PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1523, 28 February 1901, Page 35

PASSING EVENTS.

History is philosophy teaching* by examples. —Thucydides. Shopkeepers are vigorously protesting against the proclamation of so many holidays. There are holidays now, they affirm, on the slightest provocation. The* epidemic began with the despatch of the First Contingent to South Africa from Wellington, and l the fever for holidays has been intermittent ever since. Not only do the general holidays interfere with the ordinary course of business, but the special holidays declared render the condition of the retailer far from enviable. He has his rent running on all the while his shop is closed, and the wages to his permanent hands have to be paid during the holidays just as if the shop were open. He complains that the loss entailed by a fortnight’s holidays in the year, and above the ordinary hoidays which have to be observed, is * far too. much for a plain shopkeeper to contribute to the general rejoicings and. lamentations that have been made. The sacrifice is one-sided, andi falls heavily upon the retailer, who sees how the landed proprietor and the landlord escapes the special tax in extraordinary holidays that he has to bear. The manufacturer is also loudly denouncing the declaration of so many holidays; and the request to observe a certain day as a holiday is as bad, for if one manufacturer puts his fire out, others are compelled for appearance’s sake, to follow suit. Employees who are paid by the week or month are not annoyed’, as their wages are unaffected by the holidays, but the employee who l has to submit to a deduction on account of his having been short of the forty-five, hours’ work necessary to earn a full week's wages is strong in his denunciation of a. practice that causes him' loss. That- the business is done just the same is not a satisfactory reply to the retailer, for he affirms that much business is lost, and the loss in wages is irrecoverable. We sympathise with the business man andi the manufacturer, and would urge Upon the authorities the desirableness of not creating more holidays than are absolutely necessary. If tempted in a spirit of patriotism to' declare a holiday, let them consider that a couple of hours might do as well. If the ooearsion is a procession of soldiers through the streets, for instance, a request that employers might facilitate all their employees seeing it from the premises ■would suffice.

The Irish land question is one which is continuously obtruding itself to the notice of public men and the Parliament of Great Britain. This is partly due to the needs of the case and the pertinacity of the Irish patriot. In this issue we publish a brief report of a debate in the House of Commons on this question. It arose over the proposed amendment to the address-in-reply by Mr J. E. Redmond, who asked for an Imperial credit for the compulsory wholesale purchase of land in Ireland. On this subject there is agreement, between the Nationalists, the Liberals and many Unionists, for Mr T. W. Russell, a Unionist, seconded the proposal and cur Henry Campbell-Bannerman supported it; but evidently the ties of party-al-legiance were of more influence m determining many members 5 votes than a desire for progressive legislation. It is gratifying to learn from the leader of the House that the effect of the Irish Laud' Purchase Acts has been to ereate sixty thousand peasant proprietors ; but we know that the Land League and the Plan of Campaign were responsible for the passage of the Purchase Acts o 1885, 1888, and. 1891. Still, existing conditions call loudly for amendmeno. Mr Russell, the Unionist, declares that “the cotter digging in a slough is not likely to go on peaoably and contentedly when he learns that ais neighbour is paying six shillings in the. pound less than himself, with the certainty that at the end. of a given time his son will pay nothing/ 5 To “the cotter in the slough the present system is inequitable and exasperating, Our cablegram is not particularly clear as to what the Irish representatives want, hut from the agitation that has been proceeding in the agrarian districts of Ireland it is evidently the object of men of Mr Russell’s stamp to put every tenant of agricultural land in the same position as those 60,000 of whom Mr Balfour spoke, who have already been enabled by State loans to purchase the landlord’s interest in their holdings. This is a laudable object, is one worthy of support, and must be brought about by logical rather than physical constraint. Incitements to personal violence are to be deprecated as a weakening influence in political reforms ; and if the exigencies of British finance do not now warrant the expenditure of one hundred and twenty millions, yet it would he barren recklessness for the Irish people to put their necks in the noose at the call of the “physical force” party.

