CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1261, 30 April 1896, Page 33

CURRENT TOPICS.

MR E. M. SMITH IN LONDON. We do not know tho precise details of the measure of success which the cnergotie member for New Plymouth appears to have met with in London. But that he has met with some measure of success appears certain from tho cable message which appears in another column. In that message Mr Smith says that a famous firm —that of tho Siemens Brothers—“ endorses the process.” Everybody knows that Mr Smith went Home to show the experts there a procoss at which he lias been working with considerable success for some time. The results ho has shown to the House of Representatives repeatedly, and lie lias accompanied his exhibits with a variety of trumpet flourishes of tho very best order that lie is so characteristically familiar with. Opinions differed in the Colony about the said results pretty widely, and there was as much quiet smiling at Mr Smith’s expense as there was trumpeting on that gentleman’s part, and things were thus in a way square. But if Mr Smith has succeeded in getting the approval of a firm of such high standing as that of the Siemens, he will have to bo congratulated, and perhaps the Colony may have to be congratulated too. Frankly, wo should like to see the energetic member succeed. He has deserved success by his assiduity and by his simple, direct, unswerving faith, and also by the ability he has displayed as a metallurgist. In the second place the iron ho is working is enormously abundant. If it can be placed on the market economically it will not only supply the local domaud, but it will command a largo export trade. In Air Smith’s success we see a big wages fund and a large trade. We can only say that we hope tho “ endorsement ” of the firm ho has named may mean something sure to lead to the results we all wish to

THE GREGORIAN CALENDAR. A disquisition on the subject of Leap Year published a few weeks ago in our columns brought tho history and present state of tho calendar very prominently before our readers. While tho subject is fresh, we receive from the French Consul in Wellington a copy of the proposal of a French gentleman to further reform the calendar. M. H. Fullissier premises by pointing out tho chief defects of the Gregorian calendar. They are —Ist, the want of a definitive correlation between the days of the weekend the days of the month, whereby there is much confusion, the year and its months beginning on varying days of the week; 2nd, the unsatisfactory division into months of 30 and 31 days ; 3rd, tho anomaly of the 28 days of February and tho Leap Year arrangement; 4th, the inconvenient fact that certain dates fixed for financial settlings fall occasionally on a Sunday. The remedy proposed is simple. If tho year were dividod into four seasons of four three-mouthly periods, each period would havo 91 days, of exactly 13 weeks. Tho four periods would ho exactly equal, and could each commence on a fixed day, say a Monday. The first month of each period would begin on a Monday, tho second on a Wednesday, the third on a Friday. This would fix 3b t days of the year. Now Year’s Day would ho in this system an extra day, say tho Sunday beforo tho first month of the year, and would bo treated as a day by itself outsido tho system. In addition every fourth year the bissextile day would ho given a place apart at the end of tho year. The advantages claimed for tho proposed system are the securing of four three - monthly periods, with all the important days absolutely unvarying, tho absolute similuiity of all years, the avoidance of Sunday for financial fixtures, tlie suppression of the month of 28 days, the simplification of all dates, and the harmony between tho week and the quarter. It is a most, simple and logical plan, which could he brought into operation withoutany difficulty, and certainly with tho best results. A detail of tho proposal is to make the year begin with tho winter solstice, to seize tho moment in fact when the days begin to lengthen. That would involve a change of about 10 days in tho present system, which to that extent is certainly illogical. What steps are being taken to bring tho matter before the nations of the world we are not aware. But as it is propo:-; id to begin with the year 1900, for the two fold purpose of honouring the great International Exhibition of Baris to he hold in Ilia t year, and making a new departure with the next century, we presume that more will ho shortly hoard of it. It is one of the most interesting and reasonable suggestions of our time.

THE USE OF MILLIONAIRES. Like the mosquito, the housefly, tho wasp and other incomprehensible creatures, the millionaire puzzles the world with the reason for Jiis existence. Unlike the, others, when ho dies he leaves material behind him, in the shape of a record which people can search for the answer to the question. Such, for instance, is the record of the late Baron llirsch, whoso death was announced last week by tho daily papers of the Colony. Like all the records of tho millionaire, this one points to the causes of the man’s success in life. The Baron possessed the necessary qualities—the power of combination, absolute callousness, acquisitiveness of course, phenomenal daring coupled with Hie calmest judgment, an infinite capacity for taking pains, together with unflagging industry. Road tho records of the founders of the groat houses of Rothschild, Baring, As tor, Vanderbilt, of the Goulds, Armours, Carnegies, Fields, Pullmans, Hirschs, and you will find all tho characteristics common to the millionaire. You will also find the records strewn with the wrecks of their competitors ; devastated exchanges, tho population of

