OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

Marlborough Express, Volume XXXIX, Issue 135, 11 June 1906, Page 1

OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

(Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, June 9. In common with the rest of the world, the city of' Wellington felt the shock which staggered humanity with the horrible news from Madrid. That those young people who had offended no one, who are not in any way responsible for the manner in which Spam or any other country under the sun is governed, whose hour of happiness ought to have been as sacred as their innocence, that these should have been shot at by the foul fiend Anarchy was almost inconceivable, except for the fact that the fiend in question is well known by the whole world, which is incapable of surprise at anything mad, illogical and malevolent which ccmes from the brain of the anarchists. Spain is especially the happy hunting ground of this sect of human wild beasts. Barcelona has been the hotbed for many years, marked with the cowardly trail of murder of the helpless and the innocent. The nest of these ruffians having been bagged in that unhappy city, there is little left to .say beyond the fact that the Anarchist origin of the dastardly crime stands now completely and absolutely proved. The street hopes that the suicide of the main villain will not be the only death on the Anarchist side. Moreover, the crime has brought all Europe up to tlie point of asking whether something cannot be done to end the nuisance once and for ever. If something drastic and effective is done, then the victims of the.terrible and most cowardly yillany of the Spanish marriage day will not have died in vain. An outrage almost as evil has been perpetrated in this city. The morning paper actually swept the Anarchists aside as quite beyond the possibility of the crime, and sought to narrow the guilty down to the Carlists or the English Protestants who had protested against the conversion of the English Princess. The street is laughing at the dense ignorance which put the Anarchists out of the question. But for the crass stupidity of the two guesses it has only the hottest, angiiest protest. The Carlists have always fought openly for their man, and tin English party in question would as soon cut off its right hand as throw a cowardly bomb into a crowd for the assertion of a principle. The article shows with how little wisdom the writing for the world is clp«e in the columns of the press. Tho absolutely baseless insults levelled at two bodies of honest, fearless, independent men are an outrage only less in degree than the attack on the King and Queen of Spain; and they are .resented just as much by the public of the city.

The same paper has made the most of the charges in re the meat industry advanced by that once exceedingly rash and unreliable person, Mr F. T. Moore, whose escapade in sending a threatening letter fp Sir Joseph Ward seems to have bean forgotten only by the editor of the paper which has elevated him to the high position of authority paramount in this matter, which is of life and death to the meal export, trade of the colony. Of course, the export trade is safeguarded by the very best and most diastic system of inspection on record anywhere. Yet this person's statements that the inspectors are bribed wholesale to set aside the inspection wholly, statements utterly without a shadow of an attempt at proof, are spread broadcast over the land, both when made in the meeting of the Hospital Board, and to a representative of the press. These statements are, of course, now travelling all over the world, and being read by millions of people who have ho idea at all how unreliable is the imagination of the man who has obtained the approving stamp of a powerful journal. Moreover, the same man is allowed to say that the salaries of the inspectors (thus bribed) are payed in every instance by the meat companies whose business they are supposed to keep in order. And this statement gets the widest possible publicity, though it is as false as any statement could be. It is true that the slaughtering of much of the meat that goes into local consumption is clone without inspection. But this is a thing well known, requiring no sensationalism to cope with it, a thing of which the reports of the inspectors are^ full, of which there is much in the departmental records; a thing of which the papers have often been full, the cause of which is well known as the town clock, namely, that the municipality and the Government have managed to fall out about the site of an abattoir. It is an evil not very aggravated, and it is working its own cure by degrees. There was no reason for any excitement, as even Mr Moore is saying now as hard as he can. That th.3 excitement which has., taken possession of the whole world should have been selected an the very occasion for blasting the reputation «f our meat in Britain is inconceivable. The street feels that such a charge ought not to have been made at such a time, and ought not to have been based on such a foundation. But the wretched excitement has q. start of some days, and there is much reason for fearing that it will never be overtaken. The lie is travelling that our meat leaves this country without proper inspection, owing to the corruption of the inspectors, and it is travelling in company with the truth from America. Such is the consequence of ill-advised journalism. . We all know tjiat there is not a scintilla of probability jn tjie farrago of the other charges which Mr Moore has been allowed to disseminate through the press: all of them are, on the face of th«m, wild and baseless. But how is the reader of the papers in Britain to discriminate, in tho absence of the knowledge that keeps saiie man from following myths here?

