THE WEEK, THE WORLDS.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 58, 4 March 1909, Page 2

THE WEEK, THE WORLDS.

AND WELLINGTON.

We are still delighting in the exceptional stretch of splendid weather I which will tend to make this summer- \ end memorable. Not only is the sun warm and the sky blue; we have had very little wind for days past. I, who hat© and loathe windy streets, am. all aglow with gratitude to Providence. But'apart from the weather, cheerful signs are few. Tirade-is unquestionably and exceptionally dull, and even the most frantic optimists are beginning to realise that trade is going to be much duller before it brightens. OUR SOMBRE SUNDAYS. The City Council has wilted. At first, in face of the clamour raised by • a small minority of zealots against the permitting of decent entertainments on Sunday nights, the Council stood its ground and mad© a fair show. .But it soon began to consider the voters how they vote, and as the thin end of the wedge that is to drive us back to the old order of deadly dull. Sunday nights, it has prohibited pictures. This has been done, 1 understand, m deference to the religious or sectarian prejudices of certain Sabbatarians. ±$ut how long has it.-been the custom to sacrifice the interests and needs or a groat section of the people to ..the sour demands of a bigoted minority? Has not the City Council the sense to know that wherever the Church has interfered with the rights and the liberties of citizens, it has been with the object of restricting those rights and throwing those liberties to the wall? Can any candid man pretend ~ that any minority of evangelical Christians has any real right to prevent any majority of passive- or indifferent Christians- from hearing pleasant music on a Sunday night? Stated .so, the thing is on the face of it preposterous. Let me make my own position m this matter quite clear. With the man who holds that bunday is a, day only properly to be employed mi constant ordered devotional exercises, and who draws the lines of his own -conduct in fastidious accordance with that rule, I' have no quarrel. But; when that man says that I must disregard my own convictions, and be governed entirely by his, I tell him flatly that I'll see him hanged first. Because my next door neighbour prefers cabbages, am I to have no palms in my garden? There' have been various forms of Sunday amusement in Wellington to which the Christian sects have not officially objected.-They do not- apparently object to band music on Sunday afternoons, although much of the band music is neither "sacred" nor elassie/il; but they do object to Sunday night concerts, where the music is generally more appropriate to-the average idea of the day. Why this distinction? In the first place, because there are few or no church services on Sunday afternoons. The concerts at night are objected to because they compete with church services, "because they attract people who would otherwise go to, church." So the cat is out. The concerts commence after the close of church service; but the clergy think, and rightly, that a. man who us going to a concert may not be in the mood to go to church first. What they do not realise, or will not admit, is that the great majority of the patrons of these Sunday concerts acre people who seldom or never go to church at all. So that the true attitude of the objectors may be expressed in a phraseAs you will not attend and' Sear the Rev. Mr Snooks express his personal opinions on eternal things, you shall j •nvt ibe £?™2*t't'?4 to sit elsewhere and Jheai? a Bfc&thov&n Sonata i., And how the Rev. Tudor Jones comes to be in this crowd of objecios, I cannot for the life of me understand. Mr Jones is not a Christian, but a Unitarian. He worships a vague, benevolent deity, towards which his attitude has in it a something suggestive of the gentle pagan. In Australia, his church ha® organised Sunday concerts. He professes: great tolerance for men of other opinions than his own. Practice and profession do not run quite in harness all The. time. THE PRESENTATION MANIA. The Evening Post speaks a word in season with regard to the all-too-frequent presentations to this or that officer of the Public Service. When a man is transferred, it is th© custom to give him something. When he retires, it is the custom to give him something better. When such gifts come spontaneously from any man's intimate associates or personal friends there is nothing to be said against them; but when poor clerks and subordinates are virtually compelled to subscribe by the fear that if they don't subscribe they will be "marked," it is altogether a different matter. There may be nothing behind this suspicion of "marking"; on the other hand, there may be something, and there is at least no doubt that among the rank and file of the service there is a somewhat general idea that it is bad to be "marked." In fact, there can be ho doubt that men often give when their personal inclinations or circumstances would otherwise prevent them from giving.' There may be many retirements and transfers in the service shortly, and the Post does well to point out that this presentation business may be badly overdone. In Wellington, the average civil servant has little or nothing to spare, and the half-crowns given are likely enough in many cases to stand for something denied to wives and bairns. Wherever that is actually the fact, the pleasing gift has blood on it; and blood on a sideboard is somewhat out of place. INSTRUCTIVE CABLEGRAMS. I know that you will be sceptical about it; but I do assert that occasionally one may learn something from the cablegrams. Even to-day, I see, for instance, that a man named Wheeler has attempted to slay in Sydney a woman named Venus. I had had an idea that Venus was slain centuries ago. I can imagine the discovery that she is still alive causing grave alarm to many respectable and sober citizens. I suspect that they will be forming committees and issuing, manifestoes, with the view of getting Venus placed under strict guard as speedily as possible. It's, really very interesting. In the same paper, I see that a barque has been wrecked at Tara, in Ireland. Geography is not my strong point, and I had always harboured a delusion that Tara was a mythical place; or, at any rate, a place long forgotten and closed down. It was there, you remember, that vaudeville first flourished —"the harp that once through Tara'is halls." It was after a banquet at Tara, the guests being uncertain and extravagant of their speech, that the great term "Tarara" originated. Also "tarradiddle." I thought that only digestions were wrecked at Tara. I was- quite wrong. Homer nods. "HIS OWN COUNTRY." I have been pleased to see a word

