CURRENT TOPICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 8053, 6 March 1912, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

CABINET-MAKING. Says the "Lyttelton Times": Under no circumstances should the Cabinet appointments bo regarded as the rewards of mere party loyalty. Tho work that lies before the Government demands tho best brains and tho broadest sympathies that call be applied to it. We belieVo ourselves that tli* individual members will be found to be as ready a* Sir Joseph Ward in to sacrifice self-interest and personal ambition when tho occasion arises, and that there will bo no such scramble for,office as our Opposition friends are delighting to depict. GRAX'MA - IS SCARED. Wellington "Evening Post" got out after the New Zealand Federation of Labour in fine style la<f: night. It talked of the unfortunate syndicalists as being "red and rampant, ' having "n baleful eve and black brow." comprising ■"a coterie of despots," hurling "Jovian thunderbolts from a Vulcan smithy,"' "blowing their trumpets lustily . . to shatter the walls," using "lurid bluster, and "employing dynamite and gelignite ns lubricants for the industrial machine." Our venerable contemporary also proposes to ''break the back of tho syndicalist monstrnm horrendum"! Our opinion is that grau'ma is scared. •SLIP AND RECOVERY. The local Tory orjan records that amongst the telegrams which the leader of tho party received from an admirer "one deserves notice for its enigrammatio point." It, was as follows'. "'Your slip was t.hat of a man. Your recovery was that of a . gentleman." It is n pity that the incident has been recalled, but tho fact is that the "slip' was that of a man who in a moment of excitement admitted having made quite unwarrantable and damaging statemenls about the renutations of political opponents in the presence of witnesses. ■ The "recovery" was that of a gentleman who nrobably realised that there was such "a thing as a law -under which damages are recoverable for defamation of character. ANOTHER GAG. "Tho Dominion" newspaper evident]} imagines that its clientele is extremely credulous or ignorant. In its dishonest eagerness to try and score a- point oil the "vanishing Liberal party" of this country it tries to draw an analogy between thu civil services of America and New Zealand. As everybody knows who knows anything it is a bad American custom for incoming politicians to eject tho appointees of their predecessors and put their own touts and heelers' into the jobs. President Taft has declared his • intention to try and put a stop to this custom "in the interests of honesty and efficiency." There is nothing of this kind in New Zealand and never has been. A stranger who »wa» not aware of the "IJominion's" reputation for fouling the good name of this country in the interests of political partisanship might be led to an opposite conclusion.

ALI/IN TROUBLE. It is a strange coincidence that three notable leaders of Opposition parties have got their parties into a Difficult corner and weakened the power they had a few weeks ago by tactical blunders. Mr Massey's case is still fresh in. the mind. Over in New South Wales M* Wade hae attacked Speaker Willis—a very Napoleon of politics—instead of the Labour policy of the McGtowen Government. And' faT away in England the new leader of the Unionists, Mx Bonar Law, was drawn, during the debate in the House of Commons on the Address-in-Beply, into a declaration that if his party came into power the National Insurance Act—* markedly democratic measure—would be repealed! "Words are silver and 6ilence is golden" is a maxim that should be stamped in the bTain of the leader of a party in the political arena—Feilding "iitar."-

EXTEAOEDINAKY COXNCIDEKUiS. We heard of ft remarkable coincidence on Saturday evening (says the "Wanganui Chronicle’'); A Wellington gentleman- was’ spending a holiday in Auckland some weeks ago. While there he visited the theatre to witness a production of "The Chocolate Soldier.' The night being very, wet he took with him his umbrella.' which he placed in the cloak-room. A couple of days later he discovered that he had become possessed of another umbrella than his own, hut where the exchange had been mads ho could not think. - This umbrella he carriedlin rain and sun till Saturday evening I when, happening to be in Wanganui’, ho went to the Opera House to see "Miss Lancashire Limited." Heavy rain falling, his adopted umbrella accompanied him. He placed it- in * corner of the cloak-room, and a little later it was joined by another umbrella. Judge of the gentleman’s surprise after the play to learn that the second umbrella was his' own. Conversation showed that an Auckland gentleman who had been present at the performance of "The Chooo-

late Soldier” had had his umbrella taken, another being left, in its place. Like the Wellington visitor, he had given tip hope of seeing his property again and had regarded the now •■gamp" as bis own. Visiting Wanganui on Sat* urday, lie had gone to the Opera House to see “Miss Lancashire Limited,” and had placed his adopted umbrella along side what afterwards proved to be hia kng-lost rain protector. With bis.rightful property restored in so strange a manlier 'each of the visitors went hi/ way rejoicing.

