ON THE WATCH TOWER

Evening Star, Issue 15515, 10 June 1914, Page 3

ON THE WATCH TOWER

{By Asm.} The campaign of recrimination iu conlection with the sinking of the Empress of Ireland is much to be deplored, but is very natural as human nature is at present. There are few who can suffer and not cry out against someone. The doe bites tho stick that struck him: the. child is relieved when the tabic leg that knocked him is whipped. I have been soundly abused by a woman in a crowd before now when irrcsi-liblo .pressure troni outside thrust me again.-: her. I was once walking quietly al»mr a street on, some trala day. 1 was 1 -.king at an American flag that was flying in a. conspicuous P»ce, when Ktv attention "a- am*.-ted o\ a verv angrv < Id iimm. who wa> gesticulating and declaiming agriM-t the tie-. W hen 1 came t** Ixisn be munal> at we, and tiuir I hvlwvvd in that, vnipudeiit mriu-i.i:. These little things show that when people arc angry and e.xcifev ilicv ntij.-t her 'team off against something or' somebody Whole communities and nations demand scapegoats when they suffer s'-me seiious disaster. The i rench sacrificed both, their Napoleons ami Marshal Br.zaine and lie Lesseps. We tuca and sh% Admiral Bvng and court nmi-t-alled tor Robert Calder. Bad crops and bad tiade generally bring popular Governments down. Of course,, they base nothing to do with these tilings, but tho people are hurt, and must blame somebody. That someone blundered in bringing this dreadful calamity about is clear enough, but when the fatal impact hau once'taken place the primal law of Nature, saving one's self, was speedily in operation, and it does not appear that ’thosewho now complain had thought of anything mu their own safety. Bow much more worthy are Sir Conan Doyle's reflections on the beauty of human nature than all this petty spleen in the presence of a great sorrow I *******

It would indeed be a very serious thing if 5C per cent, of the children attending our schools were suffering from raalnntntion. We really would not like to have appeals in the London papers for funds to feed the unhappy children of New Zealand. Such a thing is far from impossible. Look how the b'tter cry of the victims of comnulsorv training reached the great city and found ready hearers. There are always a host of Mrs Jellybys, Mrs Pardig’Me=. and Mr Honeythunders, professional philanthropists, who are espeeially captivated by imagined distress m some remote corner of the world, but who can look unmoved on the real distress that stares lliem in the face every day. I beseech I>r Elizabeth Gunn wot to pive us away, as she seems bent on doing. Please, good Gunn, use smokeless powder, even yf the charge is blank—w f hich I think it is. I am far more impressed by the temperate statements of Dr Cawdrwell, who does not think that 1 per cent, of the ill-nourished children in our schools owe their condition to insufficiency of food. He docs not admit more than 20 per cent, of the whole to be fairlv described as ill-nourished, so that he does not think that one in 500 can he described ns receiving insufficiency of food. If that is ;o—and I, as one who know's a good deal or New Zealand life, firmly believe it to be a trustworthy statement—then caw should be taken not to confound one m 500 with 50 in 100. * -K- * * * * ■* A would-be lady inspector caused a great stir in the dovecotes of Sydenham the other day. She systematically worked a whole street with perfect immunity. New Zealanders are so habituated to the iron rule of innumerable inspectors that no one dreamt of putting her out or of sending for the guardian of peace and liberty. The little woman arrived, note book in hand, and demanded to inspect- the premises and the children. She objected, to that tuft of grass on the path, she directed the immediate cleaning of the^ fowlhouse, she insisted on seeing everything in the house, and criticised this, and expressed her high displeasure with that; she made a health examination of the children, sometimes requiring to have them stripped that she might judge of the state of their skin. Like Dr Gunn, I believe she found much need for improvement. She appeared to be having a day out and to enjoy herself in tormenting and frightening the poor women. That, bowevey, was her sole reward. She enjoys no stipendiary emolument from a paternal Government.

******* Lord Methveu says that the black races must he ruled -with a rod of iron and realise that the. white man is their master. This is true as far as the white man is concerned, but then he is not the only party to the arrangement. He is even weakened by a lot of sentiment on the part of his own race that tries to defy the laws of Nature. This sentiment is laying up for the 'future a tremendous heritage of woe. It is pretty certain that, hi some prehistoric epoch Europe was inhabited by black men-of diminutive stature. Happily for the world there was no sentiment when the white man came. If there had been, the history of the planet would have been immeasurably changed for the worse. The only progressive blood in the world would have been watered down to stagnation point. Can anyone say that our remote ancestors did not do their duty in clearing the inferior race out? We are dealing with much larger areas than Europe now, and making the destiny of vast nations that shall be. 'there ought not to he one voice raised against Canada, the United States, Australia. and New Zealand in their efforts to keep the blood of the race—the holy of holies--pure. But there is a great deal of sickly sentiment, especially in England, that shrieks against the performance of the first of duties. The Boers, in South Africa, were going the only way about the tremendous task of putting the black in his plat e, but .we stopped them, and are already face to face with the- beginning ~f the consequences. The French are asserting the white man in the New Hebrides, and there is a cry, amongst us to put the islands under the rule of the sentimentalists. Believe me, all is not gold that glitters, and all is not farsighted oV for the benefit of mankind that looks like pity for the savage. ******* Sir Conan Doyle has said that the mob will take to lynching the suffragettes before long, for when the mob gets angry it forget? the distinction of sex. lam not wholly convinced that that would not be the best solution of the riddle. Like cures like, some say, and violence may cure violence. Of course, that is on the principle of .Satan casting out Satan, igainst which there- is a- weighty authority. But there is no sign of forbearance and gentleness having any good result in this case. There is, on the other side, the dictum of 9 celebrated German philosopher that all onr manners and morals have been knocked into us by the club of the stronger, who wouldn’t have any nonsense. The ducking stool, the pillory, the cart tail, and other instruments of persuasion have been so long neglected that a return to some form of club law stems to be a felt want. The handful of criminal suffragettes who are playing the fury in the Old Country are certainly trading on the chivalry of men and on the forbearance of the communitv to a very dangerous extent. There have been periods when the distinction of sex was utterly forgotten by an angry populace. The French “ septembered ” beautiful girls and guillotioned women by the hundred. Let fear once take hold of the community, and there will be no more pity for suffragettes than there was *jof' old {Tor witches. In the meantime the Belfast

