NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XL, Issue 12400, 13 October 1903, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

TUB BRITISH RAILWAYS. The report on the British railways during last rear, presented to the Board of Trade by Sir Alfred Batemau, the ComptrollerGeneral for Commerce, Lahbiifi and Statistics, offers many points of interest, to others besides railway investors. We find, for instance, that, during last year 1,188,219,000 people went by train, exclusive of the immense army of season-ticket holders, and this vast number is an increase of nearly 16,000,000 on tills year before. On the other hand, the increase in the railroads actually constructed last year was only 74 miles, which appears an insignificant amount compared to the 22,152 miles of railway in the kingdom. In the matter of receipts it is very noticeable that while the 16,000,000 extra passengers have only produced an increase of £763,000, the increase in the yield of the goods and miscellaneous traffic has been well over £2,000,000, and mainly to this sum we must attribute the increase in the net earnings of the railways, which amounts to £2,560,000, the total of the net earnings being £41,629,000. But the actual yield of the goods traffic is not so much greater than the yield of the passenger traffic as is generally supposed, the difference being only something over £7,000,000, or £54,669,000, as against £47,393,000. In the analysis of the passenger traffic one peculiar and, we think, unexpected fact is brought out; we mean the unusual increase of second-class passengers. The proceeds of the select second-class are now only about £250,000 below the proceeds of the exclusive first-class, and, though the indiscriminate third-class yields nearly five times as much as both the other. classes put together, an increase of six per cent, on the second-class during a single year proves that the "eminently respectable" sections of society cannot, safely- be neglected. If we turn for a moment to the shareholders' view of the situation, we find that the average dividend paid on ordinary capital has slightly increased in the year, having risen by .27 per cent, (from 3.05 to 3.32). But it must bo remembered that 1901 was a particularly bad year owing to the war, which enormously increased the cost of coal and steel. As a matter of fact ffie average dividend oh all classes of capital is the same as in 1900, and lower than it was in any previous year for ten years past. As we have shown, the gradual decline is not due to any falling off in receipts. It is due to increase in the working expenses. Foj last year itself this increase has not been large—only £351,000 out of a total of £67,841,000. But during the few previous years the working expenditure was continually rising, with such rapidity that the shareholders naturally took alarm. As a matter of fact the wages bill on the 15 principal railway companies of the kingdon, has gone "up from £14,782,000 to £20,822,000, or a little over £6,000,000 in the last 10 years. Another .thing which has tended to depress dividends by checking the natural increase of passenger traffic is certainly the great development of tramways, which carried an actual increase of 195*226,000 people during last year, several millions of whom would probably have gone by rail if they had not had the choice of a tram. Two oilier points come up year by year to cause anxiety to, shareholdersone the great amount paid in rates and taxes; coming now to £4,228,000, an increase of 63 per cent, in 10 years. The other point is the wasteful competition of the railways themselves, for they insist on running half-empty trains and working unproductive lines just to spite each other.

"the good Old times."

Mr. G. J. lioiyoake writes in the Fortnightly Review on the growth of social liberty and comfort for the poorer classes ih 70 years. He paints the tyranny which forced a man. to shave. " I remember when, only four men in Birmingham had courage to wear beards! They Were followers of Joanna Southcott. They did it in imitation of the Apostles, arid were jeered at in the streets by ignorant Christians." George Dawson was " the first Nonconformist preacher who delivered a sermon in a fullblown moustache and beard, which was taken in both cases as an unmistakable sign of latitutlinax'ianism' in doctrine;" The bank clerk and workman had to shave or lose their employment. There was an awful time with wooden bedsteads:—" Oncein Windsor I selected an inn with a white portico, having an air of pastoral cleanliness. The four-poster in my room, with its white curtains, was a further assurance of repose. The Boers were not more skilful in attack and retreat than the enemies I found in th* field. Lighted candles did not drive them from the kopje pillow where they fought. lit Sheffield, in 1810, I asked the landlady for an uninhabited room. A cleaner-looking, whitewashed chamber never greeted my eyes; But I soon found that a tvhule battalion of red-coated cannibals were stationed there on active service. Wooden bedsteads in the houses of the poolwere the fortresses of the enemy, which then possessed the land." Mr.' Holyoake calculates that iron bedsteads give the workman now two hours more sleep at night than his grandfather knew. Workshops are vastly improved; Schoolrooms are brighter; the mechanic gets some personal Credit for his work; the manners of the rich are better; and "in ways still untold the" labour class is gradually attaining to social equality with the idle class and to that independence hitherto che privilege of those who do nothing."

