NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9493, 24 April 1894, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The action of the Cabinet in resolving to exclude from Government Buildings the reporters of the Wellington Post, because of the publication in that journal of certain letters of a most important and interesting public character, before Ministers had had an opportunity of printing them if they were so inclined, which is not likely, in their own exclusive and particular advertisement sheet, raises a question which strikes at the very root of the freedom of the press. For the moment a band of men deficient in culture, in education, and in the training, scholastic and political, which help to make great statesmen, have assumed the reins of power in New Zealand. And they are exercising their power in precisely the way that experience has taught us such men act. The influence that they fear is the influence of the Press ; and ib is patent to all that they have determined to strike a blow at that influence. They appear to be possessed of the insane idea that if they can only choke the sources . of official information which have hitherto been open to the public prints, they can rule the country without the inconvenience which criticism founded on knowledge is liable to entail. We believe the attitude which the Government have taken up towards the press will prove their own undoing. A Ministry that is afraid of newspaper criticism is a Ministry that the people ought nob to trust. We do not wish bo unduly magnify the importance of our own calling, bub we say without fear of contradiction that any Minister of the Crown who attempts to suppress the freedom of the press in any way is doomed to come to grief. In these days no such Minister, unless carried away by the egotistical vanity that springs from an ignorant and inflated notion of his own importance, could be guilty of such an indiscretion. Ib is evident, however, that Mr. Seddon means to undertake the hopeless bask of" smashing the press." The correspondence that has passed between him and the editor of the Wellington Post shows that he is prepared to do what no English statesman has in modern times dreamed of doing, namely, curtailing the rights and liberty of the press. Much no doubb is to be excused in a person of Mr. Seddon's stamp. He has shouldered himself into power. He has not given any indication that he has mastered the science of politics, or that he is widely read in the literature of the science of government. He has plenty of force of character; but force of character withoub knowledge is apt to become tyranny. We see this in his efforts bo curb the usefulness of the Wellington Post. Thab his efforts will fail we have no fear. Bub what will the people of New Zealand, and what in these days of world-wide publicity will the people of other lands, think of the petty, paltry spite of a colonial statesman who can so far forget the dignity of his position as to issue orders to a messenger to exclude from Government Buildings the representative of a journal which criticises him and : his actions unfavourably ?

Ever since the great revolution, chaos has reigned supreme in the religious life of France, and the recenb cable announcement that Paris is the scene of the operations of a sect of devil worshippers, who systematically commit sacrilege in Christian churches, and perform oeremonies in the nature of a parody on the Roman Catholic mass, will create disgust rather than surprise. From such indications as these many will be led to conclude that the cause of the Christian Church in France is in very close proximity to being hopeless; but as a matter of fact since the great overturning of the social and religious order at the end of last century the outlook has perhaps seldom been more hopeful than at present. Quite a sensation was recently caused in the Chamber of Deputies by the enunciation of what has been called a "new spirit" in Church and State by a man in the responsible position of M. Spuller, Minister of Public Worship. The question arose out of an interpellation by a deputy, who complained thac the Mayor of St. Denis had prohibited the display in the streets of any religious emblem or symbol. M. Spuller, in reply, intimated that the Government were anxious to deal with religious questions in a new spirit of toleration.

On being challenged to explain whab be meant, M. Spuller proceeded, amid growing excitement in the Chamber, to maintain that, while it had been necesssary in the past bo defend society and institutions againsb clerical assaults, that necessity had now ceased, and, while fully maintaining the rights and authority of the State, the. Government was desiroun to abandon the system of petty persecution. " The coun* try," he said, "is no longer on religious questions at the same point as ib was 15 years ago. When the Republic had to defend itself against the coalition .of the old parties, to which th

