PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1679, 4 May 1904, Page 49

PASSING EVENTS.

History is philosophy teaching by examples. —Thucydides. There is a movement afoot in various parts of the Wellington province to introduce a new enterprise, namely, the manufacture of dry milk. Several business men in the city have interested themselves in the project, and it is quite poesibie the new industry will become established. D'ny milk lias 'much to recommend it. It is calculated to revolutionise the present system of distribution—a year’s supply can be sent by post—and. save the lives of many yo».ung children. Children must have milk. It is a. perfect food for man, but it is a fluid in which bacteria germinate mysteriously and in vast numbers. Man is at war with the diseasespreading bacteria. The men and women in full health destroy them on* live by their absorption, while the weak ones become weaker and readily contract specific diseases in which the bacteria may display themselves in overpowering abundance. Now milk is one of 'the commonest disseminators of disease. Consumption is spread by it. Diphtheria, scarlet and typhoid fevers find in milk a convenient- vehicle, while even “the plague” seeks in milk a nutrient medium. The pasteurising of this commodity has to some extent been helpful in neutralising the effects of bacteria in miik, and cue practice many families adopt in scalding their daily supply as it comes in is also beneficial in arresting the spread of disease by milk; bub the invention recently perfected in London appears, in the opinion of many physicians, to be the safest and most effectual of all remedies. . All bacteria are destroyed by the process. All the water is removed by heat from 'che milk. It is -converted into a yellow flaky powder, says a doctor, ancl this can be instantly recoilveito(d into something almost indistinguishable from milk by the addition of warm water. This “dry milk” has been submitted to severe tests to prove its “keeping” and disease-re-sisting qualities. It has been sent round the world by post and returned :o the sender unaffected by the journey. It hats been scientifically examined under various conditions, and so long as it is not exposed for any length of time to the atmosphere it remains gennfreu. This is a practical and life-sav-ing invention, and ought to be profitable. The doctors are making experiments with it, and Dr Magill, chief of the Research Department at the Canuegie Laboratory in New York, says out of eight- hundred • and fifty children, chosen from among the poorest class and treated during the three hottest months of the year, not one died, and all gained in weight- through being fed with “dry milk” reconverted into fl'iiid and “humanised.” It retains also- what is described as the “anti-scorbutic property” of fresh milk —a quality lost by sterilising and boiling—'so that scientifically the new process is sound, and com. metreially it ought to be profitable, far where “fresh” milk can be made from the powder, the demand will expand and the various preparations now so popular will be gradually supplanted. For the manufacture of this commodity the dairying districts of this country offer a favourable field. “Blessed shall he the statesman who shall recast the land laws and renew the conditions of country life that people shall again begin to stream from the smoke. and the noise, from the unhealthy competition and the crowded tenements, back to the quietness and the pure airand the security, and. the ineighboutrliness of country life.” This beau'r-itude is by “lan Maclaren,” and Dr Watson has made few observations containing more aptness and truth. The land question and its settlement is at the base of all systems of civilisation. Statemen and politicians have sought in various way 9 to solve it, and their efforts have been fairly successful. There are yet many phases of it on which there is much room for debate, and public men in this country are continuously dealing with the problem which the- laird tenure of New Zealand lias created. . Some are still arguing round about” the subject, and making statements thfit are, when brought together, utterly irreconcilable. While the so-called’ land reformer's would not disturb existing leases, they would support a Fair;Rent Bill; they profess in cno breath disapproval of the Single Tax, anfi in the next advocate rating an

itnimpieoved valtiefey tie abolition, of Customs duties, and the casting of all tie burdens upon the laid. Omr so-called land reformers know little about land and less about land tenures. Whatever induces to a high state, of cultivation, ]ins creates a sense of security and content among tie occupiers and workers of the soil is certainly the best system of tenure to adopt. The attempt to disturb the nine hundred and ninetynine years Jeasefe was made by those who proclaim their anxiety to give security to the Crown tenants, but the tenants themselves, while anxious to secure the freeholds of their properties, would rather remain as they are than submit every seventh year to a revaluation. We cannot accept the* judgment of those who declare that the lease-in-per-petuity is best for the tenant- and best for the State. The land may become andr.d valuable),, and the State wtofald lose by not having the right to raise rents;. and. it is the fear that the existing arrangement will be broken by the clamouring of certain agitators that has. given prominence to the desire of Crown tenants to canveit at will their holdings into freeholds. Were this done it would give a stimulus to settlement, ar*i with the money thus obtained the Lands Department oojild proceed with the further repurchase of large estates for closer settlement without, having to borrow in London for the purpose of cauutying on this beneficial and necessary work. By limiting the area to be held by any one owner, the TC-aggregation of large estates would be prevented. Many fanners in the North Island now occupying leaseholds sure desirous cf the opportunity to turn, their properties into freeholds. They have spent energy and mo-maty in carving oat homes, for - themselves and their families, and now they would like to he placed in the way of some clay making these properties their own. At present the law will not allow of this being done, and thcise who would alter it -are only anxious to do so ia order that greater bcardens might be cast upon the Crown tenants.

