THE WEEK, THE WORLD. AND WELLINGTON.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLII, Issue 139, 13 June 1908, Page 7

THE WEEK, THE WORLD. AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.) Itapfnamb idiocy.—the NEGLECT OF NELSON.-A PTEA AND A PROTEST. - NEWSPAPER RUMOURS. - FILCHING RESERVES. - THE GERMAN SOLDIER. Good weather, adequate amusement, and precious little doing.; That just about sums up the position at the capital. Of course, there was a holiday in the middle of the week, and that always disturbs things a little. Still, money is hard to get o,r to make just now, and complaints crop up amid the general note of confidence. The holiday was graced by perfect Weather, and everybody was blithe and glad. ' ! In the South, Mr Justice Denniston recently sent to gaol for some months a young married man who had made a false declaration as to the school standard he had passed, in order that lie might get employment in the Railway Department. The man, it seems, has children and. a delicate wife, _and wanted work in order that he might feed them. There has been some oitt--<3ry against Judge Denniston's. judgment. Whatever for? Surely it cannot seriously be argued that the First Offenders' Act was ever meant to apply to the case of such a ferocious and abominable criminal as this! Only-— it is just as well that the public just now is not in a position to pass_ sentence on Judge Denniston. t As it is, he may live for quite a number or years.- ■ ; ■ • •■ ■■ " '; • ." **■»* ■ * # * I love a, good townsman, so long as he is otherwise amenable. Met the other night, by the merest accident, a man who filled the bill. I was. standing on a corner considering the moon and watching the folk go by; and because;,this stranger looked so pleased with himself, I asked him for a match. He passed Over the lucfier, and we "slid into conversation. He told me that he found Wellington dull; and I assured him that there were others. I said—l don't "know why I said it~l said, a country life for me. He said he'd been used to- a city all Ms life, and he didn't think he could stand the country now. I assured him that I was a disconsolate lover of cities myself. He said that if I had lived where he belonged, I should really begin to know what it was to enjoy myself. He said that in his city there was always something on: the beer was good, and the women were beautiful and kind, and the climate was the best ever, and the flies never troubled you, and the surfbathing was the finest in the world. 1 sighed in reminiscence, because (as I straightway assured the man), I, too, have lived largely and trifled with. Calypso,- I said that my mouth watered for his city of genial glows. He said he 'noo what it. was himself, but I'd better Duck v up. He volunteered the entirely novel statement that while there's life there's 'ope, and yer never know yer luck. I wiped away the furtive tear, and he expanded. In his city, he said, there was neither scandal nor meanness. It was so healthy that nobody ever got real sick there; and when a man did die, it took the people a week fy> get over the shock of terror. He said there were no unemployed, and if a man happened to have nothing to: do of a Sunday there w&& the smartest preacher on earth to listen to. He said (my man on the corner)'that in his city all the girls sang like angels, all the men were good sorts, and the police had small feet. Because I expected to hear next that there was no night there I put Up a timid reverent hand, and fejt for Ibis wings. He hadn'Jb any. , He was going to tell me some "more when another man came up and took him away to deal with his tnirsb. I ran -after him, eager with i the inevitable question. He said he belonged to Napier. # * # '■#■■.#-'. #; ■. # . The session of Parliament will open very soon now, afnd is likely to be short. For the comfort of Members, the shorter the better. The arrangements are makeshift. Government House, truth' to tell, is quite unsuited for the purpose of a legislative assembly. The rooms are cramped. There will be virtually no accommodation ior the public, and very little for the press. There will be no ladies' gallery. The library is far enough „ away to be almost jnaccessible in bad weather; and the weather is occasionally bad in Wellirigton'^during the winter. The Governor, I understand, will come to town each week-end to sign Bills and make" himself generally representative of his Majesty. He will stay at the Wellington Club; arid so shall the Gentlemen s Club, as the irreverent Mr. Jellicoe used'to call it; be justified of its pseudonym, and its modest members filled with the spirit of worship. Blessed are the meek, for they shall accommodate the Governor. I am assured that the black balls are being oiled and polished in anticipation; but this is probably a slander. Bellamy's will furnish no food to Members this year—Members of Parliament, I mean. Members will have to be satisfied with liquids; milk, mostly, I suppose. It's a curious posi- i tion, all round. * * * * * * * -•■■ Yesterday afternoon I strolled for a dozen miles or so from town and back' by what, i&- known as the Queen's Drive; and thereby came upon Marartui. -.Maranui, as seen in the grey dusk, depressed me. The most slipshod suburb I have ever seen squatting by any sea. It is full of what you call whares, and I never saw whares so dingy and forlorn. A man offered me a house there a few months ago, and said that it was just the place for a man with children. Oh, these men! Isn't it about time that somebody protested strenuously in the right quarter against the silly habit-we have of changing comely place-names? Dry River in the Wairarapa they have changed to Dyer; Mount Vernon, up

