RANDOM MUSINGS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLI, Issue 12478, 23 January 1904, Page 1 (Supplement)

RANDOM MUSINGS.

[by sentx.]

Does anybody in this part of the world really know why British troops are fighting in Somaliland.' From time to time we hear that a. Mullah, more or less mad, of course, is somewhere in the neighbourhood of our forces in chat out-of-the-way corner of Africa, with on uncertain number of followers equally crazy with himself. Of course our little army of British, Indian, and Egyptian forces at once starts in pursuit. As a rule they are attacked before they have gone very far. They form up into a square in the most approved fashion and shoot down a number of the enemy, who thereupon, having for the time no doubt had enough of it, retreat, leaving so many of their own men and a few of ours killed" and wounded; and there is an end of the business for the time. 'I he whole affair has a strong family resemblance to the battle of which the poet wrote that he couldn't tell exactly what they killed each other for— thing, however, was certain, " it was a glorious victory. We seem to be having a great many of these glorious victories in Somaliland, but when all is said and done it may be an open question whether we shall have much to show except the glory for our pains. The Mullah— a. Mullah may be—must no doubt be very mad to find his amusement in the way fie seems to do. but after all is it not just possible that. and by say in a hundred years or so—historians 111 a y_ be at some loss to say which of tho parties to the business was "the more cra/.v of the two?

Matters move slowly in the dispute between Russia and Japan. It can hardly be said, indeed, that the prospects of peace improve very visibly, and yet as long as there is no actual fighting one cannot help hoping that peace may be preserved. Of course that means indulging in the hope— always a pretty forlorn one—that Russia will give in, for there is no reasonable ground to suppose that Japan will do so. To draw back, it is true, is not a favourite proceeding on Russia's part, but it is one which she has practised more than once when she has seen clearly that it was her only wise course. Besides, as Russia is now, as always the aggressor, it is far less difficult for her to draw back, which only means waiting a while, than for Japan, which really stands on the defensive. Circumstances, indeed, seem hardly so favourable yet as Russia could wish. War even with Japan alone would by no means nesessarily mean victory; and with Japan, China, and Corea acting in concert it would almost necessarily mean defeat. If peace can be maintained at any cost less than that of keeping her word and abandoning her grip on Manchuria it seems likely she will pay it; if it cannot, the probabilities are all in favour of her accepting the chances of war.

j;< The Premier would have made a good .advocate. Few people in public life know how to make a speech that will fit his •audience at the moment and yet rend fairly well at a distance. One reason is, 110 doubt, that, lie generally has something to say, and ;another certainly is that he knows what to leave .unsaid. The speech at Hokitika the ! other day was a good illustration of both peculiarities. Unlike many greater men, Mr. beddon lias plenty of honour in his own country, and 110 doubt lie felt himself on very secure ground when addressing a. Westlan'cl meeting. What he told them about last session was almost funny in what it said of the criticisms levelled at the Government, • -of which few but himself had heard before —and funnier still in what he forgot to mention of the objections really taken to his policy of forcing legislation" through the ■House' without discussion or consideration. Suck a speech has one serious defect, however—it must be taken by all thoughtful people to admit most of the charges it so carefully avoids. At Hokitika, I suppose, that didn't matter much, but as the speeches of Premiers are never made in a corner it might have been better to say less about Mr. Bedford and the unheard-of charges he made against Mr. Seddon of actually trving to influence members' votes in private— charge which naturally seemed very shocking to the Premier— a little more in reply to charges that have by no means been | secretly made.

It seems to be when lie comes to what he is going to do, however, that Mr. Seddon is at his best. Nobody can deuy either his activity or his enterprise when 'it comes to proposing new subjects for legislation, and the choice of subjects for new or amended laws which ho laid before his old friends of the West Coast was sufficiently varied to satisfy, one would think, the most insatiable appetite for reform. There are good times before the inmates of the gaols on the West Coast- as well as elsewhere if he carries out his plans. Instead of the monotony of prison labour they are henceforward to plant trees and make roads, and, what is even better, they are to do so at a handsome profit both to the State and themselves. No doubt he will find it easy enough to bring in a Bill to do it all, or even to pass the Hill on one of the last nights, let us say, of another memorable session like the one lately closed; he may find it a good deal less easy to carry out his reformed system at a handsome profit to all concerned. If a system, can be devised which will make punishment really reformatory without making it at the same time too much of a tree-planting picnic, no reasonable person can object to the change; if it could also be made self-supporting, with a big surplus for the wives and families of the prisoners, the public could only admire the business ability of the inventor—but really it sounds almost to good to be true. 1 see the Premier was almost enthusiastic about the fact that he had the offer of £200,000 more than he asked for the last time he appealed to the capitalists; he may find a use for the unappropriated balance in starting the treeplanting system.

Can it really be the case that the West Coast people are special sufferers from hereditary insanity? It not, why did Mr. Seddon suppose they would he particularly interested in his suggestion of a law to deal with such unfortunate persons in a somewhat drastic manner? And if so, on the other hand, why didn't he give them a few practical hints as to how he would propose to carry such a law into effect? It seems a. little disquieting to be told that crazy people, who owe their insanity to their ancestors, are multiplying faster in New Zealand— us hope it is only at Hokitika!than their saner neighbours, and opens up a vision of the future, of the West Coast, at any rate, which is far from reassuring. After all, however, there are some dangers that are even greater to a free community than the increase of insanity. One of these is any legislation which under the guise of extreme paternalism would interfere with individual liberty, and might easily lend itself to a reign of detestable tyranny directed against unoffending persons by their - enemies' or by interested individuals, the idea of framing a law which shall forbid persons to marry who are suffering from

& disease that menaces the safety of the comunity is by no means a new one, as it hns been practised in effect in relation to leprosy in more countries than one; it is a very different and a much more dangerous suggestion to impose by law the most serious —amounting indeed to penalties on persons on the mere suspicion that they may, if treated as free and rational men and women, be the means of transmitting to ! some percentage of their descendants a defect of intellect of which they may themselves show little or no symptoms. Mr. Seddon, it is triK, spoke of persons who had themselves at some time shown signs of mental derangement, but once introduce the principle of such paternalism as his suggestion involves it is impossible logically to stop ; there. If we are to guard against the posi sible transmission of insanity through persons who have shown symptoms of unsound j mind themselves what are we to do with ; those whose parents were undoubtedly mad, I when it is well known that such tendencies ■ have a.strong disposition to skip a genera- • tion and develop themselves strongly in the : next.' 1 Above all, perhaps, who is to be the juoge of the cases in which such a law should 1 be ei^orced?