LONDON CHAT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13524, 22 February 1906, Page 8

LONDON CHAT.

•«» (Faou Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, Januiry 13. A fortnight of dire dulncss at Christmas and the New Year is now being followed by an equally dull period sacred to the general elections. I find, by the my, many, if not most, New Zca landers are under the fixed impression that wc in England keep holiday on New Tear's Day, the King's liirthday, Empire Day, Labour Day, race days, and other days, as do tho fortunate New Zcalanders. Not a bit of it! Those are regular and ordinary working days with us poor toilers in London, And it'isonly Parliament that keeps Dorby Buy as a holiday in London. If anyone were to propose that a cattle, show day should be a. public holiday be would be sent to the nearest asylum for incurable lunatics.

As for the general eleotion, now in progress, of course, I shall not offer any forecast of the outcome, as all will bo over before these lines reach even Ssn Francisco.

It is remarked that the present election is Wing fought more strenuously and even more bitterly than any previous one for more than half a century. But this cannot be entirely irue for a loud complaint has gone up that a sulficienoy even of Unionist candidates cannot, be found for the various seats. Thus the doyen of evening papers, The Globe, says that iu certain electorates tlie Unionist "authorities in tho division decided to reserve the energies of the party until the next election. During the past week tho present Premier and the late Premier each have been howled down and refused a hearing. So have Mr Chamberlain, on the one side, and Mr Lloyd George on the other. The old Kntrlixh spirit" of fairness upon which we used to pride ourselves seems to have all but vanished, in spile of School Boards. I do not ay as a result of their methods. Certainly, decent conduct and fair play do not. seem to he among the things taught in the modern schools, else they must 1)0 taught very badly, indeed, judging from the fruits.

Among the pleasant amenities ot the present struggle have been on the one hand a scandalous and slanderous attack on Mr Balfour's grandfather, in order to fix fcy implication on (lie ex-l'remior a natural tendency lo dishonesty, and, on the other hand. a. bitter denunciation of Mr John Bums by the Socialists of his electorate for taking office, and accepting « salary of £2000 per annum, after publicly declaring that, no man ought to have more than £500 » year. It must \» confessed that J.lr Burns made rather a fool of himself iu his turgid and bombastic election address, in which "ho advocated the abolition of all "hereditary" authority. He has had lo "climb down." and explain that he did not include the Sovereign, but only meant the House of Lords. Naturally the electors want, to know " why he did not say what he meant?" The true answer is that his soul hankered after the long word "hereditary!" So far as the new Government as a whole is concerned there are at any rate t—o satisfactory symptoms. It is declared that flic foreign pnliev of the late Ministry will be steadily maintained, and that the army and navy defenses will be brought up to the uf most, possible efficiency, and kept up to that point, even if increased rather than diminished expenditure should he thus necessary. Sir Edward Grey, in the one ease, and Mr Halda.no, in the other. as respective Ministers for Foreign Affairs end for War. have plainly and emphatically proclaimed that these things are to be. But Sir Henry Camp-kll-Baiineriiian cannot brinjr himself to a plain statement as to his Home 3«le policy. He hints at "Home Rule by instalments." The Irish Nationalists, however, are quite willing to take the responsibility off his hands. They have openly announced that "Every vote given for tho new Liberal Government is a vote for Home Rule." fbat directly implies a definite understanding wtweeu the Premier and Mr John Redmond, who has openly declared from the first'that unless he received a satisfactory assurance from .Sir IJ«nry Camnbell-Bamieriuan that Homo Rule should be an essential feature in the Ministerial programme Irishmen in all u.irh of the United Kingdom would he ordered to vote against the Liberal candidates. As a contrary order has been given by the Irish leader, the inference is self-evident End conclusive.