in Hawke's Bay, they have made Lindsa3'; they have called a place in the south McNab. This sort of thing is confusing and absurd. Some of theMaori names are beautiful, even as we pronounce them; but it is not long since somebody seriously proposed to change Wanganui to Wejbbville. The commonsense of Wanganui would scoff at any such abominable banality, but the mere suggestion is. significant of things unpleasmg. When a place is named, the name should be adhered to, unless the original name is especially ugly or unsuitable. • •■*■■• * *■* * ! I hear rumours of a movement afoot to make strong representations to the American Admirals with regard to the neglect of Nelson. Why should the American Fleet not visit Nelson? The climate, as every* Nelson man j knows, is the finest in the. universe, ! and the city has the biggest jam fac- ■ tory in the Dominion. Also, the ships i could go through the French Pass on j top of a spring tide, and the bluejackets could behold Pelorus Jack r— which pampered fish all American newspapers steadfastly regard as the Great New Zealand Joke. Why should Nelson/be neglected? Why, indeed.! The gentleman who wrote the Exhibition Ode will de retained to write a Psalm^of Welcome,-if the ships will only borne.1 The agricultural expert residing in the Baptist Manse will superintend the erection of an applearch. The local brass band will import two new clarionets and a bassoon. Offering these inducements as Nelson .does, if the Fleet does not respond 'there will arise a sort of international scandal very terrible to anticipate. Nelson may even declare war. v And what we all want, to know is this:' Why should the American Fleet worry about going on to Australia and Japan at all? • ... •■" • ♦ _• , • , ' There is a persistent rumour in Wellington of another approaching change in the proprietary of the New Zealand Timqs. I don't know what the rumour may be. worth; but as there has been no considerable change for quite a number of months, there may be something in it. The rumour is simply that p.. gentleman at one time prominent in the control of the paper has again obtained, or is about to obtain, a controlling interest in the paper. If ne does this, or if .he has already done it, rumour says that there will be still other changes; but of that I know nothing. These constant changes and rumours of change keep life brisk in the office of this morning paper. Never quite knowing what is to happen next, the staff is kept for ever ; in a state of pleased expectancy. The latest actual change is the retirement- from the staff of Mr TJlic Shannon, the very amiable and popular scribe who has for many years been the sporting man of the paperMr Shannon has left for a holiday in Australia; and I understand that on his return he will join the staff of the Dominion newspaper. He is an entirely good fellow, and will do good service to any newspaper that retains him. Wellington is a cramped city, by no means over-supplied with reserves. But on these there is already encroachment. A tennis club has been allowed to fence off a portion of the Town Belt, on the payment of £5 a year. The thing is worse than silly. If one tennis club can do this thing, why not a hundred tennis clubs? If tennis clubs, why not bowling clubs, hockey clubs, archery clubs, clubs of any other sort that precedent can warrant or ingenuity devise? Wellington is beginning to make the vile mistake that; has been and condemned by friends of the people in England for hundreds of years. Common land should be absolutely common, and no-clique or cub, should have any privileged right to an inch of it. In any case, it would be well that no privilege should be granted in respect to-such land except by the express intervention and Act of Parliament. The present slip^shod system makes; the whole principle of reserves assort of a farce, and a senseless farce at that. The latest cruelty-scandal in the Germany Army seems to run much on the old lines. There were five hundred charges against one sergeant,' and forty against another. One soldier' was so cruelly treated that he committed suicide as a means of escape. Others were daily flogged, whipped, and belaboured. The whole business shows most abominably, and we have probably heard very little' of it. Ex pede, Herculem. When, with regard, to military brutality in Germany, you hear A.08., you may reasonably assume the whole alphabet. In no other modern nation is the curse of militarism so well exemplified. The military caste in Germany is supreme. The Kaiser is War-Lord or nothing. Well, that sort of thing has its natural result. There is only^about one man in ten who is to be trusted to exercise arbitrary authority over his fellows, even, in the mildest form; and the authority entrusted to petty officers in, the German Army is exceedingly drastic and wide. In mean minds authority breeds arrogance, and arrogance is the natural source of cruelty, in such cases, cruelty becomes a creeping vile disease. The infected become devilishly insane along certain lines. No subordinate is safe from them. Chartered murderers, they know no mercy. In the English Army, discipline is almost invariably humane; in the French Army it is generally humane; but in the German Army it is foul with every abomination of cruelty.