CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1163, 15 June 1894, Page 19

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE FRANCO-AFRICAN SCARE. When a Minister of tho Republic uses in the Representative Chamber the language used by M. Hanoteaux, and when the Chamber in great excitement endorses the protest of the Government, it is impossible to deny that things look serious; even more serious than they did a year ago when the troubles in Siam surprised tho world. When the Anglo-Belgian agreement was cabled tho other day it occasioned no uneasiness and but little surprise. Long ago the objective of the British policy in Eastern and Southern Africa was admitted to be Egypt. It was a vaguo aspiration, to be realised in tho remote future, it is true. It was tho march of the AngloSaxon race on Egypt, in fact, and that was enough for tho British mind. When Gordon agreed to go to the Congo in the Belgian service, that was a step in the march, and a very decided one, as many of the ultraImperialists said. Their idea was that when the victorious Gordon, getting out of the Congo country, and driving the slave traders before him, reached the Nile, ho would find there a force under tho British flag ready to co-operate for a march upon his old country of Khartoum. After Gordon had gone to that very Khartoum instead of tho Congo, and there perished, tho idea of tho British march was tickled once more when the leader of tho Emin search expedition, 11. M. Stanley, after getting out of tho Congo country, reached the Lake Albert, and offered Emin a commission from tho King of tho Belgians to stay at Wadelai or anywhere he chose between that place and tho aforesaid lake, to govern in his name at a stated salary. Had Emin accepted, his acceptance would havo been regarded as the organisation of a post for the British march from Uganda., Not long after Emin's refusal Uganda was occupied by the East African Company, encouraged so to do by the British Government. That was a step ( in tho British march upon Egypt, tho reality of which was shown somo months later when tho Gladstone Government was greeted with bitter shouts of " scuttle and bolt/' because it was suspected of a design to abandon the capital of the late King M'Tesa, converted to the Christian religion by H. M. Stanley. Whan that Government sent Sir Gerald Portal to the placo and determined to keep it, tho old cries of Imperialist jubilation were once more heard, and we began again to read about tho Anglo-Saxon Colossus striding across the African Continent, with ono foot in the Mediterranean and the other in the Indian Ocean. Tho same greeted tho proposal of Cecil Rhodes, now being carried out at tho southern end, to lay a telegraph wire from the Zambesi to Khartoum via Uganda. And that was likewise the case when those outposts on Lake Nyassa of Sikhs under British officers were placed; one of which, after repulsing the slave trader Makanura the other day, in spite of tho overwhelming numbers of his riflemen, set off for his heafouartors, beat him, and is reported to have Trilled the slave trade in that part of the melancholy continent. Another source of joy to the marchers on Khartoum was tho little war with Kaba Rega, the sovereign of Unyoro, and commander of the southern coasts of the Albert Nyanza, who was unwiso enough to declare war upon the British at Uganda, his neighbours. This potentate had got his first taste of British valour and skill in the field from Sir Samuel Baker in tho later sixties or early seventies. On that occasion that great fighting man fought his way through tho tens of thousands of Unyoro with a hundred men, only 12 of them armed with Sniders, bringing his wounded, his lady, his baggage and his ammunition safely off. What made the victory, which was a kind of thing one reads of in such stories as that of Cortes and Pizarro, so remarkable was that the enemy's vast numbers lining the track of tho retreating force and besetting the fords of the streams were well sheltered by timber and hidden in grass six feet high. Kaba Rega found the same quality in tho men who came out from Uganda to moot him, and found himself scattered. After that it was that the world was not altogether surprised to hear of the AngloBelgian agreement. Practically, so far as wo can understand, it is an agreement rounding off tho Congo Free State in such a manner as to leave tho British free to operate upon tho Nile Valley, from the two great lake sources of that river which they now occupy. But why should Germany and France be angry? Evidently because both thought that the hinter-land to their respective spheres of influence not denned when the spheres were indicated would lead them one day to the Nile. Germany's can bo but a feeble protest, perhaps a thing lesigned merely to provoke tho French to make a claim and enlist their energies far from home. The French on their side have long had designs on tho African interior. When Stanley went to take possession of the Congo for the Free State under the King of tho Belgians, ho found their parties from tho Gaboon in possession at points on tho northern shore of the great river. Since then, when their presence was accepted as giving a right of possession, not much attention has been given to their doings, although it has been quite well known that they were pushing on eastwards past the confluence of tho Mabangi, the last of the largo affluents before tho traveller ascending the Congo reaches the Axuwimi, the stream up which tho Emin Search Expedition diverged in 1888. A line drawn from Wadelai to the headwaters of the Mabangi is about identical with the fourth degree, along which Captain Monteil has been ordered to re-occupy all posts formerly held by the French. If the scene in the Deputies means anything it means that the French have also all along

