THINGS IN GENERAL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14017, 24 March 1909, Page 9

THINGS IN GENERAL.

BRITAIN THE UNREADY Thbotohout the. length and breadth of the Empire a sensation has been caused by the - recent naval disclosures showing Britain's '■'■■ "uiiprcniiredness for ,war. The new play, -The Englishman's Home," has done a good deal to bring -the fact home to us, but the light thrown ' on Germany's feverish efforts to overtake our shipbuilding programme lias done more. In the Geiman shipbuilding .Virds trained men are working night anil day' on her Dreadnoughts, Germany has already a great navy; in a T,' few years &he will have a much greater, and Unless Britain sets to work at once to seep 1 pace with her the results may bo disastrous, ■ .As a nation we already feel humiliated. Our intelligence officers have failed us. What Germany has been doing has been '.kept a secret, and now that we have found K out we are amazed. The time was when K we spoke confidently of a two-Power stani': dard ; now we are seeing to it that we keep . pace with one Power alone. The English- • .nian who has been content to sit snugly by \ his fire crooning to himself thai his house '"*"» his castle has kid a rude awakening. '~ But when the British lion is roused somev ". thing happens—and something has happened now. If the scare has done nothing else it has once more illustrate*.! the iove and loyalty of the Children for the yeat Mother who bore them, and as a practical metlhxl of showing this New Zealand promptly rises up to present the Homeland with a battleship. ART IN AUSTRALIA. .' • Is there a future for Art in Australia? ft- 1 ; I '.hope so; but I have heard it so often j stated that Australia has no inspiration .'for the artist that it is refreshing to find a man who is qualified to; speak, like Mr. Bertram MacKennal, the sculptor, expressing the conviction that Australia '" will one day inspire a great Art effort. The mystery of the great Australian bush, it* vast distances and silences, have called ' to the explorer, to men like Burke and ••-Wills and Leichhardt, and too many of them liave left their whitened bones along ...the trail; but —the weird, mysteri . ous Australian bush has inspired no great artist yet. With the exception of Marcus . Clarke's "For the Term of His Natural Life," Kingsley's "Geoffrey Hamlyn," .!< and ( a few other books, including Rolf «>-Boldrewood*s "Robbery Under Arms," - Australia has as yet produced nothing "particularly noteworthy in the domain of ■ literature. And Art and Literature go % ;- rand-in-hand. In whatever country you will look 5 at, history shows that the palmiest days of Literature have been the palmiest ."■ days of Art.., The one inspires the other. ; , . But Australia is a country, one may say,;, i .without: a history, and no country that' ' / bad no history behind it has ever pro- = 'ducedany great literature. Perhaps Aus- ; - ■ tralia has yet to make her historywho J*, knows but what the starting of an Austra- , lian navy is a portent of history to be, that the people of that country will yet ' jii have to spill their life-blood' in defence of . hearth and home? And then .'literature pah?*.*.-.' :.-...< . - ■■ - ' ,- ■ £§ may; spring up worthy to take Tank with vt» that of: older lands. Even New Zealand y is richer in history than Australia, but so far we have produced nothing really great in literature or art. These things . !<je of slow growth in all new countries. But I think that New Zealand is destined to produce greater efforts in this t direction than the Commonwealth. Though we may not agree with Marcus Clarke's ; dictum as to the weird melancholy of the Australian bush, there is. more in this new calculated to inspire the true y r artist and man of letters than there Is ;■* in Australia. v ■ & ■ ■. ■ , ■ . I ;" ANOTHER CARNEGIE BOOK. : ?-; . Mr'. John D. Rockefeller and Mr. Andrew ; r Carnegie are rich men. ; That is their claim ; to greatness, though Mr. Carnegie, it is ', true, -has another claimhe has helped to found several libraries in New Zealand. ; If .¥« except another American gentleman . with a long German name, who was only : financially discovered a few years ago, and \-~_ whose speciality , is timber , country, of i; which he now possesses 30,000,000 acres or so/ they are probably the two richest pri- ■ r yato individuals in the world.! Mr.' Carnegie has attached his name to several books, and the latest is the "Gospel of Wealth," and some financial' journals in England 1 ave ' not vet made up their mind whether ; to regard it as a Fabian pamphlet or the deliberate utterance of a multi-millionaire. > Mr*.' Carnegie would exempt entirely , from taxation . " the minimum amount necet*ary ,'" to supply_ the physical wants of ■;. men and . their families." On rapidly-acquired 'for-- . tune*—fortunes) in which "the' increasing ■ [i population has always been an important ;ff' factor in their (success," would ievy a high rate of taxation. Fortune* acquired Purely by speculation he would tax "at She* - highest rate of. all.'* The land question, ho declares, lias " settled itself in all other ; regions occupied by the British-speaiung nice," except in the United Kingdom. Bather a bold assertion. "To distribute ... the land by abolishing primogeniture and lettlements, and through progressive taxation, is surely the first practical step" (to- .; wards solution), says the astonishing Mr. '<i Carnegie. One man on© vote, equal elec- | toral districts, and high license also form i■'■;] part V of his , programme of desirable measures. ' Yet he believes in the multi-mil-lionaire/ as a "very valuable member of , society " and •' probably the least expensive bee in the industrial hive, taking into ac- " count the amount of money he gathers and what he consumes." So lie would not disturb him in his occupation, " provided it vf,(the ; hbney) be destined largely for the gene--5 ra hive, under a just system of taxation, when he passes away." He speaks favourably of trades unions, and declares himself a I: : ; strong believer in the principle of profitsharing, which, he says, has worked well ;;:;in:tlib case of the United States Steel ' Cor)K poration. Nevertheless, Mr. Carnegie pro- ', tests that he is no socialist, and part" of his •book is given over to a defence of the in-.' dividualist position. With a member of a certain New Zealand library, etc., I can'V not help exclaiming " Good Old Carnegie !" v SIMPLIFIED SPELLING. ' ' ."I notice," said His Nibs, with a- beamI ~* D face, " that there's new spelling coming H in. V It's time there - was new spelling. I I see the Simplified Spelling Board in New ' York has got another move on, and has f; -prepared a list of rules on the subject. It's .quite; time there were rules, for nowadays ."-there's so many people spelling words in - | j;,- bo many different ways, that you v; don't" ; ; kuow which is right an' which is wrong; I've been thinking of getting Mr. Grey to .; call a public meeting-~about it, an' Mr. Parr ■might make a speech. It's a subject the | Citizens' League ought to take up.» It : ought -to hold a great Spelling Bee. An' when the City Council elections come on tvit* ought to select candidates pledged to I spelling reform. I've been writing a book ■on the subject, sliowin' how lots o' letters | 'in .words are of no us© an' ought to come v out." ■ ' - . •■ '- ",_. '•: : : His 'Nibs stopped and rummaged in his . I ; [pockets, finally bringing a bit of paper to relight.. "Here," he said, "is a specimen. I C:, - " a - put a few sentences together to illus- ,• trate my meaning." ...'.. '-It ran as follows: — Harken, all ye who I l have harts and heds. The relm of speling lis full of snares and pitfalls insted of being %i*7 going. We are compeld to.be armd ,'.; for th fray, else we shall bo ruind and tfropt into perdishun. _ Take notis; We "want no artifis in speling, and we must "' firmly' resolv to take strikt stops to purify f y^-: : •'" Old rools must be repeald and give , place to new. rools, so help me he ven. What tan be dim in the cors of a litl time will proov surprising. If : King Edw;d spelt in Seimpl fashion we wood ; all folio ' him, but fe'ifoaks' are afraid to spel korektly on their «m." ' " " '■■ ~ ' ■ J M'm. '■->■; k/h'y/;-/'.'-;>'.::-'':.>-:-.

