CURRENT TOPICS

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1716, 18 January 1905, Page 45

CURRENT TOPICS

During the closing hours of last- session, when Supply was under debate, the Leader of the Opposition attacked the Agricultural Department. “On the general Estimates,” he said, “the expenditure was over £lll,OOO, and the House was now asked to agree to a further vote of £12,374. This was more than the colony could afford. The country would not stand much moire of it. People were getting tired of it, and realising that there was too much expenditure in connection with the Department. He had no doubt that next year there would be a demand from one end of the colony to the other to out the vote down.” It was the old story of abuse. It was not genuine criticism, for it failed to place side by side with the expenditure the great work that has been accomplished by the Government in organising an efficient Department of Agriculture. The farmers should be the last to complain of the public money spent in their interests, in view of the eon cessions they are at the present time enjoying. The subject lias been revived through Mr Massey’s statement in Auckland, when addressing the electors recently, that “There was another costly item to which he might refer, namely, the poultry section of the Agricultural Department, which last year cost £4705. The total • export of poultry from the colony for the same’ period was £-1257. For the previous year the* expenditure under the same head totalled £8307, and the revenue tor the same period was £2699/’

This matter was briefly dealt with in last week’s issue, but a timely reminder of what the Government lias given to the farmers comes from the Liberal and Labour Federation, which in an interesting calendar for 1905, points out the following concessions which have been made:—Free carriage of lime; free carriage ol fruit boxes; free distribution of literature bearing upon agriculture; free distribution ot seeds and plants; special facilities for reaching British markets; Experimental farms; providing free services of expert dairy instructors; veterinary surgeons; poultry and fruit growing experts; entomologist and agricultural botanist and chemist; grading dairy produce and flax for export; £415.000 concession by way of reduction for railway freights on frozen meat, live stock and agricultural produce, and the abolition of differential rates on branch lines of railways.

Aim these things are, of course, forgotten by the Leader of the Opposition in formulating liis charges of alleged maladministration, hut they cannot escape the impartial mind. When the present Government took over the re:ns of office the Department of Agriculture was in a chaotic state. There may he room for improvement now in many directions, but. that would entail the expenditure of more money, to which Mr Massey objects. At any rate, farmers will concede that the Government has done good work for them. Many to-day have to thank the administration for putting them in the way of realising profitable returns for their produce, and in the light of what has been accomplished, it comes with ill grace from the Leader of the Opposition, who represents the country interests to some extent, to complain of “reckless expenditure” by the Government in extending the usefulness of one of the most important of our State Departments.

Farmers in the North and South Islands appear to be very much divided cun the question of sterilising works for the treatment of imported bone dust. Some favour going on with the erection of the works ■ others again prefer the Premier’s suggestion that the colony should be represented by experts to examine the bone dust in the country of export before it reaches New Zealand' at all. It is evident that the expenditure of the proposed £30,000 for these works will not now take place, but that a lesser sum will be spent in the payment of experts’ services. This decision should appeal to the Leader of the Opposition, who will have his desire for retrenchment in the Department of Agriculture to some extent satisfied, but it is questionable whether the farming community will see eye to eye with him on this question. Anthrax is a serious matter to the farmer; once the land becomes affected with the germs of the desease. stock is unsafe there, and the oases that have occurred m this country in recent times show that it is a disease not to be trifled with. What* ever may be the ultimate decision in regard to tliis work of sterilisation, in the interests of the farmers it is h. ©d that a perfect system of treatment will be adopted.

The recent figures published relative to the returns of the Wellington Harbour Board show how rapidly the trade of this port is developing. Year by year the totals swell very perceptibly until at the present time they stand a figure winch must be highly satisfao tory to the controlling authorities. ' A sight of the busy wharves of to-day comes as an eye-opener to those who, taking their minds back to the early day s, picture Welling ion “then andi now," —the Wellington with only a few craft alongside the wharves, to the Wellington of 1905, with its great ocean liners calling daily and its large traffic with the numerous coastal traders. The shipping of the port has been developed, apart from natural conditions, by excellent management, which has ever studied the requirements of such an important trade. The illustrations published in this issue will give a slight indication to those living in the far hack-blocks, and who rarely come to the city, of the vast progress made in the shipping of Port Wellington of late years.