had designs on the Nile Valley, and are • determined to assert them about Wadelai, where all European interests as they move " on must converge. With the French on the fourth par Uel, and the British on the

Lake Albert Nyanza, the meeting cannot be long delayed. Tho sudden development of the situation will probably cause a reconsideration of Lord Rosebery's contempt for the Uganda railway. But it may also give extra force to his emphatic remark that the strengthening of the British fleet is better than a hundred Ugandas. In any case the reputation of Lord Rosebery for prescience will bo increased. For it will como out probably that when ho made that remark about the fleet ho expected the French explosion. In this connection tho attack on Tripoli will not escape significance. THE ABOLITION OF SWEATING. Unlike tho City Council the Harbour Board, when asked to discourage tho sweating system by insisting upon the payment of fair wages by all its contractors, asked for instructions on certain points. As ihe subject is not understood in the colonies, tho Board was perfectly right to ask, especially as there had been some difficulty about the resolution passed in 1889. That resolution was as follows:—" That the Council shall require from any person formally tendering for any contract to the Council a declaration that they will pay such rate of wages and observe such hours of labour as are generally accepted as fair in their trade, and in the event of ary charges to the contrary being established against them the tender should not be accepted." As tho London County Council is one of the largest employers of labour in the kingdom, we were much struck with the resolution at the time it was passed. Being impressed with tho justice and expediency of tho courso we naturally supported tho request made by the Trades Council here for tho establishment of a similar procedure here. But owing to lack of information in our books of reforence we were unable to state how the policy has worked. The usual reference books are, we may say, imperfectly furnished in this regard. We have, however, come across a recent article in the Daily Chronicle, the Radical morning journal, from which we make an extract which explains the position perfectly. Hero there was a direct blow at the sweating system, at which tho pulpit, tho press and politicians had been hammering blows for half a century without ever substantially impairing its direful sway. In other words, tho great moral problem of tho treatment of Labour was placed in tho hands of the workmen's organisations as the only bodies capable of organising a righteous system. Tho Council's resolution has been carried out with unflinching sternness, and its result has been to mitigate in favour of the workers of London tho whole system of accepting the lowest tender. Undor it tho employer who cuts his estimate for public works in the hope of sweating his profit out of ill-paid and illorganised labour finds to-day his occupation gono. Linked with this reform was another of equal importance. Tho Council decided that it would bo impossible to allow a contractor to slip out of his engagements to his workmen by letting out his business to another man. They therefore decided to forbid sub-lotting and sub-contracting save to thoso cases where work lay outside tho ordinary scopo of the contractor's trade. This regulation has not only been laid down, but enforced, and ono fine of was inflicted as a warning, which it has not been found necessary to repeat. The potty sweating jobmaster has thus been eliminated for the good of every creature except himself. We do not know the exact course of the history, but we seo from the above that the resolution about wages and conditions was not only passed but acted upon, and with tho best effects. Mr Burns, three years later, in 1892, moved that the wages and conditions be those approved by the London Trades Council, and this was passed w T iththe substitution of Local Trades Council for London Trades Council, and re mitted to a committee for report as to the best means of giving it effect. That resolution is, wo presume, now tho rule of the business of the London County Council, the largest employer of labour in the United Kingdom. GRATUITOUS INSOLENCE. The appointment of Mr McGowan to the vacant commissionerahip has inspired the Post with one of tho most pompous pieces of bad taste of which that frequently erring journal has of late been guilty. On Saturday he condescended to say that the Ministry in appointing Mr McGowan had resisted temptation. If this means that there was ever any danger of any other appointment, tho meaning is absolutely false. If it is simply a method