“mill girls” have begun operations by stripping one of the militants and spanking her with her own shoes. Women always were hard, on women; and on the whole, as it is a woman question, I would willingly. leave the matter in their hands, believing that their treatment of it would be fairly effective. * -if * * * * * The trip of the Maori chiefs to the Old Country is a nice outing for them. P.y» sibly some of them knew that it wu» nothing more, and,were quite satisfied so long as someone else paid the piper. But to the hopeful simpletons it must have been a sore disappointment to be told that the visit to the King must be a purely ceremonial one: a morning call to say “ How do you do I” exchange smiles*

and back out. They would have some advantage in the backing out, amoe they put x>u their native costume and, would aot be in any danger of being tripped by thfair own tails. .Beyond that they score nothing. It is .high time that someone explained to the Maoris in plain terms that treaties are abrogated by war, and that the victor dictates terms after the war is over. Hence the Treaty of Waitangi, which preceded all the wars, is as dead as Hone Heke. * * * * •» » * . Immediately following the statement that there had been wholesale “ welshing ” at Hurst Park races the cable tells us that one bookmaker distributed handbills announcing himself as a former chorister in the private chapel at Windsor, and that he had sung at tho wedding of King Edward ! The information is certainly touching, but what it could have to do with bookmaking is not so obvious as it might be. Perhaps he hoped to be patronised and freely trusted on the ground of early piety. The wedding of His Majesty Edward VII.. of happy memory, took place some fifty' odd years syne. Much water has run under the bridge since then, and many promising characters have fallen under grave suspicion. It is to be hoped that the author of the handbill has eome later reference, for really this is somewhat mustv. Of course, the voice that breathed o'er Eden hath not passed away ; but that does not apply' to everything in this world, especially to welshing bookmakers. *■***•»**

1 be proposed inclusion of New Zealand in the beat of the German steamers marks a fresh stage in our commercial development. It seems a far cry from the days when Mr Macandrew contended for a direct steam service between our ports and the Mother laind to the coming of mammoth foreign ships. We are rapidly becoming a noticeable factor m the great world of trade. From that point of view we may congratulate ourselves. and we may even reap some substantial advantage from lbs widening of our markets. On the other hand, we should not altogether forget that the German commercial marine is only another form of Germany’s doored competition for the trident. The hitherto invincible power of Britain has lain not in her men-of-war. but in her merchant ships, which actually pay for the Dreadnoughts. Napoleon's great_ desire was to secure colonies and foreign trade for France. He saw that in those things ley the secret of empire, and by his decree? against British trade he struck at the vital spot in his great enemy. Germany, of course, issues no such decrees, hut she is despatching emissaries of trade and following them up with the fine steamers that she lias learned to build within the last generation. Twenty years ago her navy was almost negligible, hut now it is a good second to our own-. At present her commercial marine is a long way behind ours, but who shall say what the next generation may bring forth ? Our own liberal policy invites her_ to do her best, or her worst, and she is responding to the- invitation. John Bull must wake up, and John Bull Junior _ must- give prefprence to tixe old msnxs Font wneve us reasonably can. * * * * * * * *

Mr Hamlet is standing for RaJcaia. He seems to be a man who might brighten up the debates of the House —if he once got there. He values politicians “ from the neck up." He believes that "the dearest labor in the world is coon labor, which costs nothing'’; also, that “the working man of to-day will be the capitalist of to-morrow, for the capitalist of to-day was the working man of yesterday.” He is of opinion that when the invaders come to New Zealand they “will run through it like wind-through a barbed-wire fence. Hy has never tasted drink himself, but is of opinion that “ a reasonable man could treat himself to a drink without becoming captain of a swill barrel. . . As for Local Option, he hod as much time for it as for a mad dog with leprosy.” There are onlv three things the matter with New Zealand : “ First, the lack of, population. Java is about the size of this island, and has 35,000,000 people in it. Second, it is too much governed. In Ireland, 1 in 12 depended on the .State, and people were alarmed: but in New Zealand 1 in 8 was dependent on the- State, and nobody nolieed it. 'Third, extravagance. He had never met a man in New Zealand—black, white, brown, or brindle—who knew the meaning of economy.” If this Hamlet be mad, there is certainly method in his madness.