The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1912. THE WEEK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXII, Issue LXII, 19 January 1912, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 6 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 1912. THE WEEK.

The news concerning China aX\ lacks finality. Though the abdka. ...of the child Emperor nas been circi -initially talked of, ami though Sun Jias been elected Provisional President of the Chinese Republic, there is as yet no dominant authoritative administration in xhe country. In addition to its criminality, me' attempt on Yuan-Shih-Kai's life has the appearance of an act of supreme folly. No doubt, though he has been a Reformer, he is favorable to the monarchy as a constitutional, not an autocratic", institution, but his assassination would be unlikely to helo the national cause; Indeed, it might throw it back indefinitely, as foreign Powers might step into the arena under conditions which would end in the rehabilitation of the Court. Still, generally, the revolutionists have fully held their own in all encounters, and the end must now be not far off, though the final form of the Government—monarchial or republican—canhot yet be counted on with certainty. One fact emerges fairly clearly from the welter of news—that Dr Sun VatSen has played, and continues to play, the part of a wise statesman and a strong man; and as his influence is great, his presence in China justifies hope for the revolution.

They manage some things differently in Sweden from what they do in England ; woman suffrage, for instance. Two days ago it was reported from Stockholm that the Government had prepared a Bill to confer the franchise on women and make them eligible for election to Parliament. Sweden's neighbor,- Finland, did this some years ago, and the Finnish Diet has for some time had women amongst its members. It is said, too, that they attend to their Parliamentary duties just" as efficiently as the men. No doubt Finland's example has influenced Sweden, whose action in the matter is certainly in sharp contrast .with that of England. At the 'time the Finnish women obtained the franchise and the right to sit in Parliament, it was said by . a certain set of British critics that, as compared with • Englishwomen* they were more masculine than feminine, and so the arguments that applied in England did not apply in Finland. Now it is said in Britain that the Eng^ hsh suffragist's lack of womanliness in other ways, and the anarchic spirit which drives her to such, wild extremes, disqualify her for what she claims in the, matter. It is a pity that so good a cause should be prejudiced by such illadvised methods.

Henry Labouchere, whose death is announced this week, has not lately been so much in the public eye as he was, say, twenty years ago, but there, are few who do not know something of him if only by reason of his paper Iruth. In his earlier y^ars he led a curiously Bohemian career, anecdotes of which would fill columns. After worrying the dons at Cambridge almost out of their lives and passing out without waiting to take a deo-ree, he started off on his travels, finding himself in Mexico,, where, it is stated on good authority, he fell in love with a .lady of the circus, and got a job at which he took the money at the doors or rather oranges .and maize, the equivalent of coin. Then he went off and lived with the Chippeway Indians and had some funny experiences! Jjater on, possessing influence, he got into the diplomatic service, and was kicked out of the Legation at Washing- !? n ™r cmnPing American citizens for the, English army during the Crimean war. However, he was reinstated, and he was, m the habit of telling stories in later years of the dances he led the grave and potent heads of the service Un one occasion, having been appointed to a position in some small republic m South America, he was six months lateiv found to be still ,in London drawing has salary and having a very crood -wt,'-^ fe red f*° his dut? he ked Whither?" and then the officials discovered, what Labouchere already knew that the republic had been non-existent for a considerable time. Ordered to St. Petersburg, after a time he was round resting in a smart German town and when remonstrated with replied that his means were small, but his zeal great and that as neither his purse nor the Government liberality ran to the cost of trains he was walking to Russia, and hoped to reach St. Petersburg m the course of a year. SubsequeYitly he was journalist and MP with plenty of; money and brains arid courage, and did extremely useful work in the interests of the public. In politics he was a radical free lance, and was feared rather than loved. As a matter of somewhat local interest it ma.y be mentioned that he took ub the cause of Mr "Mokau" Jones, as against certain lawyers m. London.