Church served as a bonlf did what was demanded Ah* Z!LI j interests of the Republic. \ ST* ligious struggles I have ah* d«T,2' I «ay that the Church ItttflSESi evolution. You see it JCS*« cracy, and it .perhaps, J, J™ publicans further than you wftare to lb is not necessary, therefore*) aband °" any of the rights and traditiXf Becnl °° and civil society ; bat it is „X thai. new spirit, should animate thfemocracv and those who represent it. fcstead f carrying on a paltry, vexatioJ worrying war-" These adjectives wek £2 barbed arrows that lodged long i/ Radicals. " Whom do you accu/bf ijJ™ waged this war?" cried M. (bleb. «i accuse myself for my part of it replied M Spuller. Whereupon AI. Mi rand eaid "You come to make your « culpa " "All the finesse of reasoning continued the Minister," "all the argu mts \ Q the world will not prevent the < mtry f rom understanding thab for a newitmation a new spirit is necessary." The Swazis are evidently dprmined to frustrate the annexation of aziland by the Transvaal, if any agitation i their part can do so. They are anxious : a British protectorate, bub the Bribisi in South Africa do not seem anxious t< take them over. lb was hoped that the n arrangement would bring to an end a loublesome controversy with foreign neig >rs, the removal of which would, it is g ,erall'y believed, clear the way to the s< lemenb of many vexed questions between he Transvaal and the Cape. "In Sw iland," a Times correspondent recently 3ntended "The principal difficulty isaaent lentalone. The rights which the Transva acquired under the new convention have ai ittle practical value as the rights wh h Franee retains upon the Newfoundlaiidcoast. In preventing the Transvaal, as we id a treaty right to do, from entering int the enjoy. menb of them we kepb up a permanent irritation, bub we advanced ) real interests of our own. We have -eferred to act in a more friendly spirit, an it may be that in doing so we shall in bl long run servo our own interests best." In all thin the opinion of the Swazis then elves doe? nob appear to count for anyiing; bal when as far back as November lib the convention had been drawn up, je cession was subject only to the forma consent of th& Swazis, which ib was sid would readily be obtained. Ib appear: however, that the facts of to-day are fasifying the anticipations of a few months aj x One of the most serious feat ires of the preeenb age is the manner irtvhich the marvellous discoveries of modra science may be, and often are, utili»d for evil purposes as well as good. fhis fact is illustrated by the cable message published a day or two ago, which stales that the French police have seized frged bank notes to the value of a quartet of a million francs. Forgeries of this kind iave been of late years so perfected as to b«ome a very serious menace to the banking world. At Melbourne recently Mr. T. T. Patterson, of the Queensland treasury department, pointed out, and I proved to demonstration that he could forge anything from a Bank of Englajd note to a tram ticket. He has been rousing the authorities to a sense of danger in this matter. He will, for instance, throw out a . handfull of Victorian stamps containing some counterfeits, and even experts cannot distinguish them. The method of forging is said to be so simple that the wonder is that the country has not been deluged with false stamps and bank notes. Mr. Patterson is on his way to England to supervise the making of new dies, which will reserve to the Queensland Government the full benefit of the stamp duties as a means of revenue. Mr. Patterson recently went to the office of a Sydney bank manager, and told him he could disorganise the note circulation of his bank in a week. The manager would nob believe this, but when the expert produced some counterfeit notes of the manager's own bank he was staggered. Mr. Patterson "made" them. Take another case. A number of notes were ordered for use in Queensland. Specimens were sent from one Of the most reputable firms of note-printers ir. the world, and they were guaranteed inimitable. A peculiar colour was introduced to make imitation "impossible." Mr. Patterson hadn't much time to spare, but he very quickly supplied an exact replica, including perfect forgeries [ of the signatures of the Brisbane officials. ; An effort was made bo puzzle him by the remark thab Bank of England notes, at any I rate, are sacred because they are printed upon speciil paper which can nob be imitated. " Yes it can," replied Mr. Patterson. "Here is a piece I can submit to a chemical process with the result that you cannot tell the difference from the genuine. A Bank of England note is said bo be so stout in texture that ib will bear 361b weight. Mine will nob do thab, perhaps, bub who is going to spend his time testing the breaking strain of bank notes? The fact is that the methods of printing bank notes have nob kepb pace with the developments of scientific means of reproduction, and so long as the present system is pursued there will be great danger of wholesale counterfeiting. Ib is part of our business to put a stop to this, and I have invented a means of making the imitating of bank notes absolutely impossible excepting by bank-note printers, and in respect of them safeby lies in the fact that no printer would run the risk of forging, to say nothing of the circumstance thab they are all firms of high repute and would scorn to do so."

I The Anarchist Polbi, who was arrested in i London a few days ago, has made a rather extraordinary confession. He states that a comrade by the name of Farandi, is the financial manager of a gang of Anarchists. This man, while keeping himself in the background, urged on the others to deeds of lawlessness, compensating any who might be injured in carrying out his plots and providing counsel for those arrested. Farandi has been secured by the police, who found upon him a quantity of explosives. The destruction caused by the earthquakes in Greece has proved more serious, both to life and property, than was at first expected. . It is believed that some two hundred and fifty persons have been buried alive in the country districts, ana Thebes is in ruins. Moreover, the earcn tremors still continue, causing the greatest alarm among the people, who fear further disasters at any moment, A™ labour crisis in the United States is growing more serious owing to the combination ot the colliers, who have just gone out on stnw, with Coxey's labour army. Some of the rawway companies have stopped th^. services for fear of outrages, the result being th»l New York is now quite isolated, xj militia of that city is being placed in ream * ness, and the citizens are urged to . all in their power to hasten the do parture of the unemployed army i°* the city. The Lower House ab Wain cne ciey. *»«■ situation, ington is discussing the *«u» One member urged * surrender to the claims of the malcontents to prevent >* order, but the motion was rejectee:, « more the dreaded cholera is showing IMB in Europe, having made its appear*"*'" Galicia, Hungary, and Lisbon.