Mr John lloricy. with his characteristic straightforward candour, has lieen telling the labouring classes some' plain, if unpalatable, truths about the demand that Government should insure employment for overy able-bodied man who needs it. He demonstrated, with his peculiar lucidity, the itiPvifableiiess of utter failure were an attempt to be made lo cany out such .1 policy, which must in the long run (Meat its own ends by increasing the burrfen? on the taxpayer, aud thus diminishing even the present power of giving employment. This is received with many wry faces, but the lesjon has to be learned. The plain truth is—and it is nt. Inst heginning to find recognition—that the present scarcity of work is directly due to diminished spending power consequent on the waste of £250,000.000 over the late resiiltlftss tra.r. which ha= simply left us as a nation additional burdens and lessened menus, liowcvcr it may have enriched the mineowners and other financiers whose machinations in reality brought it about. It i.s sow admitted that South Africa is absolutely dependent, upon Chinese labour for the profitable working of the mines. Even the new Government, after announcing through the Premier that orders had been given that the importation of Chinese coolies lo Africa tthculd be stopped forthwith, has now hod to admit that it had no power to issue such on order. So the importation still goes on. and the gallant New Zealanders who fought for the conquest of the Boer Republics know now for what, they really were fighting and for who.t so many of their comrades fell. Had they foreseen what wae to happen, would they have been so rcadv to volunteer? ISut it is 100 late now to " cry over spilt milk" or to lament the loss of at! those valuable Jives, to say nothing of tho £250.000.000 sterling, the " chucking Rway" of which is being so severely felt just now. and probably will be badly felt for many a Ions; year to come. Still, the facts cannot ho ignored, and ought to be Itopt well in mind if only as a. warning. Seldom has there been a. more imperative wed that our i.rmy and navy should he in perfect trim. For the peace of the world way depend imon this being known to l>e tfie case. Certain Continental journals Wised this very question yesterday, coming lo a. distinctly negative conclusion.' Yet (he nftuation is most critical. Germany continues to make vast warlike preparations, including the unceasing imiet ■despatch of strong reinforcements to the Trench frontier. Mcfz, Strasbourg, and other cities, near the frontier are being mil, in complete readiness for ivnr. I learned only a. few days ago from a very high French source—conditionally on the information not being- published on'this fiido of the world for at least a month— that the Germans now have a force of 300,000 men massed on the French frontier: that the French Government gave orders for the French forces lo be Strengthened as quietly and uiiostontatiously «a possible, without attracting am- more notic? tlmn could he helped. Immediately a irrivate warning was received that if France mat-riallv strengthened her frontier armies so that they should lie equal in rxnver to the German forces on the other side. Germany Would treat such a step as a declaration of Wat and instantly invade French territory. However, both England and Russia promptly conveyed to Purlin a courteous but very plain and unmistakable hint that neither would stand by idle and see France ci-ished. At the same time ostentatious n.anifestr.tions were made of a wish on Loth sides for an Anglo-Russian entente and the hint was taken—far the time! But with so restless and impulsive an autocrat as William II on the German Throne, it is never safe to count on what » week or even a day may bring forth. England and ■ Franco are rejoicing just liow_ over what is termed tho entente Inusioale which in duo course has followed the entenlo cordiale and the entente municipalo. During the current week the London Symphony Orchestra and the Leeds Choral Union, which have certainly no superiors, probably no equals, in the oivilised world as cboralists and instrumentalists respectively, in combination, havo' been in Paris on a musical visit. They hive given a scries of concerts, both separately and in combination, and are 'declared by tho greatest French critics to have • achieved the most decisive musical success ever yet known in the French capital. This, although gratifying, is by no means surprising, as the Parisians have now no Anglo-phobic prciudices lo warp their ordinarily clear judgment, so that the unsurpassable performances of tho Ftglish -singers aDd players have been Appraised at their due vaiue. The Yorkihiro voices have long been celebrated as tits finest in the world, and the choral linking of' Leeds and Sheffield enjoys a lito distinction, while the world's-greatest conductors, Hichfer, Nikisch, llott!, Weingartncr, and Richard Strauss have all frankly admitted, afler con-' ducting ■ tho Queen's Hall Symphony Orchestra; that there is 110 finer body of instrumentalists on earth than that, which 'Sam' »WM.4wEßßhyjd.'a E"SalSg6. £92' ]