of congratulating the Government on having done the right thing, it is tho most mean and paltry kind of recognition ever devised by a reasoning creature. We do not know to which of these motives the impertinent paragraph owes its existence. We incline to select the first, because a great many of tho " facts" in the Post's indictment against the Government rest on the same foundation of baseless insinuation, made what tho paper is pleased to call " solid " by shameless reiteration. A PERTINENT QUESTION. Where •were the Prohibitionists during the hearing of the applications for renewaLs on Wednesday ? They are as a rule tho most valorous men on the face of the earth —in print; or in the airy nothing which gets itself into print thanks to reporters who live to be abused for "misrepresenting" tho leading ideas of great men. Tho Prohibitionists, the reporters being, of course, right, distinguished themselves at the last general election by tho terrible indictment which they brought against the publicans of Wellington . and of Wellington suburbs. Their speeches gave ono the impression that many of the hotels were hotbeds of immorality and gambling. Out of these denunciations a controversy actually arose about the meaning of certain words used by a distinguished temperance advocate j did he or did he not brand several unnamed publicans as not only sinners in the ordinary sense, but as scoundrels in the most extensive variety of extraordinary senses? The Rev L. M. Isitt

spoke lurid things. Messrs Atkinson and Morison spoke a little less luridy, because they lacked the power of equalling their reverend friend. Tho politicians, Dr Newman at their head, were specially denunciatory, not to say a little fanatical. Where were these great authorities on Wednesday ? Where were their marvellous stories ? Where their intimate knowledge of the malpractices of so many Bonifaces ? It was a judicial occasion. Tho judges appointed by the public, in the shape of the Committee, were assembled, the Stipendiary Magistrate in tho chair. On that Committeo there was a mixed feeling. Tho nominated of the liquor interest were there, and the nominated of prohibition were there, and tho elected of moderation made a brave show. On the side of the licensed victuallers there were advocates numerous, learned, persistent, crafty, as is the manner of advocates. To keep them in countenance was a body of men belonging to the Association of Licensed Victuallers. 1 On that side ovcrything was arranged in order for the fray. Where were the representatives of virtue, the haters of gambling, the men who had at their finger ends flagrant stories of immorality ? Where was their organisation, where their lawyers, where their preparations for proving the truth of their most trenchant and fearful accusations ? We do not know where they were. We know that wherever they may have been, they were silent; silent as tho grave, and many times more discreet. Some wretched creatures, pressed by conscience, " for this once only," to stab an opponent in tho back under cover of friendly smiling, sent letters to tho Committee. By any other Court which they might have thus outraged they might have been sent to durance vile. By this one they were treated with the contempt they deserved. For tho rest, the whole case for the houses was brought forward in the open, and no part of it was attacked by thoso who professed to have important information on the other side. There was not even cross-examination of witnesses. The whole case was allowed to go by default. The chairman in each case gave syecific opportunity to objectors. But objectors had important business elsewhere. The effect on the Prohibition members of the Committee is clear. They have the right to say that in the absence of any case on the other side they had no cour3o but to accept the case for the houses as proved to the hilt. The public, on the other hand, has tho right to conclude that the leadei-3 and organisers of the Temperance Party havo not tho courage of their opinions, not believing in the stories they so freely hint at; that these are electioneering exercises largely, which after they havo served their purpose never see tho light of day. In future they will bo wise to confine their arguments to the evils attending the consumption of alcohol, without digressing into disquisitions on the immorality of publicans. They had a fair opportunity of proving tho truth of their stories. Of that opportunity they declined to make use. The fact will prevent them from being believed when next they treat the country to electioneering Philippics. It will be the righteous consequence of their utter collapse. JUDICIAL CONDUCT. A correspondent writes that ho was in Court when the Chairman of the Licensing Bench delivered his warning to the licenseholders. The Magistrate, he writes, said not only what was reported, but something more, viz., that before the Committee acted tho hotelkeeper would have a fair opportunity of being heard. Our correspondent, in fact, considers the Magistrate wanted to draw the attention of hotelkeepers to the fact that in order to cancel a license the Committee are not bound to wait for a coni viction in the Stipendiary Magistrate's Court, .that they are not bound by the