The Time that Passes

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 7865, 29 July 1911, Page 11

The Time that Passes

By Seiavttn Hiper. Onco on a time a buzzing Gnat Klung Mahmoud's Uan/ol on the n<we. The "real Uvast KnorU’d. and with that The Insect's voice protesting ro*o: "31 ark how this creature Un*e ;# splenetic, 2vo.tonU a conscientious critic. The Camel, feeling still the bite. Scoffed. "Hies* me. ci‘> 1 hour aright? The Wasp's a nnfty thins, but that A cirrmu-dance to what tho tiiiat Ih! X might” - have rased and straightway nMiim. But Wliat'3 the good: Suc-h injects, be it understood. Are, after all. beneath my notice! Thu Moral's surely very dear. Hut still 1 may easiest it here. The Lightning hashes in the sky In devastating? majesty: Hut near at hand the Squib aflame little btjnkin'? sparks doth squirt. Then lizzies out withqiiLcn shame And lies unheeded in the dirt. —Syed Yueuf bin Ahm. Trams and Tads. Till 1 , little pother about the Govern- * raotifn new tramway regulations lias fizzled sneedily to its destined end. A secret conference of tramways people has sat in Wellington, amid much blare o? loud advertisement and promised droning of the Town Hall organ. the Minister has expressed the Government s perfect \vUUngness to consider every reasonable suggestion made by the conference; which is exactly what, all sane people anew the Government wanted to do from the first. Otherwise the position is just as it was, and tile Minister stands to his guns. '.There was an attempt to hold a public meeting, at which it wiis fondly hoped that the citizens would express perfect, sympathy with the perturbed .Bnmble and awful indignation at the wickedness of the Government us shown in tho new regulations, but nothing came of it. It is a little hard,, you ‘know. There was such hox>o of furious events- One of our contemporaries eclipsed ail previous efforts and expected a multitude of citizens to arrive. It is. very sad to escape notice, when one docs so persistently attempt to make a striking noise. Incidentally, the Minister has roundly rebuked tho acting-Alayor of Wellington, Air Smith, which also was to bo expected. The City Council 10colved from tho .Department a draft copy of regulations, marked '‘•Confidential"; and this privileged document Air Smith straightway communicated to a single newspaper and raised loud bowels about tbo infamy of tbo Minister, I don't know even yet how Air Smith imagines that such behaviour can be justified, and, 1 can’t tell him how it must appear to ordinary men without prejudice; bat the Minister made no bones about it. | Mr McKenzie is a blunt man. There is plenty of the milk of kindness in him, but ho has a downright habit of expressing his opinions -wit ho tic dilution op subterfuge. .Surely nobody could be In: any doubt concerning the opinions of a Minister when an important and confidential departmental document is pub-i lished by a person; entrusted with it.| In any case, M r McKenzie left Mr Snuthj la no doubt. Briefly, he declined to' have anything whatever to say to Mr Smith. This was a very good things because otherwise Mr McKenzie might have been inclined to say too which would have been a''pity. Why* pretend? Frankly, you know, Air Smith Is quite without excuse. He is holding temporarily a responsible office to which he has not been appointed by tho citizens; and in such circumstances any 7-n should hold his office discreetly. But Mr Smith's sole aim and / object! seems to have been to make himself con-i epicuous. Well, Mr McKenzie has helped him in that. Why should he complain?

The Public. As to this'tramway matter in general, there is one point that has largely been overlooked. The plain and obvious fact; is that the majority of the citizens, favour the greater part of the Government's new -regulations. In Wellington that is markedly so, j>ir "McKenzie waa not talking wildly when he expressed bis opinion about , the Wellington tramway system. Every man who uses the trama at all may easily furnish instances of dreadful meonvaaisnee. The system is compact and easy to handle; but .the convenience of the public seems to bo the thing oonddjxed. The publicv in point of fact, is subjected to every ignominy of. inconvsniance and annoyance. i have spoken before of the dif*. gus ting overcrowding Hint takes place, greatly to the disadvantage of people who have the misfortune <o live in remote tram-suburbs. I have spoken of the vastly idiotic arrangement which, makes it necessary for people living iuj Seatoun and Miramar to abstain fromj going to any theatre or place of amuse-* ment in town five nights every, week.. Only the other day I saw a crowd of! ladies bandied out to stand in the mud! of a bleak road and await the arrival of* 1 a worker’s car already overfull. I am assured that the same thing happens* • every day. Eat all protest is useless* • Argument and pleading are alike wasted., i If a minimum faro of threepence was ; cluugod on the long routes during the ’ busy hours, no one would suffer, and the people for whoso benefit the distant * tracks are laid would have some oppor- ■ tunity of benefiting by them. A manage- ’ ment - that permits trams to to bo persistently crowded by people living pa the borders of the town is, to that extent, behind requirements. Mr McKenzie was really very moderate. A municipality that declares that it cannot work undar conditions that are rigidly imposed on the profitable private system in Auckland and would show to better advantage if it nanded tho-tracks over to private enterprise. These are ! things to be considered while the mal- ■ contents am issuing ♦’heir advertisements and hearing' the organ play. The whole story of municipal car management in Wellington would be very, strange and , queer, if one had time or patience to toll . ifc. . Personality. j Ono word more. Grantxpg, for the «iko of argument, that Mr McKenzie may have been in the wrong when he . trounced Mr Smith (which I do not for 1 a moment admit), the fact still remains * that an amazing lot ■ of nonsensical j tu addle has been written about the inci- t dent, .Mr McKenzie never set up for j o timid or ladylike person. He is a man blunt and loiest, and the things { lie believes ho is apt to say without j reservation. Expressions which would j be shocking In Dr Findlay, to take one j instance, might easily be quite moderate c in the case of Mr McKenzie. You will ( remember the chap in Dickens who used , a

to roar ferocious objurgations while a canary perched on his shoulder and pocked at his ear. In a certain sense, Mr McKenzie is that sort of man. i do not for a moment moan that he intended anything less than he conveyed in his rebuko of *his insignificant Mr Smith; but I do say that what has been i©presented as the •‘brutality' 1 ' of Mr ' McKenzie was not brutality at all, but tho outspoken indignation of a man who Reasonably believed that he had been treated with extraordinary lack of consideration. in. these circumstances, if Air McKenzie had been conciliatory and sleek, ae would not, have been Mr McKenzie at all; ho would have been just tho sort of hypocrite that Mr ■UcKpuzia never was. ii a liberal politician wrote me a confidential letter, and X straightway took it for publication to the office of some querulous organ of the Opposition, I should not expect the Liberal politician to be at all polite to me when wo' next met. Or, if I did expect that, I «hould bo an even gre-ater fool than I am. I should love to say precisely what I think f people who publish confidential documents; but I can't —these are fastidious times, and 1 daro say that at, tho last pinch I also am a very respectable person.