It is so seldom a good word is said publicly for the Chinaman or his cousin the Jap. that the testimony and experience of Bishop Ridley, of British Columbia, ttlio is paying a short visit • to'-New Zealand, is at once interesting and refreshing. That part of the British/Empire was also opposed to- the immSgraiion of Chinese, and an act of its legislature has just been vetoed by the Dominion Government. The Chinese in Western Canada do work that white X men would not do, and if the fishing .industry, on winch British Columbia greatly depended, is to continue 'to fienrish the employment of yellow men is absolutely necessary. The Chinaman in the Bishop's experience- “was clean, hcmest.and industricras,” ancT this is a character many might envy. But there are Chinese and Chinese. The 'testimony of other men quite as authoritatire as his lordship have observed that the Chinese are not cleanly aryl ..." hare invariably had a demoralising influence, sipfm imrrmtraitiek wherein they have dwelt in any number. We have recently been discussing the advent of Chinese laboar into the Rand, a-nd many protests have been made in this country against it. In this the cleanliness, honesty or industriousness of the Chinaman was not debated. A great Imperial issue was involved. Was it rigid that we. shorn!d fight for the freedom of ou-r fellow-subjects in South Africa in ordeir that that country might be given over to the Chinese p That wafe the- question, and although we protested that the Chinese in the Rand .would have a demoralising effect upon South Africa our protest was not based upon hostility to the Chinese as Chinese. The people of this country clearly saw that- the employment cf Chinese in large CKimbefjrS in South: Africa would retard its settlement by British subjects. We likewise proclaimed our . /hostility to the form of slavery to which the Chinse would he subjected, and we still further protested against tlrerltr introduction: because if they were imported as freemen South Africa would in 'a very r brief space become a Chinaman's country. \V bile tli6re were moiral /aa»d sentimental grounds fo'r these protests, • there were- political and Imperial reasons for the exclusion of the Chinese. When, however//it- was made clear that the progress’ of the new colony depended upon the eiiiplcyinent of cheap labour, that- the natives cf South Africa, were net now adequate to the supply, the position was changed, and our protest also became less -pointed when it was made known that the Chinese imported were to be returned to ' their . homes after five years. There was to be no permanence given to their ; in South Africa. The necessities of Sorath Africa demanded - Chinese labour as an expedient to t-ide over a temporary difficulty, and it is on • that account -the King has not dis- : allowed - the Transvaal Labour Impoirta.:tion Ordnance. .People.in New Zealand ; are not likely to- change -their views upon this question, however much Bishop Ridley may applaud* the Cliinese in British Columbia, anclthe people who sanation--tire large influx of Chinese to their midst mrust be prepared to pu t .- up with the evils that may result. Still, the Chinese, like the Japauecc. cun fei . ' -educated .to become, ast Bishop It id.ley

says the latter already are, “intellect&ially and morality the equal of the white mam.” But in the meantime they are hot, and it will t ake an hundred years using similar methods,- to raise the Cliinese to- the same level as the Jap.

The debate upon the fiscal' problem in Great Britain hefis degenerated into personal recriminations among some of the leading J public men. The Hbn. Joseph Chamberlain is deputed in the comic papers as delighted that his opponents should again resort to calling him names. He is dubbed a political cheat and trickster by the newspapers apposed to his fiscal proposals, and in their speeches Mr Asquith and Sir Henry Ca mpb e 11-Ba n norm at 1 take ideasure in depicting the ex-Colonial Secretary as the most splendid political acrobat- it has been tli-eir experience to know. All this does not affect- the great question at issue, but it is losing much of its interest in the personalities, and were it not that a Commission has been appointed to examine into- and ’report upon, the tariff proposals and their probable bearing upon the trade cf Great Britain, the subject would be practically in abeyance until the next general election. Daring the past few months Mr Chamberlain's opponent's have been able to score seme' successes in bye-elections,-and even his friends realise that it may fee a few years yet before the country will he thoroughly educated up to the acceptance of a policy of fiscal reform. Many men in the front bank of statesmanship are, however, agreed t-liat Great Britain cannot go on competing with various coiimitri.es in their protected markets while she leaves her own doors open to foreign trailers. Whether it .comes in the form of a protective tariff or a series cf resolutions giving the Government power for the sak-o of encouraging trade to impose retaliatory duties, the aim of tariff reformers is simply to secure fair conditions for British industry and labour when they take the form of goods for export to other countries. It has been borne in upon the: minds of British manufacturers that unless Great Britain has. some sort of a tariff she will betunable to secure reductions m foreign tariffs for her goods. A nation that is in the position of being unable to make concessions to another cannot expect to receive them. All Continental countries and America have this power. Great Britain stands alone without it, and those who would place her in a position to negotiate for favours for her tra,de abroad are despised and contemned. What has induced most to personal recrimination among British politicians. has been the misunderstanding that arose over the resignations of Mr Ritchie and Lord George Hamilton, followed by that of the Duke of Devonshire. It may be remembered that Mr Chamberlain had placed his resignation in the* hands of Mr Balfour a day cir two previously, and it lias since t.ranspiro/1 that if .they had known that Mr Chamberlain had resigned, neither Lord George nor Mr Ritchie would have done so. Lord Rosebery and other leading Liberals have since charged Mr Baifonr with “treachery and trickery” over this business, but when the Prime Minister decided to postpone the adoption of preferential tariffs as the policy of the Government, Mr Chamberlain resigned, and before that resignation was announced, both Lord George and Mir Ritchie decided also to resign on the grounds that postponement did not mean abandonment. Mr Ritchie has rebuked the Liberals for their using the incident to attack Mr Balfouir as “a treacherous trickster”—the phrase is Lord Rosebery's. The- ex-chancellor of the Exchequer has now explained that he was wrong in assuming that Mr Chamberlain wcnld remain in office. That was their misunderstanding, and it in no sense justifies Lord Rosebery’s charge. The main issue is not affected by these “graceful amenities.”