Tile town h filled with the noise of preparation for tiife Premier's birthday celebration. This time there will be a vnsl crowd, greater than anything evo? «een before at these celebrations, for tho Hippie reason that this is the first tiuieso lavw a hall as the 1 own Hall has been available*. The friends of the right honourable gentleman feel that after the great receptions m Austialia they could do no Jess, lne organ will 'peal and the speeches will boom, and everything will be done to make the guest of the evening teel that he has come home again.

His Australian reception waxes warmer and warmer, but the future or reciprocity does not seem to be getting brighter in reality, though apparently there is nothing left to be desired. Until Sir William Lyno spoke the other day the appearances could not be better. But it seems to the street that Sir William poured rather a copious supply of cold water on the reciprocity, scheme. He said that there are but few things which can be made the subject of a favourable exchange, and he took care at the same time to warn his Australian hearers that nothing must be allowed to interfere with the industries of the States. How reciprocity is to be evolved out of such material is tbe wonder of everybody. At all events we know that tho premier will do bis best, and' perhaps he will explain the change in bis attitude from that first day on which he told an interviewer- that lie had no concern with anything of that sort. There is growling beacuse Mr Jack-

son Palmer has been virtually made Chief Judge of the Native Land Court. But the appointment was the only one that could*be made. The Chief, it seoms, must be a lawyer, and there are in tho Bench of Native Justice but two lawyers, and of these two Mr Jackson Palmer is the senior. Therefore tho appointment of Mr Jackson Palmer calls really for no strictures, even though he is the last appointment to the Native Court Bench.

Much is made about the determination of the Shaw, Savill and New Zealand Shipping Companies to organise a monthly service to the west ports of Britain. No doubt much is deserved. At the same time the street wants to know why this praiseworthy thing was not done ever t-o long ago. The fact that it has been done at all is, in the view of the street, a great tribute to the usefulness of the new competition. It seems as if the producer were really coming nearer to his own this time.

Mr Vaile has been watching the Londoners and other inhabitants of the British Isles, and lie finds them greatly gone off from the form they used to exhibit' in the days of his early youth, before he took to the business of railway reform. Mr Vaile is powerful and drastic in his comments, but tJhe is scarcely original in his discoveries. He seems to think that he is the discoverer of the system of tipping which annoys the guests in all town hotels and in the great country houses. But one seems to have heard something like it before. It serves to remind us that our Mr Vaile was ever given somewhat to the simple side of things. A good man gone a little wrong we used to think when he lectured Parliament and country and the school children about the zone method of working the railways. But we still think him a good man, and we are all proud of him, for a more honest, straight-going spirit does not exist inside the four seas; and such are the spirits Aye want many of in these lands.

It is pleasing to the street to observe that the Federal Postmaster-General, Mr Austin Chapman, agrees with the American authorities that the advent of the universal penny post is only a question of time. No wonder, for the world makes a profit collectively on its postal business of seventeen millions sterling. Sir Joseph Ward will be happy yet.

TIT * I*l * ■ * We are asked to weep over the fate of the navvies who after careful selection by the High Commissioner and his officers are allowed to land without the fatted calf and attendant luxuries in our ports. It is true that the last ship with some navvies thus selected on board came in on a holdiay, and there was no official on the .wharf to meet them. Now, are we to have men stationed up and dpwn the qoast to spoonfeed those gentlemen whenever they appear off the land ? Or may we rely upon it that the men "who have strength and grit enough to move mountains with the pick and shovel of their calling, hayg not grit enough to find the Labour Bureau" in a civilised town like Wellington or Christchnrch or Dunedin or Auckland, and that it is quite impossible for them to report themselves'to tho. officers? The work on the railway lines is there. The Public Works people are anxious to get the men to it as soon as may be. All they have to do is to ask a question or two and march in the right direction. Where then is the grievance? When Now Zealand was colonised there were no grievances oi that kind. And when the railways were begun.—in thr? clays oi tJie Brogdens and good 'bid" '• • Jerusalem Smith " —grievances of the sentimental kind were equally scarce. During a fairly long colonial career I oannqt remember any leaving ef paste beards on the hardy immigrant who was ready for work,

An astonishing feat of collection hac been done. The V.M.C.A. has collected its £10,00 within the time allotted —three weeks—and a few hundreds. It is a record of good will and syste\ matic work well organised, and qf combination on the part of all sections of the community. There is hope for a people that does these things well.

