THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13874, 7 October 1908, Page 9

THINGS IN GENERAL.

THE CALL FOR STRONG MEN. .-. WHERE are our strong men? I don't o • mean footballers and boxers—we have •- ■ . .' them in numbersbut where are New : f , Zealand's men of strong intellect, where ; I are her leaders? Every country is made ' J■' , and judged by its leaders, its men of \ " thought and intellect, and in proportion :' r as its leaders are great so is the country ; great. Where are New Zealand's strong ; men, the men who lead public opinion'? I look around me—l cast my eye over the North Island, from Auckland to Welling- : : ton, and I traverse the South Island, , ( V.. from Christ-church to Invercargill— and I I ■/ see none. No. not one! It is a bold as- ■! : ■ section to make, my friends, but I see | «i;: ;; no strong leader of public thought, any- . where in the land. There is no public I : * fought; there is no public opinion ; there : is no public interest in the great political " questions of the day, save when they touch our own pockets. The Opposition party held a banquet in Wellington the other evening, to bid farewell to those mem- '.. . ■ bers who are retiring from politics. It ':'/■' 'may bo they had grown tired of the nnj , equal fight in Parliament—tired of trying to shift a Government that has been in -. office for so many weary years, and preferred to put their heads on a cushion at ■,'.,.'. hotoe to knocking them, against a stone wall in another place—because it has come to be ; '-' ' a fetish that the. so-called Liberal Minis- - ,'-' try has a lien over the country, and must not bo shifted, like an idol that is set up | ' and must not be knocked. down, because ! it, has' never done any great harm. As if : ; ; the Opposition party did not number . among its members men who are as much '.■':,- entitled to the. name of Liberal as any .■;■'.; : man on the Government benches! The : • plain truth is that Public Opinion has cot • atrophied by reason of the. Long Parlia- . : ment, that has become as wearisome as it is long. It is not that the Government '.has a strong leader: there is not a single man in the Ministry who can be called • a strong man. To pretend that the Opposition possesses stronger men would be absurd—it doesn't; the most that can be : said for them is that they are as strong i: as those on the other side. The truth is . that Parliament has fallen into such a 'state of decadence, into such a dead level of- dull commonplace, that the best men will not come forward and offer their services to the people. But, unless they do, :. - this country must go to the wall. Un- j less we breed, and that speedily, some j men of public spirit,. who place the public interest before that of self, and country before party, there is indeed a critical .-■ . time ahead. It is a good thing for parties to change sides every few years, a good thing for the country in many ways, and, more especially, in a country like this, ;,-.-' where the difference in political views isi practically that between Tweedledum and Tweedledeewhere the fiscal policy has been settled, and there is little beyond domestic and social legislation to be passed —and one day, let us hope soon, the 'People will wake up to the fact, and .. .there will be"a great legislative stocktaking. The call is for strong men on both sides of the House, but they are not •.: offering. -v-/<■:?•::.:■-■ ' ..■.,.■' -~ ■ .;. , , Men of bold and fearless heart, ■', Men of sterling worth, ;-| Steady to give of the best they have .. .' To the country that gave thorn birth I t -Ready to stand in the vanguard—aye,";s r > *% : .£ And born to stand in the- van!. -■ .;.--._, ■vO'/lKLet them come forth for their country's sake, ~ And talk to us, man to man 1 One© .wo ha>d troops and enough to spare, ■\ . '•,'/: , But we'nj losing them one by one; h ' Our leaders; lie dead on the battlefield, I ( And our reinforcements are done. j , \ Gone are the men of the Old Brigade, I Who marched to the end like braves—: , ' The soul of the nation is passing out, ' > And we're even forgetting their graves! I ■ Could they but rise up to fight again, I Or point out the way to their .sons I Could they but join in the march" again, ' And once again shoulder their guns! . . . I Kay. let them rest, for they did their part When they heard their country call. Say, shall we answer the call to arms, .Or hasten our country's fall ■ THE "FOOTBALL CRAZE." Down in Southland there's a controversy raging around the question of athletic prowess in regard to the status of schoolteachers. It seems that "prowess ,in athletic sports" has been included under the 4;; .J.v ; ; heading " Character and Personality" in the ;r : promotion scheme' submitted by the inspectors, and Inspector Wylie submits a report ) which reminds one of Mr. Facing-80th-,7 4 Ways. The athletic training, he eays, is ,;.,.,, of. considerable benefit.to teachers, and boys „■ - prefer the "athletic" teacher to the mere bookworm; and then he goes on to condemn the great love for sport which is inX y herent in the New Zealander. In New i :./ Zealand everybody, from .the baby \up is, a ' born sport. Every boy plays something, i every girl—football, cricket, tennis, golf, or ; ' hockey; and it is not confined to the young , either, for when a man grows too old for ; , football or cricket he goes bowling. One , ■ '":■< if the first things a boy does is to learn to , kick a football, and he learns- . that before '-j ;he learns his ABC. Kipling ; may write about his ", flannel'd fools at the wickets" tad his-"muddied oafs at ilie goal," but (; (port will still live. " And Inspector Wylie * '> 4 '': : : : may lament the extraordinary degree of at- .< .teation that is paid to football by those '■■> ■■■■■■:■■ 'whom he is pleased to call "children of 1 • ■ larger growth," but his lamentations will i not kill football. He sees in the " football j craze" all soils of nightmares. It develops craft and cunning, he says, more ; than strength and skill, and it makes the i 'serious business of life a. trifling matter i beside its own "huge pretensions." It mono- 1 . -, polises the thoughts of our youth to the ' delusion of all that is best in art, litera- £ **"*, and science. Its devotees care not- l for the burning political and social queer tiooa of the day. They think of nothing ] out football, dream of nothing else, live f for nothing else. Truly an awful picture, a "Inspector Wylie could only have these i reports of his illustrated by Gustavo Dore I one would imagine that one was living in * Purgatory instead of in New Zealand. A '' : nation without sport, said a greater than c Inspector Wylie, is a decadent nation. It c true that one can have too much of a v good thing, but I do think our worthy in- { specter of Southland is drawing the long .■'-■ , b °w. It may be that in Southland people t sleep with footballs under their pillows t and dream of the great game, as a maiden 1 W* a bit of wedding-cake under "her pillow and dreams of her own wedding; and • ; « may be that they close up their shops *J*ly so as to play football, trusting that j ' l «e till will fill itself while they are away \ it may be they are all pagans down » J and don't know anything about burn- J. - "J8 political questions, such as noxious B We *<«>; but, judging by the way' Auckland c * om pa over them, one would think they * ■^ 6r « not half as crazy on the game as the a : en J Ol Auckland. Or are the Auckland f lo otballer 8 ; stark, staring mad? ' * ,■;£; ■■': HIS NIBS ON -BEFORM. - I v.'«s never too late to mend," said His c whether it's boots'or. Bills. What ' * **|,say about the Arbitration Bill? It .* . •. W;he ended or mendedi said I; an' they " •iend«d it. When I say\a thing you can J, » e P«nd upon 't it's right./ I tell you Go- v : yfhinent keeps its eye oil me—they keep •..special man an' pay him) a high salary to :28 rn0 ,, 0 ? 1 °' W-w4 An' when Ifi 12 Wed have no gag it vW 9 enough. Ot s . "? r ! e > some people were a \bit afraid they d , , if «, but I knew bolteA Sir Joseph «£♦• an ' IM °. good pah, \in' I hope we'll 'if » mi i 9 friendly, an* it wob't be my fault -f ■ ' , n ' u &° "'g *» hh takes m} v a r ,; , :TS^» * ah right.-. j* 'i doeeki't he's cooked. , : ' ,■■■ . l «* Second . Mot Bill wo T. t do, sir/ .-aid v %*# « A ° fn * Britidi subjects that i *«*. sua Ij. 'you way gal JVO Parlt*- 11 [ttiiii! 1 '..''.'■/■■

