CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 14915, 10 February 1909, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS.

A CLERIC ON NEW ZEALAND.

The Rev Isaac Shiramin, who visited New Zealand recently, has

been telling Cornish audiences what lie thinks of the dominion. Thors was no barrier between the different churches in New Zealand as there was in England, he said at Camborne, and ho did not know why there should he that division in the Mother Country. He did not see a beggar in the dominion during his four months’ visit, and all the people dressed with good taste, and never looked shabby. Women had the right to vote, and there were no suffragettes. For years he had been in favour of women exercising that power. He had been in three countries, including the Isle of Man, where women voted, and he had never known the women to misuse their privilege. They voted always on tho side of righteousness and morality. Tho women of New Zealand did not want seats in Parliament. In ordinary elections only 60 per cent of the women voted, hut when such matters as the drink question came before them, 74 per cent went to the poll and voted en bloc on the side of temperance. Dir Shimmin proceeded to speak of the life of the worker in New Zealand. Sweating was practically unknown, he said, and there were no injurious trades in tho dominion. Incidentally he declared that miner’s phthisis was non-existent here, an opinion that looks strange in view of the recent crisis over this very disease. Dir Shimmin touched on old age pensions, education and other matters, and concluded by stating that New Zealand was a fine country for a young man with a trade, who was determined to work. It was God’s own country, and deserved the name. He did not remember seeing a drunken man in any town ho visitod. Religious life was broad and liberal, and the men did not care to which church a parson belonged as long as he had no “ frills ” or “side.” Although there were dangers, economic dangers, if New Zealand retained her beliefs in the highest ideals of life and service she would become one of the brightest and most precious jewels in tho crown of the British Empire.

“ MAORI ” BROWNE.

Colonel “ Dlaori ” Browne, whose sad plight was mentioned in

this column some months ago, is at the end of his troubles. On New Year’s. Day, according to tho London “ Express,” he was married to ”«• lady of wealth and position.” The story of this matrimonial event is quite romantic enough for a penny uovelette. Three months ago Colonel G. Hamilton Browne was stranded in London and appealing for work of any description. Ho would hnvo been grateful to anyono who would have fitted him up with the necessary tools to onablo him to follow the humble calling of a hoot-black. The Salvation Army helped him, but for a time he was living on the proceeds of the sale of his medals. At the age of sixty-three the colonel found himself, after serving his country for forty years, nearly starving in a lonely London lodging. As he had served only

with irregular colonial troops he had no pen’sion. When things were looking blackest the colonel’s luck turned. To quote tho “Express,” one day a letter readied him from a lady, asking if ho was tho same Hamilton Browne who had served in Zululand with a man whose name she gave. She wished to know, because Hamilton Browne had saved the life of this man, who was her sweetheart. Colonel Browne recalled the incident, and wrote to her, telling her what he remembered of it. The man he had saved in the Zulu campaign had afterwards died in the Soudan and the lady had never marrid. Tho correspondence between Colonel Browne and the lady led to a meeting, -which ripened into an acquaintanceship, and then into an engagement. Colonel Browne belongs to an old Trish family, and was educated, at Cheltenham. His long military career began in New Zealand in 1866, and was continued in South Africa, where he won great distinction, being commended for gallantry at Rorko’s Drift. He was in South Africa until recently, serving in practically all the campaigns against native rebels. He had the Now Zealand, Zulu, Basuto, Matabele and Dlashonaland medals, with numerous clasps.

PROFITSHARING.

The scheme of profitsharing devised by the Wellington Gas Company has not met with

any largo measure of success. The company offered its employees the opportunity of subscribing for shares on tho same terms as the shareholders, and of allowing their calls to be met by a deduction of from 2J to 6 per cent of their wages, as might be decided by the men themselves. The directors stated in their last annual report that they felt it to be “essential to the well-being of the company that tho bulk of the employees should be financially interested in the progress and economical working of tho concern.” The chairman of directors, in describing the scheme, said that as soon as the deductions from the salary of any individual amounted to a sufficient sum, that employee would be handed a fully paid-up share, which would he his absolute property. “In addition to that,” addod the chairman, “I was prepared to recommend my fellowdirectors to follow the custom of the banks, and when the profits of the concern in any one year permitted it, to supplement the annual savings of tho men by such sum as the directors thought fit. I estimate that the scheme, if fully taken advantage of, would have cost the company something like £ISOO a year, but the men hav© not taken to it too favourably. I gather that tho idea is against the spirit of what they consider the principles of trades unionism.” It seems that when Dir Tom Mann was in Wellington, he said that he was totally opposed to any suoh schome of partnership with the masters or to any sharing of the profits, because the result would be to set up “an aristocracy of labour.” The experience of the Gas Company is the more interesting from the fact that it is a repetition of what has occurred in some instances in Groat Britain. The low-salaried men have a perfect right to please themselves in such a matter, but it is not easy to see what they have to gain by adopting an antagonistic attitude when their employers come forward with a reasonable scheme for sharing profits.