The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manala, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1912. THE WEEK.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXVIII, Issue LXVIII, 13 July 1912, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manala, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, and Waverley. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1912. THE WEEK.

The Camorra trials, which have just been aonchuled in Italy, have lasted for nearly two years. Looked at from one point of view, they indicate utterly hopeless social conditions, from which tlie spirit of religion and tlie sentiments of humanity are appallingly absent, and under which men a"nd women live for nothing but lust, vengeance, and ill-gotten gain. Six years ago, on tbe oth ©f June, 1906, a man named Cuocolo and his wife were murdered by desperadoes, who had been employed for the purpose by Enrico Alfani, who, as a youth, had reorganised the Neapolitan Camorra until ho controlled the horse markote, bands of smugglers, public sales, and the workers in the clocks. The Cuocolos, a^s well as Alfani, belonged to the Camorra—an unscrupulous secret society with branches throughout Italy and agencies in America—and were his rivals as organisers of thefts and other crimes. For this, and for other reasons—they sometimes acted as police spies—he cherished a vindictive grudge against him, and hired assassins to murder them. This crime was accomplished under circumstances of such extreme barbarity that all the right feeling minds in Italy rose in revolt. The police, however, failed to secure convictions; whereupon the Government appointed Colonel Ramorino to take the whole case in hand, with a view to the arrest and the punishment of the murderers, and the extinction of the Camorra as an utterly villainous association.

This was a task for a Hercules, but Colonel Ramorino succeeded to the extent of bringing forty-one members of the Camorra to trial for the murders; and it has just been reported from Rome that, after a trial lasting for nearly two years, the jury has unanimously found nine of the accused persons guilty of murder, and the rest of criminal conspiracy. All along, the trial has illustrated the depravity and the ferocity of the prisoners, and of all their thousands of confederates in lawlessness; and these aspects of th© ease will perhaps make some people thiak that Italy must be in the last stages of social and human degenera-

tion. But why, in this connection, overlook the facts on the other side of the leaf? The Italian people called for the arrest of the miscreants; they were arrested in spite of staggering difficulties; they have been tried and found guilty, and those guilty in the first degree have been sentenced to death. Probably, too, the Camorra, as a society of ruffians, will now be broken to pieces and never allowed to reorganise itself. Surely, after all, there is ample nope for the country that can thus deal with what is evil in -its population.

There is a sense in which the colonies owe everything that is valuable in their institutions to the Motherland. Yet it is only natural that they should have improved, and should centime to improve, on this or that British ?r.ethod. New conditions, a simpler and freer social liffe, have called for or given opportunities for modifications or complete changes, unlikely to come into existence in the O'd Country, yet essentially just as suitable to it as they are to the newer lands. For instance, in the House of Commons the other day, Colonel Seeiy (Lord Haldane's successor as Secretary of State foi War) said, in reference to inter-imperial defence, that "it would be impossible to secure the cooperation of the dominions if Britain acted upon the principle that a soldier was useless unless he were trained for two years. Australia and New Zealand, with short drill periods, produced magnificent men,'' he added, inferential^ paving a handsome compliment to the colonies, yet at the same time testifying to the youth and mentai freshness of British sentiment, and to Britain's political wisdom, in her readiness to learn from her offspring. The colonies themselves cannot too carefully cultivate this mental attitude, for it is apt to be the bane of young countries, as well as of young people, that they are above or beyond being taught, so learned and accomplished are they in all things—m their own estimation.

Tlie Civil Court of Paris has just given a decision which will no doubt be remembered for a long while in many parts of the world, wherever aviation has come or is likely to come, into vogue. A not dissimilar decision was given some months ago in Australia, but probably it has been far less noticed than that of Paris will be, for the fame or disfame of what happens at the capital of a great historic nation travels farther than the same thing will when the scene of its occurrence is a country district in a still growing colony. Very likely most people have forgotten that a little while back an aiiman'in Australia was lined for frightening some cows, but they are likely to remember the French case, in which an aerobianist has been ordered to indemnify a farmer for alighting on his land and frightening his stock. The two cases together show that there is a lot of common-sense in law, and magistrates and farmers in the dairy districts of New Zealand will no doubt hear them in mmd against the time when aeroplanes will be flying hither and thither, and may now "and then drop unexpectedly into this or that group of deep-uddered kine while engaged in philosophically chewing their cuds and generating butter-fat worth it may be, even more than ls. 3d. per pound.

