Current Topics.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 996, 3 April 1891, Page 24

Current Topics.

Thb Pall Mall Gazette is a very worthy journal whose usefulness is spoilt to a large extent by fads. One of its fads is cremation. Poisons, we are airily told, are dealt with by cremation in the manner most blood-curdling to the wouldbe murderer. Some poisons are destroyed and some are not ! Those that are not remain in the ashes ; those that are, are in no worse case than those whose effect is destroyed by the ordinary effect of the ordinary tomb ! Let us examine these remarkable sentences. Cremation destroys in one hour a body which with the poisons will remain open for analysis in the grave for months. These months are the safeguard of life ; the faddist who writes them away with such idiotic want of logic is on the side of the murderers of the future. As to those poisons that remain in the ashes, who will prove that they came to the ashes from the body? Who will ever prove that they were not added in the fuel used or cremation ? The rules of evidence would prevent these poison traces from becoming evidence, and common sense is on the side of the rules of evidence. The folly of what we must, for want of a better word, call the reasoning of the “Pall Mall Gazette,” is the grossest possible. Has some contributor to that journal an old maiden aunt who will not die fast enough to please his exacting little soul ?

What is “Truth?” “Truth” is the brilliant, rather sensational publication owned by that eccentric politician Mr Labouehere, who is nothing if he is not violently critical. His latest extravagance of criticism we publish this week in our cable columns. It is characteristic an d amusing, but it is not true. “ Truth ” is not truth, in fact. The Colonies may have borrowed a little too largety, but they are not in the wretched position ascribed to them by this fantastic cynic. They are the best customers of the British merchant; they are a solid, most progressive part of the British Empire ; and they meet their obligations with unfailing regularity. These States have an aggregate revenue of L 28,500,000; their volume of trade reaches L 131,000,000 ; and they are iuhabited by 3,780,000 people. To talk of them as “wretched bantlings ” is to make a criticism with its contradiction in its forehead.

We do not suppose Mr McKenzie would do anything in the matter of the public lands which is not allowed by the law. Nevertheless we should like very much to know how he can, under the law, hold the position he has taken up with regard to certain Special Settlement Associations. The law gives every holder of a perpetual lease the option of buying the freehold of his land at the end of a certain time. How can that provision be refused ? There is the power of making regulations, but regulations are “ ultra vires ” if they are in any point contrary to the Act under which they are made. Regulations are for the purpose of administering the law, not for overriding it. Mr McKenzie’s purpose is, of course, good. But the best motives cannot permit any Administration to. over-ride the law. What is the law ?

Freedom of contract is the principle against which the shearers of Queensland have set themselves in a fashion which appears to be growing every day more desperate. As far as we understand it, the struggle in which they are engaged appears to have been precipitated by the refusal of the Union men to work in the same sheds with non Unionist shearers. The reply of the other side is, that freedom cf contract must be maintained. The Press of Australia is singularly in accord upon the subject, holding that the freedom of the subject entitles the Unionists to abstain from working if they like, entitles them to sell their labour upon any terms which they can get, but does not permit them to override laws which have been made to protect the general liberty. What the purport of the document may be which the police have seized in one of their skirmishes at Barcaldine has not transpired. The evident desire on the part of the Unionists to get rid of it implies that it i 3 a damaging piece of evidence. On the other hand the negligence of the authorities to make it public leads to the inference that there may be considerab y less in the document than has been described. The incident savours more of a mediaeval conspiracy,or a military mutiny in a Spanish-American Republic of our time, than of anything that is understood by the average Briton of the nineteenth century. We are told in the cable message that the document is of a revolutionary character, showing that the trouble is not to be confined to Queensland Happily, supposing that it is right to put the worst construction upon this document, there, aro no signs that any other colony has any intention of allowing the trouble to interfere with its industrial stability. The lesson of the great strike, apparently, is still fresh.

