PASSING NOTES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14002, 7 September 1907, Page 6

PASSING NOTES.

The immortal name of Tubal filled 1 the sky, And Jubal, starving, then| crept out to die. Perhaps the quotation is ndi quite correct, but puri&ts will find. ,it in' George liliot. The lines came to' 'my mind when

I read in a Home paper that, the granddaughters of Robert Bums had received a pensioff from the Literary Fund of £100 a year for their joint lives, "in recognition of tho distinguished literary merit of their grandfather, and of their own straitened circumstances." A' member- of the Bums Club writes to "me in this strain: "I blushed when I read this item of news. I doubt not that blush has been felt over tho habitable globe, wherever Burns Clubs exist. We drink to tlie immortal memory' of Bums, and leave his children's children lo starve! Surely we who know that Robert Burns is tire best possession -any country- every had, the sweetest- singer, tlie truest seer of things mortal and immortal ever. vouchsafed to Scotliuid, or any land, should he up and doing, intent on wiping away thatTeproacn without delay. Write to Calcutta, to Hongkong, to Now York, to Montreal, to Buenos Aires, to every place which has a Burns Club, and honour the immortal memory -by providing generously for the comfort, as well as the needs, 'of the poet's descendants. When we como to think of

it. tho laws concerning copyright are .frightfully nnjust, or the laws .concerning other property are ridiculous (which rather suggests that' I am turning Socialist: however, that is of no consequence). What

I. want to emphasise in that if there is one thing in this world that a man may be said to ' create,' it is literature. Ordy one man in tie whole eighteenth century was capahlo of writing ' Ye hanks and braes o' bonny .Boon.' Yet in a few years all rights to that literary property were extinguished. while tho right of t]ie proprietors. of every yard of these actual banks and bracs'is unalienable to all time. What a mine of wealth., Burns would have left behind him if ifterary property had been treated, like land or merchandise!"

Tlv's, and much -more, the meni-ljer of the Burns Club goes nil to eax, and evon 'Aisroweotfnlly nf ditJ'a? nnd'duohreers, who, ho says, " wn.'k delicately and livo luxuriously because t.beir ancestors or anoefiire.'&SK woro 'nn better than' tb.ey should be' in the time of tilie. second OWlrs." Well. >t » all verv prcttv a,ml rhn.psodic.il; but I have not-the robust faith in Burns Clnlw, fee or elsewhere, that my correspondent evi'lontly has, My faith wan shaken /vhe.n I hoard, an eminent wtF.id'Hit of tho local club declare that Bums wrote "When the kye come lisme"; and wlieji another, greatly distinguished, maintained tha-t L?dy Nairn's well-known song,/'The|land o' the lo.il," was also by Burns, I gave up the clnb lor good. No, the membDrs ol the Burr-s Olub will keep their hands out- of their pockets,. a,nd. will, go on drinking the " immoral memory, "ami show tleir.liigh litowy and artistic taster, by riding Mario' Corelli, and going to competitions entertainments, Y«t another; correspondent, regardless ot Burns or any other drad lion, concerns himself—and me— with his own poetic efforts, a theme obviously mors interesting, as you ~wi!l observe.

THE OAMADU .BAIN-MAIWTCS. y There wji-s a three years' drought, , Not a blade ol grass would sprout, Not a carrot or a turnip ever grew, So they Wow up ctynainitc For,to give the rain a fright; Ami to show tho. other nations w:iwt to do! Then up spake the blessed rain, "Faix, it's bigness that they mane; I must'tumble down bofore they shoot me through." . So it flooded all tho lands, And the world now understands What clever men they have in Oamani!

Things are looking up ill the kingdom of Lillipt. It is satisfactory, to know that tho State is taking up its maternal duties in right good earnest. Now wo shall see that air of - laesitudo and boredom which has of late distinguished the members of "tho force," disappear as if by magic in the renewed zast of making hard the way of the transgressor. No doubt tho stalwart and well-fed guardians of our moral well-being havo been eorcly put to it to temper tho natural severity of their demeanour in dealing with the ..chatty keepers of infant homes, bent on being pleasant. No doubt, too, the extreme delicacy of the position was trying to the men accustomed to deal with crime more than innocence, and with difficulties springing from the abuse of a different class of i»ttks to the' infant's: What' a falling was there in these nursery duties from tho splendid achievements of the "Bobby" of our boyhood! Had lie not- a ".baton," or a "truncheon," that glorious creature? Surely wo recall tho part that baton played in the humours of the stage policeman of the Christmas pantomime. Also how in midnight tragedy lie figured with a real revolver, discharged wit-h telling effect at the absconding murderer!. Notonly o.n the stage, but off it, the policeman of our youth was a. man of equipment and decision; but the modern Bobby, without even a stick wherewith to put a email dog out of his misery, is a butt for tl>o gibes of "Cms," jim., and his fellowundergrads. If tliero is not so much as a walking-stick for the dying dog. what is there for the refractory roysterer? Moral force! just the land of thing to impress him. hvidently all I can rely upon from my civic guordian, should I find myself in a. tight place, is moral force—and a-'splendid "deportment." An as6ct dear to the heart- of Mr Turveydrop, but for which I have small use myself. Was not tho acme of futility reachfd in the picture of the Melbourne policeman, guiltless of anything so deadly as a revolver with" which to end the agony of a haplejs disembowelled horse, in .the late brigade accident!

