FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1912. THE WEEK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXI, Issue LXII, 10 May 1912, Page 4

FRIDAY, MAY 10, 1912. THE WEEK.

The case of the miserable old consumptive German, named Trenkier, who has been before the High Court at Berlin during the week, shows what a poor thing human nature still is »n many respects, and how far men still have to travel before they reach truly civilised conditions. The man himself is a locksmith by trade, and is being tried for the murder of a jeweller, and the jeweller's wife and daughter— not his own wife and daughter, as some )f the cable messages have indicated in error. ' Trenkier confessed in January last to the murders, but has, of coarse, to be tried in due form. The latest message states that he is dying of consumption, and that the Court had to adjourn on account of his having an attack of hemorrhage in the dock. Yet the man, it is said, was not affected by seeing the skulls of his victims, as part of the evidence against him, and stated that he had been driven to the murders by an irresistible

longing for gold.and jewels! Evidently he was as much diseased in his soul as in his pody; but was the disease of his soul duo, in any sense or degree, to the disease in his body? And the fashionable women who are said to have flocked to the Court to stare at the miserable wretch, and witness his trial —are they noc diseased, too, with the difference that, in their case, the disease is wholly in their souls? Oouid any healthy-natured, sane-minded woman be guilty of such depraved curiosity ? *

After rousing his vast and populous country from her ages of letnargy, and reclaiming her from the degradation of centuries, giving her a free constitution, and ■ new ideals of progress within herself, Dr Bun-Y at-rien is now bent on winning her a place in the front rank of international commerce. To this end he is planning a transpacific steamship line under the Chinese flag, and hopes to develop a mignty trade between Canada, the United States and China. If he succeeas, it is practically certain that the trade will ere long extend to Australia and New Zealand, and New South Wales vooi and 'i'aranaki butter may, in a few years, become familiar items at Chinese ports of entry. Yet so-called practical persons, witn a talent tor pettifogging in small grubby ways, have spoken disparagingly of dun-iat-Sen as a mere idealist! These people forget that idealism is indispensable to genius, and that it requires genius to achieve really great and memorable things. They may make little or big fortunes for themselves, but the Sun-Vat-Sens of the eartn make the fortunes of empires and worlds.

An interesting instance of the enlightened extension of the social spirit was given at the Royal Academy banquet in London the other night. Witnin recent years a number of great classic paintings have been sold ' by their English owners to persons who, there is reason to believe, buy them chiefiy for tne notoriety of the thing and because they have more money than they know what to do with. As a rule, these buyers are American millionaires, one of whom has just bought some Rembrandts from Lord Faversham. In alluding to this at the Academy banquet, the Premier (Mr Asquith) suggested that increased cooperation between rich private persons and the State might be able to keep such great works in the country. The suggestion was characteristic of the cautious conservative politician, who may have to go slower than he likes; but it seems to have prompted Sir John Poynter (the President of the Academy) to make a really valuable proposal on the subject; namely, that the nation should have a preferential n^ht to the purchase of all such works. Tiiis is not only good policy as a matter of general public mteiest, but altogether right in another way, when it is considered that the wealtn which enabled the English owner to buy, in the first instance, must have owed its existence largely to energies exercised or opportunities supplied by the nation, .besides, the principle is already in operation in Now Zealand in connection with the resumption of freehold estates for closer settlement.

There have recently been some regrettable instances of falling off in the work of the New Zealand Press Association, which is, in the main, a credit to its conductors and the country. This, however, makes it all the more desirable that it should not fall from its high estate. On the first of the month, when a man under arrest appeared before the Court at Christchurch, the message sent out by the Press Association agent there contained the following thrilling and important paragraph: ' 'The prisoner, who was carefully attired in a green suit, looked nervous and pale, his pallor being accentuated by his shock of disordered brown hair, while his eyes roved uneasiiy about tne Court." This certainly is not literature; and is it journalism? It seems to be in the style of the poorest specimens of the American Yellow Press.

Yet apparently it is thought worthy of imitation or emulation by at. least one other agent of the Association — the gentleman who, on the 6th instant, despatched from Auckland six or seven paragraphs about an old man who was charged with being a rogue and a vagabond, but who, while in Court, talked and behaved in such a way that the Magistrate remanded the case, and ordered that the man should be detained for medical observation. Apart from the question of journalistic judgment, was it humane to make six or seven piffling paragraphs about the pitiful mental rumblings and verbal irrelevancies of this poor old man ? Work of this kind is no doubt common in America, but that only shows what a falling off it is from the standards and traditions qf the New Zealand Press Association.

The case heard this week in "Wellington in connection with Departmental message boys wrongly handing telegrams to a betting agent, suggests various anxious considerations with respect to Departmental discipline. Is this what it should be? In some parts of the dominion there is a feeling that, in recent years, the public service has changed for the worse in various respects, due, it is believed, to political influence, and to inferior ideals, in manners and other things, in politicians at the head of State Departments. It would seem, too, that those who hold this opinion are, in some degree, justified by the comparative frequency of lapses from a high standard of discipline. It is alleged, too, that lads who are gentlemanly boys when they enter some branches o£ the public service soon cease to be gentlemanly; and if this is so it is, in its degree, evidence that discipline and manners are not insisted on as they should be in those branches of the service. Yet both are indispensable, and, being so, they should be uniformly enforced throughout the whole work of every public department in the dominion.

If these allegations are warranted, perhaps an itinerant inspectorial staff would prove a remedy; a staff charged with the duty of holding disciplinary classes, which all cadets and junior officers would have to attend; a stafi: with well-defined standards and ideals to guide it, and with large powers to observe, suggest and administer co;----rection. "Were the organisation aid management of such a staff entrusted to a man like Mr W. St. George Douglas—who was lately Chief Postmaster at punedin, but is now retired oa pension—the public service of New Zealand would not long remain justly open to any charge of general slackness in discipline. Mr Douglas is a gentleman by birth and natural bias, and became a disciplinarian-. in. the public interest and in the interest of

those who were under him, and the ideals tor which he stood in tne public service cannot be neglected with impunity Anyway, whether such a start as he coald .organise h created or not, or whether or noc tuo caames to which we have been lereriin^ are well-grounded, it is certain tna~ tne public service should be puig^d ot whatever it is that too soo.i cuangeb disciplined, gentlemanly boys, to tneh detriment in those relations,, .mis i & called for in common fairness; and h is certain that the p^b.ic i av(jlUl must suffer through x. iC discipline, t or loweiing the suaiduia of manners in any degiee, la tne public service.

The week has been one of the most interesting m the civic history of Hawera. Tilings have been done which siiow that tne town has passed from the stage of the hobbledenoy to that of the man, and —we will add—tne gentleman; tne man who knows what is right, does it, and in his own way, contrives that others snail do it, too. The result means the difference between order and want of order, deference to the laws of civility and indifference to them, consideration for others in lieu of its opposite. Hence it is' well that the Borough Council has now made a definite beginning in the enforcement of what may be termed civic civility and amenity. The means taken are obvious and simple, and it is long since their application became necessaix but as they are likely to lead to important improvements, then introduction is well worthy of note.

The changes referred to consist in the Council's action in regulating traffic to and from the racecourse, the steps taken in connection with an improved water supply, the resolution to appoint an inspector of nuisances, and to obtain authority with respect to regulations bearing upon motor -traffic. These changes have been slow in coming, yet many have helped to speed their arrival; but now that they have come, all individually interested, and the town collectively, may be congratulated on tiie advent of a new civic area. It many ways this should make Hawera a pleasanter place for its own people to live in, and very much more attractive to strangers, travellers, and visitors.