The Newfoundland incident is developing into something like an historical drama. The spectacle of the Speaker of the Assembly, the Leader of the Opposition, and other prominent men going to England as delegates to protest against Imperial coercion is one which men are not prepared for. The relations which

have been steadily growing up between the Mother Country and her colonies have led to the belief that the days of coercion have entirely passed away. Fifty yeap ago force was a veiy common weapon ; nowadays the only force tolerated’ by public opinion is the force of reasoning. No other sort will be taken kindly by the people of any colony when employed by Downing street. Sir Charles Dilke, whose return to political life appears to be now almost a certainty, has declared that it is a mistake to override the wishes of Newfoundland, and that the action of the Imperial Government may lead to disruption. If there is one man who understands colonial life and the ideas of colonists in all parts of the Empire, it is Sir Charles. He began to study it early, and since his youth he has spent much of his time in perfecting the lessons which lie learned by personal observation and experience. We take it for granted that the appearance in London of the deputa tion from a British Colony protesting against coercion will have the desired effect. We cannot believe that in a matter which, after all, ought to be easi y arranged, the Imperial Government will make a mistake worthy of the policy which lost the great American colonies to the British Empire.

Another trouble with the United States! This time it is the Chinese. The mind of President Harrison is beginning to travel south. He has turned his back upon the frozen Behring Sea and its unhappy seals and poachers, and his eye rests upon the Chinese, who, he declares, are crossing the British-American frontier in all directions. He actually appeals to the British Government to do something to save American rights in this matter. One cannot understand a question of this sort being brought forward in cold blood by any man in his senses. If the Chinese have a right to be in Canada they have a right to be. on any part of the frontier. If they choose to cross that frontier into the territory of Uncle Sam it is Uncle Sam’s business to prevent them. When they are on Canadian soil they are committing no offence against American law. No man can be punished or coerced because it is suspected that he intends to break a law ; we must wait until he has broken a law before we can do anything to him. Still less can we pretend to think that a man is going to break the law of another country and then proceed to do something of a coercive nature to prevent him. The Canadian Premier has promptly told Lord Salisbury that it is impossible to accede to the .President’s request Therein Sir John Macdonald talks sense. If President Harrison is not talking for the purpose, not of picking a quarrel— the very supposition is too ridiculous —bub of getting a little cheap popularity for himself, it would be interesting to know why ho has raised the point. The incident appears to show that the position of the Republican party is getting desperate.

We cannot understand the refusal of a “mandamus” by Judge Denniston for compelling the Sydenham Borough authorities to place certain names of ratepayers on the roll. We cannot do so, because we cannot understand what “unnecessary delay” means: which the Judge said had not been proved. There ought to be no delay at all. If a man is a ratepayer he ought to be given the, privileges of a ratepayer at opce. If he is not a ratepayer he is en titled to nothing. We fail to appreciate the position of a ratepayer who, being entitled to his privileges, has to wait for them.

Sir William Jervois in a very able article in the “ Nineteenth Century ” is very outspoken indeed about the causes of the naval inefficiency, which the break down of the cruisers is bringing home to the colonial mind in the same manner that facts have brought it home to the public of Great Britain. Sir William attributes it to the secondary position accorded to the Navy. The army authorities, he says, control the naval expenditure to a large ex'enb, with the inevitable result of divided responsibility, want of zeal, and lack of efficiency. H ; s remedy ,is to place the Navy in the first rank of importance, to make it independent of the War Office entirely, and to hand over to its control the whole of the shore defences in the United Kingdom and the naval stations. “Wo are primarily a Maritime Power,” says Sir William, and he supports his view by a great array of fact 3 from the overthrow of the Spanish Armada to Trafalgar. His article has been universally hailed as one of the most practicable contributions to the discussion of a great subject. “ Unity of purpose and direction ” aro his watchwords, and most readers have found them good.