I confess that, when I hear of youth and beauty afraid to venture alone, oven in broad daylight, along our quiet suburban roads and in our public parte and vcsevves I hesitate between two conclusions, either of which affronts .my civic pride. Either the damsel of to-day, eound in mind and limb as we are fond of depicting her, is yet a- being of hvstwical nervous terrors, or—we harbour in our eminently roepectnble city a class of cowardly ruffians which would disgrace the modern Babylon. Which is the Tight conclusion? Or docs a third factor—an insufficient police force—constitute another element in a situation wliich : to mo nothing short 'of disgraceful? -I am told 'that, .while the towijj6 canvKsed for funds to

house comfortably and recreate Christian young men, ordinary yornig womenmaids an<l mistresses alike—arc afraid to venture out alone at night in 6omo of the moat popular residential quartern. Where are the police? Can there be any greater reproach to .1 city than the fact that women are afraid to venture out alone?A few years ago—to ]>a exact it was 1899—' the quaint old town of Ghent was becoming noted for the frequency and violence of the assaults and robberies committed in the suburbs. '.Che polioe force was inadequate; municipal fund 6 were too low to efficiently enlarge it. Some "progressive" of his time suggested that if the city could not- afford men, it could afford dogs. A natural enough suggestion this in it country like Belgium, where dogs are among the busiest and'" most intelligent toilers in town and oountry alike.

Dogs then it was. An experiment-in a small way was mado of the capabilities of the, " chien-policier" in the suburbs of

the city. The innovation proved so successful that in less than a year, the dog police were formally adopted as part of the municipal police force, and at- the present time the worst quarters of the city arc safeguarded by over a hundred nightohienpoliciers. Expense is. never a question with our City Fathers where tho wellbeing of the ratepayer is concerned—of that we hare ample proof. But if it were, m y suggestion of a canine contingent to strengthen our police force and enable it to deal efficiently with streets actual'y leading out of George street, and solitudes no. farther away than tho Queen's drive, would be even more to the point-. It is estimated that had the Ghent police forco been supplemented by the 12 additional men which were deemed necessary to ensure tho public safety, the annual cost- of such an addition would have -been 12,000 francs, whereas the 30 dogs now employed, who go on duty at 10 at night, and pat in eight hours of smart and efficient work before they go homo to their kennels at 6 in the morning, cost only 3285 francs. The details of tho dog policeman's education ,aro decidedly interesting from tJie time that—a six-mont-lis'-old pup—he is bought bv the departmental vet-, and installed in liia official quarters; The doi?s nre kept strictly unfamiliar with the ordinary un-uniformed public. During the first- fortnight recruits are' kept within the kennel yards,-ami simply learn obedience to orders. Next they are taken out by a policeman day after day and familiarised with t.he beats, whistle calls, signals, etc. At the end of their training they are competent to act as scouts, and obey all commands with the sagacity of welltrained e-heep dogs.

One is accustomed t-o consider the. farmer as the especial typo of man who is never satisfied, he .inß Providence rarely seeming to bo at one in- their plans for the weather. Upon my word, though, I think tho. labour man runs him hfird. Very patient and quite disinterested consideration of his methods and desires has led me to the conclusion that the deliberations of Labour are directed towards doing nothing, with plenty of time to do it in; juab as the business of peace is to define the conduct of war. Our. own gentle labourer is no exception to tbs rule. Give him conciliation boards, and lis wants arbitration. Give liim arbitration, and hs only wants awards! Giro Mm his unions, witlr their pleasant privileges, all to himself; and he is desperately annoyed because every man who can do a. day's work . —which includes, I presume, that gentle exerciso known as "Government stroke" —is not also a unionist: ask hiiii to allow every man to pay with him and share with him, and he ia not only indignant, but hurt, terribly hurt. No, I fear it roust be conccded that my Labour friend is truly difficult to please, and so, no doubt, tho Minister of Labour realises. Still, I admire the case with which Labour, has learned its lesson from peace—and claims to ba "a peaceful body . . . prepared for •war," and realising that " the best weapon is a strong fighting fund." And unions, with their '"raison d'etro" of "union is strength," take me back for a moment to the Socialist conference, whose quarrelsome recriminations are fortunately over.' Tho suffragette has indeSl fallen into evil company when this lawless and sinister crowd, fighting in the name of a principle they disgraced, announce their intention of fighting her battles for her! Surely this will bo a. case of save me from my friends. A rrore dramatic episode in the recent history of Socialism Iras been the discovery of "that dynamiters' nmvensit-y on the dreary shoves of the Gulf of Finland. Equipped with professor, lectures,' students, and all the paraphernalia for expert training, the deepest differenco between the Finnish University and West Point, or Sandhurst, was tho finely-drawn one that lies between the legalised killing of war and tho illegal killing of the anarchist. Cms.