tims of merciless rivalry and superior | smartness, or unscrupulousness, every- j where. Somo of the records reach to such heights of gruesomoness in this respect : that ono feels inclined to the couclu- ! sion that in the composition of the millionaire there must be a largo propor- '■ tion of tho tiger element, that loves to ; ramp and rend and gnaw and pull down, i to do in fact all the things done by tigers, ; except growl, for the great beasts of prey | of tho share market never give any sign 1 of their whereabouts. Their combinations I develop in silence, their spring is un- j heard, they retreat with their spoil with- j out a whisper of satisfaction. Are they tho scourges of the human race, Atillas, j Tamerlanes, Napoleons of the world of i finance ? No doubt they sometimes are nothing better than beasts of prey, and j devastators on a large scale. Ifc is when they misuse tho great qualities they ■ possess.

They are tie giants of these days of ours, capable captains of industry, great commanders of opportunities, natural leaders of enterprise, fitting depositories of the wealth that fertilises the earth and enriches commerce and spreads prosperity, charged with duties to their fellow-men in a special manner. Such a one is Krupp of Essen, whoso successful gigantic industry maintains tens of thousands of workers in comfort and happiness. By a strange irony of fate, his beneficent industry is devoted to the most drastic methods of destroying human life, and lives on the blood taxes of nations. This unhappy point is absent from the record of another millionaire, Titus Salt, whoso town and factory of Saltair are so well known for their admirable arrangements and contented people. Another type is Carnegie, whose voluminous writings of good advice to his brother millionaires about their duties as trustees for mankind in general have attracted a great deal of attention in their time. Unfortunately, since the great Pittsburg lock-out and the fighting, and the employment of that curious force conjured into illegal existence by millionaire money—a revival of tho system of retainers and honchmon and led captains, which made life so dangerous and property so insecure in tho middle ages—men havo not been taking quite the same deep interest in Mr Carnegie’s advice to buy libraries, to fill art galleries, and stock museums, for the various towns of their country. A similar fate lias befallen tho record of what was once called tho Pullman “oasis in the desert,” which testified to tho admirable manner in which the millionaire duty was discharged. But one fine day the work-people rose in revolt, and the greatest and bloodiest railway strike of our times showed that there is a great deal of humanity in millionaires which requires to bo restrained and controlled in some way. Another type is Rhodes of Rhodesia and De Beers and the Chartered Company • and yet another is Hirscli. The two are nearly allied in ono respect. Both had a lofty idea of their duties and responsibilities as millionaires. Rhodes’ notion was to extend tho British Empire while coining money for self and friends, and ho was fairly successful until his check at tho prentice hands of tho unfortunate “Dr Jim.” But the noblest aim of all tho aims of millionaires was Baron Ilirseh’s. Ho deliberately devoted a largo proportion of his wealth to the relief—permanent relief — of his persecuted co-religionists. Hoaimod at taking these friendless people out of tho tyrannous hands of tho Russians, and planting them in prosperous colonies in New Jersey, Palestine, tho Argentine Republic, anywhere and everywhere that land might be obtainable. That was a noble idea, and if it had led to a new exodus out of the house of bondage tho world would bo now wildly applauding. But whether successful or not, the Baron deserves tho applause of tho world. His was a noble conception, ho rose to the height of his great argument, ho took a great idea of his duty as a trustee for tho benefit of his fellows, and he worked it out unselfishly. llis career, like all tho other millionaire careers, points a great moral. They all teach tho same lesson that despotism in government has taught the world through the long roll of tho centuries. It is that if tho despot wero always capable, honest and unselfish, despotism would be the best form of government. In like manner, if millionaires were always as honest and unselfish as they are callable, t hey would ho an ideal beneficent force to ho left pleasurably alone. Both classes have t night the world that by reason of the vices of their human nature they must both lie controlled. With despots wo have nothing to do in these countries. With the millionaire we have little acquaintance in New Zealand. But the experience he is giving the world elsewhere, whether his aims are good, had or indifferent, is that tho State must beware of him and rectify him, limit his predatory instincts, and shear his great powers; that, in a word, all good lie is capable of doing can ha better done by the power of the community.

