CURRENT TOPICS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16138, 15 January 1913, Page 8

CURRENT TOPICS.

A discussion which took place in a London

ron A BET.

club last month, resulted in two men leaving Piccadilly at midnight on a walk to Brighton. They wore on their feet thin socks and dancing pumps, and they were to cover the distance of about fifty miles within twenty-four hours without changing their footwear. A bot involving a large sum of money depended on the result of the effort. One man was clad in short white " pants " of' the kind used by athletes and a flannel shirt, while his companion wore ordinary evening dress, complete even to a white tie. They were attended by their friends in a motor-car. The night was frosty and dark, and the two walkers, who were by no means fitted by habit or by figure for their venture, plodded along steadily until daylight appeared. By that time they were tired and not a little footsore. Their appearance naturally attracted a great deal of attention along the Brighton road, where the residents are more familiar with motor-cars and coaches than with queerly-garbed pedestrians. They had breakfast at Crowley, with most of their troubles still in front of them, and then started off again, accompanied ' for half a mile or so by a tribe of small boys. Midday found them limping determinedly. The man in the "shorts" was in better fettle than the wearer of the evening suit, but both of them were finding that dancing pumps were poor protection for tender feet on the hard roads. They cast envious glances at the occupants of the motor-car and studied the mileposts with eager interest. The afternoon soon passed, after several pauses had been made for refreshments, and darkness settled down again while Brighton was still many miles away. But a fairly large bodyguard cheered the pair on their way during the final stage of the big effort, and at 10.15 p.m. they touched the turnstile of the Royal Aquarium at Brighton, winning their bet with nearly two hours to spare. They retired to bed without waiting for the congratulations of their friends and returned to Clubland the nest day by motor-car. It is to -be hoped that they were received with fitting honours.

BAN Francisco's noucexse fight.

San Francisco was agitated last month by a proposal to add a new . article to tho charter of the city. The amend-

ing measure which was proposed provided that the city should be divided into districts each of not fewer than fifty blocks for the purposes of taking a local option poll on a proposal to abolish tho licensing of the sale of intoxicating liquor in such districts. It was provided in the measure, known as "Charter Amendment No. 27," that a poll might be held at any time in any district on presentation of a petition signed by 25 per cent of the electors in a district. The measure has been bitterly opposed, principally upon tho ground that it is a subterfuge to " dry u p" tho Panama-Pacific Exposition. It is urged that if the measure is carried, the exposition grounds can be incorporated in a residential district, and tho Tvhole area can be made " dry" without giving tho business people of the c ity any voice in tho matter. The argumojvts that art* used by the

opponents of tho amendment bear a striking resemblance to those which were used in Christchurch when it was first proposed to issue no liquor licenses on tho grounds of the International Exhibition of 1906-7. A manifesto which occupies a full page in many of the daily and weekly journals of San Francisco, says that "if San Francisco's hotels, cafes and clubs are unable to extend true C'alifornian hospitality, tho Exposition will be shunned by visitors from every nation cf the world. If our Exposition site is dried up it will make us the laughing-stock of foreign nations." A poll on "Charter Amendment No. 27 " was taken on December 10, but the result was evidently not considered of sufficient importance to warrant a news cablegram to New Zealand.

LECTURING DEMOCRACY.

Writing in the new London Weekly journal Dr William Barry, the well-

known Catholic theologian, administers an admonitory lecture to British democracy, and incidentally brings some very grave charges against modern journalism. Dr Barry firm believer in King David's.. assertion that " al' m en are liars," and he quotes Aristophanes, Burke and Carlyle m support of a further uncomplimentary assumption that the mass of the people are fools as well as liars. The collective rule of fools and liars is, upon Dr Barry's showing, hardly likely to bo either wise or righteous, but he admits that the rule of the democracy is inevitable. His complaint is not against democracy, but against the foolishness of the people. He pictures the modern Demos as "a staggering, purblind monster, falling this way and that, a danger to every precious and delicately beautiful thing he stumbles against." Dr Barry looks to the newspapers, " which have made democracy on a grand scale possible," to discipline the people in such wise that every man shall find and keep his place. But the newspapers, Dr Barry declares, have abandoned the pretence of teaching Demos, and, seek only to flatter him. The newspapers are continually holding up a vision of " a sovereign people, omnipotent, and therefore omniscient, impeccablo and infallible." The newspapers of London, with a few exceptions, "circulating among the more educated," pursue no definite policy, stand for no definite principle, and have no creed and no ideals save to interest the . crowd by whatever means and to make large profits. If democracy wishes to become a democracy in fact as well as in name it must reform its printing press and "be not drunken with the dregs of a base liquor compounded of all unclcanness, distilling at this hour in tho columns of unbelief, scepticism, avarice, frivolity and impurity that are scattered over your land." All this is very true, but its application must be made without prejudice.