CURRENT TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 8780, 22 January 1909, Page 7

CURRENT TOPICS.

081 EBANK MOBTON.I

We have had a week of weather —assorted. Gleams of sunshintf, hours of tepid warmth, days of driving rain, hours of wintry chill. At times it has seemed more like July than January. ..At times tho wind has "been so fierce that tho house has shaken as though it were responding to the premonitory tremors of .an earthquake. That reminds» me. I hear people eaying that the men of Messina are very foolish and reckless to rebuild their city in that hazardous place. That, is very foolish 'talk. If there were to be no settlement wherever a catastrophe has ocourred, the world by this .time would be very full of unpeopled spaces. There is no • certainty, no probability even, that there will be another severe earthquake in Sicily for centuries. • (to come. Lisbon has stood solid since the earthquake there, and that is long ago. Pompeii is being exca vated without interruption after all these years. San Francisco has arisen triumphantly from its ashes. Judging by the law of averages, it is likely that there will be a bad earthquake in Wellington long before these other places suffer any new visitation of the sort. It is idle to say that the people of Messina were not quick to take warning from the various minor earthquakes of past years. How has Wellington taken its warning ? If an. earthquake of malignity equalling the Sicilian overcame us here (which God forbid) Wellington would bo a heap of smouldering ashes in a day. Our risk from fire would be vastly greater than any risk Messina ran. Our houses and public buildings are not nearly so stable as the houses and public buildings of Messina were. The fact is that it is foolish and dangerous to nourish in face of these constant natural possibilities. An earthquake, as earthquakes are now understood, may take place pretty well anywhere. There have been disquieting quakes in Ireland quite recently. If they come, they come. All we can do is to take precautions to minimise the great risks of their coming. We should not permit high buildings of brick. Unless, that is, the bricks are in a eteel frame. In. the new Public Trust Office here the Government has set an excellent example. It remains to be seen what the Government will do new Parliament House is built. It may be laid down as a fact past all disputing that no permanent or important building, should be erected in Wellington without being steel-framed no Government building. Reinforced concrete is better than brick, but it is a poor substitute 'for steel frames.

A WINDY NIGHT. Here in my room where the darkness lies Heavy and dense on the breast of night, Sadly and grimly each moment flies Back to its place in the Infinite, (ghosts creep from out of the long ago (Joys that I've tasted, and sine that, I've sinned) — Each a dead face that I used to know, Each of them mumbling a chant of woo Tuned to the voice of the screaming wind ! Fierce and voracious the vampire wind, Tearing dead hopes of the long ago! Jibrhg , they cluster about rny bed, These bitter ghosts that the wind blows in, — Grunting a "dirge for my good days dead, Banishing eleep with their hateful din. Snarling and smirking to mock my pain, Vilo and morose they go trooping by. Night holds no comfort till these refrain, Fade and slink back to their place again In some black deep of the frowning sky. Vast and uncaring, the empty sky Offers no solace to soothe my pain. 0, the wind! the desolate'wind, Shrieking its hate of the sins that I've sinned, Whining its envy of joys that I've known, Stabbing my soul as I lie here alone. Who shall assoil us, and who shall j save, While to this clay we are fettered © and pinned ? Fat is the master, and man is the slave, Lashed by the scorn of the pitiless wind !

That's about how you feel here in Wellington when you can't sleep and the house rocks. I love the of the rain, and the ordinary noises of the night all soothe me; but the roaring of a blusterous wind is a thing fraught with terror —a ghoul insatiable. UNDESIRABLE IMMIGRANTS. The British Passenger Agents' Association has made a. sane and timely protest against permitting the Salvation Army to select assisted immigrants for New South Wales. The Association urges that evil consequences have resulted from immigration to Canada of people drafted out of Britain by the "Army" and contends that the consequences in New South Wales will be as evil. Now, I want you to understand that I never have decried, and never shall decry, the work* of ■ the Salvation Army, however much some of its methods may repel me. I believe that no other religious organisation of our time equals tho

I "Army" in what I may call practical Christianity. But these are young countries that need to be careful of their immigrants. The Salvation Army selects from the- gaols and the slums, from the hotbeds qf misery and disease. Even when tho reclamation of the averago English criminal is a thing assured (and it is difficult to see how assurance is to be had), he may not be fitted to become a desirable Australasian citizen. You may have every desire to reform your erring and degenerate brother, and still bo loth to give him a place at your fireside and a share in vour home. The plain English of it' all is that wo don't want slum products. When a "reformed" criminal lapses (no rare thing) he swells the criminal population by the worst addition that can bo put to it —the addition of an expert lawbreaker hardened bv experience, sharpened by ■ a period of abstention from his preferred vice. Tho convict element was the curse of Australia for years in tho early days: but it must be remembered that the average ■convict of. those days was a sturdy follow ; the weaklings did not survive. The flotsam ; and jetsam that the Salvation I Army reclaims (to tho Salvation Army's j eternal credit) is often of very poor stuff and stamina. Australia does not want undersized, weak-chested products of the vile conditions that prevail in the worst purlieus of English cities; and against tho _ importation of such products the British Passenger Agents' . Association does well to protest.