CONTKMFTinLB JOURNALISM. While the British press as a whole is distinguished by dignity and good taste, a section of it has adopted of late years some of the most objectionable features of the

worst kind of American journalism. These j features have been brought into great pro-.; minence by t-lje mysterious disappearance of j Miss Hickman, the lady doctor, engaged at ; the Royal Free Hospital, London, and have ; moved the London Times to a remarkably j outspoken condemnation of some of its sen- i sation-moiigerir.g contemporaries. The cir- j cuttistanees of Miss Hickman's unexplained : disappearance have furnished, says the Times, "an opportunity for the display of some of the worst and meanest features of contemporary journalism— journalism of such a character as to justify doubt whether the people for whose 'behoof it is prepared ! and sold would not be in better case if they were unable to read at all. The distress of! Miss Hickman's family has been made the I opportunity for a disgusting scramble for half-pennies and pennies on the part of the least reputable newspapers of the metropolis, and her father has been, diverted from the j pursuit of his inquiries by what- has seemed j to him the necessity of contradict the j lies which certain papers have vied with each other in producing. When absolutely no information had been obtained, placards and contents bills were so constructed as to lead passers-by to expect it; and no doubt a rich harvest has been reaped by stooping to these disgraceful practices. A private calamity, which should at the least have commanded sympathy and respect, in consideration for' the feelings of afflicted relatives, has been utilised by the gutter press as a mere means of striving after coppers, without any heed either to the present or the future "consequences of their conduct. We fear it must be admitted that the case of Miss Hickman by no means stands alone as an illustration-of the methods of modern journalism of the lowest class : and, if this journalism is to be regarded to some extent as an importation from America, it is almostto be wished that we could also import American methods of dealing with it. An announcement .that the editor had been, 'cowhided again' would no doubt be effective as an advertisement for the moment, but we doubt whether it would permanently enhance the sale of the publication by which it was put forth. Some of the papers which have most conspicuously departed from correct, usage in the case of Miss Hickman have oft" late been equally distinguished in relation* to suspected criminals who were still awaiting trial, and their conduct has called forth severe animadversions from the Bench, and in one case, if not in more, has been met by the infliction of a fine. We have always been the first to defend the liberty of the press; but it is necessary to admit that this liberty cannot bo defended. when it degenerates into a license that casts aside all the restraints which would be imposed upon it by good taste and good feeling, or even by such a detail as adherence to the truth, and seeks to pander to the lowest forms of idle and prurient curiosity. The devices which are practised with regard to the events of domestic life are applied I with equal persistence to- those of public \ interest; and the sort of instruction that | is afforded oil political questions is too often !; fairly comparable to the paragraphs on comparatively . private matters. The remedy will probably be furnished by time, and by the gradual' extension of better forms of teaching than those which until now have prevailed; but, Until the necessary time has been afforded, it is much to be wished that some means could be found of subjecting the publications in question to penalties which even they would find it not wholly profitable or expedient to incur. Whenever, if that happy time should arrive, Miss Hickman is restored to her family, it is obvious that some of the statements published concerning her would be likely to operate to her disadvantage. It is therefore not impos- j sible that her family may find means of bringing this truth home to the perceptions of those from whom any such statements have proceeded."