CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIX, Issue 11531, 18 March 1898, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

Our cable messages some time asro told of rioting in Italy consequent upon a threatening famine, and

BREAD FAMINE IN ITALY.

some apprehension was entertained of serious trouble. Mail advices show that in Italy bread is so dear that the poorer classes can hardly exist. The Socialists are blamed for the riots, and not without justification, but it is unquestionably true that there is a serious crisis due to the poor harvest last year. In some places the yield was only one-tenth of that of a normal crop, and the high duty prevents the importation-of foreign wheat to„

make good the deficiency. Even ■when, the Italian harvest is a fair one, ; the yield is proportionately two-thirds less than that of England and Belgium. This state of things ends in what is, with cruel irony, called “ physiological hunger,” while in many of the towns there are several cases of “ white death,” that is to say, death by starvation. The hygienic schools have analysed the daily bread of the peasants and working-men, and have discovered that it is always defective in quality and often lacks the elements of nutriment. This naturally influences the physical development of the race, and the army medical examinations prove that 50 per cent’ of the youths fail to come up to the standard measurements. Putting together the Government and city taxes-on wheat, flour and bread, they represent 38 per cent of the cost of the bread itself. It must also he borne in mind that salt, which is such an important element in the nourishment of man, is a Government monopoly; while it costs the State only five centimes a kilo, a little less than a halfpenny, it is sold at forty centimes, or fourpence. The result of the bread riots was that the Government resolved to call out one class of reserves to preserve order, while simultaneously the Democratic and Radical associations of Rome met to discuss' measures against the high price of bread. Two Socialist deputies were at the same time elected to vacancies in Parliament, which is significant, in view of the popular agitation. The Government showed its sense of the need for ameliorative measures by introducing a Bill to reduce the duty on wheat, and this, coupled with the repressive tactics employed, and the voting of money for the relief of the very poor, seems to have had the effect of allaying the pomftlar disorder. (

STATE PXBE INSUBANCE.

A, common objection to> State or municipal fire in-, surauce, is that in the event

of heavy losses, some municipalities would be ruined and the people; would rebel against the taxation required to make up the fire premiums.' Those who argue in this way, ignore the fact that under the existing system of insurance by private companies, it is the community in ■ every case that bears the loss, in addition? to finding the cost of managing all the different companies and also'; providing the dividends to shareholders. It has been pointed out by a correspondent of the New Zealand Times that, economically speaking, the State as a whole would be neither richer nor poorer —even if a whole city were burnt down at one sweep—whether the buildings were; insured by private companies, by the State, or not insured at all. In each case the wealth necessary to rebuild the city would have to come out of the existing fund of capital, and the new city would be created by labour. The same correspond dent, a Mr LongdiU, outlines a scheme of State fire insurance which, though crude and imperfect, may fairly claim consideration. He says that every owner of house property should—. when a State system of fire insurance has become established—be compelled to send in an estimate of the value of his buil ding,: and that after revaluation the building should be insured by the State to, say, three-quarters the value of the projserty. In consideration of this the owner would be required to pay an annual rate to the State according to the value of the property, the rate per .£IOO being divided into several classes, as now, according to the kind of building insured. These rates would, of course, he much lower than the rate at present charged by private companies. The whole business of collecting the rates and paying ; losses could be most economically conducted as a branch of the postmasters’ duties. It is # not clear that such simple machinery would suffice for a great State Department dealing with the insurance of many millions of pounds’ worth of property; but the scheme, at any rate, serves to suggest that the business is not so risky, complicated and occult as some high priests of insurance would have the people tew believe. • Jr

SOUTH AFRICAN PROBLEMS.

In the estimation of M* James Bryce, whose book “ Impressions of South Africa” has received favourable notice,

the race antagonism which constitutes the crux of the South African question is not that between Boers and Britons, but the eternal antithesis of the black and white population. This, he considers, is the dominating feature, of the situation, which must determine the destinies of the country. The entire European population is not much more thau 750,000, while the blacks number from six to eight millions, and are increasing jnora rapidly than the whites. All manual work is done by the coloured population, with the same result as in the slave States of America, that labour is despised and shunned by the European. “ The English carpenter,” says Mr Bryce, “hires a native ‘boy’to carry his bag pf tools to him; the English bricklayer has a native hodman to hand the bricks to him, which he proceeds to set; the Cornishman or Australian miner directs the excavation of the seam, and fixes the fuse which explodes the dynamite, but the work with the pickaxe is done by the Kafir. The herdsmen who drive the, cattle or tend the sheep are Kafirs, acting under the orders of a white.” As a consequence of this state of things Mr Bryce found among the whites an intensity of dislike and contempt for the blacks that fairly astonished him, and a separation of the two populations almost exactly the same as that which prevails in the United States with respect to the negroes. His forecast is, wo may hope, a mistaken one, for there are large tracts of South Africa well fitted for European occupation; and it would bo a pity if these should only carry a small community of the “ mean white ” description, with their moral tone lowered by the presence of an overwhelmingly large black population. The Kafir race is improvable, and maybe expected in time to emancipate itself from its position of contempt. The “ black-and-white ” problem is one for the future; in the meantime the Boer and the Briton must adjust their differences.