PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 12415, 26 July 1902, Page 4

PASSING NOTES.

Mi' J. G, Woolley "in explanation adorns two columns in yesterday'* Daily Times. We are nothing the wiser. Mv Woolley reveals himself as essentially the man we took him to be—an illogical emotionalist, which is precisely the kind of man a typical prohibitionist is bound to be. A gowl part of the "explanation'' is taken up with Mr Woolley's " beliefs"; and there is a charm in Mr Woolley's beliefs. For the moment we are back with the -March Hare and the Mad Hatter of "Alice in Wonderland.'

I believe that British law aud British valour have been the two greatest agencies in the civilisation of the world and the uplift of humanity, but 1 say to you that the subserviency of British law and British valour to the liquor traffic is the most infamous thiii" in history. Which is to say , that British law and British valour are and the same time supremely good and supremely bad ; the greatest civilising agency, and yet withal, in their subserviency to the liqiior traffic, guilty of " the most infamous thing in history." Nothing but superlatives will serve the turn of prohibition rhetoric, and the more flatly these superlatives clash the more effective prohibition logic, To this specimen the remaining articles ill Mr Woolley's credo conform; take any you like,—for delightful inconsequence one' is as good as another. 1 believe the Prince of Wales's visit weakened the Imperial sentimer.t. A little boy olid girl brother and. sister, in New' Zealand, toiTl me they shook hands with him, and that he v.-as "Just like other people." Proof conclusive! Evidently the Imperial sentiment required a Prince with wings, or marching through the country in crown and sceptre. Once more: I believe that every British colony advances towards independence. " Independence," quoth he; and " advances towards" it! This is the typical one-eved Yankee notion—Britain a despotism, the colonies in servitude; whilst, as Artemns Ward puts it, the earth turns on her axletree wunst in 24 hours, subieck to the constitooshun of the United States.

To an American of this kidney, the creature of ignorance and prejudice, facts appeal in vain. He sees only what lie brings eyes to see, and no more of that than the limitations of his provincial mind permit him. Ml' Wool ley, peregrinating New Zealand from end to end, discovered that New Zealand loyalty was "imaginary m the main." Secretly New Zealand yearns for independence," arid is even " advancing towards" it, Try to make him understand that New Zealand has more independence than Massachusetts, since Massachusetts does not make the laws under which it lives, whereas New Zealand does; that New Zealand has more independence than it wants or cares to keep, so that at- this moment Mr Seddon's special endeavour is to get rid of some of it, by renouncing the privilege, exercised by Yankees and other aliens, of taxing British goods-try to bring these facts under the vision of a political myope like Mr Woolley, and you waste your labour. To him Britain is the Britain of George 111, the Australasian colonies today are as the American colonies were before the War of Independence. Quite in keeping with the American habit of viewing all things British through War-of-Independ-ence spectacles is Mr Woolley's notion of the situation we had to deal with in South Africa. His opinions about.annexation and the rest are identical,, he savs, with the opinions held by Sir Joseph Cliamberlainin 1881. Convenient date! In 1881 there was no oppressing and despoiling of Outlanders, for the.reason that as yet there were no Outlanders to oppress and despoil. Mr Woolley is only 20 years behind the times—a trifling anachronism in a reformer who. makes it his special mission to preach up. as a cure for drunkenness principles of monasticism borrowed from the middle ages,

Between celebrity and notoriety there is no very, dear division ; the two things melt into each other; occasionally each in turn may ,;be' .'predicated of/ one and tlie same individual. Mr Seddon, for example, is one and the same individual, find yet withal is alternately a celebrity and a notoriety. It was as V well-attested celebrity • that lie landed in Natal. Read of his majestic stepping down the- gangway 'and marching up the wharf as seen and described by a sympathetic Natal reporter.

It was a full quarter of an hour before the man—the MAN that is-came down the ladder length, and all this time the Mavor was waiting patiently. But . when lie did come, he was welcomed moat heartily; cheer followed cheer as the greatest colonial alive, now Rhodes is gone, walked up the wharf. After, the. handshake with the Mayor and. Mrs Acutt, many presentations ensued, it is something to take,the hand of a. man'who embodies in himself the true spirit of Emipire. It is an honour, and that cannot be gainsaid. 1 And ho is a- man, indeed, from tho toes of. him to the top. of his-head.- He is 57 years of.pge, and this longth of an arduous, honourable, and profitable life has left him vigorous and young,' Jiis head is lnnssive and lcomiio, Ho has shaggy biows, under which the' keen eyes, a little pouched now, still hold their own old alertness, A white moustache follows on a strong, straight nose, but it does not conceal the kindliness and humour of. tho moiitli. A white pointed beard comes .below all. The whole of the ui;iu is Todolent of'strength and exuberance'; he conBlinies his days with gusto, and relishes events as they pass. In the ar'owd'that pressjd-about mm, he stood out, he towered, he overshadowed, He is a. big man physically, with mighty shoulders, and morally he is colossal.

