NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16508, 25 March 1914, Page 8

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Hon F. M. B. Fisher's flagrant inconsistencies are too numerous to form tho subject of even a decent jest. They crowd on one another with such rapidity they leavo no time for laughing. They are so common-place, so much matters of course, no one thinks of crying. They are accepted simply as characteristic of the gentleman *-o w "vjiu tliej belong, StjU, jsor»>

of them are amusing enough in a way —Mr Fisher's way. Seven years ago —of course no on© expects Mr Fisher to think the same thing for seven years—when Mr Ell introduced his Totalisator Bill the present chameleonlike Minister proposed that the number of totalisator permits should be reduced by one-half and that periodical reductions should be made till the machine was abolished. Next year when the Gaming and Lotteries Act was under discussion he moved that the Government should cease to participate in the revenue from the totalisator and that the number of racing days should be reduced. That was six years ago. Yesterday addressing a deputation from the Pahiatua Racing Club, backed up by tho representatives of many votes, ho said the Government was not taking up Mr George Hunter's Bill providing for an increase in the .number of permits, but he thought the House would put it through. His own opinion was that, it should be put through. And no one will laugh or cry. It is only Mr Fisher following in the footsteps of the statesmen with whom he is associated!

The notion of giving a free picture show in order to attract an audience to a political meeting must have, been borrowed from America by the Reform organisers, hut the good people of Westport seem to have taken to the idea kindly enough. Tho reports published in the local newspapers show that the .entertainment which preceded Mr Massey's. meeting at Westport the other night was enjoyed thoroughly by a large gathering, and it may be assumed that the showman handed the audience over to the Prime Minister in a state of high good humour. The Press Association's report of the subsequent proceedings mentioned, by the way, that Mr Massey had been accorded a vote of thanks and confidence. The fuller reports published in Westport show that neither the official Reform motion nor a hostile amendment was put to the meeting, which became very disorderly towards its close- The guest of the evening returned thanks for a "unanimous" vote, but that is the way of the experienced politician.

" Very restless " is the Sydney cablegram man's delicate euphemism for the state of affairs in the New Hebrides where the ungentle pagan killed and ate seven native mission teachers early in the present month. But these diversions are of such frequent occurrence in the Black Islands a few days' steam away from Sydney that they appear to be taken as an ordinary circumstance of life in Melanesia Malekula, where the cannibal tribe known as the " Big Nambus," a name reminiscent of Rider Haggard's stories, is engaged in depleting the missionary supply, is an island of ill-repute from early days. It will bo "better known probably under its old spelling, Mallicollo. Nearly every year brings a tale of tragedy and man-eating in those parts. A French settler named Gana had a close call at Malekula a few years ago. When searching for a native servant who had been murdered and eaten by a cannibal tribe, he met one or two of the murderers, who decoyed him into the bush, promising to sell him some copra. He was unaware of their crime at the time, but suddenly he was put on his guard by seeing the painted faces of an ambuscade peering out at him through the foliage. He turned and raced for his boat on the beach, and emptying bis revolver into his pursuers he just managed to get dear of the 6hore. At the same place some years before the crew of a Sydney schooner called the Eliza Mary were killed and eaten. Missionary enterprise appears to have little effect on the Malekula bushmen other than whetting their appetites.

The British Conservatives who are complaining that their domestic workers are given seductive invitations to emigrate to the dominions may have some ground for complaint against the various Departments of Immigration, but probably they ought to be addressing their remonstrances to.the private agencies which are busy sending people overseas. The emigration agent flourishes exceedingly in most of the cities of the Mother Country, and his appeals, by letter and newspaper advertisements, are persistent and compelling. His profit is the commission that ho receives on the purchase of steamer tickets for the wouM-be emigrants who place themselves under his care. The business is entirely legitimate in itself, but there is no doubt it opens the door to abuses, since the agent is under no obligation to adhere strictly to facts when he is explaining the attractions of Canada or New Zealand to his customers. Sometimes he works in conjunction with the representative of one of the overseas dominions, but New Zealand's High Commissioner appears to have avoided any alliance of the kind.

