitute for Joe. When ho hears of I their erratic lighting, I fear ho will post- ) pone Iho Goionat ion, and hurry home to j explain. Happily, the lamdon tradesmen are insured against pctitponemoni. I