PASSING EVENTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4425, 3 August 1901, Page 1 (Supplement)

PASSING EVENTS.

'(from the "New Zealand Mail.”; History is philosophy teaching by examples. —Thucydides. In Hie House of Representatives Mr 11. (1. Kll’s Bill to abolish the totalizator was talked out. It would have been legitimately killed had it been allowed to go to a division. The arguments used in favour of his measure were by no means new, but ho must know litt.lt> of gambling and less of human nature if he expects that betting ou horseraces would cease were the totalisatnr abolished. Still, none will (question Mr KU’s integrity and honesty of purpose. It cannot be denied that pa mining through the totalisator is on the increase, but to prevent men and women imbued with the spirit of gamh ling from utilising that machine which is regarded as being fair and above board to tho public would not destroy the spirit or lessen the practice. It would merely change the venue. Gambling would not be diminished by the abolition of the totalisator, and the bookmakers, for whom Mr Ell professed so much eon siiloration, would increase and multiply and flourish as green bay t recs. The moral effects t.o the community would be disastrous. The totalisator is now under the public eye. The moral reformer sees the enemy he has to fight in the total!sator, but if bookmaking were again to b licensed and mad© ‘‘the only legiti mate mime” on tho racecourse its ramifications would not cease there. The evi! of tote shops, of which Mr Meredith complained, would become rampant throughout the length and breadth of the land in another form, and hookmakers would be standing at the corners of public thoroughfares in most tosvns laving odds with all and sundry. Young lads able to raise a shilling would be tempted to gamble with the bookmaker, whereas the totalisator offers no inducements to boys to’throw away their money. Mr Laurenson’s statement that whore there was one bookmaker before the introduction of the totalisator there ar 0 ten “tote shops” now is surely an exaggeration, else the police are not doing their duty. But even if that were so, which we do not believe, how much mor e numerous would have been bookmakers had the totalisator not been in vogue ? The ago is a gambling one. Heavy sums are staked in mining stock. Farmers’ products are not free from a sneculation that is akin to gambling. Perfectly honest men speculate in laud values and dabble in shares. Deacons, elders and ministers have been known to invest their savings in mining stock, and have been infatuated to a degree in the daily callings of Stook Exchange share prices and in the weekly returns of the gold dredges. In this generation every man is intent on winning, and gambling is the rage. If it is sapping at the vitality of the people, as Mr Meredith asserts, the abolition of the totalisator would not minimise the evil. It would tend to drive it beneath the surface, and then abolitionists would assert they had done good. _ It would bo a delusion. If gambling is a moral corrupter, why should Messrs Ell, lainr. enson and Meredith endeavour to pursue a course that would stimulate self-do-ception ?

The Dunedin Presbytery recently passed a resolution condemnatory of the Chief Health Officer's conduct on a Sabbath during an official visit to the southern city. The “unco guid” c f Otago have a keen scent for acts of Sabbath desecration- Ministers of the Crown who have paid visits to Otago have occasionally come under th e lash of the Pres, hyterian clergyman’s invective for having visited and driven over a new bridge or walked over an estate on the Sahbath. Such acts were condemned as setting a fearful example to th e community. In the south it must be admitted that Hie people are somewhat more regardful of the Sabbath than in the north, and in some parts of Otago it is still a faith that punishment direful . and immediate will follow the person who violates the injunction to rest from his labours. There is a good deal of difference of opinion as to what is work and what is rest. There are occupations and recreations which might, he engaged in on Sunday without desecrating that day, and so long as these occupations and recreations are devoted to the improving of the mind no harm can bo done. Such recreations may not bo directly religious. They may merely have a tendency to raise and strengthen th e general mental and physical tone of the people. There was a time when Presbyterians against their ministers shaving themselves on the Sabbath, and although it was an act of cleanliness it was not to he identified with godliness, while admittedly next to it. 'But the world makes progress. It is now no longer sinful to walk in the fields, to ride on horseback, to take a spin on a bicycle, or to fall asleep in Church. Our libraries, our museums are thrown open to the public, so that the working classes may occupy their Sundays in occupations that are at once restful and beneficial to their minds and bodies. Tramcars and Sunday trains run with regularity on Sabbaths. and people flock on fine days to public parks, such as the Basin Reserve in Wellington, and enjoy a promenade to the music of a brass hand. Some years ago all this would have been ' condemned as sacreligious and regarded as a desecration of the Sabbath. The first day of the week is yearly becoming le'ss a day of mental and physical depression and more of a day .when, as Dean Stanley puts it, the "already heavily-taxed energies of the working population” are relieyed and strengthened by healthful and elevating recreations. It is possible to over liberalise public views of Sabbath observance, but anything that tends to brighten the toul, and driv e the care and anxiety of the ordinary avocations of the week away, will doubtless help to make life more cheerful for many people whose Sundays now weigh heavy upon them. In her dealings with Russia Great Britain has scored another triumph. The deadlock which took olace between those Powers over the method of raising sufficient taxation to meet repayment and interest on the war debt of China has been terminated bv Russia having withdrawn. By the war .China has been saddled with a debt of sixty-five millions, which with interest amounting to £2.600,000 per annum has to be paid off in forty years. What Russia demanded was the payment of her eighteen millions of the indemnity. ;-n amount li’.ree times larger than that charged by Great Bri. tain, in a way injurious to British trade.

