EVENTS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5732, 30 October 1905, Page 4

EVENTS OF THE DAY.

CRIMINAL DEFAMATION. By tho .Criminal Code Amendment Act, as passed through both branches of tho Legislature, a wholesome chock is provided against that licentiousness of platform utterance which had become a public scandal. It has never been found incompatible witli real liberty to place well-defined limits to freedom of speech and action. On tho contrary, it has been found necessary in many ways to impose general restraints, which arc not required for tho ninctyand nine, hut only for tho refractory one; and tho liberties of tho majority aro widened, rather than restricted, by laws of this kind. As originally introduced, the measure making defamation 3 criminal offence was highly objectionable, and wo condemned it in strong terms. It would, for example, have had tho effect of making every person liable to criminal prosecution who slandered or ridiculed another in the course of heedless gossip or in the boat of anger. As tho law now stands, tho remedy for private slander is by civil proceedings for damages, while tor public slander, as defined in the act, tho aggrieved person may proceed by civil or criminal process, or by both. The pleas of “veritas” and “public interest,” as heretofore, will justify tho making of defamatory statements. This ought to give ample freedom for the exposure and denunciation of public wrong-do-ing. What is now imperatively required is a relaxation cf tho harassing restrictions placed upon the newspaper press, and wo rely upon tho Premier to. fulfil his promise in this regard by bringing down a bill next year on tho lines of the Queensland law.

THE RUSSIAN RAILWAYS. It is clear that the conclusion of pcaoo with, the Mikado has by no moans put an end to the troubles of the Czar—indeed, it 3 may ho that it has emphasised them by bringing thorn nearer home. From the present and former capitals, the great cities of St. Petersburg and Moscow; From Poland and Finland, ever the hotbeds of seething discontent, and from Odessa, the scene of the dramatic Black Sea mutiny last Juno, right across to Siberia and Central Asia, the railway employees arc leaving their work, ‘’for political reasons”; and the comprehensive network of railway lines in Russia is becoming Worse than useless. It is significant that the last lino working was tliat connecting Russia with Finland, because there have been persistent reports during the past few months of the surreptitious importation of arms and ammunition into Finland, and already one train has reached St. Petersburg from that quarter with arms for the revolutionaries. This morning we have news that “traffic on the Russian section of the Finnish railway is suspended.” It is probable that the authorities have completed the entire cessation of railway traffic by closing down this lino to prevent the further carriage of rifles for the rebels. The situation has assumed such serious proportions that Count do Witte —who may bo fairly described as the Czar's right-hand man, for the moment, at any rate—declares that unless the revolt is suppressed, civil war must bo proclaimed between the strikers and the people; and he admits that the Government may possibly fall. The Count, however, may find’it a very difficult matter to range the people and the strikers on opposite sides, for the reason that the action of the strikers is certain to receive a largo measure of sympathy from the people. Probably there is no surer way (as Count do Witte, himself at one time practically a railway porter, must know) to cause internal disorder and disaster than to stop or dislocate a country’s railway service. The effects of such a proceeding are so immediate and farreaching that a country’s industrial life becomes immediately paralysed, and it will require almost superhuman efforts on the part of those admittedly able men. Count do Witte and Prince IChilkoff (Minister of Railways) to meet the present crisis. The possibilities attending a general strike in Russia are enormous, even if,there were no other disorder in the country; but the matter assumes a far graver complexion ■when it is remembered that the railway trouble is but an outward and visible sign of social, political, and industrial revolt that, judging from our cables in this issue, has been fanned into a mighty revolution. Tho latest return available gives the length of Russia’s railways as 30,177 miles (in 1903), and the revenue for last year was estimated at £47,300,000.