CURRENT TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9540, 17 June 1911, Page 7

CURRENT TOPICS.

(Br Frank Mobton.) Tin town is, for the moment, duller than most of us like, and tho weather has begun to grip us with a raw bite. Things are still better than they were a year ago; but a month ago they wero brisker. The Industries Exhibition is still going bravely. tho attendance improving rather than falling-off. It is a very good show, bearing all things in mind; and the men who I have worked to mako its success merit the esteem and gratitude of everybody. Wellington folk have so much grey weather during tho months of winter that, neither rain nor cold in moderate doses affect tho business of places of entertainment very much. Tho Fullers continue to mako money at the Theatre Royal. The permanent picture shows are booming, and at tho new thcatro in Manners street tho McMahons.aro running all-day 'shows of pictures, with _ great profit and success. Wellington maintains its reputation as a wonderfully good show town. That, as I have pointed out bofore, is largely because there .is- nothing else' to do. at night in Wellington. NICHOLLS. | We may all rejoice because the High Court oj Australia has decided that no j case can lie against Mr H. R. Nicholls, of Ilobart, who was charged with contempt court because he called Mr Justice Higgins, of the Arbitration Court,- a poli-1 tical judge. Mr Iliggins suffers! from a permanent disfiguring bias i against the whole employing class. | If ho held a position less re-1 verend, and all that, I should say he knows which side his bread is buttered I hold that a _ journalist who exposes and humiliates all ■ political judges at all times by every possible means in his power does the State good service,' and deserves tho gratitude of any democratic country. Tho path to the . Bench should not bo through tho legisla-! ture. I-know that tho path lies that way in most places, and I know decent fellows oil the Bench hero and there who have taken that path. _ But the fact remains, and the principle stands. M«b should bo appointed to tno Bench for their eminence in law, and not for their loquacity and prominence in politics, Mr H. R. Nicholls is ono of the- oldest, and certainly ono of the best journalists in Australia. Ho has been many years I with the Mercury, and under him tho paper has pursued its conservative' policy with consistency an,d dignity. I don't pretend to approve the whole policy of Mr Nicholls' newspaper; but. I generally esteem and admiro the man, I have worked with him, and I know. He is a ripo scholar, and a profound student of men and affairs. As a boy, lie was a friend of George Meredith, and in some ways the minds of the two men were singularly _ alike. In Tasmanian journalism, Mr Nicholls' leading articles are the only things that are always worth reading. It was so even when I was in Tasmania myself. Tho spectacle of this fin© and sturdy old man of high principle arraigned for contempt of (God save us!) Mr Justice Higgins, is a spectacle to make the gods weep. 'Mr Nicholls must be : about eighty years of age, and his mind is as keen as ever, his _ view of men as tolerant ,his enthusiasms as sano; and bright. Ho is a man that Australasian journalism may well be proud of. • DEATH. f f Against the recommendation of tho" jury the Executive has decided to hang the young Maori who murdered the gumdigger in the North. I don't pretend II know why the Executive has come to such af decision. ThO murderer is young, with a defective moral sense. There is no evidence other than his own admission as. t > (he manner of tho killing. There is nothing to prove that tho fatal blow was not struck during a squabble between the two men. However that may be," the. jury recommended this boy to mercy, and to this boy mercy should have;been ■; extended. If he is hanged, it will,be' because Sir Joseph Ward and Dr. Findlay? • happen to be out of the country?' To . hang such a boy for such a deed-,' ihe circumstances being as they are, .is'to . strain the quality of severity about, to.':. breaking-point. His blood will bo aiii.: ofi'enco for over on the brow of this ad : ministration. ,-V^ It is useless pretending that in some circumstances there may not be one;: law? for the Maori and another for the Euro-' pean. Not sp long ago, this boy's ancestors were . warriors and cannibals/r.-.'and-. it is plain that his atavisms aro strong;.