NOTES AND COMMENTS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume L, Issue 15262, 28 March 1913, Page 6

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THE ATLANTIC PASSENGER TRADE. The Atlantic rate-catting struggle, recently referred to, in cable messages from London, involves all the' passenger steamship lines running on the North Atlantic. It was precipitated by an agreement between the Austrian Government and the Canadian Pacific Railway for the inauguration of a direct service from Trieste, on the Adriatic, to Canadian ports. At present emigrants from Austria who desire to settle in Canada either travel to New York from the Adriatic by the vessels of the Austro-Americana Line, in which, .both the Hamburg-American and Norddeutscher Lloyds Companies are heavily interested, or, attracted by the' exceptionally low fares. of the German State Railways, the majority 80 per cent., it is —proceed to Hamburg and .Bremen in order to take passage in the regular steamers from these" North Sea ports. This has for years resulted in a big loss to Austrian trade, while the authorities have also been unable .to control a traffic, the drain . of which has seriously decreased the supply of labour in the agricultural districts, chieflv in consequence of which the cost of 'living has gone up to an alarming extent/ The Austrian Government,, acting, therefore, in the interests iof its own railway system, as well as of the port of Trieste, which has been developed at enormous expense, decided to break up the German monopoly, and arranged terms with the Canadian Pacific Company, whose agreement with other North Atlantic companies expired on December 31 last.'. ; The company has undertaken to make 12 outward and homeward voyages in the year between Trieste and Halifax, | with Montreal as the St. Lawrence terminal during th& season of open navigation. An Emigration Commissioner will be carried on board each vessel, and a monthly statement of the bookings must be prepared for examination by a Government Department, while all Austrian sub; jects returning for military service are to be conveyed at a special rate. In addition, the fares for Austrian commercial travellers must be at least 25 per cent, below the ruling tariff, and business samples .up to ten . tons weight ,are to , be - shipped - free. ' • This arrangement has. naturally met with a good deal of opposition on the part of the .other companies concerned, and . a meeting of ihe North Atlantic pas-senger-carrying "companies was, held ' in Berlin last week. for " the purpose' of considering the new situation ' which has arisen. An attempt was made to induce the Canadian Pacific to abandon its enterprise, •• but this ' did not succeed; and, indeed, the Allan, and Canadian Northern Companies also decided to withdraw, the only other British lines of importance re-, maining in the "pool" being the Cunard and White Star. The German concerns are, however, more directly involved, and they have agreed to support a Canadian service from Trieste which is to be maintained by the Austro-Americana. Every effort will be made to divert business from the Canadian. Pacific, and ' it is said that the fleet of the Syndikats-Rhederei, which was constituted several'years ago in order to protect German steamship interests j against the competition of outsiders, will be mobilised." Moreover, as the Ham-burg-American Line is to begin running vessels to Boston in April next, it is understood that negotiations are now in progress for the transport of emigrants by the' Grand Trunk Railway from the' Massachusetts" port to various centres in Canada this, way it is hoped to draw the railroad companies into the struggle.

WHOLESALE AND RETAIL • JEALOUSY.

. Some time ago, remarks the Spectator, y&a should have said that women's jealousy might nearly all he called retail jealousy. It concerned individuals, and had little to do with those impersonal grudges which distort occasionally the characters of the opposite sex. That fearfully unjußt passion called . class hatred has little place in the hearts of women. They like money and what money brings even better than men like it. The sight of those who have it fills them with desire to possess the like, but it is a desire not incompatible with goodwill- They seldom feci abstract hatred; moreover, the foible of snobbishness often saves them from the sin of envy. Lately, however, there has flared up among women a sort of sex jealousy— a strange grudging of the privileges of men', whose origin and consequences it is impossible at present to guess at. But if they do not show class hatred in the ordinary sense of the word, they cannot, perhaps, be entirely exonerated from that retrospective jealousy which seems to take hold of a good many malevolent minds of both sexes when they contemplate improved conditions. This jealousy is a sort of wholesale grudge, rot one bit better, -indeed perhaps worse, than the class hatred which it resembles. If it is a sin for the unfortunate to hate the fortunate, it is ten times worse when the hatred is the other way round- " When wo were young we did not have this, that, end the other comfort-or pleasure," we hear people say; and far from being glad that the rising generation is happier jfthan they were, they are jealous. When we were young the poor were thankful to eat this, that,. or the other disagreeable food; to get such and such an insufficient wage, or to live -in this or - that uncomfortable manner," they declare. They are not glad that the poor are better off. ' The hostile spirit of introspective jealousy makes them regret the worse . times. They hate to see lots made more even. If conditions are made better for one class, they ought in their opinion to be made better in another, bo that the old proportions may be maintained, and the happiness which is derivable from a sense of contrast be toot impaired. This is the temper which keeps the clock back. Retail jealousy is often a paltry failing, sometimes a despicable fault; but wholesale jealousy is a grim vice,, able to destroy, alike the character of ;the individual and the State. ;