TOPICS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4426, 5 August 1901, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

AN AGRICULTURAL PRISON. An important question is raised by Mf Garvey, Governor of the Terrace Prison, in his annual report to Colonel Hume. Should there be an agricultural prison established where the prisoners would bn instructed in that branch of work, he says, the knowledge they would acquire them could certainly be turned to account on their release. Mr Garvey suggests that an officer of the Agricultural Department should have charge of all operations, such as growing young trees for the colony and elsewhere, and for a natural nursery; onions and all garden produce to b© sent to, and sold at, a central Government store or market, and in a short time, when a thorough supply winter and summer were available, the Chinaman would be wiped out of the market. Attention could also be given to the rearing of pigs and fowls. Employment of this kind would help prisoners after their discharge to turn to advantage the knowledge they had gained, if they were so disposed. There ought to be in connection with the agricultural prison a brick, tile, and pipemaking mauufaotory; also manufactories for the making of rough prison blankets and material for woollen garments; and, moreover, these articles could in time be made for the asylums and other Government departments. SECRET DIVORCES. The following extract from the Napier “ Telegraph ” is, in view of a discussion in the Wellington Supreme Court on

Friday, decidedly apropos;— The time has i;ono by. perhaps, when it was pertinent to nay that tho end of our efforts at representative government is to get twelve men into a jury box The jury system is itself largely a menace to so eicty now, and would bo still more so if secrecy could ho ensured for Court proceedings. But if justice is to he done, the time for maintaining tho necessity of full publicity fur all legal processes before public •functionaries will never go by. Those who aifect to doubt this usually take their stand upon divorce oases. These, they say. ought not to be reported. If by that they mean that unseemly reproduction of details not affecting the main issue should not tako place, we agree with thorn. That, however, is a matter which must ho left to tho judgment of the press, for in every divorce case somebody’s reputation is at stake, and to permit of divorce cases being heard in secret would he offering a premium to s ooundrclism. There is always in every such case at least one person accused. Society is interested in seeing that ho or she is treated fairly. And while society pays Judges to sit in buildings which society builds, and administer laws which society makes, society—that is, the people as a whole—Jias the right to know all it wishes to know concerning its own institutions and how they are utilised. But history tends to repeat itself and even at this stage of the -world’s progress, and even in this country, ther o are people who, while willing to admit in the abstract that Star Chambers and Councils of Ten are bad, would be by no means unwilling to sob up little Star Chambers of their own.

DISCONTENTED TELEGRAPHISTS. It seems that there is widespread discontent among the telegraphists of Wei. lington, and th~t a movement has been started, involving about seventy of their number, with a view to having their grievances redressed. So strong is the feeling among the “lightning jerkors”that some of them talk of ‘'striking” as a means of drawing prominent notice to tho conditions under which they labour. Calmer counsels have, however prevailed, and aa a result a meeting to agitate tho matter was hold at tho Trocadero on Saturday evening. Tho principal cause of dissatisfaction ventilated at tho meeting was the xocssively long hours which telegraph operators have to be on duty. At busy times like tho present, it was stated to bo no uncommon thing for men to have to sit at the instrument's for seven hours continuously snatching a hurried meal without rising from their seats. Cadets about seventeen years of age are also, it was alleged, kept at work from 5.30 in tho afternoon till one or Iwo o’clock on the morning following, at which hour some of them hays to walk considerable distances to their homes. Complaints were also made of the imperfect ventilation of the operators’ room and the want of conveniences such as are insisted upon in the case of private employers of labour. In short, if the statements made are to be relied upon, th o Government is " sweating ” the employees in the Telegraph Office, whose wages, it may bo added, are lower than in other departments of the public service. Tiro meeting passed a resolution appointing a deputation of five to wait upon Mr Gray, Secretary of the Post Office, and, if necessary, upon Sir Joseph Ward, PostmasterGeneral, bringing these matters under their notice, and respectfully asking that improved regulations he introduced. Doubtless the disabilities under which telegraphists labour are examples of the evil that is “ wrought for want of thought,” and the responsible authorities will not fail to afford redress when thes o things are brought under their notice. BRITISH AND COLONIAL DIERSAt the reception to the Taranaki troopers who have returned from the front, held at New Plymouth on Thursday night. Lieutenant-Colonel Davies, in the course of a speech, said:—Don’t let anyone get tho idea that because the irregular troops have done well in South Afri_ oa they ar 0 perfect soldiers. They are not. The English soldier is the finest in the world—as has been proved time and again—hut he is recruited from the streets ; ho never has had to think for himself: h 0 has always been within hail, as it were, of a policeman, who can tell him where he is, tell him where ho wants to go, tell him the time. Whereas our men from their earliest years have had to think for themselves, have had duties and responsibilities which have made them self-reliant. This is why they can be turned loose to fight the Boers in their own way, and make a success of it. People argued, from occurrences in South Africa, that drill and discipline take the individuality out of a soldier. -.They wor e wrong. The individuality,, as he had explained, was not there to begin with. Put drill and discipline on top of our men’s “thinking,” and you would get finer soldiers than, the world has ever yet seen.