THEORY AND PRACTICE. It is easy enough in theory to be happy though married, but in practice it's not quite the same thing.' Not always, anyway. Recently in New York, John Meehan, author of a brochure entitled, "How to Be Happy Though Married," and solicitor for the sale on subscription of books of other authors, was charged by his wife with having, with a, razor, driven her and their five children from their home. The magistrate held an unusually thorough examination in the case in the hope, he said, that he might, not have to send Meehan to the workhouse, which was the destination Mrs. Meehan had picked out for him. " I remember," said the magistrate to the woman, "that on four previous occasions you have caused the arrest of your husband, and that each time you have come around with a plea for mercy. It may be that a fine would do as well as a term in the workhouse, because if I lock up your husband he certainly cannot support either you or the children while he is away." "This time I will not ask for mercy," said Mrs. Meehan, " I want him sent to the workhouse. He has what he calls an artistic temperament, and there is no living with him. The least noise sets his nerves on edge, and then he has to take a drink. When he fakes just so many drinks he always picks up the razor." "It is useless for me to deny that 1 have made mistakes," Meehan said, " but my state of mind lias been due to the fact that business in the book line has boon bad. I have not written anything myself lately, and I have sold very few books by others." • Asked if he got any income from " How to Be Happy Though Married?" Meehan said he sold that pamphlet outright. "And he spent most of the money on drink," Mrs. Meehan said. "I want him put in the workhouse." The magistrate then 1 committed Meehan for 20 days. It is not always advisable to have the artistic tem'perament, you see.The General.