THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2151, 16 May 1895, Page 27

THE WEEK.

"Nnnqu.im aliud natiira, allua sapiontiß di<cit."— ,Tuv*.val, "Good nature md good seuie must o^cr join."— l'oi-b.

We are in receipt of a pamphlet published by the Otago Central Railway Fact and League, which bears the title Fable. "A Source of National Wealth." There is nothing original in the pamphlet. It is indeed but a more compilation of the more or less authoritative statements made by various persons — Mr Blackmore, Mr Brsgato, and others — as to the capacity of Central Otago for addiDg to the industrial wealth of the colony. But the league deserves credit for collecting all such information in a compendious and accessible form. The activity and energy of the league, too, in advocating the claims of Central Ofcago to complete railway communication, and, what is more important still, in closely overlooking the I expenditure of the money available for the construction of the line, is worthy of all praise. We have ourselves been such strenuous advocates for the construction of this line that we shall probably not be misapprehended if we deprecate anything in the nature of exaggeration in describing the capacities of Central Otago. There is nothing the league has published which they were not justified in publishing, for, as we have said, they have incorporated in their pamphlet nothing but the opinions of persons who may be considered experts in various industries. Thus, in addition to the testimony of Messrs Blackmore, Bragato, and George Howden as to the value of the country for fruit and wine-growing, Messrs Donald Reid and Co. and Stronach Bros, add their evidence as to its c*pabilities in the way of stock-raisiDg and grain growing. Bat the general effect ia to leave on the mind the idea that the potentialities of the country are much greater than is actually the case, which it will not in the long run be found a desirable thiog to do. There can be no question that the great bulk of the land ia Central Otago is native pasturage,

and always will be native pasturage. Bat a considerable proportion of it is very excellent pasturage, and with ordinary markets is capable of being worked in comparatively small holdings. The agricultural land is in mere patches here and there, though, looking to the great extent of the couatry, whon all these small patches are put together they make a large area of country. Add to this the undoubted fact that the climate is excessively dry— and, let us add, extraordi- ! narily bracing and delightful to live in— and all that can be oaid against the country from an industrial point of view is said. And after it has all been said it will be found that there are ample grounds to warrant the belief that tho construction of the railway to Clyde at least would not detract from the average value of the railway lines of New Zealand, and that indirectly it would be of great benefit to the district and the colony. The wine-growing is a new feature to which we confess that we look forward with some hope The area within which vines oould be grown is strictly limited, but still large. The drawback is the insufficiency of the rainfall, and it is when we come to the question of — a prime necessity — that the pinch of difficulty is met. There are tracts of country that will profitably stand a great expense in irrigation— the raallee country in Victoria, for instance, with its burning sun and deep chocolate soil ; and the rich valleys of California. Whether the wine-growicg area in Central Otago would warrant the Co3t remains yet to bo proved. If the water has to be taken from the Molyneux it would certainly be very heavy. Exclusive of this outlay, Mr BragaXo Gays the oost of preparation and planting would amount to £8 per acre with an annual cowt thereafter of £2 10i per acre. Thia does not appear to include house-building, fencing, and what not. Altogether it is not to be expected that ar.y private individual would undertake a venture of the kind. It takes yeara to form a vineyard ; and unles3 the Government will itself take the matter in band and test the vine-growing capability of the country on a small scale we may babble aboat this souioe of national wealth half a century without getting any nearer to it.

Witchcraft in the Nineteenth Century.

The circumstantial account presented to us of the torturiug to death of a poor woman in Ireland by her husband and relatives in the belief that sha was a witch is of the kind one feels mast be true and yet has great difficulty in believing. It is appaliiog to think that each an incident could happen at the close of the nineteenth century, and yet upon examination of the matter there is no reason why it should not hsppen. Belief in witchcraft is the product of dense ignorance and gross superstition, and while there may be a corner here and there in which these two flourish belief in witches is not so very much of a phenomenon. But the revelation of the oxutsnee of such a belief produces for the moment an extremely disagreeable ssnsation in the mind. For in cases like this it i 3 not the ordinary criminal that is being dealt with. Tha spectacle raised op before the mind of the wretched man kneeling over his wife and crying, " Are you Bridget Boland, wife of Michael Clear; 1 Answer in the name of God," is ono calculated to leave at least gome of the compassion bestowed upon the victim for the perpetrator. It has to be remembered that particular forms of ignorance and superstition are not things that die off suddenly, like a man with heart disease. They have a slow and lingering decline. That the last flicker — for we may reasonably hope it is tha last — of what a couple of hundred years ago was throughout England a superstitious flame should appear in the present day is not so very remarkable; and it will be still less so when we recall that the law against witchcraft — and law is tho authoritative expression of enlightened public opinion — was only repealed in 173G — 160 years ago. And the law was kept in operation close up to tha date of repeal. It is not impossible that the great grandmother of some of our readers may have been (in Scotland at all events) burned as a witch under the operation of this law. It is an historical fact that in England proper three psople were executed for witchcraft in 1652, and according to Dr. Parr five witches were huogin Northampton as late as 1712. In Scotland in 1727 two women, mother and daughter, were duly convicted of witchcraft, and although the daughter succeeded in escaping, the poor old woman was publicly burnt in a pitch barrel. Nor was it the ignorant only that were guilty of the superetltion. The Scotch "clergy were, in many caeca, tho leaders of the vile crusade, and it is a fact mentioned by Barton in his history of Scotland that in 173G the associated presbytery of Scotland entered a solemn protest sgainsj^ the repeal of the law against witchcraft " as an infraction of the express word of Gsd." The historian of the eighteenth century tells us that in 1705, ia the little town of Pittenweem, in Fifeshlre, a blacksmith who had long been ill at length declared himself under the influence of witchcraft, and mentioned seven women as the culprits. On the petition of the minister of the parish, they were tried by commission, but acquitted. One of them, however, was hunted about through the town, and at length tied to a rope between a ship and the shore, where she was stoned to death. All th's was done in the name and under the sanction of what was then believed to be religion. Ia it any wonder that these ypung colonies require the State as its highest and most important duty to see that the people are educated, and relentlessly refuse to listen to any objection, religion or otherwise, which would interfere with the process ?