ductor—has brought to such rare perfection. • One only regrets that Mr Wood himself did not go at their head. Ho. had, no doubt, a very capable substitute in Sir Charles Villicr's Stanford, some of whoso music was performed on the occasion, but, good as Sir Charles Stanford undoubtedly is, alike as a composer and as an organist—he is without exception the best accompanist of church music that I have ever listened to,—ho cannot, for one moment compare with Mr Wood as a conductor of that splendid orchestra of over 100 performers, upon which Mr - Wood plays as if it wero a mere pianoforte and he a great piani6t!c virtuoso. In this association I may refer in passing to tho magnificent, concert with which Mr Henry Wood and the same unequalled orchestra opened the musical now year at the Queen's Hall. That was indeed an experience long to be remembered. It is only necessary to mention the items of the programme for everyone who has heard that band to realise how each piece would be interpreted. Those who have not, had the good fortune to hear it could not, possibly realise the effect pro- , duccd. The concert began appropriately with the splendid symphonic music with which Wagner Iws illustrated "The Entrance of the Gods into Valhalla." the climax of his " Kheingold"; but it was a rather curious idea, welcome as it. was, to follow that up with tho tremendous and overwhelming dirge from the "Gotterdammermig" of Die same mighty composer. I never heard that marvellous dralii-mnrcii more gloriously or impressively given, though I had the privilege of hearing it specially played on two most solemn reference in the one case to the death of Queen Victoria, in the other to llie disastrous sinking of her namesake battleship with Admiral Tryon. Not one of tliose three occasions can over fade from my memory. Nothing more would seem sayable about Wagners _ '"fannhauser" Overture, and yet in this _ instance Mr Hem-)- Wood was inspired with at anyrate two slight novelties of interpretation, both thoroughly legitimate and welcome. Schubert's B Minor Sympony, Bach's Air for Strings. Beethoven's Rondino for Wind, and Uriel's "Peer Gynt Suite" need only be mentioned to suggest what delight was enjoyed by the listeners. Tschaikowsky was only represented unfortunately by his tremendous but dreadfully blatant' " 1812 " Overture, of whose enormous noise I must confess I have become thoroughly tired, while the iinal catophony seems to get worse at each hearing. However, the pubjic still delights in it, and so, of course, il has lo be given. By-the-bye, tho word of command has gone forth that the composer's namo ought to be spelt.'as pronounced "Tchaikovsky," and not "Tschaikowsky." Henry Wood, at anyrate, say.? so, and as ho is about half a Russian he ought to know. I have my doubts about that "v," although, of course, the "w" is always so pronounced in Russian and German, for I cannot help suspecting that poor Wood was driven nearly out of his mind at last by the persistent references to a "cow" in this connection. I know many quite cultured people who seem to take a delight in emphasising the middle syllable of poor Tchaikovsky's name, as if they were referthe harmles-s necessary animal that provides the dailv supply of milk. But we are to change all that now, and "Tchaikovsky" is to be the rule. It looks ugly and unfamiliar at first, hut—l submit. I suppose, to be consistent, the same ought to be done in the case of Moskovski, in whose name many people make tho domestic "cow" offensively prominent instead of the seasonable "cough." And of P.-ulercwski, alio, whose penultimate syllable is frequently pronounced as if it, designated the familiar but disagreeably-smelling herb that lucd to be strewn before murder prisoners on their (rial—viz.. rue. Of course, that is quite wrong.

So far we have experienced a most amazing winter, closely resembling an exceptionally fine April, or May—i.e., advanced springtime. The temperature has been extraordinarily mild, and vegetation is more forward than I ever saw it in the depth of winter, while birds are nesting and other animui- are doing all sorts of things quite inconsistent with midwinter.

