PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4295, 2 March 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

PASSING EVENTS.

(Frorn tho "New /'caJamJ Ahiii.’’) Hi ■’for.7 H philosophy I each lug by oxn; i ■ f;f <■■■;. ---'J 'tiucydides. are v ;goron.-,'y protc-i----iii'. 11t I!jc proclaim) ion. of so many ]ifi ll <i;i. Thoio an- iioli'ia:'M m,;v, the,/ alarm, on tiro slightest provocation. Til'-. epidemic begin. ■// i' ! 1 tile (l(‘.-patch, of tho First Contingent to South Africa from Wi ilincton, am! the- fever tor holidays Ira, boon iiiiorn'ilfcnf ever since. ’-No 1 , oo'y do Ihe oo’.irn-al holiday.- interfere vvil.ii f!io ordinar/ i.oi | i'o of hnsil;o but the special. klckys declared |‘om(.'cv the condition of Ibo retailer la" fro a i enviable, fie li ld-. ran f ntlinone on all tin- r.diilo id- .-k,o i:, close'!, :e- I I ire wa;y . to ricninmi'iif hands lin I n bo paid <!;.•!;■/ Ihe holidays .ii: ! as if the s’- e.p tvero one’;, .lie eom--711.; i• i. lli.it Id:-- bo. • 0: at !ral by a fortnight's Ij 0! i! 1:1 y.-i in I lie yea;, over and above (lie in riiniM.v - lioidavs which have to be obo-rve.;, f ,j- (;.-r> much for a plain abonl.eejier to eonvnhuto to the ic ral rejoicing.; are! lamentations t, !,. 1 b have be, ;; made. The sacrifice is one-ailed, and fails heavily upon tb.o riliihr, who .-ecs how the iamled pro- ]>; it-ior and the landlord escapes the .s i;, ■ea; i (ax in extn'.nrdinary holidajs Hint be ha ; ,‘o bear. The manufacturer is also !oi'd:y denouncing the deelaruI ir: 11. of so nia'iv holidays; and the rc- ({; to oh. owe a er rtaiu day as a

Li.'"'(Jay is as bad. lor If m;e manufacture.' puix bix ii.v <ji. otL'i-x arc compelled i'oi" appcara,:<■;■';< i-ak'a. lo follow sill!;. Employees wh:) paid by the tv; '1: :,v ::r ; ‘ po ! auunyi-d. ax their w; c ) uni i holiday-',

bui. (lie employee who b.a.i lo submit in a, deduction on. aii'-niiii!, of Ills having In'i'ii short of the forty-live hour.-.’ work iii'cessfiry to earn a. full iveek’x wages is strong in Lis denunciation of a. praaliee (bat causes him 10.-s. Thai the bvaiucsx is done. Just the same is not a satisfactory reply to the retailor, for lie a (linns that- much buxines;; is lost, ami too loss in wages is irrecoverable. Wo sympathise with the business mini n.i’d Hie manufacturer, and' would urge upon tlic authorities iilio desirableness of not. (Tenting more holidays than lire ;d viliitcly necessary. If tempted in a spirit- of patriotism in declare a holiday, lei I hem consider that a fonplo of Loins might do as well. t; the. occasion is a procession e.f soldiers through the streets, for instance, a request that employers might facilitate all their employees seeing; it from- the premises would unifier.

The Irish land question is one which is continuously obtruding 1 1soil to the net ice of public men and the Parliament ol Great Britain. This in partly clue to the needs of the case and the pertinacity of the Irish patriot. ,fu tin# issue wo publish a brief report of a. debate in the House of Commons on this question. It arose oven- the proposed amendment to the address-in-roply by Mr J. E. Bed mood, who asked for an Imperial credit for the compulsory wholesale purchase of land in Ireland. On this.subject there is agreement between the . IS' iitionalists, the -Liberals and many Unionists, for Mr T. W. Hassell, a Unionist, seconded the proposal and Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman supported it ; hut evidently the ties of party-al-jrgiance were of more influence m dclennining many members’ votes than a. desire for progressive legislation, it is gratifying to learn from the leader of i.lio House that the effect of the Irish Land Purchase Acts has been to create sixty thousand peasant proprietors :

but we ’know that tbs Land League and Lie, Plan of Campaign were responsible f»r the passage of the Purchase Acts of i.Sfj.l, 1888, and 1891. Still, existing conditions call loudly for amendment. Mr Russell, the Unionist, declares that “the cotter digging in a slough is not likely to go oil pcacL’bl.v and contentedly when ho learns that his neighbour is piling six shillings in the pound less than himself, with the certainty that at Lie end of a given time his son will pay nothing/’ To “the cotter in the slough” the present system is inequitable and exasperating, Our cablegram is not particularly dear as to what the Irish repyosmitatives want, but from tho agitation I hat 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 tho same position as those 60,000 of whom Mr Balfour spoke, who have alreadv 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 bo brought about by logical rather than phy-

sical constraint. Incitements to personal violence are to bo deprecated as a weakening influence in political reforms; and if the exigencies of British finance do not now warrant the expenditure of one hundred raid twenty millions, yet it would bo barren recklessness for the Irish people to put their necks in the noose at the call of the “physical force” party.