Ihis Mr Soddon could be no other than the celebrity; yet the same man, by the time lifi landed in-England, Lad relapsed into a mere notoriety—the "notorious Mr Seddon," or even the "notorious Dick Seddon:" The newspapers, all save the. painfully respectable sort,. made,, fun of him, .poured scorn on .him, even punning upon his name, which, :as the Americans would say, ivas playing ifc very low down indeed: It is the same - ambiguity all through. There.is a Mr.Seddon.wlm is lodged at the Hotel Cecil, holds receptions.' attends reviews, is seen at the opera, confers with the Colonial Secretary, dines with the Prince. That is the celebrated Mr Seddon. And yet, if we may believe the qables, there is another Mr Seddon—another,, and, yet the same—who' denies, disclaims, and repudiates the whole sorry business of "the national purse." There never was any national purse; or, if there was. lie never heard of it: or, if be -heard of it, lie never got it. What is more, • he doesn't expect to get it, and won't have it. The.-story of a purse, first to last, is "unfounded." Too plainly we ; here hit upon the o'd, original, notorious-Dick—the Seddon we know. Ami this, I am very, much afraid, is the Seddon that will come back to us.

That- is, if any Seddon comes Back at all. No Seddon, celebrity or notoriety, appears in the 'honours list, an omission that urgently need* explaining. How they explain it on the West Coast, a region which may bo described, without offence, I hope, as .the hole of the pit from which' our Richard was digged, will be seen in the following letter: Dom " Civis,"—As yon and all your leading brother journalists seem to b"e in the dark as to what honour .the King is keeping up his sleeve for oiir own King Richard, I suggest that lie may be made suzerain King 6f Ireland. Peace- lollowcd his advent to South Africa; his presence in Ireland contained with his magic influence might, conciliate the Irish irrcconcilables. The Lord-Lieutcnaucy of Ireland, with £20,000 a year and the palatini Dubiin Castle as a residence, would suit our West Coast Richard to a; nicety, and if he proved himself the Irish Messiah, it would be cheap lo vote liiia a parliamentary grant equal to that ('! Lord Eoberts, with Dublin Castle thrown in. True Blue. Coming from the West Coast this can hardly be irony. On the contrary, I accept it as a valuable suggestion, and' will pass it on to the right quarter. One thing is beyond doubt; if Mr Seddon and the malcontent Irish were shut up together on an island, there would soon be either no Irish or no Seddon; Move than once have I declared for South Africa as the proper field for Mr Seddon's talents, and for the Governorship of a Boer ex-Republic as his proper reward there. Any chance he may have had in that quarter lias been-wrecked, I am afraid, by his amazingly ignorant criticism of the peace terms. Tliev were lint "linn" enough; we ought" to have insisted 011 " unconditional surrender.' - Which merely shows how Mr Seddon- is deceived by a phrase. Unconditional surrender, literally construed, is an

impossibility, never was and never will be. Lhe man who at- the point of the bayonet flings up his hands surrenders conditionally —on the unspoken condition that his life will be spared. Otherwise, like a beast of the forest, lie would fight whilst tooth and claw- were left- to him. The phrase " unconditional surrender" had one and only one meaning—that we did not intend to accept Boer conditions, but did intend that the Uoers should accept ours. The peace terms merely informed the Uoers what, our conditions were. On this point may* be read with advantage a few sentences from a London weekly:

JIJS on "unconditional surrender wo must next day have, of our own free ntlL.rr r ip ; dse<t , t!,e , ,h "«* ™««><™ pkd o ed to do. As we had no intention of acting vindictively, we must have made exactly the same concessions as regards -amnesty resettlement, and financial aid, and we should of course have,worked towards tlie establishment of sclf-ovornmont at the earliest possible date Again, we c ion d have boon quite as lenient to Tcbels. We have, in laet, not agreed to do anything that we should not have done voluntarily. Mr Seddon, with pretentions to statesmanship, could not see this, but hankered after ".unconditional surrender.'' The Boers it is to he feared, would .not take kindly to a man who had complained that Kitchener bandied them with kid gloves and who grudged to the vanquished their necessary and inevitable terms of peace.

The Dunedin retailer, though no whit less patriotic than the rest of us, is torn and distracted in mind, between duty tp his Sovereign and a reasonable regard, for his own interest. The Coronation has been fixed for a Saturday: why, he doesn't know and doesn't ask. There are reasons good, no doubt. But New Zealand Saturday morning is London Friday night. . Is i't not a little too much to ask him to coronate. before the Coronation takes place, and to do this at,the sacrifice of his best business day m the iveck? W|iy can't tlie New Zealand jubilation be transferred from Saturday .to. Monday? Well, it of.in't—retorts our sapient Executiveit can't, and there's an end of it; all Government celebrations will be carried through on Saturday; the baturdny holiday must be observed! Vli hereupon the Dunedin retailerj if he keeps his present mind, will open shop on Saturday and shut on Monday, politely consigning the Executive to its deserts, in it -warm place. I confess that the more I see of tins Government's practical sense in small matters' the less I esteem it, J.he Utago.Mining School is in <ianeer of pciislung for lack of a few hundreds a year lhis is a Government that boasts an annual surp.us; to. the plea for help to save the Mining School from extinctie- ' l s response IS, Why don t you raise i' - money by public subscription? Possibly we mav do that; but we might as reasonably be asked to carry round the hat. for the Post Office or- the Magistrate's Court. Ministers are showing an . equal degree of sweet reasonableness, in the matter of the Coronation holidayand it will bs remembered against them. Civis.