CURRENT TOPICS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXX, Issue 6679, 30 November 1908, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

TRAINING SHIP DARTFORD. The whole of tho ship's company and the cadets of the Union Llompany’s training ship Hartford will join the vessel to-day. The last contingent of boys from tho South, together with tight A.B.’s, arrived by tho Monowai yesterday afternoon. The boys are wearing neat uniforms, with (lie company's regulation brass buttons. The .command of the vessel will bo retained by ■ Captain A. Cooper. Tho list of officers is not yet announced. On Thursday 'next tho vessel will bef vowed from Wellington to Kaipara. to load timber for Australia. It is not definitely settled, but it is expected, that if the tug Terawhiti can return from Greymouth in time she will take on tho bowing of tho Hartford. DEPARTURE OF THE WARSHIPS. At 2 o'clock on Saturday afternoon the flagship Powerful with Vice-Admiral Sir Richard Poore, accompanied by the sec-ond-lass cruiser Challenger and tho third-class cruiser Pegasus, crept slowly away from their moorings in tho stream on their way to Lyttelton. The warships will remain at Lyttelton until Wednesday, December 9th, when they will proceed to Akaroa and Dunedin. They will spend Christmas at Auckland, find will leave that port on January 13th for Sydney. During their stay at Lyttelton H.M.n. Powerful will bo at anchor in tho stream off Camp Bay, H.M.S. Challenger will berth at No. 3 wharf, and' H.M.S. Pegasus at the Gladstone pier. Vice-Admiral Poore is, on this occasion, making his first visit to Lyttelton. A COMPLICATED POSITION. Formality ran riot in an amusing and harmless way last week in Auckland. A newly-constituted Drainage Board, representing a number of local authorities, is mainly officered from tho City Council, and as tho town mere (Mr H. W. Wilson) has been appointed temporary secretary to the board, he will have tho pleasing duty of writing letters in one capacity to himself in another capacity. "Yes," remarked tho chairman, who is the Mayor of Auckland, when the curious position was pointed out, “and I will also inform the Mayor of what has taken place to-night." It might Gave been added that tho newly-appointed engineer to tho board (Mr W. E. Bush) would also confer, as required, with the city engineer, which office is also held by Mr Bush. VOTES IN THE BALANCE. Mr A. R. Barclay, whoso defeat by so narrow a majority for Dunedin North was one of the campaign's surprises, is strongly of opinion that at least seven votes apparently in his favour had been improperly disallowed. “Of three absent voters' permits," says tho defeated candidate, "two were cast for Mr Thomson and one for myself. Mr Thomson's were allowed, on, the ground that an election was proceeding in the district in which the voters happened to be on Tuesday last, but nline was disallowed because there was no second ballot proceeding in the electorate .where this vote was cast.” Four cases of plural voting were discovered, and legal proceedings may follow. The number of informal papers at tho final count was twelve. As already reported, Mr Barclay will ask for a recount before a Magistrate. METEOROLOGICAL JOURNAL FOR NEW ZEALAND. The desirability of obtaining a larger amount of useful meteorological data than is at present collected, although the number of those taking an interest in this matter is Very considerable, has induced the Government to undertake .no publication of a monthly Meteorological Bulletin or Journal, to be issued for January, 1909, and which it is proposed shall contain a map showing the rainfall of the Dominion, also a statement of the amount recorded at each observing-station, tho variations of atmospheric pressure, as recorded by barographs, plana showing these changes and also those in the direction of the wind during the passage of remarkable atmospheric disturbances, and a more ox tended description of tho climatic changes of each month than is at present possible. Captain Edwin, Director of the meteorological office has, therefore, prepared particulars ns to somo of the observations required for this purpose, and has circularised a number of those likely to ho interested in the project, and it is hoped that with tho assistance of present observers and of the public generally the journal may become not only useful and interesting to all classes of the community, but that, with the data already on record, it will enable the climatic conditions of tho Dominion, which, are so favourable to all classes of industry, to be more widely known. OPPOSITION GAMMON. The residents of this part of New Zealand are (says tho “Oamaru Mail") indirectly interested in the attemx>ts which are being made to saturate the public mind with tho idea that it is dangerous to have a Government which is able to get entirely its own way, that a strong Opposition is desirable, and that, therefore, the people should always vote to put in as many as possible of the candidates which avow themselves opposed to the Government. If this stupid, but cunning, gospel is preached long enough, it may have some effect on tho unthinking, of which there ard, alas, too many in every country. Hence our protest. Such deceit was intended to induce electors to cast their votes for Opposition members in such numbers as to give it a majority and turn the scale against the Government. Electors who werq quite satisfied with the Government’s actions, or who believed that, though not immaculate-, it was the best Administration now available, were implored, even by reputable newspapers, which laid claim to honesty and wisdom, to, turn their backs on their party and Government because it was dangdroua that an all-powerful Government should be in office, or because the Government was so strong that it did not require any help and the Opposition wanted all if could get to render it as effective as it ought to be. If the people believe that they would be more fortunately situated with the Opposition in office let them try tho experiment. We wish we could consign the rabid Oppositionists to anew country where they could have Mr Massey's rule to their fill, and the freehold of everything—where the right of the indiytea?- 1 .canwuputa. would be,

surrendered to tho autocratic will of t despot of the first magnitude and a constellation of favoured satellites; whore (ho worker would have no right to anything hut his shovel and his hoe; when* the farmers would rove! in tho exactions of tho untrammelled mortgagee.