strict rules of evidence, and th.vt the hotelkeepers must not think they were going to be let off witli a caution warning was the word used by the Magistrate in that sense—because the Committee had determined to cancel i" of misconduct. The people were to consider themselves warned once for all; to understand that in case of misconduct the law would take its course without further caution, but with judicial method. We accept this view of the case with pleasure, having the greatest respect, as we said yesterday, for the judicial mind of the chairman, who was reported to have used language not absolutely clear. REALISED HOPES. Lord Rosebery is one of the few remarkably fortunate men who have in their manhood accomplished the things they set before themselves in their youth. Perhaps the most remarkable case of the kind was that of Warren Hastings, who after his family had been compelled by adverse fate to leave the paternal estate of Daylesford, declared solemnly that he would return some day and become master of the property. Ho dried his tears, took his poverty off to India, rose to the top of tho tree— Pagoda tree it was called in those days—came back famous as well and rich, and bought Daylesford, as he had said he would. Lord Rosebery's case is in one respect less remarkable, as he had the meaas to suit his ends. On the other hand it is more remarkable as he set three ends before him at the outset of his career. It was his ambition, he said, to marry the heiress of the season, to win the Derby, and to become Prime Minister of England. All these he has accomplished, the victory of Ladason Wednesday completing the trinity. The pity of it for him is that the companion of his first success is not alive to share the other two. So that even the exceptionally fortunate Prime Minister cannot be said to be completely satisfied. As a persistent man who |roughhews his ends, and shapes them too, he has made his mark. It is a good augury for the success of his Prime Ministry. For instance, he has declared that he will settls the Irish question, and he is rough hewing the end of that,

making men see tho shape it will take. The end be has beforo him is Home Rule for each of the three kingdoms and the Principality of Wales, with a Federal Legislature for all four; to which Federal Legislature the Empire may be attached by constitutional bonds to bo developed in due course. It is a great Imperial idea, and the man who conceived it has succeeded in all lie has ever undertaken; and they have been big tilings. QUARTERLY LICENSING MEETINGS. We havo been asked to point out for general information what clause of the Licensing Act gives Committees power to cancel licenses at tho quarterly meetings. We comply with that request by publishing clause 76 of the Licensing /Vet, 1881, which (so much of it as was not repealed by tho Act of 1893) has to be read with the Act of 1893. The clause runs as follows:—" It shall bo lawful for tho Licensing Committeo at any quarterly licensing meeting to determine and put an end to any license then current if it shall be proved to their satisfaction that the licensed house is conducted in an improper manner, or that the holder of such license is openly and repeatedly intoxicated, or that any conditions on which tho license was granted havo not been fulfilled in a satisfactory manner." THE LATEST CANARD. Under the heading "Changes in the Cabinet" an imaginative evening contemporary gives tho rein to its inventive fancy. "It is confidently asserted," so wo read, that a reconstruction of the Ministry is imminent. The Colonial Secrotary is to retire, tho Minister for Labour is to go to London as AgentGeneral, tho Premier before very long is to be a Commissioner of Railways, and the Treasurer is to bo induced to consent to all this by the gift of the Premiership. Who is to transfer the leadership of the Liberal Party in this quiet and unexpected manner is not explained, nor why the Premier should suddenly want to throw up the strongost position held by a New Zealand Premier for many years. Nor is it explained why the Colonial Secretary should retire, or why Sir Westby Perceval should be evicted without notice before the end of his term. Thcso things aro passed over in mysterious silence. Or perhaps the art of the enterprising paragraph-composer failed him at the critical moment. This is a pity, because some ornament and elaboration aro certainly wanted to give verisimilitude to his bold and inartistic narrative. As it stands it will not do. It has neither the worth of truth nor the grace of fiction. It is simply tho exact opposite of fact, put as clumsily as raw haste can put it. There is no reconstruction of tho Cabinet to take place. The Colonial Secretary is not about to retire. The Minister for Labour is not to set out for London in any capacity whatever. The Treasurer has just about as much intention of seizing the Premiership as he has of clutching the Chief Justiceship. Tho Premier no more dreams of descending to a Commissionership of Railways than ho dreams of ascending the throno of Japan. Our enterprising but visionary contemporary will havo to try again. The man in the street has led him very far astray this time. We prefer to be not even " moderately well informed."