Even an ex-Chancellor of the British Exchequer may be penny wise and pound foolish. Lord St. Aldwvn. formerly Sir Michael Hicks-Beach and Chancellor of the Exchequer in Lord Salisbury's Government, has just, it seems, been pointing a moral in this connection, probably with no other end m view than narrowly conserving the profits of coal-mining. He has, anyTvay, just given an award which affects a large number of colliers, and o-ives them a minimum wage which is a fraction under seven shillings a day per man It is said that this is more than a shilling a day below the average wa»e otherwise earned by colliers, and thatlt leaves Co per cent, of the men outside of the advantage which they shouM gam unaer the Minimum W«a"e'Act If this is so it shows that even a fust Jaw depends for its fall effect on justice and wisdom in its administrators. The. pity of it k that such an aw.frcl whilst disappointing and exasperating itX^XfAi^ nece, ssarily postpone th* ?i. V , aMd £ nal agreement between the workers and their employers

The British Government's ene-man-one-▼ote one-vote-one-value Franchise Bill now before the House of Commons, does' not enfranchise women, of whom ten millions and a half are-'on broad iZmZ n the matter m New Zealand— entitled to enrolment. Possibly but for the ■rratienal behaviour of actremists gjj°n«st .the militant suffraSs the wlh THd "ot have been brought in with tnis blemish. It can, however be on y a matter of time-and very TikeW not a very long time' either—when BriA(il!u>Bs of men who, on grounds of mtelligej.ce, are not qualified to vote l-om«n he 7f h*' While the m°St Se"S^« women in the country, who are citizens inst as much as men' are, J™ al owed If°fo? 1n c n,nrt the 6leCtien °f 'egislatoS it foi no other reason, it is surely wise JJ a country to be able, in thefila™ ot us affairs, to place the votes of senX *'°,nen., f ga'nst those of men who are not sensible, and whose lack of sense W^l^* the Polls' cannot b»gSi rm the public interests.

Yet in other ways, how wise and farseeing is Br tiah statesmanship and tr^o^' ** Somewhat nlit •• -i h, eJP,nff on the great panA ?\7X -,d, eal °fa Crated EmpTre. At the last, Imperial Conference the do minion delegates were informally Taken stor, l,fi<ienCe, °f the B"tish Minimi Sir W l r°Rp/ Ct r.to f°rei^n affai'-«-cl * c Grey (secretary of do?, 6'% Forei«n Affairs) has iS-W Join? the same thing with Mr Borden aon. wi.ile this intimacy, with its «. jansire outlooks, is kept' up, the othe t,ken Cto t. rUI' y + Minings need not be Ssm heatt Wlth aU"V de S«» of Pcs-

One of the events of the week has been the abortive Royalist rising in Port?hpain as an absurd adventure. Still &?!?■? W V that the world haa heard the last of the matter; at least, persons fc£°t ?{?» t0 ir 6 ""P^^^eed^Xni S?l he epubllc has > so f»r, been a failure. They declare that its rule frrm Pnf° r}' T rl ,pti?n- a tyrannous ItlZoi* P°iK a\ bossism» industrial stagnation, high taxation, a consequent increase m the cost of living. and oitteT . sectional antagonisms. Safety is assured neither to life nor property, although the country is to a large extent under military rule." This is not promising; it may. however, be exago-era tion, and by-and-by there may be better news. Statements of that kind are not

uncommon after a revolution, on account of the number, and anger, and self-interest of those who desire its failure.

New Zealanders themselves have opportunities of knowing this on a small scale. Their own political revolution of the week, through the supercession of the Mackenzie Government*by the Massey Ministry, is already leading to a crop of oblique rumors, gush as that the day of the working man's improvins prospects has gone, and that wages ■will be reduced to the rates of hong

past times. Those who circulate th» nonsense pay a poor compliment to the intelligence of working men, in assuming that they can possibly be misled by ly JV is certain that, in so far as the Government is concerned, wages will not be reduced by a fraction while it is very highly probable that the purchasing power ot the workers' money will be increased by reductions and readjustments in taxation, thought oui'V and applied for the purpose ot reducing the cost of living; which is another way of increasing the purchasing power of money, including, of course, thatearned by every worker in the land