NOTES AND COMMENTS.,

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14795, 26 September 1911, Page 4

NOTES AND COMMENTS.,

HEAT AND STRIKES.

The recent labour unrest in Great Britain was said to be due among other causes to the great heat experienced. A writer in tho medical journal, the Lancet, pointed out that, although all the carbolic acid in the world could not furnish such a supply of germicidal power as does the sun, the wonderful benefits of sunlight cannot be enjoyed' without payment on our part. Sunlight strong enough to kill all germs must naturally have a

ertain amount of effect on the human

body. An overdose of sunshine, then, may very probably have certain specific ill-effects, even though at present these effects are not accurately recognised and tabulated. Noting- the coincidence of the

present widespread labour discontent coming to a head during an unusually prolonged heat wave, the' Lancet points out that the failure of the white races to colonise certain tropical lands has been due to the excess of light prevailing there, and not to the heat or humidity. "The white man in the tropics gradually becomes disinclined to work under the influence of the actinic (chemical) agencies of the sun ; . he grows neurasthenic, and finally breaks down." Has an overdose of chemically active sunshine reduced the mental and physical energies of the worker to the point of making him prefer striking to working? "In an admittedly bad stato of affairs in the labour world," the Lancet concludes, • "has an-' overdose of _sua proved a .poison? "- 4 '... : ,

THE TOLL OF THE RAILWAYS.

Last year shows a melancholy J railway deathroll for the United Kingdom, owing largely to the serious accidents at Stoats Nest, Ormskirk, Willesden, and Hawes Junction, and, as regards the number of injured, to an accident near Roscrea, in Ireland. The casualties to passengers in accidents caused by the movement of trains and railway' vehicles, other than train accidents, were much more numerous than those caused by train accidents, but they differed from the latter, > says .> the Board of Trade report in that ihf.y largely arose from the carelessness of the passengers themselves. In all there were 23 passengers killed and 1111 injured in 1910 in accidents to trains, rolling stock, or permanent way, as against one killed and 390 injured in 1909, and an average from 1899 to 1908 of 18 killed and 591 injured. Altogether, 10b2 persons were killed and 8342 injured—an increase of 91 killed and 750 injured as compared with 1909. In 1910 one passenger was killed in every 13,600,000, journeys, and one injured in every 591,000 journeys, as compared with one in 10,900,000 killed, and one in 621,000 injured, the averages for the previous ten years As regards the casualties to servants of railway companies, the report states, the proportion to the total number of men exposed to danger was one in 67, while the average proportion for the ten years ending with 1909 was one in 68.

POLITICIANS AND LAW-BREAKING: TJiere may be no need to attach very much importance to such utterances as those of Senator Rae in the Federal Parliament, when he openly advocated lawbreaking as- a remedy for industrial troubles. Men of this type (says the Sydney Daily Telegraph) are very glad to take soft billets"as makers of the law that they instigate people to violate. And the strangest part of the anomaly is that by denouncing law they best qualify themselves in the eyes of some persons for the duty of enacting it. Senator Rae therefore may be supposed to know pretty well what he is about. As a -maker he draws a good salary, and in the enjoyment of this he knows that the law which he advises people to break will protect him all the same. Were it not so we might expect a verv quick change in the tune of the legislative apostles of lawlessness. The really serious thing, however, in connection with these utterances, which, if they were worth their face "value, would fit the men who give voice to them for prison better than for Parliament, is the evidence they furnish of the loose grasp of elementary principles of social order held by large sections of responsible electors. : Whether the law-makers who preach law-breaking are personally sincere or not in appealing for their parliamentary billets on this singularly inconsistent ground, we must assume that the people who vote for them on it really regard law as their enemy. .The business of the professional politician is to study the law of political supply and demand. If a majority of his constituents want certain doctrines preached to them, those are the doctrines that he is there to speech. And his success or failure depends on the judgment used in determining what they like and what they do not like. It is necessary to conclude, therefore, that considerable bodies of electors in whose hands rests the ultimate, power of government think that society would be better without any government under a system or want of system which made every man.a law unto himself. It might be said that then there would be no need to retain the highly -paid services of men like Senator Rae, who is thus advocating the destruction of: his own trade. But work For this kind of ' legislator can now be found in supporting Governments which will, when, the existing law does not suit the immediate purposes of a section of the people, hold it in suspense while they trample on the rights of the other citizens: And this, is the kind of political employment, at £600 a year and perquisites, guaranteed to him by a law which is expected to seize and , gaol anyone who laid hands on a penny of it, Senator Rae is willing to accept. _. -..