CALAMO CURRENTE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9034, 21 April 1888, Page 1 (Supplement)

CALAMO CURRENTE.

TypnotD is the whip society makes to scourge itself. When in wild woods the noble savage ran, he had I suppose no typhoid ; but when he began to indulge (lie social instincts and joined wigwams, typhoid came. It is the prico we pay for ■social life, and it is a great teacher of lesrons of social duty. There is a hauteur in man that makes him ask am I my brother's keeper ? Typhoid ootnos along and says, " Yes, that you are : mid if you don't think about your brother, 1 shall make you." A man may build him a mansion and look out of its windows with scorn on the humble dwellings of his poorer brothers ; \nd he may roll himself in his furs while they are shivering, and till himself with food

.v'.ule they ate famishing, but the little invisible microbes that that wretchedness

is breeding in the haunts of destitution and neglect, come floating through his mansion's windows, anil teach him, despite his pride of heart, that God hath made of one flesh nil men that dwell on tho face of the whole earth. Yes, typhoid is a splendid teacher of the brotherhood of man.

Now, it is a good many years sinc6 we learned that typhoid and his brother maladies will come to us when we coop ourselves up together in towns; but it does seem passing strange that wo have not yet deemed it our duty to anticipate their coming, when in this new land we aro laying oft the places where people are about to congregate. We put up the lands for sale, and booming prices are paid for them because it is known that the teeming population they will carry will give, them fabulous values. And the money that is gained from this anticipation of coming crowds is freely spent on every tiling but wlmt it ought to be spent on, namely, providing for the evils that that crowd will bring. The reasonable way of looking at the matter would seem to be that as crowded population gives the gain, that gain should be first devoted to prevent the evils that everyone knows a crowded imputation will entail; and if there is one thing before all others lor which the sale of town lands should make provision, it is the sanitation of the future, when the town will be crowded.

Of course thero are various ways in which sanitation may be compassed when tho town is built : the people may tax themselves and mortgage their taxation and make drains and sewers at their own charges ; or they may leave it alone, and sicken and die. But the money that rightfully should have done this work of obviating the evil of crowded homes, is the money that was created by the shadow of the coming crowds, and which turned the prairie value of the town site into prices of guineas per foot. Provision for sanitation is, I maintain, the first charge that should be made on the proceeds of the sale of town lands, whether sold by the State or by private owners : for as crowds create the blessing, that blessing should go to neutralise their curse.

Of course our fathers did not make such provision, therefore any such proposal for us is a " fad," and to be ridiculed by all sensible men. But our fathers—may they rest in peace—were not very particular about dirt ; nor had they any very clear conception of the relations between dirt and death. But we are happily starting in a time when we know thar, relation, and as we are founding humlets that will yet be the Manchester?, and Liverpool*, and Glasgows of Xew Zealand for our children, it might not be an overstraining of our intelligence it. knowing a? we do that time will bring crowds and crowds briny typhoid, we should make provision in the laying otF of towns and villages, so that at least a portion of the special value which those crowds bring may be set apart to meet the cost of the evils which those crowds will also and inevitably entail. Endowments I know are given -commonly enough to towns, but they are given for general purposes. But the legitimate purpose of such endowments is not to make diminish rates, or otherwise minister to the gain or benefit of the people who may conw; but should be specifically to meet and mitigate the one great curse that crowds bring. \Ve .-ee frequently enough land set .part for Universities and Colleges, and education generally. This is gratuitous kindness to those who may come after us, and who may be as able to pay for their •equirementa and luxuries as we are ourselves. But I maintain that the most rational form which endowment should take, in view of the dense population of coining times, would be endowment of land in, or in connection with, towns and cities, which increasing in value pari panni with the increase of population, would be employed to fight witli the evils which also pari passu., growth of population brings. It may be a '• fad," but I assert that tho first duty in laying off a city is, either from the sale of its lands or from permanent endowment, to make permanent provision for its sanitation.

It has been said that " the law is a hass," hut whether thi? is an insult to the law or the ass, I do not venture to determine. There are times, however, when the law Exhibits a .stupidity in its eccentricity, which 1 am perfectly sure the ass never .'loes in his sphere of life ; and though the common reply to the conundrum " Why dues an ass eat thistles?" is "because lie is an ass," Ido not believe that in eating thistles he is as foolish as he looks—or as the law is .sometimes. The law, for example, does not know whether the City Council has permitted the city nightmen to empty thfcir carts of closet stuff in Union-street. The law is not sure whether that popular thoroughfare has not been proclaimed by the City Council a depot for nightsoil ; and I Lave little doubt that under the influence of a clever lawyer, the law would have the same incertitude regarding Queen-street. The law in its inferior Courts in understood to bf guided by "equity and good conscience," that is to say, by cor inon sense ; but as a rule generally, and certainly sometimes, the law in these inferior Courts has neither equity nor conscience nor common sense, but is guided by a stupidity not merely asinine but sufficient to make an ass blush. There is a solemn dignity in an ass with his long velvety ears, and his placid, gentle, patient face, that we cannot fail to respect, even when we see him do such an apparently foolish thing as eating thistles. But when we see the law invested with the mockery of authority, assumincto deal sensibly between man and man, yet browbeaten or befuddled by a glib tongue at the bar, into not knowing that nightsoil may not be shot into the public street, and that a well-known city street is in the city, and that a ruffian doing such a dirty thing should be sent to gaol, then while one respects the long - eared, patient - faced creature, one cannot help laughing at the law for being such an unmitigated booby.

The other day a man attempted to commit Huicide. He was nob successful, and because he wasn't he was brought before the law ; and what did the law do ? It bound him over in his own recognisance of £'20 to keep the peace towards himself. In other words he was called upon by the law to give his personal bond for twenty pounds that he .should nob kill himself. In the event of his failing to comply with this engagement, in other words, in the event of ni.s cutting his windpipe and letting out his vital spark, his bond would be estreated—in other words, In; was bound to come and pay the £20. The deterrent effect of such a means of prevention to a man intending to kill himself must be evident to the meanest capacity. One can picture to himself the would -be suicide with the razor in his hand, soliloquieing to himself " to be or not to be ? that is the question. Whether 'twere better bo live and bear the ills of life and .save iny twenty pounds, or dyi* * forfeit them. Lose my ca3h ? Aye, that's the rub." The difference the loss of that twenty pounds would make to him after ie had severed his wizand and gone a 'e'ibberinr; gho.«t to Hades, is supposed to be *o great that at the thought of it he would »y aside the razor and resolve to live. So fc iith the law. Is it not a haes ? Pollex.