THE AWAKENING TURK. There is a significance in the cabled news that a son of the Sultan and "nine other officials'' wil shortly,join a United States squadron, with the object of studying American naval methods. Turkey is awakening , , and I am not sorry— if I may speak for myself. It seems* to me that a stronger Turkey will mean a safer Europe for some years to comp. You see, I do not share the fashionable abhorrence of the Turk; I have known too many. I know all that you can say bv way of accusation. I know that the Turk is in some ways lees moral than wo pretend to be; and I know that he is in , some other ways a great deal more moral. 1 know that he is a very good fellow in manv ways, and a very barbarous fellow in some. But I contend that it is unfair and foolish to attempt to judge the Turk by our British standards. Ho is still mediaeval, and Mohammedan mediaeval at that. He is cruel' to hie foes in certain places in a i quite mediaeval way. But even then you must remember that we only hear one side- of the question, and that our information is apt to bo distorted. At the worst, the Turks are accjsed of nothing, much worse than Cromwell's pious Ironsides wern guilty of nt Limerick. - and the Turks arc essentially of an

earlier age than Cromwelle. Also, I always make certain allowance for the Turks because the victims of their worst barbarities have been Armenians..- I have known some Armenians, and have no desire to know any -more. They are the meanest, dingiest, greediest, and most deceitful people conceivable.

Of course, our accustomed 'attitude to the Turks is of ancient date, hereditary. When our crusaders went marauding and pillaging across Europe to fight about the Holy Sepulchre, they had to deal with the Paynims—the Turks: The crusaders were defeated, and they hated the Turks all the more because the Turks showed themselves very generous foes; and that hatred of the Turk has come down the stream of the insular English blood. For myself, I have no special dislike of Mohammedans. They are genial hosts and interesting companions. Thoy are exceptionally clean in their personal habits. They are dignified and grave. They are picturesque. They have a characteristic sense of humour. They are fierce friends and fierce enemies. I like a man of positive quality. AMATEURISM GONE MAD.

• I bolieVe that professionalism degrades sport. It tends to bring in the gambler and the tout . It' is altogether an ill thing. But the Scottish Rugby Union, straining absurdly at a gnat, becomes exceptionally ridiculous. The English Union sanctioned payment of a guinea, a week each to the. men of the All Blacks and Wallabies, in addition to expenses ; and this is the simple fact that has stuck in the Scottish gullet and caused all these stupid noises. I never heard of a sillier protest—speaking, you will understand, not as a footballer, but ■as a man of average intelligence. The footballers wo send Home are not, as a rule, men of private means. While they are in England they must necessarily make some small personal disbursements, unless they arc to be degraded to a condition of revolting parasitism. They make money for the unions. Tho idea that they arc not as amateurs entitled to a small allowance weekly to- cover their petty expenses apart from board and lodging is preposterous. Personally, I have alwaye felt that when men go home to uphold the honour of their country' in the field 'of sport, they should each be made an allowance equivalent to the average of their ordinary earnings. I don't see how any taint of professionalism could arise from that. Certainly, if professionalism brought no greater gains than that, there would be very few professionals. This is one of those matters which can be wholesomely salted with common-sense. But that, I take it. is a salt which football unions regard with scant favour. Between the players and the unions, the unions are generally the parasites.

THE MARTYR OF KAWAU. Up in Auckland, the keeper of . the Mansion House on tho island of- Kawau has been_ fined fifty pounds for selling liquor without a license. He pleaded (β-imple man!) that he though no license was needed, believing that the island was under the Imperial authorities. Tho landlord of Kawau, he pleads ; Says he, "I always thought, According to my title-deeds. That (may it please the court!) I had to pay no lieonse-fces For selling fellers drink 6, Because, yer see, I thinks I sort o' etand-s right under these Imperial Authorities. / An' naterally I did Not want to blow me stuff, yer sec, Unthinkin' like an' needlessly. I did wot I was bid. If I've done wrong, it stands to sense I've sinned in bloomin' innercence.— I 'ave, an' that's no kid ! I ain't crawled round to make me pelf; I've served the Governor hisselff Wot's that? Yer say that aggrawates The case? Well, may I split me slates! Wot could I do? I lifts me lid— Me an' me tourists an' me mates. .The Governor, 'e says, "Gecwizz! It's 'ot. I think I" 'ave some fizz!" Then eays 'is Aidy wiv a larf "For.,me the 'umble 'alf-an'-'alf." Lor' lumme ! Fifty Quid !"