About General Booth’s scheme the cables have been silent for a time, but the scheme has nevertheless not halted. On the contrary, the “General” has got his LIOO,OOO, and is about to begin operations. The success of tlie subscription is tlie result partly of the book, and partly of the personal canvass made by the General, who has visited every town in England, and been uncommonly well received everywhere. Hosts of students of the social problem have sent him their views, and three tracts of land in as many continents have been offered him—wherefore the Australians and New Zealanders need not feel troubled about paupers and

criminals —and moral support lias sprung up on every side, the denominations viewing the effort as of pure human beuevolence, the economists declaring that after all the experiment can hurt nobody. The scheme has, however, by no means escaped criticism or objec'ion. The first is from the financiers, led by “Scrutator" (Mr Labouehere), who broadly hints that the funds will be absorbed by tlie Salvation Army for the purpose < f the Army, being taken away from the submerged tenth for whose benefit it was raised. The second is led by those who fear that “ disciplinary training wifi destroy the sense of individual responsibility,” and who dread tlie rush of paupers from all parts to fill the places of those rescued by the General’s machinery in the hope of being rescued in their turn. But society on the whole seems determined to accord its ungrudging support to the most colossal, original, and hopeful scheme of benovolence the world lias ever seen The test of actual experience will very soon show whether the General has organised the most powerful engine of reclamation in the uuiverse.

The people of Taranaki are probably not in any danger of death from sudden access of joy. Th- y heard the Premier praise their mines—“in nubibus ’’ they are, a very unlikely place for mines, by the way, which are usually found underground—they heard him say that a very little money would make their breakwater a success, and they did nob see him turn a hair as he said it ; they heard him say they were the garden of Now Zealand, and why not? Still the people are not by any means wild. They understand that the first Jubilee day of a country is a privileged occasion. On such an occasion a man, especially if he has kissed the blarney stone, ought to be able to look through rosy spectacles even at the Taranaki breakwater, without incuriing the wrath of all the Prigs in the community, and being solemnly warned by all the Quidnuncs that his words will be remembered for ever and ever. Neither of these classes of people, however, does seem to abound in Taranaki. There they have not taken Mr Ballance at his festive word. When the P’s and Q’s get further North than Wellington, Taranaki will have to look to her common sense.

Is it always well to seo ourselves as others see us ? It depends much on who those others are. Now, there are a good many people in Auckland who habitually survey us through green glasses. Two of these declared the other day in the columns of an esteemed contemporary cf ours that only two lines of business flourish in Wellington—the second-hand shops and “My Uncle.” The editor, however, was not as kind to them as usual. He gave them space in his column of fireworks, bub in a more sober part of his journal he published on the same day the particulars of the vast growth of Wellington during the next ten years. The two paragraphs, taken side by side, make rather good reading. No attempt of any kind is made to reconcile them ; the Aucklanders are treated impartially to truth and fiction, and left to take their choice.

The disquieting Paris incident which ended with the withdrawal of the French Ambassador from Berlin, is fully explained in the latest papers to hand from America. From these it appears that the Dowager Empress went to Paris to try and bring about friendly relations I between France a*'d Germany. Ostensibly her mission was to try and get the Parisian artists to take their pictures to Berlin for the annual exhibition in that city. In that she succeeded so far as to induce tlio artists to, agree. Bub the storm that arose on their determination becoming known, made them notify their withdrawal. Tho failure of the I ostensible scheme p oduced a feeling of disappointment in Berlin, which : threvv a somewhat lurid light on the real object of t' e Empress, which was deeper than anything within the compass of the artistic world. Italy, having shaken off the C ispi tradition, had begun to make advances to France ; Russia had begmi to establish a better understanding with Austria ; Bismarck, ever on the watch, was loudly proclaiming that the dominating position his diplomacy had obtained for Germany was passing to Austria, while Germany was threatened with a dangerous isolation ; Bismarck’s successor, Von Caprivi, not agreeing with the policy of his master, was talking about resignation. Tho situation had become critical. It appeared to the Kaiser that the time had come for estab fishing friendly relations with France. What better negotiator could he have for a beginning than the lady who had been the consistent opponent ol Bismarck ; the widow she was of the man who had been always regarded as friendly to France in her worst days ? M. Herbette, the French Ambassador at Berlin, thought the project feasible, and Count Munster, the German Ambassador at Paris, held similar views. When the enterprise thus launched failed, the disappointment was keen in Berlin, while in Paris the French Ambassador was held to have made a serious mistake. It was determined therefore in both capitals to recall the Ambassadors. That this lias been done in the case of M. Herbette the cable has informed us, but as yet Count Munster, who has represented Germany at Paris since 1874, lias as far as the cable advices infopm us, received

