PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 1934, 19 March 1891, Page 21

PASSING NOTES.

The exits and the entrances of that ugly social phenomenon the " unemployed " obey no known law and seem incapable of scientific explanation. It comes and goes like an epidemic or a drought, no man knows how or why. Good times or bad times count for nothing. The " unemployed " belong to either or both. In the very heat and fervour of the Public Works scramble, when millions were being poured forth like water, we bad meetings of the unemployed in the Octagon with J. G. S. Grant airing his eloquence at them. A mayor of Danedin, now deceased, once informed us that his first public appearance in Dunedin was as the spokesman of a deputation of unemployed heroically refusing 5s a day. That must have been in the " old identity " times when as yet the bloated aristocrats of the present were living in shanties, and the future leaders of society did their own washing. So also in Australia. As far back as the golden '50's the unemployed used to muster on the Melbourne wharf and pass truculent resolutions against the Government. There are two interesting features in the present unemployed demonstration in Dunedin. One is that the Government are to provide relief works at " full pay." At least so says Mr Hutchison, and he ought to know. A country correspondent inquires whether this provision will be extended to the victims of Civil Service retrenchment. lam afraid not, but he had better apply to Mr Hutchison. Another feature of painful interest is the presence amongst the unemployed of some hundreds of carpenters, masons, and other mechanics. Yet I seem to remember that only a few months ago the carpenters, masons, and other mechanics held meetings, at which, amid great enthusiasm, they voted themselves an increase of wages. Was it so, or do I dream 1 If so it was, perhaps, the fact may be not unremotely connected with the subsequent decrease of work. The word " blizzard " seems to have been imported into England from America, where, say the dictionaries, it made its first appearance only a few years back, originating nobody knows how. It was doubtless the happy coinage of some American backwoodsman—if, indeed, the term " happy " is allowable in such an unhappy connection. A " blizzard," as Kinglake remarked of the memorable snowstorm in the Crimea, is " a large, mysterious, uncomfortable work of God, the meaning of which will, perhaps, be revealed hereafter." The word is new in England, b^t not the thing — let us cherish no illusions on that point. According tj the telegrams, the blizzard which has been scourging the coasts of the Channel for a week past is all bat unprecedented, At any rate nothing

like it has been known for 50 years past Turning up the Dictionary of Dates, how ever, I find a list of nearly 50 "great storms " within the last 50 years, many > them with as bad a record as last week's blizzard — for example, the storm in December 1879 which wrecked tha Tay Bridge Going back to the last century, there was a British blizzard in November 1703 which is said to have destroyed 8000 lives. Ships were blown from their anchors and never heard of again ; 12 men-of-war foundered with 1800 men ; the Eddystone lighthouse disappeared, and with it perished Winstanley, its ingenious contriver; the Bishop of Bath and his wife — I don't know whether this is a climax or a bathos— were killed in their bed by falling chimneys. Decidedly the British blizzard is no new thing. How should it be, when the latitude of Edinburgh corresponds pretty nearly to that of Cape Horn and London is nearer to the Pole than the south end of Stewart Island 1 I have no desire to speafe ill of the land of my birth, but these are facts which nobody can deny. Talk about New Zealand bad weather I A New Zealand winter may be breezy — I believe we must admit as much as that — but its worst enemy has never ventured to call it blizzardy. A correspondent, knowing my keen interest in legitimate mining, calls my attention to the truly magnificent operations of the Etheridge Gold Mining Company (Queensland) as described in the London Economist. The account, too long to quote, may be summarised in a few sentences. It seems that the Etheridge Company was put on the London market three years ago— capital £70,000, of which £45,000 in cash and shares went to " the vendor." Note the steps in its subsequent history : — 1. Floats the Canadian Company, capital £70,000 (same directors) for the purpose of selling to it five acres of land ; prioe, £50,000 i i cash and shares. 2. Floats the Elektron Mount Company, same directors again, same capital, same object, same price, same everything. 4. Sells to the two subsidary companies five more acres of land for £20,000. As the result Qf these brilliant transactions, shares in the Efcheridge ran up to 200 per cent, premium, •• at which price," says the Economist, " the people behind the scenes unloaded freely." 4. The three companies amalgamate— out of whish hoens-poons emerges the United Efcheridgo Company, with a capital of £550,000 ! 5 The British investor having been sufficiently exploited, the, directors, merely for form's sake, begin a little practical mining on the company's property in Queensland. Result; of two yearn' work: Expenditure, £33,814; earnings, £4310. 6. Present value of the property: 550,000 20s shares at In (their market price), £27.500. Amount paid for if; by the British investor, as estimated by the Economist, £400.000. With what admiration, envy, and watering of the mouth will our local company-pro-moters read this wondrous story I How poor and petty in comparison our beat achievements here— the Nenthorn reefs, tor example, or the Eawarau dredges 1 How much have the Otago people been induced to put into mining vanities during the last two years ? f'erhapa L 250.000, and to get that oub of them has necessitated the inventing of some 40 or 50 separate companies. The grand simplicity of the Queensland Etheridge, with its half a million sterling at one fell swoop, puts us utterly to shame.

These new Ministers of ours are asserting themselves on all sides in a quite unexpected way. It may be that their zeal is not according to knowledge. Bull in a china shop says one paper, beggars on horseback cries another. But their painful earnestness of purpose admits of no doubt at all. Mr John M'Kenzie, for instance, is shaking his brawny fist at the big estatjes with a bodfcg significance that makes me feel almost glad I haven't got one, whilst as for dummyism he is hunting it down with the pertinacity of a pointer in a partridge cover. So with Mr Seddon — Dick the Downright. He is sweeping through his department like a blizzard, and cashiered officials are whirling before him like leaves in an autumn gale. His outspoken bluntness, too, is worthy of Bismarck at his best. And we like it. The blood and iron prescription is always popular, except, of course, to those who ha/c to take it. The civil servants who have to take it don't like it, and all Wellington is wailing both for the evil that is and the evil that is to be. For what Mr Seddon has done is onlj a foretaste of what the Government is going to do. It has all come upon us as an unmitigated surprise. After Sir Harry's repeated assurances on the point we naturally expected retrenchment to die with him, and the Ballance Government to organise a big loan and a general scramble, including liberal subsidies to press writers. On these terms I was myself prepared to give them an unqualified support. But who can be expected to write up a Government with no loan, no pickings, nothing, in fact, but close settlement for the country, and blood and iron for Wellington 1

I have always bad a kindly feeling for our teetotal friends, whose unselfish energy is worthy of the highest praise. And in saying this, mark you, I speak as one outside the pale. It is with me as with Timothy of 013, who was advised to use a little wine for his stomach's stake and his often infirmities. Such as Mr Broad and Mr Jago have neither stomachs nor infirmities ; but, alas 1 I have both, and to the 'extent of a glass of beer at dinner and a weak admixture of strong waters at bedtime, I confess myself an irreclaimably moderate drinker. Bub to return from this personal digression. The temperance folk have peculiar virtues and advantages, but they are only mortal after all. They can quarrel with one another, and if we weaker vessels are comforted thereby it is not from malice, but because it brings them nearer to us, and so testifies to the brotherhood of man. The quarrel between Mr Knott's friends and the friends of Mr Smith is a very pretty one. Both gentlemen have been regaling the teetotal fraternity on Gough. But Mr Smilli i:hrutr< s at, tho door, -while Mr Kuotb ujerwy nj.ikes a collection. The difference is nt course tremendous. It means that Mr Knott has a philanthropic mission whilst Mr Smith is •'A mere public entertainer," who drags the temperance movement down from Hi platform