MILES SAVED VIA PANAMA. The Hamburg shipowners, through their official organ, have published a statement (showing the saving that will bo effected by the Panama Canal. lier« arc eomc ot'the principal figure:— M«CS saved. Europe to San Francisco 6200 Montreal to Sydney JJ3B Europe to Valparaiso England to Australia 800 Kiißland to New Zealand 1600 Now York to Shanghai ■•■••••—" "00 New York to Australia and 1i,Z.... 2500 But the effect of the cannl can not 1* eiDi-csscd by statistics. . It will alter the currents of humanity and of human thought. It will bring Europe face to face with China and Japan. It "nili mean a line-up of the white and tii« yellow races.

OPTIMISM SPELLS SUCCESS. To a calm, conservative thinker ii would seem as if, since, it 16 largely a matter of personal choice, every man would pretcr to be a bearer ol pleasant, rather than unpleasant, news. As fixed as the pafct may appear to be, the future, at least, is ever very largely ill our keeping to be lighted with the Minshine of hope and faith and pleasant anticipation. Jt makes a great difference in ,his degree of achievement whether a man feels ho is going to win or fail. It also makes a dilterenoe whether his friends think one way or the- other. There is a world of truth bound up iu the words,: "They can who think they, can." The man who can is the man who will; the man who can't is the man who won't. How often the victor says: "I felt pretty sure I was going to win." It was that "feeling" that contributed to his success. Conditions, no matter what they may appear to be, are never hopeless unless we think them so.

SHISIII There are two mysteries bodies in Wei. ling-txjii. Tho one meets in the strike season and sends out muffled threats from some, dark eellar against tho leaders of Labour. It calls itself the "Citizen* Pretention Leasue." The other designates itself the "Women's Heform League." la holds its iurtivo conclaves periodically in. dome, congenial remoteness "far from the madding _ crowd, and hurls maledictions against the Liberal party in resolutions couched in tho language of a Plimmer's stops editorial—resolutions which are invariably" recorded in tho Yellow Journal us buying been "carried with enthusiasm. If n correspondent in to-day's jssuo is noi civen' to romance it would bo well for the executive of tho "Citizens ■ Protection Leasue" to form a deputation to tho "Women's lleform League' and ask them to promote a reforn. movement amongst the habitues of tho ladies (wo mean, of course, women s; gallery at Parliara6nt House.

EATS I

When the "four Auckland rats’’ went over to tho Conservative party in 18VP and threw the Grey Government out ol oflice they were: called some very ugly names. They found a valiant defender in Sir John Hall,, into whose comp they had gone. He said:

No one values more highly than I do tho loyal feeling which binds men together as members or what they believe to bo a party. It is a virtue? but if that feeling is carried so far as to lead men to sacrifice the Interests of (he country to party confederations, - then that'virtue'becomes, a ivico.j'H is at any i tlpio an unjustifiable thing to do. to give to the interests of party what is “meant for mankind.’’ My honourable friend tho member for Wintemata Ims risen superior to that feel* in*. He said very truly and feelingly that he knew well tho amount of abuse ho was bringing on his i head, but that ho was perfectly willing to suffer it m older that he might open this deadlock frbm which the country was Buffering. was the object of my honourable friend In coming to this isido of the House. Our Tory friends who aro .eo enamoured of precedents will please note that Messrs Payne and Hobertson have not given to the interests of party what was “meant for mankind/’ 'ihey knew the amount of abuse they would . bring on their i heads, but they were perfectly willing to suffer, that in order that they might “open tho deadlock irom which the country wne Buffering” 1

WHOLESOME SEVERITY. - It is always -wrong to gloat <HMr of imnrisonraeut ior ion if periods. Huh it is right to approve or revere sentences in deserved coses, hueh a case i» tho outrage reported trom Auckland. On readme ■ tho story one wonders whether it is not a story ot some notorious "push of the old byanev atamw straight from the .Rockeries or' the GJebe, or the older paiVs of Woolloomooloo. All the elements of the "push" outrage are there—wanton attack, brutal treatment, cowardly combination, filthy language, fiendish battering. Unhappily all Ithis occurred in Auck'-md. The magistrate was bo struck that he did not hesitate about his -course. JJe saw tins danger that threatens the northern city, and ho diltermmcd to put it down sharply. lie- did not- hesitate to consider any plea of hrst. oflence." for the conclusion is patent i that men guilty of such extreme of ruffianism must have oommilrted many 1 similar acts of cowardly villainy. Beforo i holding ft man's face to bo punched by a i crowd, before joining a crowd in kicking i and brutally maltreating individuals who hare been wantonly set upon, youths ! must havo graduated through all tho deeps of blackguardism.