Yf. P. Rccres as a Poet.

In a recent number of this journal a contributor (" Wild Fern "), under the heading of "Poet and Politician," presented our readora with a eulogistic prolusion — for It could not be called a critique— on the poetry of the Hon. W. P. Reeves. In Mr Reeves as a politician we confess that we are but little interested. Though much euparior to his oolleagues in education and dialectical skill, he is in noeense a force in the Cabinet. Though he Is the apparent anther of numberless little bills, he

fatally lacks the power of initiative, In wbioh respeot he is a long way behind not only the Premier but also Messrs Ward and John M'Keczle. " Wild Fern " remarks that all who are acquainted with Mr Rsoves know well that he is sincere in all that he undertakes. If in common with many others we are sometimes — very often, Indeed — led to doubt if, this may be due to an insufficient acquaintance with Mr Rsevea. It must, however, be admitted that Mr Reeves Is fortunate in so far as his convictions at all times manage to harmonise remarkably with his political interests. It is, however, pleasant to find a politician with sufficient power of detachment to permit the writing of verse while ho is engaged in the depressing business of politics. One does nob gather a very good notion of Mr Reoves's verse from the dissertation of "Wild Fern." There is, indeed, almost as muoh of the poetry of other people as of Mr Reeves in it. " Wild Fern " commences with a long quotation from " dear old Oliver Goldsmith," which ia closely followed by another from Wordsworth, and further on a third by an anonymous poet, none of which seem to be introduced for the purpose of illustrating Mr Reeve 3. It ia rathor tantalising, too, to be told that Mr Reeves has written a " charming sonuet " on " the most m&jsstic of all our mountains, Egmont," and then, instead of a specimen of Mr Raeves on the mountain to have three lines of Wordsworth on something else presented to us. Nevertheless "Wild Fern " does succeed in showing that Mr Reevea, if not a poet, has still a good deal of poetic fancy and a considerable gift of metrical composition. A verse is given— and wo ooulil have done with more — from some lines of Mr Rseve3 on the harbour of Hoklanga, which we remember at the time they were first published to have thought much above the ordinary ruu of local verso : — I saw her green waters asleep at high noon, Enchanted to itillne?s ana rest ; I saw her white wavelets flash back to the moon t And die on Omapere's breast. These lines are very musical, and seem to us to have a genuine touch of inspiration about them. There is, too, something of simple pathos in the lines entitled " Not in God's Acre":Noue— none were there to play their part That dreary dying day ; And Heaven to the mother's heart Seemed very tar away. We are afraid, however, that Mr Reevea has no very observant eje for Nature, and consequently no great love for her :— Yet in tin's saced wood no nxe shall ring ; These winding shores shall sanctuary give, Where in cool thickets happy birds may sing, And verdure live. A cool thicket is precisely the place where verdure will not live — unless, indeed, Mr Reeves applies the word verdure to forest undergrowth. Verdure beloßgs not to the forest, but to the meadow. We should not expect much of Mr Reeves's hnmorou3 verse, for, to say the truth, Mr Rsevee has much more of satire than humour in his composition. But the followiog verse from "A Deserted School Bathing Place" is epigrammatically br'ght :— There is the brink where first I know I trembled twenty years ago— A very little " kid "— Till an unpleasant voice above Bawled, " Hurry up, or else, by Jovel I'll chuck you in !" — lie did.