-, There is no such thing possible :'as v.a,.; gei/eral and inflexible application of law'. There is ono law for the weal; and. an-, other for the strong; ono law for tho woman, and another for tho nnui;. one' law for tho wise, and another for the foolish;—and so it over must bo till the world goes utterly mad. This Maori boy. convicted on his own confession (dubious' evidence at, any time), should have.. a certain allowance niado for his heredity:; How can we—we righteous—how caig.we know what force drove this young fellow when that man died? We do rot even know tho facts and circumstances of ihe murder with any certainty. But we do know that tho jury, having heard the evidence and studied the circumstances, recommended the boy to mercy. ■That:: recommendation should have been co'risid;; sidered. If tho timo comes when such recommendations are disregarded, juries/; in such cases will soon be hesitating, ito do (heir duty. WILFORD. Mr T. M. Wilford, M.P., llio Mayor' of Wellington, underwent a serious o'per. nfion last week, but came out of it well, and. is making a good lpcovory. In that, fact there is reason why we should,, all be glad. Mr Wilford has );is weak points, in common with the rest of: us.. But ho has qualities that have been bv no means common to his forerunners in the mayoral office. He is, 'in point of fact, a strikingly good_ mayor. Ho attends to the city's business, and abstains' from cant, You don't find him waddling round exposing his dreadful ignorance. of art, and literature. Truth to tell, he is not ignorant on these matters; ho knows enough to prevent him from making a fool of himself—enough to teach him how much he has yet- to learn. He makes no pretence of being an Admirable Crichton. Sometimes he waxes oratorical, but as a rujo ho speaks directly and concisely, talking plain sense. After some of the mayors wo have had, ho is as the shadow of a great rock in a weary land, or a pint of. iced lager in the thick of a simoon. There is no damaging conceit in the man. He is amiable, not by deliberation, but by instinct. The singular chap seems to havo an idea, that it is a part of his duty and privilege to bo courteous and helpful to everybody. And what tho other mayors will think about that, goodness only knows, Lord! tho stories I could toll you about some New Zealand mayors! His is the proper spirit of a public man. And, after all, in that sense he is a very young man yet. McGOWEN. It is perhaps a good thing that these sudden elevations often carry their own correctives, Mr McGowon, Promier of New South Wales, is in London, having no end of a time, and the fierce and truculent partisan is already disappearing in the liberal admirer of English policy. Mr McGowen lias visited Germany, and wliilo he exults in Germany's ''commercial and industrial" progress, ho declares that Britain has nothing whatever to featin Jhc event of war. Mr MGowen, being neither a military nor a naval expert, his opinion on such a matter is worth slightly ie.ss than nothing; but the gteat British public likos pap, and Mr McGowen is serving large spoonfuls. His political views and opinions havo on a sudden be- • comp extremely national. He roars you as meekly as any sucking dove. He always was a good chap personally, and now ho is becoming civilised, tie will come back balanced and urbane, and his beloved brethren of the great Australian Labour section will shriek their fell dorision and say he is a plutocrat. But McGowen is the sort of man who would not care twopenco who shrieked at him so lone as ho .was satisfied with himself. BOWLING. Peter Bowling, who cannot find employment in either Now Zealand or Australia. as a Labour agitator, has had to go back to his own place, and sorrowfully to prepare to resume hi# own trade. But there misfortune awaited him. The Newcastle employers whom he injured and

| insulted will hay# none of him. He dej clares that he is boycotted. He is a , queer chap, this Bowling,' He apparently I expected that those Newcastlo employees ! would receive him with open arms and weep joyous welcomes on his neck. There is literally no sonso of humour in these . Labour partisans. However mad a ' muddle they make of things, they muststill be.martyrs. If they strike you on the ono cheek, and you don't immediately turn to them the other and give them a ' crown, they wail that they have been outraged. Meantime, the Labour Go- | yernment of New South Wales lias promised to see to it that Mr Bowling, poor injured lamb, gets work. ■ | The plain fact is that Mr Bowling is • neither good fish, flesh nor fowl. Ho sees in the present industrial conditions a certain something he can exploit, and he ; exploits it He is not intellectual; h e is ' loud-rnonthed, raucous, foolish. In his > main delusions he is probably quite i honest j but when a man's delusions upset • trade, dislocate commerce, and make -i ■ lot of children hungry and a lot of women 1 sad-well, those arc the sort of delusions : that should quite properly be subjtvt '. to severe correction.