no notice of a change in his posit on What appears convincing in the situation is that the French Ambassador would not have been recalled, it he had merely blundered in so small a matter as the exhibition of a few pictures. The outburst of hostility with which the overtures from Berlin w ere received, produced a corresponding change in the Kaiser’s views. These found vent in the threatened appointment of Count Waldersee to the Governorship of the conquered provinces ; not to the German Chancellorship, as the cable informed us a few days ago. As the most prominent man in the War Party, the Count, if he takes command in Alsace-Lorraine, will not be the most conciliatory of neighbours to the French Republic. Things begin to point to the possibility of trouble between France and Germany. Whan Crispi fell, and his successor showed friendly feelings for France, the Triple Alliance, which has prevented war for so many years, was endangered. We said at the time that the politics of Europe would be seriously altered. The politicians seem to be justifying that comment.

When that horrifying account of the execution of 200 insurgents by order of the Chilian President was cabled all over the world, it looked like a wanton act. It was really a reprisal. When the revolutionary troops took Iquique, we learn from an American paper, a terrible massacre followed. The cable had already told us that 200 women perished in the bombardment. This, according to the later authority, turns out to have been a massacre in cold blood. Many of the leading families in Chili live in Iquique, in the fashionable quarter of the town. This quarter the insurgent troops, as soon as they took possession of the town, surrounded, and presently in spite of piteous appeals for mercy, proceeded to loot, adding violation and massacre to the work of plunder. It was a terrible scene. The massacre of 200 prisoners of war was a reprisal for that awful outrage. The war, we can see plainly, has take.i a hideous complexion. The two causes of war in the South American Republics are given by a thoughtful writer in a recent number of tlie “ Spectator ” in the following words:—“Two menacing facts connected with organisation come at once before the least careful of observers. One is the exaggerated strength of the Executive, and the other, the dangerous ascendency amounting to potential absolutism, which belongs everywhere to a minute caste — the officers of the armed force.” This terrible civil war in Chili coming in the same year as the bloodshed in Argentina and Central America should be a lesson to those who are fashioning a constitution for Federal Australasia. With a President who can dismiss judges as President Balmaceda has just done, with an Executive that can only be removed by insurrection, with an army which, like all armies, is anxious for work and is courted by all parties, the avoidance of civil war is necessarily impossible in any State.

When a Commissioner of Crown Lands declares that it is impossible for want of rangers to enforce compliance with the Land Acts, it is time to relax a little the economy of the Department. The Land Board thinks so, and the Land Board is* quite right. The question will be “where is the money to come from?” But the question to which that is a reply is “where is the land to go to ?” As the intention of the Legislature is that the land must all go to the “ bona fide ’’ settler, one question is not a satisfactory reply to tbe other. The money must be found. The Land Department costs about L130,0Q0 a year ; and as its duty of enforcing compliance with the Land Acts requires additional expenditure, the administration is on the horns of a dilemma. It must sacrifice either retrenchment or the land If there aro to be no cash sales the difficulty will be much intensified. These sales have helped the Budget substantially in past years. With changes in the incidence of' taxation looming near, together with the necessity for increasing the cost of the land administration, while lessening the cash land revenue, the financial future does not look quite so bright as it might. The Commissioner’s note to the Land Board has given an increase of interest to the next Financial Statement.