The cables have informed us during the week of the views of Count Tolstoy’s son in regard to certain phases of the Avar. He has been using the columns of St. Petersburg’s sensational daily newspaper, the' "Novoe Vremya” to shoAv hat “Britain is a model ally in spying on Admiral Rozhdestwen'-kv,” and he alleges that her alliance with the yellow skins AviJl ensure her downfall, since contact with is demoralising. Leo Lvovich Tolstoy is scarcely as well informed as his famous father, who lias so consistently fought the cause of the Russian serf, and who‘lias written admiringly cl' Britain's free institutions. If tin* .japs, are “savages,” then it has remained for an allegedly savage people to shake the \ v as.t. bulky form of Russia to its very foundations, and to- lay hare to l he world the effete methods—naval am! m.iitarv—of a great civilised Power.

Young Tolstoy’s views, however, are not uninteresting. He is a keen patriot. “The present war in the Far East,” he writes in the “Novo© Vremya,” “is a g[reat conflict such as has not been seen by Russia sinoe the times of Peter the Great. It is being waged for the possession of the Eastern shore of the great European and Asiatic Continent, just as m Peter’s time wars were waged for the possession of the Western shores. As in the struggle with the Swedes, we had first a Narva, and then a Poltava, where the Swede met his destruction; so, in the struggle with the Japanese, the Swedes of Asia, we shall at first meet with reverses, but later there must inevitably come the Poltava, where the Japanese shall perish. Only the feeble-hearted or extremely shortsighted can fail to see the final outcome of this war. It is but sufficient to look at the map. It is but sufficient to think of Russia —her great territory, her villages, fields, forests, lakes, mountains, and her people—-to become convinced. Russia is invincible, —Russia is unique in her people, geography, climate, spiritual and intellectual might, temperament, peaceableness, capacities, and her destiny. To Russia, notwithstanding her present misfortunes, belongs the the earth’s future.”

The dream of Young Tolstoy of Russia’s ultimate destiny is conveyed in the following picturesque words. Addressing his English friends he says: —‘You may rest assured that we and not you are to realise your dream of a universal empire. And we shall achieve that naturally by force of circumstances and of destiny The people that possess the northern portion of the earth from the Finnish cliffs to the waste of daring Japan is mightier than any other terrestrial nation, and though it is not yet fully grown to show its superiority, it has all the essentials for the achievement of the latter. It casts its shadow over all the neighboring nations, and gradually absorbs them. It has conquered the Crimea, the Caucasus, eastern Siberia, the outlying western territories, and now where Russia is, there will never be aught else. The Tartars already speak Russian among themselves, and the same will happen everywhere. We shall crowd out also you English, both from Egypt and India. Russia is unconquerable.”

Menschikov, a well-known writer, deals rather critically with the son of the great reformer. His remarks, contained in the same paper, considerably discount the theories so boldly put forth. “Count L. L. Tolstoy,” he says “points to the ‘spiritual and intellectual might’ of the Russian people. Presumably we are superior to our neighbours by force of intellect and feeling. For this reason we deserve to become the masters of the world. Really, if it were not for the well-known sincerity of our author, one might consider his compliments to the Russian people as bitter irony. Exceptional national wisdom is surely a great force, but where is it with us? Is it expressed in the almost universal ignorance of the Russian people at the time when all the neighbouring nations, white and yellow, have a more or Less assured system of popular education? Ability to read and write is something which, with sufficient demand, could become a common possession in a halfcentury. With us, it is a luxury a thousand years after St. Cyril. Or is our national •wisdom expressed by high morality, by a longing for temperance, popular decorum; in customs of civio dignity, in the perfection of government system? With us, popular morality is considerably lower than with our neighbours. Popular dishonesty, ‘graft,’ cruelty, dissipation, drunkenness, lack of respect for human rights,—this coarse cynicism pervades the population to its very heart. If the spiritual might of a people is expressed by its creative power, I ask: Where is it ? Our national art is insignificant, and there is hardly any national literature at all. Our culture is. entirely borrowed, and i 6, notwithstanding, the poorest in the world.”

“I am a thoi'ough Russian,” adds Mensohikov, “and I love my country not less than does Count L. L. Tolstoy, but in the life of my people I see the triumph, not of reason, hut of a certain backAvardness, of that provincial popular darkness that is a natural sequence of the return to barbarism of a noble race, of spiritual degeneration under the burden of unendurable sacrifices- I do not know Avhether the national soul has become exhausted in the titanic struggle Avitlx the vast territory, Avith the gloomy forests and deserts, or Avhether the lxation has become Aveary of external and internal slavery. But I doknow that just now this popular wisdom is with, us in a state of decay, and that really is the source of our misfortunes.

Beggared, ignorant, savage to the extent c.f indifference to its fate, the people underfed, a prey to monstrous drunkenness, landless, sick :—how can such a people dream, together with Count L. L. Tolstoy, of universal dominion?” These words carry conviction, and, to English loaders mean more than tho visions of Russia’s future of Count Tolstoy's son.