CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIV, Issue 10706, 16 July 1895, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

Some of our local prohibitionists would do well to read the report appearing in another part of this issue of a meeting of their

A TBMPSEATE PBOHIBITIONIBT.

fellow-workers held m Eatgiora on Sunday evening. The temperance and generous frankness exhibited by the reverend gentlemen who spoke on that occasion present a very bright contrast to the wild assertions and reckless accusations of the orators who sometimes make' themselves conspicuous in Cathedral Square. Mr Monro could not, it is true, resist the temptation to repeat the Prohibitionists' superstition that " the management of most of the newspapers in the colony is under the thumb of the liquor party,” but as he rebuked many of the other extravagances of his party leaders we may pardon this harmless excursion into the realm of fiction. It is quite refreshing, after some recent experiences, to read his allusions to tho Premier. Mr Seddoa’e reply to the Maori chief who prayed that his people might be protected from their own insatiable appetite for alcohol was, according, to Mr Monro, "beautiful,” and “did infinite credit to the Premier’s heart and head.” And this was not the only compliment paid to Mr Seddon from this entirely unexpected quarter. Mr Monro explained that a delay had arisen in connection with the promised licensing legislation, for which “ no reflection should be cast on Mr Seddon.” Ho then went on to say that the Premier " honestly deplored the fate of the Licensing Bill last session as much as any man, and was ashamed of the way in which it was treated. Tho simple fact was, that going on with tho Bill meant the political degradation of certain members who were opposing it, and, out of kindness of heart the Premier dropped it. The Bill proposed to be introduced by tho Government,. if passed, will give a great deal more power to the people. The clause requiring half the roll number to poll will be done away with, and the poll will be taken on the general election day, which will bo an immense advantage.” These, it seems necessary to remind our readers, are the words of a prohibitionist, who is certainly as sincere and zealous as any of his colleagues in tho struggle for licensing reform. It would, as another speaker at the meeting remarked, be a very good thing for the cause of temperance if Mr Monro were allowed to take a more active part in ' the direction of the campaign against the liquor trade. He might, with the singular persistence of his profession, continue to entertain strange notions about the colonial Press, but he would certainly place the contest in which he is engaged upon a much higher plane than it occupies at the present moment.

ABOLITION OP CAPITAL PUNISHMENT.

There is a growing sentiment in Kew Zealand in favour of amending our code of punishments by abolishing the death penalty.

and that sentiment has found expression in a Bill brought before Parliament by Mr Collins, one of the representatives of Christchurch. Humane and rational feeling has done much to make the death penalty unpopular, and the abolition of tfas:

as the forerunner o£ the total abolition of executions. The former rude retort that “ We’ll abolish hanging when you abolish murder” is obsolete. There remains a lingering idea that the extreme penalty has a deterrent effect, but there ia insufficient ground for believing that the removal of the gallows would result in an increase of capital offences. The kingdom of Belgium has managed to get along very well during the thirty years that have elapsed since the death penalty was practically abolished there. The person convicted of a crime that formerly entailed the death penalty is in Belgium subject to solitary confinement for life—a brutal kind of punishment which would never be tolerated in this country. Curiously enough, the custom is to sentence malefactors to death, and the public executioner still holds his place at Brussels; The guillotine has, however, been replaced by a scaffold, on which is posted a copy of the sentence. Much ceremony is observed in affixing this document. A troop of gendarmes, with their imposing helmets plumed with horsehair, are drawn up about the pla.ce of execution,' which they gravely guard with sabres drawn, while the red-rohed executioner mounts the steps, nails up the decree of the court, and, after a moment, takes it down again. It would be no advance towards a humane criminal code if we in New Zealand were to adopt the Belgian method of solitary confinement in place of the death penalty; but there need be no apprehension of this taking place. When capital punishment is banished from this country, as it will be, criminals who have forfeited their right to liberty will have life made tolerable for them, though they must be treated with a certain amount of rigour.

THE SOLDIER OR THE / CENTURY.