The advocates of cremation are quoting the “ World ” to prove that the services of the exhumer are very seldom required. The painful journal of Mr Yates has published an array of figures which quite suppo' ts that conclusion. It proves conclu sively that the presence of the dead witness in the tomb exercises a nio3t powerful deterrent influence on the murderous instincts. The great question for the crematiouiats to answer is what will these instincts do when the dead witness is completely removed ? They answer it by airily assuming that there are no such instincts. That is practically the absurd conclusion of Mr Yates’ ingenious journal. When the certainty of punishment has been found to have always been the strongest of deterrents it is not quite logical to ask for the establishment of complete impunity in its place.

The Sydenham ratepaying case raises a point which will have to bo settled. In order to get power in the Sydenham Liaising district just before the licensing

election thirty four people, mostly brewers, or brewers’ draymen, managers, and such, bought between them a subdivided section of 4Y acres, with the intention—subsequently very fully proved —of selling their little properties immediately after. These are the gentlemen whose desire to get on the Sydenham burgess roll tried to move Judge Denniston to make the borough people put them on the roll. We now understand the point on which the Judge ruled against these ihirty-four applicants. The Kites in the whole original section having been paid by tbe original owner the section was protected for the current year by his vote as a .ratepayer. As the others would get on to the roll in the ordinary course in time to pay rates in the next year there was no particular hurry to give them votes during the current year. As there may obviously be a good deal of reasonable delay in such a case, the “Model Borough ” escaped what might have been a grievous injustice. But when these absentees get on to the roll at last, as they have a right to, what then ? They can subdivide their sections of 17 perches each into sections of one perch each, and convert their 32 votes into 544. The absurdity of banding over the control of the liquor traffic of a town to 544 absentees all living by the liquor traffic, and pretending to regard that as “local option ” is evident. This ratepaying Local Option Franchise is the work of the Temperance people themselves. It began by introducing public houses into the Model Borough (Sydenham) when the old system kept them out; it has got to the absurdity of giving the control of “local” option to absentees whose only option is to drink and make others drink. The next step ought to be to relegate the ratepaying Local Option Franchise to the limbo of things forgotten, because they have broken down.

We should not be surprised to learn that the deputation of the Postal and Telegraph Association was considerably astonished by Mr Ward’s refusal to recognise that body. We should be even less surprised if that reply were to make the Railway Commissioners stare. In plain terms Mr Ward refused to recognise the Association ; there cannot be two heads, discipline must be maintained—the Government must be approached directly in the matter of grievances, not through any Association. This is the true principle. But a great many people who are suppoiting the Government declared that the Railway Commissioners, when they said the same thing to the deputation of the Railway Association, were trying to force the men to strike. Eventually the Commissioners gave way, and recognised the Society, but after a time they recovered the lost ground. It is pleasant, though a little astonishing, to find the Government in unison with them on the important questions of command, discipline, and the redress of grievances. What is good for the postal and telegraph men is good for the railway men. The Minister at the same time was very cordial to the deputation. It is plain he recognises that the claims of these officers are just and worthy of his sympathy. Theirs is the most successful department of the public service, and the worst paid. The greatest skill, the biggest responsibility, the longest hours, the highest sense of honour, the biggest profit to the State, and the least pay —the last spoils the combination. Classification if well devised will improve the position of these officers. Happily for them, the Minister will do his best, with their fights, to make tbe classification what it ought to be. They certainly deserve the best treatment the State can give them.