This week we read that the London County Council is maturing a scheme for housing forty thousand peorde, at a cost of a mil I ion and a half sterling. Anyone who knows London, especially tho Eastend. will uiulersinud that the establishment of better dwellings for tho poor is imperative, and that tho Council’s action has not been undertaken! a- day too soon. Tho pressure of population in London is almost inconceivable. Overcrowding in tho metropolis and other cities iu Great. Britain is fast bcconr'ag a national disgrace, and common humanity calls for a. relief of tho congested areas.” Various schemes have been put forward, hut tho one which tho London County Council has adopted is on tho lines of that, set forth hv Sir Walter Born ut. who proposed to solve the difficulty "by the taking over of more streets by tho Council and bv building more huge barracks or by the development more mid more of workmen’s trains and tho construction of workmen’s villages.” It may hapen that by-tho building of huge har>*acks in tho city the weekly rents of artisans will range from 6s to 9s 6d network, as our cablem-am intimates; still, however desirable th-t may he, and. whatever relief it may afford, tho establishment of workmen’s homes in rural districts is moro to tho point. Indeed, tho

I idea might be enlarged. It is surely ; prafioal to creafo industrial village in (.lie cannery, •■/> that workmen would not have to repair to tine city at id' l . There St' 1 many industries in London tlim. could as well las carried on twenty or thirty miles out of the city. In America number; of land owners, anxious to increase the, v.-ino of their hind, olfer a certain area free For all time ia air/ manufacturer who will guarantee to employ a given number of mechanic., am’ i' is not i!!! imoommon thing for manufacturers, studying their own and their employees’ interests, to transfer tin ir icctorie,; “locx. stock and burro;’' to the site offered. It has been suyge .ted 'dia l relief to ihe congested population 01 British cities might be bre.i/ljt about in'tin' same way. To .■olievo tli" pressure find institute heal-thh-r conditions among British workers 'vnethirg must be done, and the London (Jaunty Council ha, been courageous enough to jvsolve upon attempting to solve- the problem. One hundred years ago half tiio population of kinglaud and Wales nvo.l on the land; today live-sixths of them dwcdl fa cities, millions in congested and depressing

conditions. Tho naliomil welfare dour.iifU that those 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 bo sincerely gratifying to all members of t’he. Presbyterian Church. Tho agitation for the union has hoe;; going on for years. The chief obstacle in t)i--- way »«>.» the wealth and endowments of the Church of Otago anti Southland. If, it wax argued, there were to lie a union of tin’ churches there ought to lie an amalgamation of purses, and, as of old, tho moneys and advantages should be equaliy shared. Tim Otago clergy asked, ‘'Why should w saerilioo our endowments? Why should we share our wealth with yon of the poor Northern Church?'’ The Northern Church replied, “The advantages of union ought to he sufficient compensation. But, if not, as in marriage, flier-’ ought to be one purse.” Tho Otago Church cried, in effect, “We will be ax a bride, in this case and we will enter the union with a dowry over which vv will have absolute control.” The Northern C hurdi gave, way, saying, “The union is one-sided, buffer the sake of peace, for the sake of the union of tho Church, wo will agree to your terms,” and so tho union now only requires an Act of Parliament to render it irrevocable. This will he prepared and presented to the House next session, and if it passes, a .special meeting of the General As"semblv will be held in Dunedin ncx: November for the purpose of performing tho last act in tho consummation c: the union. One of the conditions of tho union is that the general assembly shall meet alternately in Wellington and Dunedin, and that tho administrative body of Otago shall retain tho name of synod. It will, therefore, bo scon, 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 tho Synod of Otago was an anomaly in Church >;government, and hut for tho

“douiMicss” of some of its members would have long since bad its functions merged in the General Assembly. Apart from its onosiiiadnoss, the union wax desirable, and will bo hailed with satisfacti on. for the fusion of these branches of the Christian church is in accord with tho spirit of the times in ecclesiastical affairs.

The United States is being excited, just now over the alleged discovery rf an “elixir of life.” Aged people are being rejuvenated. A millionaire id cighty-threc, lame and impotent, bus been made alive again by the use of tins 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 mil and almost dead through loss of blood, tho infusion of this wonderful elixir fills his veins with a life-giving fluid. If man or woman is exhausted and ths heart has actually stopped, new life is given by the elixir and the heart resumes its normal action on the receipt of the fluid into tho system. Dogs bled to death have been made to run about in a few minutes by the pumping into their voids of a pint or two of this elixir. What is this elixir? Wo have had no advertisement announcing its merit and effectiveness. No one seems even to have patented it. A telegram from Washington tolls of ho v a Mr William Neville, a congressional representative from Nebraska, bad delivered sixty speeches in thirty days and ruptured an artery in tho left lunr;. Pneumonia intervened and Mr Neville’s state was parlous. Tho 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. tablespopuful of common salt in a- quart of water and injected some of the solution into bis veins. That is the elixir, that is its method of application. But it is not now. It was used by Sir C. Wren nearly throe hundred- years ago. and a solution of chloride of sodium (common sa’t) is used daily by every physician who knows his business all over tho world. Judiciously applied it performs wonders.