This week we road that the London County Council is maturing a scheme for

housing forty thousand people, at a cost of a million and a half sterling. Anyone who knows London, especially the Eastend, will understand that the establishment of better dwellings for the poor is imperative, and that the Council’s action has not been undertaken a day too soon. The pressure of population in London is almost inconceivable. Overcrowding in the metropolis and other cities in Great Britain is fast becoming a national disgrace, and common humanity calls for a relief of the congested areas. Various schemes have been put forward, but the one which the London County Council has adopted is on the lines of that set forth by Sir Walter Besant, who proposed to solve the difficulty “by the taking over of more streets by the Council and by building more huge barracks or by the development more and more of workmen’s trains and the construction of workmen’s villages.” It may hapen that by the building of huge barracks in the city the weekly rents of artisans’ will range from 6s to 9s 6d per week, as our, cablegram intimates ; still, however'desirable that m ay be, and! whatever relief it may afford, the establishment of workmen’s homes ini rural districts is more to the point. Indeed, the idea might be enlarged. It is surely practical to create industrial villages in the country, so that workmen would not have to repair to the city at all. There are many industries in London that could as well be carried on twenty or thirty miles out of the city. In America numbers of land, owners, anxious to increase the value of their land, offer a certain area free for all time to any manufacturer who will guarantee to' employ a given number of mechanics, and it is not an uncommon thing for manufacturers, studying their own and their employees’ interests, to transfer their factories “iocs, stock and barrel” to the site offered. It has been suggested that relief to the congested population of British cities might be brought about in the same way. To relieve the pressure and institute healthier conditions among British workers something must be done, and the London County Council has been courageous enough to resolve upon attempting to solve the problem. One hundred years ago' half the population of England and Wales lived on the land; today five-sixths of them dwell in cities, millions in congested and depressing conditions. The national welfare demands that these conditions should be ameliorated.

At the meeting of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, which was held at Wanganui, the basis of union between the Northern and Southern Churches was adopted. This ought to be sincerely gratifying t'o all members of the Presbyterian Church. The 'agitation for the union has been going, on for years. The chief obstacle in the way was the wealth and endowments of the Church of Otago and Southland. If, it was argued, there •were to be a union, of the churches there ought to be an amalgamation of purses, and, as of old, the. moneys and advantages should be equally shared. The Otago clergy asked, “Why should we sacrifice our endowments? Why should! we share our wealth with you of the poor Northern Church?” The Northern 1 Chureh replied, “The .advantages of union ought to be sufficient compensation. But, if not, as in marriage, there ought to be one purse.” The Otago Church cried, in effect, “We will be as a bride in this case and we will enter the union with a dowry over which we will have absolute control.” The Northern Churc'hi gave way, saying, “The union is one-sided, but for the sake of peace, for the sake of the union of the Church, we will agree to your terms,” and so the union now only requires an Act of Parliament to render it irrevocable. This will be prepared and presented to the House next session, and if it passes, a special meeting of the General Assembly will be held in Dunedin next November for the purpose of performing the last act in the consummation of the union. One of the conditions of the union is that the general assembly shall meet alternately in Wellington and Dunedin, and that the administrative body of Otago shall retain the name of synod. It will, therefore, be seen that Otago will have sacrificed nothing in a material sense by the union, but it will be robbed of that distinction which comes of being the highest ecclesiastical court within its realm. Still the Synod of Otago was an anomaly in Church government, and but for the “dourness” of some of its members would have long since had its functions merged in the General Assembly. Apart from its onesidedness, the union was desirable, and will be hailed with satisfaction, for the fusion of these branches of the Christian church is in accord with the spirit of the times in ecclesiastical affairs.

The United States is being excited just now over the alleged disco very of an “elixir of life.” Aged people are being rejuvenated. A .millionaire of eighty-three, lame and impotent, has been made alive again by the. use of this elixir. It is good in childhood, youth and middle age. If benumbed by cold a little of the elixir restores animation. If a lad is mangled in a mill

and aunost dead through loss of blood, the infusion of this wonderful elixir fills his veins with a life-giving fluid. If man or woman is exhausted and the heart has actually stopped, now life is given by the elixir and the heart resumes its normal action on the receipt of the fluid into the system. Dogs bled! to death have been made to iun about in a few minutes by the pumping into their veins of a. pint or two of this elixir. What is this elixir ? W e have had no advertisement announcing its merit and effectiveness. No one seems even to have patented it. A telegram from Washington tells of liow a Mr William Neville, a congressional representative from Nebraska, had delivered sixty speeches in thirty days and ruptured an artery in the left lung. Pneumonia intervened and Mr Neville’s state was parlous. The elixir was tried, improvement was immediate and the speaking congressman, who had talked to bursting point, rapidly recovered. But what is this elixir? Well, Mr Neville’s physicians dissolved a tablespoonful of common salt in a quart of water and injected some of the solution into his veins. That is the elixir, that- is its method of application. But it is not new. It was used by Sir C. Wren nearly three hundred years .ago, and a solution of chloride of sodium (common salt) is used daily by every physician who knows his business all over the world. Judiciously applied it performs wonders.