written by Mr A. G. Stephens in praise of the New Zealand painter, James R Scott —about'the first generous wotS I ever saw concerninpr him in a New Zealand newspaper. Since he went to Australia some months ago, Scott has had honorable place in ;big exhibitions, and cordial praise ■on big newspapers. But in New Zealand he never got scant justice. I have a picture of his that I have never been able to induce any New Zealander to admit the merit of, though it won him honorable mention and candid praise at the Academic Julien. in Paris. I meet all .sorts of intelligent people quite unable to •recognise his worth. Fact is that in the multitude of detractors you have evidence of quality. Mr Stephens, having the unbiassed eyes of an outsider, recognises the quality at once. He is discussing the pictures in the Christchurch collection, and says:—

"Another fine picture at Christi church is a three-quarter portrait of Shannon's 'Emily Rhodes'—the ■face perfectly painted, and the treatment of the white satin gown admirable,. The sky of >a painting of Mount Earnshaw, by J. F. Scott, a New Zealander, may be set in the same rank of power with these; it is full of air and splendid light " There, in a phrase, Scott's positive quality is epkomised. His light glows, and his air you can almost breathe. He is a painter of light. He I sees no colour apart from light. He paints in color the. light he sees on earth and trees and flesh, and has no thought for the light that dull convention requires him to see there. You will remember this reference ._ In the years to come, Scott, if he lives, will bring more credit to his country than any fifty of his small detractors — painters of flowers, twaddlers of sentimental interiors, and all the rest. Why is it, then, that Scott is not yet recognised in New Zealand? Ask, rather, why is it that New Zealanders generally are so slow, to riecognise the ability of any man who comes from without? Scott, it is true, is a New Zealander, but he studied in Paris, and he has imbibed the traditions of Paris. He is, therefore, a person under suspicion, a person not by any means to be encouraged. In the studio of a man I knew in Dunedin, there hung a chalks-aw-ing. Into the studio came a typical New Zealander. He saw the sketch, threw back his shoulders, and became immediately critical. "You know, X.," he said, "you can't draw. Look at that line—and that—and that." The artist explained modestly that the> work was not_ his, but the great Steiiilen's. Curtain.

