WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 117, 15 May 1909, Page 2

WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

■ (By Frank Morton.) Despite all talk of depression and %he hard winter that is coming, ■Wellington keeps inveterately cheertul. Truth to tell, winter- this year seems very unwilling to come at all. we jiave had a few cool: nights and a few chilly mornings (as I have been told), but there lias been a most remarkably jinfrequency of 'wind, we have had next to no rain, and the sun at odd moments still beams a sun of summer. Yesterday morning, being lazily in--clined, I motored round, the Queens Drive to Seatonn, thence to Island Bay,, and so by way of the city and Thorndon round Jervois Quay and back home. The weather was bracing and delightful, Sunday crowds were everywhere, the girls and women were fay in dresses that spoke of spring, t is" plain that something has vhappened to Wellington this year. Just a year ago we were experiencing a hideous succession of howling southerliesj a long spell of weather exceptionally vile. And now this—this joyousaiess, this genial glow, this breath of Arcady. Why is it? I think it must be Nature's gratitude to Sir Joseph Ward in the matter of the "Dreadnoughts." One must find an explanation somehow. .-•■■• #■'■■■•'■.•■* • ■ ■ ; •■ signs of stringency;

All the same, money :is • tight and ihe times are dull. Things- are so dull that even house/rents are falling. The Jand agents are all finding it a,hard task to keep the pot boiling with their honest earnings or thereabout. There is a noticeably large number of persons looking for work. Several merchants and: men in a big way of trade tell me that they experience the greatest difficulty in-getting money in. These things being so, it is plain that the poorer folk will soon be feeling the pinch. In Wellington, when the pinch comes.it comes sharply. Things are so expensive that I really can form no idea of how the greater part of the people manages to live.- But that, after all, is the private business of the people, themselves. \ Of course, one hears Wellington people assert that living is no dearer w Wellington than ;elsewhere in thecountry. -That: is an altogether absurd contention. Rents are higher m Wellington than anywhere else in Australasia. Clothes' cost more than they cost anywhere else' in Australasia—as concerns men's tailored suits, at least 20 per cent, more than they cost in Dunedin ,or Auckland. Nearly all food costs s more here than, elsewhere.1 At times, vegetables and fruit become1 a luxury, and the white traders of the city have never yet made any_syst&r matic attempt to break the Chinese ring. Wellington, indeed, is very .patriotic—by pretence. White hawkers, selling in : the streets at-prices sensibly lower than those" exacted by Chinese shopkeepers, get little or no support from the very class that is for ever yabbering and' shrieking about the exclusion of aliens. It's all yery quqer. ' . . ;

AN AUCKLAND MAN.

Some few months ago I visited Auckland, and afterwards made candid and sincere confession of my .preference for the northern city. For the past day or two; I have had a friend from Auckland down here. His opinion lapperis to differ from mine, and I give his opinion in order that I may be fair to Wellington. "To cornel to Wellington after any long residence iii' Auckland/? he; said. ''it ia as though, one came to life .after ,a long swoon^ in some sombre vault of bones. Auck-" land is a city of one street, if its people seem more prosperous just now than some of your WelKngtonians do, it is merely because the Aucklanders take their''•gruel more meekly. Auckland is a long street and a set of sleepy suburbs. Wellington is a city. When I go about these streets and see the vibrating life in them, I begin^to feel my ■blood stir again. The Wellintgon people are full of heart; the Auckland[people have no energy. . I see people/ here walking every day — walking long distances for fun—getting out> into the bush and over the ( ranges on ■_fine Sundays. You don't get that sort of thing in Auckland. -No Aucklander ever walks a mile: if he can wait for a tram; always provided that there is a probability of a tram coming along within a week. I find it the same in business., Wellington men don't dawdle about and fool away time; but-Auckland men move on the apparent principle that any old time will do. Auckland is a good •place to kill time in; but for life, give me Wellington!" i

BEAUTY BANKRUPT.

The Wellington Scenery Preservation and Tree Planting Society lias had reluctantly to sign its own deathwarrant. To-night, its existence Till be terminated. It lived to make Wellington beautiful, and Wellingtonians have proved so stolidly indifferent to beauty that it can live no longer, lacking sustenance. It is .a pity, and a great pity. Wellington has a few striking prospects, but the place is of an appalling baldness. Trees are needed; everywhere. These shaven, melancholy hills become oppressing. Down at Day's Bay there is a delightful patch of. native bush; but even that, I hear, is threatened with destruction. Unfortunately, this community is coldly utilitarian. ' While lumber and firewood sell for so much per foot or ton, why keep trees standing? Since scenery yields no definite dividends, why worry about scenery? For beauty-—goodness ! haven't we the Government Buildings, and Somes Island, and Kaiwarra, and Kilbirnie!