MR VAILE AND TIIE RAILWAYS. We quite agree with Mr Yailo that no country can he prosperous if its railway system is wrong. When ho goes on to declare, as he has been doing any time during tho last fifteen years, that the railway system is wrong, lie is on more tender ground. One of his reasons for his opinion is that the annual deficit on the railway account (for interest) is something like =£300,000 a year. Nobody, wo believe, would object to see that .£300,000 of loss converted into a profit. But we are wot prepared to accept the loss as a proof that the management is wrong. The principle of indirect advantage has a great deal in its favour. There is more benefit in the good substantial advantages which flow from a wellequipped railway system than there are in the rightside balancing of an immaculate balance-sheet. At the same time we are.

management is capable of reform, and that substantially. Mr Yailo is sure, and never tires of saying so, that his system of zono faros is tho proper reform which will fill the passenger cars, pile goods and produce on the freight waggons, and convert the loss into a handsome and steadily growing profit. Tho opinion of the railway experts is that tho system proposed is very good, but that it can only succeed in a country where tho population is counted by millions. An advocate of Mr Yaile’s has recently said that if his system is put to the test of experiment on the Auckland system of railways, it cannot loso in tho event of disaster —which Air Yaile says is improbable—more than =£20,000. Well, we should like to know where that =£20,000 is to bo found in a certain event. What are tho exports of the service doing? Are they prepared to go from tho condemnation of Air Yailo to tho recommendation of somo scheme of their own for increasing the benefits of the railway system ?

RAILWAY EXPERTS. It is pleasing to read that Air Mathieson, of Queensland, has been placed at the head of tho Victorian Railways at a salary of several thousands a year: pleasing for the sake of the gentleman interested. We may all hope that lie will make a vast improvement in the Victorian record. An improvement is much needed there as well as elsewhere in railway matters. But hitherto the high salaries paid to imported experts have, in Victoria at all events, been encouraging only to the experts, and that only while they lasted. In fact, it maybe said that the high salary of Air Speight, the late Commissioner, benefited only a number of lawyers who enjoyed tho privilege of arguing certain questions arising out of it. Time was when New Zealand was adjured to solid for tho best talent, and pay tho best price for it. That timo may probably come again. But that will only lie if the present managers prove themselves incapable of applying the lessons of railway experience to the special circumstances of this country. There is hero a mystery which we feel persuaded does not need a golden key for its unlocking. Of course, if no other kind of key will do, wo must run tho risks attached to the getting of it. But wo trust the mystery may ho unlocked without seeking for a key out of tho country.

THE LAND AND TIIE RAILWAYS. They are, as wo havo always maintained, the main factors for the settlement of tho question of the unemployed—so far as that perennial question can lie settled by human agency. It will, of course, never be settled until human nature shall havo boon abolished by Act of Parliament from the human race. That, of course, means that tho ordinary proportion of vico and misfortune will always keep a proportion of families destitute. But apart from vico and unprevcntablo misfortune, tho unemployed problem can bo wrestled with successfully. The settlement depends upon the land and the railways.

That is the truth which the Government found out long ago. Like all pioneers, they wero ridiculed with considerable asperity. Speech after speech was delivered on tho platform and in tho Houso of Representatives, declaring by every form of denunciation, insinuatory and direct, that tho Government was pretentious, dishonest, empirical and corrupt. The climax of it all was reached when Captain Russell declaimed the other day in the Opera House oil tho iniquities of village settlements and tho pauperising degradation of workmen’s trains. But of a sudden, we havo a change. “Halt! Front!” is the order from somewhere, probably the stable of the National Ass. Tho ragged battalion, for all tho world, politically speaking, like Flagstaff’s regiment, of which even that pessimistic old jJuncur was ashamed, the ragged battalion having fronted gets tho next order to advance. At once we observe a most comical thing. Tho ragged battalion is advancing in tho cause of village settlements and workmen’s trains. At the head of the worthless political rabble is Captain Russell, and lie is loudmouthed for the double system. He has, however, discovered that it must be handed over to the municipalities to work. Tho discovery is valuable so far as it is a tribute to the plan the Government lias developed for coping with the unemployed difficulty. So far as the municipal drift is concerned, it is the most flagrantly dishonest thing "’lnch the political world lias seen in our time.