France is truly - a wonderful country s well as being, on the whole, the most interesting of modern . nations. Ihe average conception of the outsider is that the French are people of irrational extremes; and this error has been more or less confirmed by Tennyson with Ms "red fool fury of the Seme.- But consider the hundreds of years of tyranny, the utterly heartless exploitation of the ' masses by the classes, of which that fury was the ■«£! presszon. Nothing'less than a terriWe aitei the Franco-German war- and tbt success with which they have, durSg the preset week, surmounted and emerged from the tumult of a comnK <-udt the brovernment intends tn to is no "red fool fury" i n this onH'in view of the critical^ n tTrnaS n ;T con ditions m Europe, all the world hi reason to be grateful to France and her statesmen at the present momen

Some years ago there was some writinoand net a little talk in \W s£ i § human food was at t:ake, in the other the safety of valuable property. A^r jntly the same subject has, iv *~ 1 " s food is concerned, been u.ickr Sl . hut consideration in New SouJi Wales where a regulation has just ';oen oaz-tted that no person shall spit, smoke or chew tobacco while engaged in 'the manufacture, packing, or storing of son ~° dii° r -Si lei N,° reasonable*^ son v.oald wish to deprive a man of anv^ °l Ut viS °<r stionable Aether any man should smoke while at work in any way, and absolutely certain that tliS general interest requires that he should on no account do so while engaged in the manufacture, preparation, or sale of l™l* ,food-- A regulation like that W? w S iJUSt, be?? §azett^ in New South Wales should, therefore, be in lorce throughout the whole ' civilised world.

He is a poor specimen of a man who is not benefited by being subjected to legil timate discipline, and probably a still poorer specimen who objects to'it Yet a message from Adelaide states that 160 employees engaged in the aerated water making industry have struck in protest at the dismissal of a member of the union tor being late. Unless illness or some other circumstance calling for special consideration or compassion was the cause of the man's lateness, his employers were just as much justified in resenting his conduct as he would be in resenting theirs if they gratuitously withhold a portion of his wages. Nowadays there is too much loose illogical thinking in connection with these' matters and it is a pity that men like these Adelaide strikers cannot be made to feel what a sorry figure they cut in the eves of common-sense. -.*'■■

.Americans to their faces a&ont- those deplorable laws of theirs which! give rope to rascality, and telling them that their .schools.- ought to teach higher ideals. Ideals! What schools, in these days, teach ideals? Do the New Zealand schools t; Indeed, is there time for such teaching ? The best teachers lament the iaet that there is net, and the others are without either aspirations or regrets m that connection. The country is thus sowing the wind, and by-and-by will reap a whirlwind in sordidness and graft' of the kind which induced Mr Moseley to speak.as he did the other day at Stanford University.

To some people perhaps the most interesting item in the week's world-news may be the statement that Professor Gilbert Murray's translation of the of Sophocles has been successfully produced at Coverit Gardto Theatre, London, ".^dipus" is one of the greatest oi the great Greek tragedies, and Professor Murray is in the front rank of modern Greek scholars, lie happens, too, to be an Australian, ?o£> Waf born in Sydney in January, 1866, the third son of Sir Terence Aubrey Murray, sometime President of the Legislative Council of. New-South \\ ales. He has, however, been, wholly educated in England, whither he was sent when he was eleven years of age How he must have studied and what a scholar he is,his works show. "Hardly," he says m one of his hooks, "one deep or valuable emotion has come into my Me which has not been either caused OV ,Jn^preted or bettered by Greejs poetry ; and here is at once a specimen of that poetry a*id of Professor Murray s skill as a translator. The passage is m "JSdipus at Colonus." and it is the wise, sorrow-burdened himself who is speaking to" Theseus: •

. Only to gods in Heaven Comes no old age nor death of any- .,, thing.; Ail else is turmoiled by our master Time. The earth's strength fades and manhood's glory fades, Faith dies and unfaith blossoms like a flower. And who shall find in the open streets of men, Or secret places of his own heart's love, ■ One wind blow true for ever?

Then here is another specimen in a passage from Pindar:

Things of a day, what are we and what not ? A/ dream about a shadow is man; yet when some god-given splendour falls, a srlorv of light comes over him, and his life is sweet.