The announcement by cable the other day that the sentence of death Poison iv tho passed upon Madame Joaiaux, Cap. tho Belgian poisoner, had bean commuted to imprisonment for life indicate? the general growth of the feeling against the execution of women. It required some official courage too to commute the sentence, for if any mob throughout Belgium were to get hold of Madame Joniaux it la pretty clear, from the reports of the trial, they would make short work of her. It would not be true to say that Madame Joniaux stands at the head of the historical list of women distinguished for their position in society who have also been celebrated for the infamy of their crimes by the u«e of poison. For all time probably the beautiful and execrable Marquise de Briavilliers will easily take the first plaC9. Bat the crimes of Madame Joniaux were in a horrible degree deliberate and cold-blooded. She ia the daughter of a Belgium general and the second wife (she is now suspected of having poisoned her first husband) 01 an engineer occupying a high position. Madame Joniaux was at once impecunioas and extravsgint, and was moved to crime by no passion stronger than the desite to keep up her position in society. She effected her purpose through the insurance office?). Having insured a young sister's life for £3800, she invited the girl to her house and poisoned her with little waste of time. She next tried her hand on a rich uncle, an exsenator, whose will she believed to be in her favour, but who had announced his intention of marrying. Before the marriage she invited him to her house, and presented to him a cup of coffee, after drinking which he died. Finally «he effected insurances to the amount of £4000 on a brother's life, 'and invited him also to the house — which he never left. The poison used was a mixture of morphine and belladonna, the woman having; apparently discovered that the latter drug rendered the former more deadly. The readiness with which women have taken to poison and the fascination it has over them when once they have commenced —which latter also is noticeable in men— is a singular historical fact. In the middle of the seventeenth century poisoning became quite an epidemic in Italy, and suspicion was only excited when the number of young widows in Rome became so large as to cause astonishment and invite inquiry. It was then found that there was an extensive society of women, mostly of the higher ranks, who were possessed of the secret of araenical poisoning, and practisod it systematically on their- husbands. In the same country again, early in the eighteenth century the celebrated elixir Aqua Toffantv (aho supposed to be a preparation of arsenic), oalled after the woman who held the seoret of it, was in most extensive use, the compounder only Buffering the last penalty after she had been the means of poisoning some 600 persons. The case of the Marquise de Brinvilliori Ik one that hw appealed to

the romance writer and the dramatists She was married very young to the Marquis de Brinvillisrs, but contracted an nndesirable friendship with a young offioar, Sainte Croix, who waa imprisoned in the Bistilla by her family. Bainto Oroix laarnt from an Italian in the Bastille the seciet of arnonioal poisoning, and on his rekasjo made known the secret to the Marquise, who, meanwhile* was beginning to devote her life to religion and philanthropy. The secret appears to have taken desperate ho.d upon her, and previous to commencing operations with her own family she practised the drug on patients in a hospital she 'was in the habit of visiting. Then she poisoned her father, four brothers and sisters, and several others. A strong dramatic tonoh is given by the alleged fact that when she commenced on her husband Sainte Oroix neutralised her efforts by supplying the Marquis with antidotes, in desperate fear that he might have to marry the poisoner. The papers of Sainte Croix, who died suddenly while mixing a Doi3on, led to the woman's detection and ultimate execution. It is supposed that the consciousness of secret power lend?, though no doubt only to very morbid and unhealthy minds, a kind of fascination to the poison bowl, but fortunately the progress of chemical science has made poison, of all tho forms of murder, one of the most cettain of deteotion.

Mr Nathan Again.

Mr D. J. Nathan, of Wellington, has thought it worth his while to mak* an elaborate reply to the criticisms made by tha preei of the colony on hiH scheme for the expansion of the frozen meat trade. As there is no possibility of his scheme coming to anything, we do not propose dealing with his defence at any length, but speaking generally it may be said that the modification of it now suggested is still open to tho most vital objection urged against the original Bcheme— the tax of 3d per head on the etook of the colony— and gains little by the discarding (while the tax remains) of the State guarantee for two millions of borrowed money. For it seems to us that if the gaarautee is thrown overboard, as we think it must be, and the money in consequence has to be raised at a dearer rate, the tax of 31 on the owners of stock will bo insufficient for the puryoee required. On the general question of State aid to commerce Mr Nathan asks, " Where is the country today whioh does not subsidise commerce in some form or other ? Wbat are cable and mail boat subsidies, butter and beet sugar bonuses, endowments to harbour board?, the building and maintenance of lighthouses, forts, and citadels, the construction and equipment of fleets and armies, and the hundred and one other items of national expenditure, but aids to commerce ? " Very true ; and if aid to the frozen, meat industry in the form of a bonus, or in any other way which wonld use the collective money of the State, ia all that is reg aired, probably Mr Nathan would have in such a proposal a very much simpler task before him. Bat it is a very different thing to propose a crushing special tax upon a particular section of the community to carry on a huge speculation in mutton of a very doubtful and dangerous charaoter, Infinitely better for not only the farmer but the whole colony to be content with the alow but safa process of ordinary development.