There may be a better day coming. But so long as scenery preservation . societies die starved, there is little hope.' # # * # GOVERNMENT AND RAILWAYS. As a matter of State policy or national concern, itjSeems to me that the Main Trunk connection should be completed before any money is spent on other new railways. The break from Wellington to Christehurch is a preposterous absurdity—the more absurd and preposterous in that it 1 leaves the public at the mercy of a private company. If there were a through connection from Bluff to Picton, with a quick Government' feirry across the Strait, the journey through from Auckland to Invercargill would be speedier, safer and more comfortable, leaving out of the consideration the advantages that would accrue to the people north of Christchurch, who doubtless have their rights. We need a settled railway policy and programme, and we are surely big. enough and old enough to have done with tinkering and fiddle-faddle. But! the suggestion that a Government; should be business-like is rather a wild j suggestion, after all. I withdraw it. #■. •# * ■ * BARNARDO'.S BOYS. The Rev. W. J. Mayers, who is in J^ew Zealand on behalf of the admir-!

able Barnardo institutions, merits a large share of public support. As a boy, it happened that I saw something of Dr. Barnardo's work and Dr. Barnardo's boys. That the general work is good we all admit; but that the method ox work is admirable perhaps some of us do not fully know. Among all the .rescue work of the world, Dr. Barnardo's is probably the most successful, and his spirit still inspires it now that his voice is stilled. lhe boys are brought up sanely and wholesomely. There, is nothing namoypamby about them. Of course, one may differ from Mr Mayers on points of detail. One may dislike, for msauce, his habit of putting a boy on show, and saying, "This boy was born in- gaol. And just, look at him now ! That is not good for the public, and it is not good for the boy. But the work is a work well worthy of support, as results have proved.

*.' * * TROUBLE AT TIMARU

At Timaru (otherwise famous for open drains and sand-flies) the strayed burglar becomes exceedingly reckless and improper. The other nieht a gentleman of the craft broke into Hie comfortable residence of the Yen. Archdeacon Harper, in the almost oer;tain hope of annexing £300 that Jay collected ■ from • the faithful and domesticated; but the Archdeacon had banked the money, and the \ burglar retired subdued. But not defeated. He broke into the desirable residence of the Archdeacon's curate, and theace removed jewellery worth £20 and hlo in cash. One mourns the wickedness of burglars, but the news is otherwise rather refreshing. One hears so much of the dreadful poverty of curates that one's allegiance to the Church of one's fathers is sometimes like to wilt. There is, it seems, still balm in Gilead.

, But what, one wonders, was a burglar, do ing at Timaru? Is there a romance here? Had the burglar been lured from the ordinary haunts of men by some seductive or unyielding fair? Can it be presumed that there is a seductive fair • one wasted on the desert air of Timaru ? Did +he burglar, heart-sore, merely break into these houses to solace his tired soul with glimpses' of. the excellent'works of art that are supposed to decorate such dwellings? If not, why did he not prove his commercial instinct, and burgle a brewery or a bank?. I have heard it said that there is sometimes as much as £100 in a bank at Timarti at one time. ,

That Timaru burglar worries me.,l had for so long nursed an illusion that burglars were all right shrewd and callous men. Another dream has flown to-- -but I really don't know where dead dreams fly to. It must be a populous place. '■''4• • • » .

ISRAEL,

I have just, read M. Henry Bernstein's play,' "Israel." It is easy to understand the immediate and striking effect the play had in PariS ( . It is the finest presentment of. one 'phase of what, may be , called the Jewish problem ever expressed in dramatic art. Curiously enough, of the fourteen -characters, in the drama, only one is a woman. This part, which is superb in its artistic possibilites and magnficent intensity of human appeal, is i played by Mme. Rejane. Rejane and Eleonora Duse are probably the greatest actresses now living, from the standpoint pf the man without prejudice . Bernhardt is an old woman, who for a very long time was the greatest dramatic artist in the world j but > to-day, she is rather a tradition than an actuality.. Rejane is at the height of her powers and skill. M.': Bernstein, of course, is a Jew. He was. the author of the play . of which we saw a watered translation recently staged as "The Thief." In the original French, -that was a fine play; but "Israel" is a great play. There is a difference.

I hasten to add that I am not in iany sense decrying the great Bernhardt; but there comes a time when the success of even ; the greatest actress must be limited by her physical possibilities, and in Bernhardt's case that time has almqst come. When I last saw her, more years ago than I care to count, it was apparent enough that she was /no longer a young^ woman.. But she was a great and a wonderful artist, with a voice like no other voice I ever heard—a voice of marvellous' poignancy and quality. I hate all those ghouls who rejoice in the decay of great men and women. A few' jackals are already yapping impudently over that dead lion, Swinburne. But posterityv can be trusted to take care of .him; and no one worries, about jackals, anyhow.

THE CABLE STUPIDITY

Sir Joseph Ward made a good point at Kaikoura the other night. You may have noticed it. He was talking, about his offer of "Dreadnoughts." It was extraordinary that though we had a Press Association there was nothing in the newspaper cables about the way in which the offer. of the - news was received in England, nothing of the extraordinary enthusiasm displayed by the people of the' laudatory tone of the British press. There must be something radically wrong about an organisation towards which the whole of the press of the Dominion was paying when it apparently wilfully ignored the enthusiasm which was of such deep interest to the people of New Zealand. He wished to say without reservation that New Zealand ought to make provision for an independent press cable service of London news, to be distributed all over the country, and

sent over the Pacific cable

I don't know .anything iabout this extraordinary enthusiasm about Sir Joseph's gift of "Dreadnoughts" ; that is a thing apart. But there can be little doubt that the men responsible for the sending of cablegrams from London often make a pretty bad fist of the business. I don't think there is any need to blame the Press Association. The Press Association is a co-operative business concern, and naturally wants the best cable service it can get. But it is well to point out to the Association that its cablebunglers in London seem to be sadly out-of-date. The selection of items and events cabled is often very stupid, and it is never very wise. Of course, the suggestion that the cable-

bunglers have entered into any sort of conspiracy against Sir Joseph vVard and his associates is on the tace of it absurd. It is much 'more likely that the bunglers never heard of -the "Dreadnought" offer till it was too late to talk about it. The cablebunglers never could conspire; they haven't sense enough.