THE OPEN COLUMN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3677, 1 March 1899, Page 7

THE OPEN COLUMN.

A iiiCYCLE TAX, “ A Jockey ” solicits space for a 'suggestion. The abnormal increase in the use of bicycles in our streets would, ho says, certainly load one to infer that a tax on every one of these machines would be a very lucrative source of revenue to the Government. Nor would such a tax in any ’way savour 'of injustice, ns. the owners of these machines mostly consist of people who can well afford to pay for their hobbies. The revenue thus raised might well be utilised to swell the funds necessary to meet the demands of the Old Ago Pensions Act. maeine"examinees. Moved by the statement telegraphed from Dunedin that the Government intends to send Home for an up-to-date marine examiner, “New Zealander” writes as, follows : —Does it not strike you, after all the vocal babbling of Ministers and the typographical ditto of their journals about “native - worth,” that this-intention is : the:,last-:,- straw ? There seems unfortunately an inherent desire on the part of every public body in New-Zealand to rush: off to the other end of the world for the supposed “ necessary man” whenever an official is'required an engineer, ,a town clerk, a police Commissioner, anybody, in fact, unless in be a poultry expert or organiser of the Liberal Party. Surely there are nautical men in’ thesecolonies- -competent to take tip' such a position as that now vacant. If there are not, then our great maritime services are in a very much worse state than I take them to be. By. pursuing a smellful system of jobbery for the purpose of propitiating certain influential parties, the Department has’depreciated the value of all certificates issued in the colony, arid now, insult is to be added to injury. About the worst recommendation a mari can have, apparently,' for a responsible post in the Government service is to be colonial horn' Or' have lived the best part of his life in this prosperous land. ,

A PLEA FOR FREE CHURCHES. r ;“ A Catholic (not Roman)” writes as follows : —A Lancashire working man on being asked why he did not go to church; made the blunt reply;—“Oh, aye; at such places, as long as you can pay your pew 'rent,!-its ‘Come to Jesus’; but as soon as you can’t it’s 1 Go to the, devil.’ ” There is much in his answer to think about; and therefore I trust pew-rent ing Wellington will wake up to duty at once. “ Anglican Catholic’s ” suggestion for a cathedral congregation is worth consideration. I have been a pew-renter at a private church for years, and am determined never again to bo the possessor of a selfish privilege that causes offences to come. Probably “A.C.” has pursued a- similar course, and there are other consistent church men similarly resolved. In that case a Free Church Association should be formed to counteract the evils of a system that gives us no proper parish church and no true missionary centre. It ‘is some encouragement to know that the experiment of a free, church nas been tried with great success. To his lasting; honour Canon French, > vicar of AIJ Saints’, Netting Hill, after several years’- experience of the pew rent system at | that churchy put the interests of nis parishioners before financial considerations, and voluntarily gave up his legally secured pew rents of £520 a' year. Five years afterwards he was able to write : “the gain to us is more ’ than, £3OO a year by the abandonment of pewTehts.” And again, “By the simple process of making our church absolutely free to all comers, and lotting this he known—for all the other considerations remained unchanged—the church attendances in the parish have risen from' under 80,000 (represented by , 59,000 coins) to' above 150,000 (represented by 113,000 coins), money' and communions also, as I have said, increasing 1 in almost precisely the same proportion.” The churchwardens, after pointing out the dimculty the vicar had in persuading, them to comment to his proposal, in their statement went on to say:—“The experience of five- -"nof the now system hasproved that financially' the change has been an unqualified success. It has been found, that .the area of sympathy was so enlarged that, side by side with a large increase in the offertories, there has been an even greater increase in other’ voluntary gifts: that the proceeds of pew ,rents, offertories and subscriptions have been exceeded by the proqeous of offertory and subscriptions only, when coupled with a free and open church; that with an increase of, income it has been possible to devote a larger-amount to outside charitable objects; and lastly, that means have been placed at our disposal for increasing the staff of clergy.”

THE VICTORIAN LABOUR COLONY. Mr Edward O’Brien, writing on this subject, says I have' not been to: the Levin farm in this colony, nor am I acquainted. with any of the men who havr had the misfortune to go there; but 1 have lived in Victoria, and although I was not employed at Leongatha I had the opportunity of finding out all about the working of that pauper labour colony. Why, it has been asked, are the differences between the Victorian and our own experiment so marked? Simply because there are so many sweaters and such a great number t)f rlnfortuuate men out of employment in \ ictoria, and the Government gives the men rto other choice but Leongatha. Colonel Goldstein and his gallant slafi of officials get well paid, and many thanks from the Government; but they get no thanks from the men who work on the colony from time to time, for they are worse off when they leave the labour colony than when they commenced. When they go ■ there they have no chance of bettering their condition. They have to work Very hard in the rain, hail, frost, or snow, in the winter time, and in excessive heat in the summer. Their wages are from Is to 2s