IRIT OF THE MAORI CONGRESS. Enthusiastic testimony to the excellent* spirit prevailing among the members of uu Maori Congress, held in Wellington last winter, is given by tho principal ot Wesley College, Auckland (Rev. J. U. Simmouds) in ids annual report. “Tho spirit of tho Congress was," he states, “deeply Christian, and no altar was erected to secularism. Tho young Maori party were in the forefront of everything, and it would bo no exaggeration to say tnut their efforts wore brilliant. Tho Cenigma could not legislate; but on .tho vitali questions of land tenure, education, said- 1 ration, and industry, and on tho lasir practical ono of i'clyircsinn ethnology and language, it voiced the hopes and' longings of tho bust and wisest of Uio Maoris, and of tho best and wisest of their European friends. It marked a \ groat advance in Maori thought and sentiment. Twenty years ago these* people wore disinclined to work and unwilling to send their children to schools where industrial training was part of tho curriculum. At this Congress thd opinion was often avowed and never challenged that the Maori can and must work. Such an avowal and admission at such a Congress amounted to a declaration of war against sloth and inaction. The meaning of it all for tho secondary native schools, and especially for those that have always insisted upon industrial training as essential to the uplifting ami redemption of this people, was unmistakable." PUBLIC WORKS. , Tho Hon. W. Hall-Jones, interviewed by a "Lytloifon Times" reporter, expressed his entire satisfaction with tho condition in which he was leaving tho various public works that have provided so large a part of his administrative duties for some years past. , “All our works are going along splendidly,'' he remarked. "I am sending additional men up to the Cheviot railway works as fast as they can he scoured, and tho lino will make good progress this financial year. Tho plans lor the Waiau bridge are being prepared, and tenders will bo called for the work at an early date. Tho Midland line is also being pushed on, in order to provide rail carriage in connection with the tunnel works." The Minister was emphatic iu contradicting the statements that havo been made concerning tho development of weaknesses on tho North Island Main Trunk line. He had heard of nothing to indicate that tho condition of the line was not in every way satisfactory, ho said. Tho final completion had been delayed somewhat because tho heavy sleepers necessary for tho work were not available, but within a few months tho Public Works Department would bo ia a position to band over to tho working railways branch the last section of the line. The proposed rapid through service would bo inaugurated before that date, and in tho meantime the line was already having its effect in opening up tho valuable areas in the interior of tho North Island. . HARD TIMES IN JAPAN. The Tokio correspondent of the Saa Francisco “Argonaut" writee : —A disliko for Americans has been slowly filtering through all classes of Japanese society for some time, but not until this year • has it reached tho shopkeepers, who, devoid of the tact and polish of their betters, frankly Confess it. _ There arc several reasons for this animosity. In tho first place, America, justly-or unjustly, is held responsible for the present hard times in Japan. The recent Wall street panic, besides cruelly affecting money markets tho world over, has impoverished and kept at home the majority of those wealthy Americans whom Japanese dealers have long considered their natural prey. Worse still, it has taught tho few millionaires travelling abroad m spite of adverse circumstances caution in spending their money. Gone are tho good old days when oil 1 kings and pork packers bought one dollar trays for ono hundred dollars, when railroad magnates found everything "too cheap because tho gold dollars they brought over mysteriously doubled by the subtle rulings of, exchange when turned into yen. Now globe-trotters from "the States _ declare, everything is “too dear." They have loomed to oommit : thfe unpardonable sin of bargaining and bring a shrewd business instinct . into their Pleasure. Used in moderation, this shrewdness would be justifiable, even praiseworthy. But overworked, it sometimes proves disastrous in Japan. A case in point happened a few weeks ago. when a rash citizen from Missouri saw a pair of pxoepUonally fine vases in a Tokio exhibition and priced them. Tho artist, their creator and a man of reputation, said, "I wo thousand yon." : "Well, I guess I'll give fifteen hundred,” replied the man from Missouri; winking at lus wife as it to say, "You don’t catch tho old man napping." Before he could draw out his IMckei-book th<j irate Japanese, indignaiufc at the idfra. of bargaining over thesd beautiful children of his hands, like another Virginias, struck them down on the spot and turned away with such a' look of contempt as only a Japanese can summon at need.