Lord Lansdowne has declared that tho interests of the English merchants would bo safeguarded, and the taxation of such merchandise as they exported to China would be resisted, because it would have an injurious effect upon British commerce, while at the same time it would bo beneficial to Russia, whose trade would be for the most part overland. Tho other nations which took part in the recent war not being so largely concerned have evidently permitted John Bull and the Muscovite to settle (he matter between them. Tho former was bound in defence of British trade fo resist Russian claims, and the fact that Russia has yielded in this instance will do something to restore British prestige in the Far East. This diplomatic success may do more. It may strengthen the onviction of leading British statesmen that opposition to Russian designs in Asia is a cardinal point of British nolicy. If Great Britain is determined to prevent any encroachment upon her trade or privileges, she may the more readily secure the cordial cooperation of Japan, and even of China, impotent though that country now is, in her policy of opposition to Rusisan aggressiveness in the Celestial Empire. No matter what errors may have been committed in the Far Ea-st through inactivity and indifference, the Imperial Government has during the past few months succeeded in out-manoeuvring the Cz.ar’s minions. The discovery' of a secret treaty by which Russia sought to extort from China the cession of Manchuria after Russian assurances that such a treaty did not exist was a masterful stroke, and the successful resistance of Russia’s proposals at the prosent juncture will have greater innuenco upon the course of events in the Far East than now appears. On looking at the war bills China xx ill sec that she has more consideration to expect from Great Britain and Japan, and she may come to realise that it would be to her advantage to form an alhano© with those Powers and ask •hern to assist her in the organisation and training of an army, which with the moral support of Britain ana Japan, would enable her to resist for.all time further aggression by her nortnern toe.

It has been stated that the British ! Government contemplates distributing [the seats—some thirty—lreland will lose in the House of Commons owing to the i decline in her population» «imong "the i self-governing colonies. While favour- ! a ble to being heard in “the councils ot ! th 0 Empire,” the '.eople in th e British j dependencies we aid not approve of a. 'proposal of that kind. All a-re favourable to strengthening the bonds that unite the colonies to the Mother Country. but represetnation in the House of Commons is not a tp that end. What is wanted is the constitution of an Imperial Council of State, the members of which would have power to consider questions in i .iich the dependencies of th 0 Empire were directly interested. Since w e are free to make our own laws and govern ourselves independently of the House of Commons, it might be asked, “What more is required?” In matters of trade and defence Great Britain and her colonies are becoming year by year more necessary to each other, and on these subjects, apart altogether from those affecting the right of appeal in commercial and constitutional law suits to the Judicial Committee of the House of Lords and representation thereon, it has become more and more desirable that the views and opinions of colonists should be taken into account by the Imperial Government. In the event of a Continental war in which Great Britain might be the object of attack, Australia and New Zealand might be called upon to assist in the defence of India; and it is the opinion of the author ot “Greater Britain” that the mounted riflemen of these colonies would be invaluable for defending India in case that part of the Empire were attacked at a time when the, calls made upon the British fleets rendered it difficult to convey British soldiers there. An Imperial State Council comprising representatives of the various dependencies would be able to confer with Imperial representatives, and make such recommendations for'their mutual support and interest as would be in keeping with public sentiment and opinion in the colonies. The legal luminaries now in London, representative of the self-governing colonies, having considered .the question of the constitution of the final Court of Colonial Appeal, may possibly be entrusted with marking out the lines on which an Imperial State Council should he based.

Lord Salisbury has offended all parties by his proposed amendment of the Coronation Oath. Protestants are annoyed that the phraseology of the oath should he tampered with, and Catholic's are pained - that the alteration is not adequate, since the oath will still he offensive to themselves and insulting to their faith. Some men speak glibly about the alteration “being the thin end of the wedge,” “a relaxation of th G safeguards that ensure Protestant succession,” - and that “our noble constitution is in danger.” One leading Protestant clergyman has made himself ridiculous by denouncing as idolatrous the beliefs of another branch of the Christian Church. To indulge in such diatribes against a sister church but invites the heathen to cynicism, and to remark: “How these Christians love one another.” In giving expression to one’s convictions there is no need t 0 he offensive, and if the vigour and energy of one church is objectionable to another, the constitution of this country gives equal freedom to all to disseminate with all diligence the’tents of their religious faith; hut no good can result to any denomihation by denouncing in offensive language the doctrines of any particular church. Whether such denunciation comes from sovereign or subject it is equally objectionable, and while maintaining the existing law, the accession declaration ought to he purged of all offensiveness and insult to millions of our fellow-subjects. In other countries where Protestantism is dominant, sovereigns slip into their positions without much ado. As King of Prussia, the German Emperor does no more than swear that he will keep the constitution inviolable and govern according to the laws. As Emperor of Germany ho makes no declaration and takes no oath. The President of the United States may affirm or swear that he will regard and defend the constitution of his country. Turning t* other countries, it may he observed that in France President Louhet. like his predecessors, merely took his seat and received the congratulations of his friends. Emperors of Austria are required to swear to maintain the laws of the country and govern in accordance with them; .but as King of

Hungary. Francis Joseph swore solomnIly by “Almighty God, by the Virgin Mary, and bv all the Saints of God, to maintain the 1 " church, the laws, and the municipal freedom of the Kingdom.” His Protestant subjects were neither insulted nor denounced by the oath, as have been the Catholic people throughout the British Empire by the accession oath of Edward VII. The Kings of Hungary are, with the exception of the sovereigns of Great Britain, the only monarohs who are required to make a declaration affecting their religious intentions and the religious institutions within their realm. In protesting against purging tho oath of all denunciation of the Catholic religion, Protestants are perpetuating a species of intolcrence which if applied to themselves they would not endure. Toleration is part of the essential spirit of Protestantism, and when Protestants seek to retain insulting ]au guage—insulting t© many of their folio w-subieets—in the Coronation declaration, ill cannot be said that they have learned to put in practice the great and tolerant lessons of Christianity.