Whether, had it lasted so long, thai illstarred Charing Cross Station would have held up against the force of the recent pales seems more than doubtful, for, according to the engineering expert evidence given at the inquest, it was the :liglil additional weight of n painting ihst earned ihe fatal collapse. It must he confessed that the character of the engineering evidence was most disquieting, although this docs not seem to have struck the newspaper commentntors. The stability of the whole mass is admitted to have depended upon the single lie-rod which broke, and now it turns out that this tie-red never hp.s keen sound or secure during the whole of its 42 years' life. It was not even homogeneous, it having proved too short when originally made, so that another piece had to he welded on. Even' ihis palehwork was not coinpleie. there being an invisible flaw at its heart and a good deal of foully welding adjacent, so that in reality it only possesed one-third of its nominal strength. ,; There wus no mysrery about Ihi-: failure at all,'' said rnr Benjamin Baker, the famous engineer. "It was a simple thine. If this lie-rod had been intnel you could have put one of the district railway trains on the principal without causing it to give way; but the bar was only one-third its proper strength owing to the flaw." He added that there- was no way of detecting the existence of such a flaw, which mi?l<;. of course, exist unknown in all the other lie-rods. It seemed to me fjiat Ihe eminent engineers who gave evidence rather conveyed the idea that one could not foresee or guard strains* sueh little matter* as these, and thai if the public wanted railway stations and bridges they must just take their chance of suoh " unconsidered trifles." Also, what struck me °s si ill more remarkable, as well as ominous and even alarming, was that it seemed a matter of course for the whole vast, mass which came down with such deadly and devastating effects to be dependent upon that single tie-rod. which might he, and as the event proved was, of only one-third its nominal strength, so that if it gave way as this one did. devastation and dealh must follow. There appeared to tne a grim humour also in the remark of one great engineer, that "it was fortunate the roof earrio down when it did," as had it fallen at, any other time it must have caused a terrible disaster by smashing hundreds of people in trains below and in the theatre adjoining. One understands what he meant, but. purely it is one of those filings that "might have been expressed dilTerei'itlv." The jury, of course, returned a verdict of accidental death, but the Board of Trade renort has vet to come; ant! meanwhile Mr Cyril Maude lias issued a writ against the SouthEastern and Chatham Railway Company, claiming a very laree sum as damages for the destruction of his theatre, and the loss of his business. Other actions are in course of preparation. I feel, very sorry for the S.K. and C. shareholders.

As a steam trawler cast off from one of the Grimsby piers a few days ago the captain and crew were .somewhat surprised anil sliirhtly startled to observe that they were being steadily pursued by a wooden office that ordinarily rested on the pier, immobile. They were unable to conjee! lire the motive of this' pursuit, but doomed it, wise to put on all possible sieain in the hope of escaping. It was of no avail. Relentless as death, Ihe ( ,errant' and planMicose office persistently followed them all the length of the nier. They cherished 0 momentary hope that 0 chronic distaste for' ''old water might deter Ihe pursuer from following them beyond the nier "ml. Not a bit of it. With a grim determination that was exceedingly t<"'rifying, the moving office, vdien it reached the pier-end, unhesitatingly plunged into the briny deep, and continued, with undiminished speed, its ruthless nursnit of the (Winn- steamer. Terror gripped the hearts of all on board. At last, however, one bolder than Ihe rest ventured to neen over the stern, and then he discovered that, the steamc bail been casually moored to a big belayiinr-nin attached to the well of tho office, and that the mere trivial form of casling it loose had been inadvertently overlooked. The captain and his men, "really relieved, sevorcd the rope and nroeeeded on their voyage, calmly disregarding tho frantic gesticulations of two clerks who had hastily skipped out of the office when it started on its minatory march, and who were making from the pier-end frem.ied apieals for the immediate return of their office, with its books and papers.