•*- ft ■* XA private attempt is being made to get the Rimutaka incline knocked on the head, and to have the northern railway—Napier-Wairarapa section — taken by the proper way, viz., by Lowry Bay and Palliser Bay, with" a final short tunnel through the Rimutaka into the Wairarapa Valley. The idea is splendid. But the street wants to know where the money is to come from. There ought, of course, to be ho difficulty, for the simple reason that a project which saves the extra haulage must be profitable, and anything that is profitable ought to be easily financed-

■%• £• ft it # The closing sensation of the week is the letter of Mr Moore to the morning paper. In this he narrates his past life. The main elements are: (1) That Mr Moore is a mental healer who has given up practice because it .didn't pay; (2) that he is '' an inspired agent of God on earth"; and (3) that he threatened Sir Joseph Ward in 1902 for no other reason than that he was not inclined to adopt Mr Moore's proposals in re the meat trade. Let these facts be broadcast, and there will not be much left of the Moore myth.

her sugar in free, what a big thing it would bo for Queensland. It would, further, be a neighborly action, and as we propose to give our paoplo a free breakfast table, \vg may as well differentiate in favour of Australia."

Wo are much concerned over antitrust measures in Australia. What is your experience in New Zealand?

"I know this much: We have got to faca the difficulty. Tho trust evil is rearing its head very high. There are the tobacco and the harvesters trusts, and various combines of all kinds. We think that wherever trusts obtain, in regard to foodstuffs especially, the State must step in as the only poAvc?to combat them. Legislation is a very slow process, especially when fines only are the penalties. My own opinion is that the remedy is to have no lines, but imprisonment pure and simple, and nothing but imprisonment. 1 fail to see the difference between the highwayman who forces what belongs to another from him and the combines or trusts which practically do the same thing. Drastic disease—drastic remedy ! Of course there is another short cut, and that is for the.State to step in—as I not long ago suggested with regard to food supplies—and open State shops. Our meat prices to-day in New Zealand are much higher to the consumer than in London for the same meat. When you remember that the frozen meat in London has to pay carriage, ocean freights, brokerage, insurance and middlemen's profits, I say it is passing strange that there should be this difference in price; that chops and legs of New Zealand mutton should be cheaper in London than in Christ-church or Wellington. The same experience is found with respect to fish. Combines keep up the price. I say that as a last resort we might establish State meat shops." . From anti-trust legislation Mr Soddon passed to his national annuities scheme, some interesting particulars of which were published in The Age yesterday. "I expect," he said, "that as the result of the proposed annuities scheme there will be a reduction equal to about 50 per cent, in the charitable institutions subsidy of about £100,000 a year. We are working with the friendly societies. To my mind the value of friendly societies has always been underestimated. If it was not for the existence of these societies the State would. have very heavy direct claims to meet. The friendly societies machinery, if properly utilised, can be used by 'the State to make special provision for old age and infirmity. The aid will keep the societies financially strong, and will lead to thousands who now make no provision joining them. There are a large number of persons who demur to going on the old age pensions list, and who, when opportunity is given, would struggle to exercise thrift, and would make some provision, provided they were encouraged in doing so- Thrift of this kind we propose to. subsidise, differentiating |n the subsidising of the married as against the single men. To the single man the effort to save is less than tor the married man with three or tour or five children. So we increase the subsidy in accordance with the effort exercised in making the provision. There will also be a class coming under, the old age pensions, but under our proposals we shall place it within the reach of everyone "to do something to provide for his or her old age. I here are so many cases where people.have considered themselves as all right and provided for, and then a Hood or fire or tempest intervenes, their fortunes aro wrecked and they mid themselves stranded. In those cases, if the people have put a little en one side under our scheme they will and that, with, the aid of compound interest and Government subsidy, they riosd have no anxiety as to provision ror old age." Is the Commonwealth going to be represented at your Christqlmrch Exhibition ?

I have not been able to discuss this and other matters with Mr Deakin but 1 must say I hay© always found him ago ahead politician and amenable to reason. As to the Exhibition ilselt, one must try to be modest, but I do sincerely think that in some respects it will b@ tl 19 $ n est that has ever been held south of the equator. As to Australian patronage, I would like this to be mentioned: If the Union btoamship Company and Hnddart Parker s are not prepared during the time of the Exhibition to put on bigger boats and reduce the fares our Cabinet has approved of my entering into negotiations for other steam.sh.jp ser-

Kefore the interview closed Mr Seddon mentioned that he had that day had an official cablegram from New Zealand with regard to the Maori bogus,"Mahdi.» ''The latest information, said Mr Seddon, "is that there is no danger apprehended, and that tho prophet's adherents are falling off and. that—(this with a smile)—Eo Is not coming up to expectations. He has not been able to restore life or cure tho sick and maimed. So the man has lost caste."