raent, but you can't gag Me,' said I. That's the long an short of it. An' when I said 1«« L™! 4 , th t People. The People must be protected if I have to do it mesclf. mere are politicians who think the People l! 1 , ° m S u l M- J' oll can wrap round your fingers but there's People an' People. You can fool some o' the People all the time, an you can fool all o' the People some «l« ,'n i', me ?. but «" can't fool all the People a I » th ? time. Do you think Sir Joseph Hard fooled me when he proposed his Gag ?E!il *°' r" ! , Ho ihl ™ * ««* ■» L feeler an when he saw I wouldn't bite lie Filled it m i again as gracefully as ho )° ~ mV hc J wd kcu "V ndvice earlier he would have found it easier to go an' hide himself ; as it i 6, he's had to knuckle under an tike the sauce which gets hotter for the Ketpm • \ou may remember what I told Japan about Russia, an' she took the hint an grabbed the Russian ship,. Not that didn»TTl particular friend of Japans, but I dull think Russia was playin' quite fair. L k^ al ! w, rr dsn-t P'"y fair deserves to be eked. " the Tsar had only taken "10 advice I gave him he would have had a happier head under his crown. When some months back I advised the Sultan of -turkey to introduce reforms main- people laughed, as if to say no good thing could tome out 0 Turkey,, but to-dav Turkev is icforunn. Was mv advice to rflo Shah of SJS ? st? , ?<>' *! Glvtd reforms can bo made in a day, but Persia m fob oym lurkey's load. If Austria had listoned to my warning, and if Bulgaria had taken my advi.-e, the trouble in the Balkans would never have occurred, an' the intact'• V;,iy W0 " ld haVe bcen Pwwved ti H ' S i^ il Jf pau « d ;» scratched his head thoughtfully. -If Bill Squire, had taken the advice which I gave him," he added he would never have been beaten by tommy Burns." ■> Tub Gkxi-iul.