Having committed himself in Greymouth to the statement that the Government "wouldn't shirk" deporting a few Labour leaders if the step seemed desirable, Mr Massey ought to make a careful study of the South African precedent. The mere act of deportation need present no difficulties to a Government which has a sufficient force at its disposal, but sooner or later some sort of explanation has to be made to the public, and General Smuts did not acquit himself quite as well in this respect as he might have done if he had given more thought to the subject. His task was to show that illegal methods had been necessary in the interests of "law and order" and he went about it' rather clumsily. " South African criminal law," he said, "did not provide for cases such as those of the deportees, and if the men had been indicted in the ordinary courts he believed the Government would never have secured a conviction, either on a charge of high treason or on a minor charge. At all events there would have been a grave risk of the men escaping, and the Government felt that in duty to their country they could not take that risk." Mr Massey'a friends would like him to do better than that.

The question as to whether Rewi Maniapoto was really the author of the famous defiant reply, " We will fight on for ever and ever " at the siege of Or-akau in 1864 is provoking considerable discussion and controversy in the North. Mr J. W. Ellis, of Hamilton, a King Country pioneer and au acknowledged authority on Maori matters, challenges the accuracy of the late Major Mair's story giving the credit of the " Ake, ake" utterance*-!; a mi-** on*. Hauraki

Tonganui. Mr Ellis says that he has never heard a Maori give anyone bub Rewi the credit for the heroic words, and he has heard moreover that tho celebrated phrase did not originate at Orakau, but was a noted and wellknown expression by Rewi, first uttered by him many mouths before the war began, when a great meeting was being held at Ngaruawahia, on the Waikato River, to discuss the question of taking up arms against the Government. This statement Mr Ellis gives on the authority of Tupul Taingakawa, one of the highest chiefs of the Waikato district, son of William Thompson, the " King-maker."

In answer to a question as to what he knew about the matter, Tupu said: " I have always heard that Rewi used the words at Orakau, but I was not there. I heard him with my own ears, however, use practically the 6ame words at a great meeting at Ngarua-; wahia, and 1 am satisfied it would be Rewi who used -them, as he was the proper person to reply to the summons to surrender." Mr Ellis asked him; if he remembered the words used at' Ngaruawahia. He replied i " We forget words spoken by such a man," and gave them as follows: "Kaore? ahau e whakaae kia mutn te whawhai,; ko taku tohe ano tenei ake, ake; tonu ] atul" "I will not agree that 4he| fighting shall cease; I will maintain this for ever and ever." This certainly is very similar to the utterance' of the Maori who spoke to Major Mair from the Orakau parapets fifty years ago. No doubt there will be an opportunity of clearing up the disputed point at the jubilee gathering of Euro*, peans and Maoris on the historic/ battlefield next week.

, When the last mail left London many, people were watching anxiously for the? outcome of the controversy between the/ Earl of Derby and Baron de Forest' regarding the value of the Derby fam-j ily estate at Beetle. Baron de Forest, who is a prominent Liberal and land' reformer, had said in a publio speech, that the estate had increased in value* from £7OOO to more than £3,000,000 in( two hundred years as a result of the growth of the town, and wanted td, know why the whole of this enormousn profit should belong to one man. Lord; Derby retorted that the valuation was/ a gross over-estimate, and offered from-, a publio platform'to sell the whole pro-t perty to Baron de Forest for! £1,600,000. The Baron promptly a<* cepted the offer, stipulating only that? allowance should be made for portions of the original estate already convert- 1 ed into cash by successive earls. No-j body expected to see the transaction! completed, but a great many people' were anxious to know how Lord was going to escape from a difficulty position. .

Probably no country other than France could have produced M. Paul; Deroulede, who died last month at' the age of sixty-seven years. M. Deroulede fought in the Franco-Prussian war and then devoted his life to inspiring his countrymen with the hope of "la revanche." In 1882 he founded the League of Patriots, which had for its object the fomentation of the quarrel with Germany and the preparation of.'* public opinion for another war. Four-j teen or fifteen years ago, when he had I grown dissatisfied with the progress of his mission, he decided to abolish the Constitution and promote a military dictatorship. The funeral of President? Faure was the occasion chosen for the; revolution. The mourners were turn-' ing away from the grave when M. De- 1 roulede seized the bridle of the horse ridden by General Roget and cried/, "To the Elysee, General!" The fan-i tastio attempt at insurrection might! have succeeded at some stages of' French history, but General Roget refused to be inspired. No answering cry was raised, and an unsympathetic Senate sentenced the patriot to ten years' banishment from France. M. ; Deroulede fought twenty duels during his public career, and hoped till the end to see French armies marching for. the recovery of the lost provinces.