Ife would be difficult, per* haps, to write anything that would be entirely now of the character and achievements

of the “Iron Duke,” but Lord Roberta, in his little book “ The Rise of Wellington,” has managed to present to his readers a very fresh and interesting study of the great soldier. Lord Roberts does full justice, no doubt, to the Duke’s remarkable talents; but he gives us, at the same time, some idea of that steeply cold and unsympathetic side of the distinguished leader’s character, which kept him, even during the days of his greatest popularity, at a distance, so to speak, from hia comrades in arms. The Duke, it has been justly observed, took the field as a man goes to business, intent on winning, but under no illusions as regards the subject of bis operations. There was nothing heroic in his nature, and he looked upon the sympathy and affection which prevailed between such leaders as Nelson and Napoleon and their men as so much sentimental nonsense. Wellington’s contempt for the armies with which he won his brilliant victories was, indeed, one of the most extraordinary traits in his character. He wrote, just after the battle of Vittoria, “ We have in the service the scum of the earth as common soldiers; and the non-commissioned officers are as bad as the men. It is really a disgrace to have anything to say to such men as some of onr soldiers are,” And officers as well as men were involved in his condemnation* “ Nobody in the British Army,” he wrote on another occasion, “ ever reads an order as if it were to be a guide for his conduct, or in any other manner than as an amusing novel.” This was as unjust as it was ungenerous. There were, of course, a certain percentage of undesirable men in the ranks, but no one who, has read an account of the Peninsular War can doubt tbat the ordinary private of those days was an admirable fighter, and in many other respects an exceedingly fine fellow. But notwithstanding the Duke’s unsparing condemnation of his men be always received their unbounded confidence. They knew his powers and felt sure of his success, And it was one of the chief paradoxes in Wellington's career that, while he. called his men “the scum of the earth,” he always endeavoured to secure ■ for them every possible comfort. Of the Duke’s qualities as a commander Lord Roberts, like every other qualified critic, writes in terms of the highest praise.

A ROMANTIC STOBT.

The .Melbourne Argus has just unravelled some of the tangled threads in a cari-

ous life-history. Two and a half years ago a man who had joined the Melbourne detective force under the name of Lomaine shot himself dead at the Bussell Street Barracks. '6ia behaviour for some time previously had been peculiar and eccentric, but ha ■ was a very capable and popular officer, and had reached the rank of sergeant. Of course there was a i mystery about the unfortunate man. No one knew his history, and no one knew any of his relations. He was a single man, lived in lodgings, came originally from Ireland, and was brought up in New Zealand. These particulars were common property, but beyond them all was conjecture. A romantic story was almost necessarily woven round him, and point was given to the romance one day when an elderly man stopped Lomaine in the street, and after a display of much affection, gave him a* cheque for .£SOO. It was his. uncle, whom ho had not seen for years, he explained, and- with that Lomaine’s comrades had toremain content. Among the letters found on his body after hisf 1 death was one addressed to the principal of a college in New Zealand, and dated years before. It was evidently a treasured document, but it gave no clue to the identity of the dead sergeant. It was sent, however, to New Zealand, and ultimately lad to the discovery of the particulars’ that have now been published. It appears that Lomaine was an assumed name. The detective’s real name was James Mossman. He was the son of a lace manufacturer who left England years ago to settle in Now Zealand, and who now, it is said, resides in Auckland, and has attained the age of ninety-four. His uncle, Mr James Mossman, a wealthy grazier, was particularly interested in the youth, and sent him to a college, promising at the time to make him heir to all his wealth. The uncle kept hi® promise. A will was drawn out accord-, ingly and everything went happily until the lad became restless, and running away from the college left New Zealand and held no further communication with his relatives. He went to Victoria and subsequently joined the police, but till the day his uncle met him in the street and gave him the .£SOO cheque his life was a secret jealously guarded from all his family. The uncle’s will remained as when drawn out years before, and at the time of his suicide Lomaine 'was the heir to £120,000. The news of his unhappy death was a severe blow to the -uncle, and the wrecking of a long-cherished scheme of succession. The old will was destroyed, a fresh one drawn up, and recently the grazier followed hia favourite nephew to l^gra^e.