PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 11797, 28 July 1900, Page 4

PASSING NOTES.

If there were no submarine cables, and if war correspondents were an institution yet to be invented, we should be saying to each other at this moment that the war was happily ended. The armies of the two Republics have been beaten and scattered ; their capitals aro in our possession ; their Governments have taken to flight; the Queen's flag has been hoisted, the Queen's authority proclaimed. If there were no cable, that would be our war news up to date; any further idea we might form would, be that Lord liooerts is engaged in traiiquillising his conquests. And that idea would be correct. Spite of the cable, with its daily budget of racings and chasings, and its very latest " British disaster," I maintain that the war is over, and that the present business of Lord Roberts is merely that of traiiquillising—l like that word! —of tranquillizing the territories he lias won. It is true, no doubt, that Do Wet ant| others will not be tranquillised till they are either knocked on the head or caught; also that the rjrocess of tranquillising will cost us some labour and entail upon us some losses—that here and there an outpost of ours will be cut up, and here and there a railway wrecked. This we • may count on; and yet it remains true that the Avar as a war is over. Whilst saying this I admit that the Boer view of the situation may be different. The only conceivable explanation of Boer obstinacy at this stage is the existence of a belief that intervention is still possible— that France and Russia, say, may come to blows with Britain about China.' and open thus a way to the setting up again of Boer independence. Which belief- may Heaven confound! All the same, it is much to be desired that the operations of Lord Roberts as tranquilliser were so easily ended.

After reading the doings and sayings of the House this week anent the Governor, his office and function, his rewards and emoluments, I have come to the conclusion that a colonial Governorship doesn't attract me. It is a poor profession to bring a boy up to." A Governor of New Zealand generally goes away poorer than when he came ; in particular the last two Governors went away because they couldn't afford the expense of staying longer. Nor is this the worst of it. If there is any question in the House touching his Excellency's salary, his Excellency's ears will be made to tingle. One hon. member will inform him that he is useless, a " mere figurehead," an " official automaton "; another, that he is worse than useless since he blocks the way of a better man—the Elective Governor whose advent is necessary to the setting up of a proper New Zealand republic. This week, in the midst of much pleasant talk such as the foregoing, Mr G. W. Russell, of Riccarton, remarked amiably, that he had not yet had the pleasure of meeting the Governor personally—a hint to his "Excellency of vice-regal duties neglected. On the other hand, Mr M'Lachlan, an ill-conditioned person who ought to. keep himself in the background, said that "as to the present Governor, he did not know the man, and he supposed that he never should." In which supposition I sincerely hope that he is right. The huniiliatiqns of a colonial Governor are many, no doubt, but he is certainly entitled to draw the line somewhere short of acquaintance with a Mr M'Lachlan. .

The hon. member whose political principles' . demand an elective Governor, and this as the symbol of a true and genuine republic, is Mr John Hutcheson, of Wellington, a politician whose experience of elections, and of improper influences therein, ought to have sickened him, one would think, of anything and everything " elective." . I had thought somewhat kindly of Mr Hutcheson as being the victim of Ministerial persecution; but,.really I shall have to give him up. He has taken to cant, and that of a ;very nauseous kind. He cants of a "republic"—as if we hadn't one already, and. that a better republic than any other extant. Tlte tree is known by its fruit. Is there anything worse in modern history than the record of the French Republic with its military dictatorships and despotisms, its coup d'etat, its Communist revolt? Or has the Republic of the United States much to boast of with a civil war to its debit that cost a million lives, not to speak of Presidents assassinated, and labour troubles quelled by rifle fire. -.-, Or perhaps it is the South American Republics, with, their revolutions as periodic as the seasons, that Mr Hutcheson desires to imitate; or the Swiss, that exists in virtue of its insignificance and is consoled by the plunder of tourists? Which of these is the ideal towards which Mr Hutcheson would have us move?, Does he want to see the Governorship a party office, with Mr Seddon running for it, and a population that, up to the present, is tolerably peaceful and united, torn into factions, half of us trying to put him in and the other half to keep him out? If this is what he wants, I despair of Mr Hutcheson as of a mere canting demagogue deceived by his own phrases.

That the overture of the Dunedin Presbytery—or a committee of it —anent " gambling" in shares received but short shrift in the Council of the Churches I am inclined to regret. Great possibilities lay before it. We were promised, as I gather from the report, an inquisition into the complicity of Sunday school teachers and others —but especially of Sunday school teachers—with the Stock Exchange and the vagaries of the. share list; we should have had it proved conclusively that to buy dredging shares to-day at 20s and sell them to-morrow at 15s is a reprehensible transaction and fatal to morality. Tha Rev. Mr Sutherland, if he hadn't been pulled up on a point of order, would have proceeded to add a new commandment to the code of Christian ethics and make a new sin. Why did the Council of the Churches stop him? It is true that there are sins enough already, and that there is no visible urgency for creating new ones. It is also true that dredging shares are already quite sufficiently low, and that any attempt to further " bear." the market by discouraging investment is to be deprecated. Still, as a mere matter of curiosity, a discussion in the Council of the Churches on the ethics of share-buying would have been welcome. I should par : ticularly like to know what it is that rrfarks transactions in mining stock as " gambling." whilst omitting to put the, same stigma on transactions in wool, or oats, or sacks of potatoes. Also how it comes about that the dredging industry is especially inimical to Sunday school teachers. The Council of the' Churches, for some reason best known to itself, has closed the door against inquiry on these points. I may, however, remind the Key. Mr Sutherland that it is still possible for him to explain.