A recent story of a faithful skipper, wke» sailed a ship for a very simple-minded but rather grasping owner, throws a strong fight (not rose coloured) on one aspect of commercial morality. The skipper in Ins bark encountered a terrific storm, and behaved with tho pluck, endurance and skill one expects in the typical British sailor. He arrived in triumph at his port of destination,he graphical }’ narrated to his owner the numerous incidents of that story of the sea, he paused for breath, and he observed that his owner was disappointed. A tear stood in his bright blue eye. “ After bringing your uninsured ship and cargo through I ” he began, but at this point his owner said the pr perty had been very well insured. Mutual exp'anations settled the matter* between skipper and owner, and in a. trice the owner actually sent up to< the insurance company to pay up. The goods, he represented, were as good as lost, as the skipper had saved them under a misconception. Whether he was ready to .abandon the gc ods to the underwriters has not been made clear, probably because those hard hearted people replied' that it was not their custom to pay insurance on goods which were lying uninjured in a man’s store. The story is* told by the “Banking and Insurance Record,” of Melbourne, by its Tasmanian correspondent. It is difficult to* believe. But if it is true, we do not know which to doubt tbe most, the simplicity of this worthy merchant or the fraud which that simplicity has laid bare.

Again we ask if it be well to see ourselves as others see us, and again we reply that it depends on who those others are. This time the Times, of London, whowas looking at us on the occasion of the the change of Government, has delivered

himself—in a manner very soothing to a vast number of good people. We print the remarks in our local columns. It is not surprising that tlie Tinies should say that in poor man’s politics tliero is nothing necessarily dangerous and revolutionary. There is too much poor man s politics at the very door of the Times to permit of any misunderstandings of the subject such as ive are familiar with in these countries of material prosperity and. mental stagnation. What is surprising is that the Times should have such a good grasp of the facts of our position, and such a fair knowledge of • the calibre of our public men. When the late Government resigned there were many men who said that our stocks would go down. Jhe stocks did nothing, of the kind. Ihe Times supplies us with the reason by showing us that therfa are many people who uucierstand the position. The fact is that even in the days when our position was not so well understood the public credit suffered not by what any of our public men did, but by what many of our fellow colonists—both public men and private citizens—said. But the better knowledge about us at tha other end of the world has made such things very improbable, if not quite impossible.

The main incident of the discussion in Committee of the Commonwealth .Bill was the defeat of Sir George Grey who managed to secure perhaps the smallest minority of his whole career. He raised a discussion, but the result was crushing. During the discussion the position of the Federal Executive was referred to in terms not in accordance with the summary of the Bill was published ou Wednesday. In the summary the Executive was described as composed of men not necessarily in the Parliament at all: they may have seats, it was said, and there was nothing to show that they can be appointed or removed by anybody but the Governor. In the discussion Captain Russell said that the essence of the Constitution was responsible Government. Mr Deakin spoke of the Governor-General as merely a social figure-bead; most of the speakers accepted these views. The probability is that the summary was wrong, and that responsible government is, after all, the object of the Constitution Bill. S > far the temper of the Convention has been most favourable to Federation. The crucial points bave, however, not yet been reached. We notice that the Morning Herald describes the Bill as an example of masterly draftsmanship. When the measure conies from the Committee, therefore, it will be fit to be “ understanded of the people.,

In Victoria the complaints of “ dull times grow and multiply. A letter we have seen from that Colony gives them very definite shape. The railways which have been overbuilt and overmanned are drawing in their ser\ ices and throwing out their people; the irrigation works have not proved so rapidly successful as was expected ; the failure of the Permanent Building Society and kindred institutions has spread ruin and desolation around , the effects of the great strike are yet with the whole community ; the late Colonial Treasurer’s surplus of a million is become like a pricked bubble ; the state of the money market continues hostile ; the order has been everywhere given to 4c go slow.” There is a check, temporary no doubt, but likely to be of uncomfortable endurance. The result will be that population will drain off. It is time for Hew Zealand to issue a . new and attractive Handbook. The. misfortune of our good friends of Victoria ought not to be agreeable to us, but that is no reason why we should- not profit by them. '■