6d per week; very seldom indeed it roadies the large sum of 3s 6d. The food is very rough and the sleeping accommodation is really bad. The “ Evening Post ” tells us these 2289 men have been relieved and improved in their working capacity. From what I learned from men who have worked at Leongatha it is the other way about — that the labour colony has been very much improved indeed, and that the men have been very much degraded and leave Leongatha worse off than ever. If the Levin State farm is ever managed as the Victorian Labour Colony at Leongatha is, then the best advice I can give men is to keep away from it. CRICKET UP-TO-DATE ! ‘•'How’s that, Umpire” writes: When we road in some reports of the Senior Championship matches played in our midst, that So-and-so batted “brilliantly” and another had played “perfectly ” (be it observed in the face of what New Zealand representatives are doing on the other side of the Tasman Sea) —“not marred by a single blemish”mind—we naturally come to the conclusion that we have perfect dons and professors in Wellington, who cannot be improved upon, and we puff ourselves up with this vain-glorious idea in a fool’s paradise, till a team of experts visits us and shatters it to pieces. We send a representative team of New Zealanders at considerable cost to our sister colonies, and we come off most ingloriously against teams of ■ mediocre ability to what they can put in the field to pit against us. And why is this so ? Purely through a state of self-sufficiency, and blind policy in having no good up-to-date professional men to burnish up our . colts of undoubted promise, and completely eradicate the antiquated .blemishes and faulty play of the seniors : jane] this will'not bo-accomplished until ;more interest -is. Taken by tho captains of teams in their rising members, and a firm and undivided stand made by the Cricket Association to procure a good ground of their own, with the very best, most suitable and durable turf upon it—not the haphazard street paving fragmentary way it is now most expensively in the Basin Reserve, under such 'conflicting elements. ' But see to the importation of geiod-ad-round professional “coaches” to look after it, and keep it constantly in thorough playable order, with no aggravating divisional ground authority intercepting. It would pay importers of cricket material handsomely to take this mater in hand. WELLINGTON CATHEDRAL. I .have, “ Observer ” writes, perused ‘the correspondence relating to the above with, a good deal of interest, and have heard it Suggested in one direction that tho. non-success in carrying out the Cathedral building scheme may be attributed to the parsimonious instincts of the citizens, and in another, that it is because Wellington 1 church people are very much poorer than their co-re-ligionists in other parts of the colony. For my own part I am inclined to think that, the real , reason underlying the failure on the part of the authorities entrusted with the work is the absence of anything like a sytematic canvass amongst tho people generally. The committee have obtained a few sub- : scriptions from some well-to-do members of the church who were easily, accessible, and then seem to have met with a paralytic stroke, which suddenly incapacitated them for further action. Wellingtonians 1 can be. liberal enough when they are properly approached, as witness their ready response to the Wairarapa wreck and other kindred funds, while the well defined signs of prosperity apparent to the most trivial observer belief' the idea that indigent circum-' stances are the excuse for their want of practical sympathy with, the object in view. Can you not rouse those who are responsible for the apathy that seems : to prevail, Mr Editor,’ by administering some, physic that would “ramshackle” them mentally and physically into renewed activity? “ AMOOSIN’ LITTLE CUSSES.” I see (writes “Samuel Weller”) that you 1 publish. the report of That belated body which amuses people by calling itself the Chamber of Commerce. Said report is not an account of the operations of the Chamber for the year; it is merely a catalogue of what somebody else has done, left undone, or attempted to do. It regrets this and patronises that, grieves for the loss of the Vancouver service, and is pleased to bestow its’ mild approval of the progressiveness of the Harbour Board; whilst it expresses sorrow in a large and general way because our public buildings are inadequate in accommodation and the ticketsellers at the railway stations have “ got tho '’slows.” Apparently the Chamber of Commerce has been keeping a furtive eye oni .the wants of Wellington during the past kyear, but not a little finger has it raised to bring a better state of things about. In that respect it 'resembles that other “amoosin’ little cuss,” the Wellington Industrial Association, which, haying achieved one greatness—the Wellington Exhibition—has now resolved itself into a mutual admiration society, which varies its monthly statements that it,; individually and collectively, is “a jolly good fellow,” by wild whoopings about the dreadfulness of Seddon legislation in general, and the Master and Apprentice Act in particular. Both or either body could do a great deal of good by persistent worrying of the powers that be: to keep Wellington’s end of the log up : to secure for us new Supreme Court buildings and a new central railway station, ,etc. ; to bring about the straightening -of the Wellington-Retone railway, line, , tile purchase of the WellingtonMan’awatu Company’s property, and the Rimutaka railway deviation. Both or either would do the city a good service by keeping a critical eye fixed on the methods of our City Councillors and the administrators of other public bodies 1 could mention. Botli or either could bring “Greater Wellington ” into'being if they were in earnest about it. But, no: they prefer to staiftl around and make remarks ; pass votes of thanks to each other; and adjourn “ sine die.” And the fun of it is that they get themselves taken seriously by the “ great hass of a public.”