This, of course, is a minor matter. Tho major point which will govern tho elections, and appeals, therefore, to tho people of New Zealand, is that tho Government lias determined to apply tho only possibly permanent remedy to a great social difficulty. The men who are applauding tho determination, and telling the muni-

cipalities that they ought to take it up, forget that they are committed to tho opinion that tho men who take to tho settlements must perish because they are impecunious, and that the idea of running trains to enable workmen to live on the land in “comfort is pauperism in disguise. We are glad to learn on such competent authority that there is no value in these arguments. It would be, of course, absurd to plant a man in the wilderness, give him a certain number of acres of land, and say “Be a settler.” That is one extreme. It would bo equally absurd to say that everybody who has not the means to settle on tho laud must be hanged, because instant hanging is a more merciful doath than starvation by degrees. Between these extremes there is a large field in which to seek for beneficial settlement. The Government is tho first to seek it. An indispensable aid is the system of workmen’s trains. Tho railways will got the cost of running, the workmen will havo the advantage of light, air, space, gardens, pleasure, delight, independence, everything that makes the heart of man glad, as well as of everything that makes his chance in life certain. Away with tho political dishonesty that begins by denouncing the Government plan, and ends by declaring tint it is so good that tho municipalities ought to accept it.

ENGLAND AND AMERICA. There is more in the statement made by the American Minister in England, Mr Bayard, at Birmingham, than in all tho confused and unsettling reports that havo been cabled about the Venezuelan question. In all great questions the two countries, Air Bayard said, are likely to move hand in hand, but they must find a mode of settlement of minor questions. That means that whatever differences of opinion may from timo to time’ arise, war between tho two nations is impossible. Alost of us will prefer that way of looking at things to tho assertion of unAmerican religious paper, which the other day proclaimed that to give way about a great principle would bo a worse evil than war, implying that in a certain event a war over tho Venezuelan boundary question might bo tho lesser of two evils. AYe cannot imagine that a war in such a cause can bo less than any other evil. The idea, of com so, is that tho Venezuelan question involves tho great question of tho Monroe doctrine. Now nothing is more certain than that if tho minor question of an unimportant boundary is over allowed to raise the major question of national importance very properly a great question with tho people of tho United States—it can only bo by serious blundering on thu part of Governments. But if tho thing is looked at by all concerned in tho negotiations in tho spirit of Air Bayard’s declaration, there need bo no fear of a disastrous bungle.

A NEW LABOUR PARTY

The S*uth Australian elections disclose a now Labour Party’, in the balancing position between the parties of the Government and tho Opposition; the figures being 1.4 of the Labour Party to 18 and 1(1 of the others respectively. Jt is a great chance which labour has, the best it has ever had in South Australia, ivhero its strength has usually been frittered away by bad management of its leaders. The present commanding position is duo to the women’s vote, which is always at the disposal of tho labour demands made in ju.Liee and moderation. Woman, moreover, on coming to the front for the first time is not political, but looks at matters from the most general point of view. It remains to be seen how time will deal witli this trait, which it must lie admitted is a very good ono indeed. Thu Labour Party in South Australia will have to take count of possibilities of this kind. In any case it should take a lesson by the past of not only the South Australian Labour Party, but of all tho Labour Parlies of Australia. It should, in fact, take a leaf out of the book of tho Now Zealand Labour Party, which, from the first, scorned to progress “in the zig-zag Australian manner, which by alternately enraging both parties in the State ultimately landed labour in the morass of political impotence. The New Zealanders elected to join ono Party—tho Liberals—and to stand or fall with them. Mirny attempts have been made by renegades and insidious opponents to break their strength by breaking their allegiance to tho Liberal leaders. But tho solidarity of the Party to-day, and its growing power at the elections, show that the strength of mind which took the straight course has never weakened, and that tho course lias never swerved. Tho South Australian Labour Party lias now the chancojto begin a similar career. They have the success of New Zealand to encourage them to go straight,

and the failure of the whole Australian labour element, and of the Queer Cardies and others who have by zigzagging brought disaster on the Labour Party of Great Britain, to make the crooked course unattractive.

