NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10418, 16 April 1897, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The New York correspondent of the Londo« | Times in an interesting article on tin J growth of Socialism in America says th« | processes by which the old social conser- f vatism has been undermined are many, bul f it is sufficient to refer to the immense in- ?t; crease in the foreign population of Conti- i nental origin rather than English or ol J Celtic origin when not Continental. The*) | raass.es of aliens arriving in this conntrj J have brought with them alien Wo»s. ? Socialism, Communism, Anarchy h?ve bees preached here for a generation. It was only now and then that they attracted I much attention, as in 1886, when Mr. Henry George polled 60,000 votes fee mayor of New York City, and the An*n chiste of Chicago took to murdering thl J police by dynamite. The growth of Populism . j another name for Communism, within the j.w'k .' last decade, its appearance as a political, .; ; *^'y;C-: fores, ill organisation into a political party/ :, .■*.<' > -

■ |t « tpnquesb of certain States in the PresijeJal election of 1892— these were ridable signs of the growth of these ioctrites of disorder. Yet when it was [»nd last year that the Populists had tapwredone of thetwo great political parties of the country, and by far the older of the two the surprise was as great as if Socialism ijd never been heard of before, or had -erer shown itself an increasing force. The Chicago platform, with its crude, rank Socialism and its systematic attack on jujojb everything the American people held tut did at last convince them that there was JaDger ahead. The sectional feeling in the" (loath and West, not essentially political hat social, expressed itself more plainly than ever. Its basis was a notion that the East got more than its share of the profits of industry and commerce, which is only another .pijiverybroadwayofexpressingdiscontent pith the existing distribution of wealth. Whether it be one section which complains of another, or one class which complains of mother, the feeling is the same, and the danger it threatens is very much the same. The danger is not of a political division, Here is no party in the West or South which meditates separation. But there is a party in the West and South and East fiich does meditate an attack of some kind go property in its accumulated form. According to an English contemporary, 008 of the most difficult problems which till have to be solved by the Lord Chamberlain's Department, in connection with lie ceremonials of the forthcoming celebrations of the Queen's long reign, is the order if precedence of the provincial Lord Mayors and Mayors. When Her Majesty came to the throne England only boasted two of lie higher order of chief magistrates— London and York—and at the Coronation ceremonial his lordship of York (George Hudson, of railway fame) absolutely refuted to give the pas to his brother oi London, on the ground that the northern city had the senior right to the title of Lord Mayor under a charter of Edward 111. The matter was settled, it is said, by the two Lord Mayors walking abreast; but now that there has been such a large increase of these dignified civil rulers something will have to be done ; for, in addition to York and Loudon, there will be Lord Mayors from Liverpool, Manchester, and Birmingham, to say nothing of Lord Provosts from across the Tweed, and the Lord Mayors of Dublin and Belfast.

Mr. Chamberlain has appointed Mr. Edward Wingfield, C.8., to be Permanent Under-Secretary of State in the Colonial Department, in succession to the Hon. Sir Robert Henry Meade, K.C.8., who is about to retire on the ground of ill-health. Mr. Edward Fairfield, C.8., C.M.G., succeeds to the Assistant Under • Secretaryship vacated by Mr. Wingfield, The latter, who waß educated at Winchester, and at New College, Oxford, was called to the Bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1859, and went the Home Circuit until his appointment as Assistant Under-Secretary in 1878, Mr. Fairfield entered the Colonial Office in 1860, from Harrow. He also went to the Bar, joining the Middle Temple, and taking a Certificate of Honour and an Exhibition during his period of studentship. In 1875 he was sent by the Secretary of State on a mission to Gibraltar, to inquire, in conjunction with the Senior Control Officer, into the constitution of the Civil Departments; acted as Secretary to the London Sooth African Conference in the following year; was Assistant Private Secretary to the Earl of Kim barley in 1880; and was sent on a special mission to Cyprus in 1881. He has been an Assistant Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies since 1892.

The Eastern crisis does not increase or diminish. Fighting continues on the TurcoGrecian frontier without apparently any attempt on the part of the Powers to prevent it. According to one account the Greek irregulars have been driven back with the loss of fifty killed. On the other hand the Turks are said to have been defeated at Baltino with the loss of forty. Austrian warships are operating against the insurgents in Crete. America refuses to recognise the blockade of Crete. Sir W. V. Harcourt in the course of a speech at the Eighty Club declared that Britain's policy in the Eastern crisis was being dictated by the Powers. The plague in India is abating, and the number of those employed on the relief works is also decreasing. The Australian colonies are taking action to refute the statements made in the House of Commons regarding the frozen meat industry. An American delegation has been sent to Europe for the purpose of promoting a conference on tho question of bi-melallietn.