CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CI, Issue 11887, 10 May 1899, Page 5

CURRENT TOPICS.

tBISOH feSCEPUNB.

On the authority of Mr

Panttm, a well-known Victorian Police Magistrate, the “Argus” tells a story with

ft very'-ohvious moral. It relates to a young irashman, who, In the early “fifties,” achievfed some notoriety, first as an amateur jockey arid afterwards as a highwayman. The young man, it must be admitted, seems to have been driven down-hill more by the misguided severity of Mr Lachlan MacLaohlland, otherwise “Bendigo Mac,” a magistrate famous jn thote days, than by any innate desire to go astray. The fact remains, however, that, after repeated collisions with the police, he -found himself in Pcntridge Gaol, condemned to a long term of imprisonment. S ome years later Mr Panton, white paying an official Visit to Pentridge, was obliged to listen to Several charges of 1 misconduct preferred ftgainst the prisoner. The convict’s principal offence Just then consisted in concealing chisels and knives, and using them to carve itone. Mr Peinton asked to he allowed to Suspect some of the man’s work, and, recognising in it unusual talent, suggested that if he would agree to behave himself the prisoner should be supplied with the proper carving instruments. The suggestion was adopted; and the moment he received the tools the convict became a reformed character. He copied flowers and birds from stuffed models, and Cupids from living children; and ho carved a fountain which now. stands in Melbourne.-between the House of Parliament and the Treasury Buildings. On bis release be set up in business, executed some beautifril carvings, married, . and, there is every reason to believe, lived happily until his death. ,The moral) conveyed by tho story is not difficult to discover. By congenial employment an incorrigible rule-breaker was converted into a law-abiding, clever artisan. Here is an illustration of the benefits that might arise from introducing into our own prison system employment other than the conventional tasks prescribed by the authorities. Under existing conditions there can be little doubt that gaol life has much to do with converting temporary evil-doers into hardened criminals. Under a system which provided convicts with employment not only sufficient to ensure their physical health, but also to cultivate their talents and enlarge their minds, the course of many criminal lives might be changed very much for the tetter.

OLD AGE feNSiOwd ilf ENGLAND.

The aged poor of New Zealand, where a Liberal Government has overcome the difficulties in the Way of initiat-

ing an .- old age pension Bchcme, have reason to be thankful that they jjjfTTSti&MvQ in the .Old Land. .1 There, though it has bead.-under discussion for ten years, the object has hot got beyond the “ talking stage. 1 ' PUblio men cgf all parties have approved of the principle, which it is. easy tb do, but have, made few serious attempts to put it into practice, which' is admittedly difficult. Perhaps the problem might not be so jmzrting if the politicians were really anxious to achieve its solution. Be that as it may, the agitation for old age pensions has gone no further in Great Britain than the introduction of a Bill, which no one expected to pass its second leading, and which was “ talked cut ” on Starch 22 last. The next step, according to a promise by Mr Chamberlain, will bo the consideration of the subject by a Select Committee which, be slid, the Government intended to propose, after Easter. The Bill winch was slaugheted J waS hot very revolutionary. Its second

reading was Mr Lionel Holland, in the absence of Sir Fortescue Flannery through illness. Its main proposal was that a person who had from the age of twentyfive years insured against sickness and funeral expenses should be entitled to a pension of 5s a wegk on his arriving at the age of sixty-five. There were provisions which, would enable anyone now above twenty-one years to obtain the benefits of the Bill in a shorter period. There-were certain-dis-qualifications, as for example the receipt of poor relief ini certain circumstances, and imprisonment. The pension was not to be obtained by anyone having an incoine-of more than £540 a year, or who was in receipt of 5s a week. The Bill applied to women as well as to men, and contained provisions for continuing to the widow the pension of a man who bad diet!. The principal objections to • the measure were identical with those urged against old age pensions in New Zealand. Foremost was the assertion that it would discourage thrift, an objection which Mr Holland professed himself unable to understand. He could not, either, see the force of another objection that the scheme would injure the friendly societies, - and he further remarked that objection was taken by some that £540 was too high a limit, • by others, that it was too low*.

INTENTIONS OF THE GOVERNMENT.