EXALTED VIRTUE. The Women's Temperance Association has discovered in the School Reader some improprieties which will, if not Bowdlerised, ruin tho morals of the school children. We have read the School Reader with much pleasure and interest. Indeed there are many people who have read the things that form that volume, and that long before the volume was thought of. They will agree with us that thoro ;is nothing in the whole volume which could make Mrs Grundy have oven a slight inclination to cough, or bring tho faintest blush to the cheek of the British matron. But it is too much for tho delicate organisations of some of our temperance people. They have not yet reached the Minister with the complaint formally passed, so that wo are left to conjecture in what manner their virtue has been shocked. We do happen, however, to know that tho book of which they complain is about the best Bowdlerised edition of anything that has ever seen tho light in these countries of delicate conscience. For example, everything indicative of the liquor trade has been struck out without mercy. “Our grogs” is an expression quoted by Lady Barber as used to indicate a harmless morning beverage. But “our grogs ” is not in tho School Reader to tempt sober childhood to a career of drunken orgies. Wo cannot for the life of us understand what is tho ground of objection. We have heard that our friends consider some of the references to tho early days as free enough to be positively demoralising. We have hardened our souls in the interests of tho little ones, and wo have plunged into this vortex of vice and indecency. This is tho worst specimen we havo been able to secure. Let our readers tremble. Tho passage is from Delisle Hay’s “Brighter Britain,” and deals with Kororaroka:

Before settled government and colonisation overtook New Zealand this spot had achieved an unsavoury reputation. Originally a Nativo town, it had become tho resort of whaling ships, traders established thcmselvos here, and a rowdy population of runaway sailors, ex-convicts, bad characters and dobauched Maoris filled tho placo. Drunkonnoss and riot wero tho general order of things ; and it was even said that Kororareka wa3 developing into a nest of pirates. -There was no sort of Government to restrain the evil, and man’s passions were transforming a natural Eden into a hell. Tho wanton profligacy of whites interfered sadly with tho Christianising of tho Maoris. Moreover, other places of a like nature began to spring up here and thereon the coast.

If tho complainants havo anything more gross and awful to quote wo hope they will quote it. For tho present, wo must regard them as a little singular in their ideas.

EX PARTE REPORTING. We do not expect it from the Press Association. Tho Association is precluded from such a thing ; not only by its rules, but likewise by every principle of decency. It is a news association, not an authority for tho collection of opinions. Opinions are for the special correspondents of the newspapers, tho facts aro tho special province of the Association. Wo havo the right to expect that tho Association will always obey this plain rule of conduct. Now Sir Walter Duller has stated before the llorowhenua Commission that the Association has transgressed tho rule. He supplied our evening contemporary with an account of a scene during the proceedings of tho Commission, in which ho was tho assailant of Mr McKenzie. Some ot those present have declared tho report to be inaccurate and wrong. We will not go into that. Tho report was an cx parln report. Sir Walter Bailor declared to the Commission that it was pronounced correct by certain other persons. Wo havo not heard their views, and until we do we suspend our judgment. That is what the Press Association ought to have done. Our evening contemporary chose to accept the report as from a valued correspondent. Our contemporary was a rule unto himself. But tho Association is bound by its rules not to accept cx varlc statements. It had no right to tako the report supplied to our evening contemporary as an independent report. It had every reason not to accept anybody’s statement that anybody else had declared that report to bo correct. It know that there wero differences of opinion on tho subject. Nevertheless it accepted tho cx parte report, it believed the cx parte corroboration of if s correctness, and it actually sent it out as tho uncoloured report of the proceedings which its clients expected at its hands. And this, though it had adopted tho course of _ sending only bare outlines of the proceedings. Instead of a bare outline, it sent out a detailed account, supplied by an interested party, derogatory to the other side, and without independent corroboration. That is the position as revealed by Sir Walter Duller himself, who, under tho cover of a justification, has thrown the Association overboard. The conduct of tho Association was improper, outrageous, contrary to tho elementary principles of justice and fairness by which it is bound to be guided. A grosser violation of duty wo have never had to notice. A news agency, which is maintained for the purpose of giving the newspapers the unvarnished truth on independent authority, has suppiiod the whole press of tho Colony with tho biassed _ statement of an interested party. It is tho. duty of tho directors of the Association to investigate this matter, to probe it to tho bottom ; and to tako such steps as will for ever prevent the recurrence of such a scandalous outrage on decency. I he rtf t he Association is at stake. A

reflections on the character of public men, and fails to record important resolutions passed at public meetings addressed by these public men, deserves to lose the prestige which is the only reason for its existence. Tho plain duty of tho directors is to restore that prestige. The matter is too serious to be passed over. The very existence of the Pi ess Association is at stake. If the directors will not justify it by their conduct, tho Legislature will have to be invoked to end a monopoly which has degenerated into partisanship.