THE CONTEMPORARY

Otago Witness, Issue 1248, 30 October 1875, Page 2

THE CONTEMPORARY

For August is quite up to, if not beyond, the usual average. Of all the monthly arrivals, this is perhaps the most agreeable reading. Professor Lightfoot continues his attack. upon "Supernatural Religion," and brings up heavier and yet more heavy artillery to bear upon it. As we fancy that nobody now reads his papers, we are afraid that orthodoxy will not gain very greatly by her staunch and somewhat voluminous defender. Nevertheless, we believe that is admitted «iwm all hands that the Professor is far more than a* matcn-£or -u;» . ~*vt3orinist in learning and depth, although his style" is incomparably inferior.

"The Advance Note," by Mr Thomas Brassey, is a most interesting paper, showing that this iniqaity should be stopped. An advance note is simply, as its name implies, a note or order, promising on the part of the ageut or owner to pay so much of a sailor's wages — say one month — when he has shipped on a long voyage. These are discounted ostensibly to buy clothes, really to buy drink. They run thus :—: — " ' Glasgow, 6th July 1873. " ' Ten days after the departure of the ship from the last port or place in the River or Firth of Clyde, in which from any cause Bhe may be, before finally leaving for the voyage for which this note is issued, pay to the order of (seamaii > 3 name) the sum of L 3 17s 6d, provided the said seaman sails in, and continues in the said vessel, and duly earns his wages, being advance of wages according to agreement. " ' (Signed) Robert Douglas, Master.

"'To Messrs Henderson and Co., Hope street, Glasgow.'

"The seaman endorses and gets this note discounted, sometimes by the keeper of the boarding-house, at other times by the clothier or dealer who supplies the goods, the discounter deducting 2s per pound discount, and the amount due to himself for board and clothes."

It seems at first sight as if this was a simple natural and even laudable proceeding. A lengthened experience has shown the faults of it.

The only people who derive any substantial benefit from the Advance Note aie the crimps, who discount the notes at extortionate rates*. The sailor, on landing from a long voyage, surrenders himself, a too ready victim, into the hands of those harpies, whose corrupting influence upon our seamen is one of the dark blots in our civilization. Those whose occupation takes them frequently to the vicinity of the docks are familiar with the painful spectacle of a ship, just returned home from India, China, or the antipodes, LuiTounded, even before she has been moored to the quay, by a band of jackals, ready to pounce upon the seamen as they come ashore, and to lead them away to some miserable haunt, where the hard earnings of many months are consumed in a few days of vicious indulgence.

Mr Thomas Braasey has beon a successful pioneer in other branches of social science. A more enjoyable paper of the kind than this we have not often Been.

It may be that the abuses arising from the practice of giving advance notes are of secondary consequence when compared with the greater issue 3 raised by Mr Plimsoll. Many who now feel a passing, though an earnest, interest in our shipping legislation, have been drawn to the subject solely by the desire to lessen the losa of life at sea, and they may view with indifference any proposals for reform which do not directly tend to promote the security of life. It may, however, be asked whether the moral condition of the seaman is not an object worthy the care of those who are so zealous to pretect him from personal suffering and danger. The improvidence of seamen has long been proverbial ; and the system of payments in advance has done harm to a class of men brave and true-hearted, but, by natural disposition, careless of the future. The sailor has been deprived of the same inducements to self-denial in prosperous times which operate on the minds of other men, and have exercised a potent influence in elevating and strengthening the character of the operative and industrial classes.

" Saxon Studies " are great fun. So much has been said in praise of the German soldier that we are glad to know something of him in his inner life; and this paper is written with such a pleasing air of burlesque A3 to be quite unapproachable.

When I say that I have observed these warchildren a good deal, I am only intimating that I kept my eyes open. Every third man, every other woman, is a soldier. Fortunately they are not the least agreeable part of the population to look at. Once used to them, their uniformity make 3 them our old friends ; they pleasantly fill all gaps and pauses ; we do not exactly see them after a while, but we should greatly miss them, were they absent. They never call for a new thought, the same old thought does for aIL There is no extravagance in their look or behaviour. They seem quite serene and undemonstrative, and yet there is a fantastic skeleton underlying this outward calm.

With regard to saluting, Mr Julian Hawthorne says : — The chief business of city sentries— the only thing that gives a fillip to the lethargy of their plight— is saluting. This affords them a constant supply of mild excitement, varying in degree according as their man is a second lieutenant or the King. They are always on the look-out, like hunters for their game ; and that were a soft-fcoted officer indeed who should catch one of them napping. The whole idea of saluting is graceful ; it in pleasant to see men paying one another mutual deferenoe, even when it ia based on so trifling a