It is, perhaps,' an omen of the final success of the old age pension principle in England that each of the two

great parties in Parliament seems to wish to take credit for having done most in its behalf. Mr Chamberlain said that the Government welcomed the introduction of the Bill into the House, and frankly admitted that there existed “a great and crying evil,” for which Parliament must try to find a retnedy. His own idea was that the only way to deal with the question was by sections. It had, he observed, been dealt with by sections in regard to the Civil Sefyice, the-police, and teachers, • and the system might be extended ,to other sections of the population. It would he misleading, he continued, to.confine the system entirely to those who had themselves contributed. They might throw aside any attempt to secure compulsory contributions from the working classes. Nor could a universal scheme of pensions for everybody 1 be granted out of the resources of the State. Sir H Campbell-Bannerman promised that the 'Liberal party would have great pleasure in taking the question “ out of the' slough of party contention. ” He objected, however, to the proposal being put forward as if Mr Chamberlain “were the patentee of it.” A Liberal journal, the “Daily Chronicle,” saw in the Ministerial proposal a device to postpone dealing with the question till the next general' election. It proceeded to make . the following guess at the intentions of „the Government:—“ They are against old-age pensions, but they intend to reform the poor-law. That is to say, they will offer the aged poor, not pensions, but out-felief, and for the test they will see what can.be done in the way of separating the sheep from the goats in the case of the indoor paupers.” Commenting on this prediction; the “Chronicle” observed that “The whole poor-law edifice must be pulled down add ‘rebuilt for the needs of the day, • It is utterly outworn, it is meaningless, it is cruel. This iniquity should cease, and we are far from saying that if once the axe were laid to its roots, some fresh and suitable form of pensions might not form a part of our new social equipment,” This is not very hearty support of the old-age pension scheme, but it probably represents the ideas which fairlyadvanced thinkers at Home hold 1 in regard' to the question. It is probable that thought on this important 'matter will be quickened by the success of the New Zealand experiment^

Ari, American paper, ’ the

the old San Francisco “ Call,” at-anglo-saxon tributes to Mr J. F. Horr, pluck. the United States Marshal,

who conducted the sale of the Spanish prizes taken during the fate war, a story which is. at least good enough to be true. “It was late in May,” Mr Horr is reported to have said, “ when the British cruiser Talbot steamed! out of Havana harbour oh her way to the Bahamas, which are owned by England. When the Talbot was about sixty or seventy miles on her way one of those little American converted tug-boats mounting two one-pounders and one threepounder came puffing out from the shore directly towards the Talbot, which was going at good speed. The little tug blazed away with a blank shot across the bows of the Talbot, but she* paid no attention to it, refusing to comply with the naval signal to halt. Then the' tug coming nearer every moment, let fly with a shell; ■it was a pretty line shot and struck abqjit 200 ft ahead of the Englishman’s bows. Then the Talbot stopped her engines. As the tug, trailing a big American flag astern, came nearer, the officers on the Talbot, which was still moving on her momentum, saw a young fellow On the deck just back of the smokestack.. He w&s probably an ensign with the first command he had ever had,' but he was game. With a big megaphone up to his mouth he shouted; 'What ship is that?’ All about him on deck was ammunition piled up, and a sailor stripped to the waist stood ready by the three-pounder. The Captain of the Talbot, whbhad been enjoying himself under an electric fan, for it was very hot, directed the officer of the deck to answer, ‘Her Majesty’s ship Talbot.’ ‘I thought it was the Vizcaya,’ yelled bade the disappointed young American. This was actually witnessed by ah Englishman aboard the Talbot. When he related it to me he added, ‘ Would he tackle a boat the size of this?’ Why, the Yankee Navy is full of fight! The Talbot is a vessel of some 5800 tons.’ ” The story seems rather “tall,” but feats as daring as that contemplated by the young American were done by Englishmen in Nelsons days, and about a score of years ago The commander of a British gunboat; the Torch, during an Anglo-Spanish “difficulty”— happily Settled without bloodshed—proposed to lay Ids little vessel alongside a big Spanish ironclad, *the Mendez Nuhez, and carry her by boarding. In view of this the pluck of the. young Anglo-Saxon from the other side of the Atlantic does not seem so improbable after all.