• When we become a nation, and not a cluster of partially sympathetic communities, this sort of foolishness will die out- As it is—well, We are the People? .but only so long as we stay inside. \'l know all • sorts of little people %m'<e —small dabblers in watercolor, smajl twisters of verse, small fry of ey^ry deoiomin/ation and■_ degree —who will for ever be insisting insensately that they are Great. Oh, I know quit© well that the newspaper ■offices are not exempt from that sort of idiocy. I know 'twopenny scribes of no quality who persistently assume all, the airs (having none of the graces) of great No great writer has any airs. Merit is expressed in modesty. I nevetr yet knew a man worth his salt who made an open boast of his quality and style. True ability is diffident in the open. The man who pretends to be something out of the ordinary genjeirally stops at th© pretending. Arrogance accompanies only the meanest 'aocompiLshment. -■ So there you have aphorisms enow for this time. THE PENQIJIN AFTERMATH. I have just heard of the. result of the marine inquiry into the matter the wa-eck of the steamship renguin, arid I confess s that th© hearing has made me a bit sick. Captain Nay lor has his certificate _ suspended for twelve months —which means, in i effect, that he is ruined in New Zealand, so tar as his professional prospects are concerned. I have read the' evidence carefully and impartially (I do not know Captain v Nay lor), and I have failed to discover any rational ground for ■believing that he personally was to blame in this bad business. I believe that the man not only took precautions, but that h© took what he considered extremfe precautions. The evidence shows that many expert seamen formed the same opinion, with vastly fuller knowledge. The business is bad enough, as it stands; why should it be made worse by any vindictive action against the man who has already suffered so keenly with regard to it ? It seeme to me that we have got into the state of mind tiat finds a malicious pleasure in punishing somebody. This wreck seems to have been what one of the seagoing witnesses called an act of God. If the Government had_ provided a light on Cape Terawhiti, God might not have acted so; but tho Government is not ordinarily punishable. If the tide had not set as ii did that fatal night, there would have been no wreck; but the tides cannot easily be arraigned in our courts. Wherefore, since there is nobody else to be punished, let us, in God's name, punish the unfortunate shipmaster! We are wonderfully illogical. If Captain Naylor, at his

timle of life, is not fit to navigate a ship, he never will' be fit. In thatcase, Ms certificate should not be suspended for twelve months, but cancelled for all .time. Personally I hay» no doubt of Captain Naylor'is iability to navigate; if he were not able to navigate, the Union Company would never permit Mm to try. I would cheerfully set off round the world ; with Captain Naylor to-morrow. I: sympathise with him, profoundly. I I have not seen the finding yet; I merely know the result. I presume, for the sake of argument, that at has j been held that the Penguin should | have sheltered, and not have started j across the Straits at all. I think that idea is paltry, because the Eenguin was notably a good sea-boat; but that doesn't matter now. But I urge that, with all his risks to consider, Captain Naylor would gladly have; stayed in shelter if he could have | offered what he considered satisfactory j reasons for doing so. Why didn't he ! shelter? You may tell me that it is*! in evidence that the Union Company's boats are tied by no time-table, and j I retort that I have seen a, good de-al; of the fallacy of evidence in my time. | Every Union master knows that 'i^ does 'him no good (to put it mildly) if" he brings bis ship late to port. There are many things dt is not advisable to do. though one is under no compulsion not to do them. From what 1 know, of the Union Company, I am perfectly : certain that if I were master of a! Union boat I should do my best to make quick trips. I certainly should not risk the poissibility of small coasters going through waters and weather J that I funked. I should be convinced ! that if I did that sort of thing I j should damage my chances of reten-. tion in the service. I believe that j Captain Naylor, under a fearful j weight of -responsibility, did what he • honestly held to be the best thing to do, T admit at once that I have an active and unflinching sympathy with all seagoing men. • I was one myself once for six months; but I had the sense to get out. I believe that these ships' officers are the highest burdened and the worst paid men in the world. All things being considered in their due proportions.