THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2215, 13 August 1896, Page 29

THE WEEK.

" Nuuquam nliud natuM, aliud sapiontl* dixit."— Juvinal. •'Good nature and good sttnae must ever join."— l'ori. If the proceedings of the Bankirg Committee are not regarded with An Abortive utter contempt by the public Committee, of New Zealaad, it is not the fault of the Banking Committee. It is questionable whether a more disgraceful scene was ever witnessed within the prtctnets of the parliamentary buildings than that of which Mr Gninness wae the hero. Mr Guinness openly . flouted the authority of the chair, and. appeared to glory in bringing the committee into contempt; The chairman seemed to bave exhausted hie dapacity for firmness in his previous ' encounter with the Promier, and, after a vain endeavour to maintain the same tone, ended in. a whining appeal to tho recalcitrant member to do what without' a moment's hesitation he x ought to bave been compelled to do— obey the chair. Mr Graham is a comparatively new member, and it would not do, therefore, to be hard upon him for his weakness with an old parliamentary band like Mr Guinness, the more especially as he seemed to be at his wit's end to know what to do to aßserthis authority. We are tolerably cure we do no injustice to Mr Seddon when we say tbat the blame for tbe incident entirely lay at his door. Me Guinness would never have maintained his attitude of defiance had he not known that be bad tbe countenance and approval of the Premier, who is obviously thankful for any conduct, no matter how disgraceful, which delays the progress of the committee'sinquiryandrendersitscfforts&bortive. Tbe chairman of a committee or of the whole House, or for that matter the Speaker himself, is quite powerless to deal with a member who persistently defies him. The Speaker has no other instrument of punishment in bis hand than to " name " a member. Having named him, be has then, we believe, to leave it to the leader of the House— the Premier— to deal with the offender as he thinks fit. The chairman of a committee, it would appear, has not even the power to •' name " a member. His only recourse is to report an offender to the House, in which case it would still be left to Mr Seddon to say how he was to be dealt with, so that Mr Guinness was perEeotly safe in adopting any line of conduct he chose towards the chair. Mr Seddon with bis subservient majority was a perfect shield of protection. Meanwhile all these disgraceful scenes are extremely effective in carrying out what may be called Mr Seddon's "plan of oamDalgo." And when tin icoaos

require assistance in the way of obstruction, Mr Seddon is always equal to the occasion. A Mr Oliver Samuel, a lawyer, originally appeared to watch over the interests of Mr Ward before the committee. That, gentleman now appoara to have departed from the scene. He probably found that there was no occasion for his presence, for certainly Mr Ward's interests could not have a belter watchdog than the Premier. We do not Know whether Mr Seddon has specifically struck out an " order of reference " for himself, but if he has, we should say the terms of it would be plain to the meanest understanding— namely, to gaarantee that the colony shall not know the real circumstances under which the banks were taken over, and that none of the dealings of Mr Ward with the bank shall be ever alluded to.

The sorrow and dismay whioh waa felt over

the wreck of the Wairarapa The Sadness will, still be sufficiently fresh of in the" minds ' of New ZeaThe Sea. landers to enable them to appreciate the suffering caused by the losb of the Drummond Caatla. The vessel had made a prosperous voyage from the Capo until it reached the neighbourhood of the French coast. Sailing through a dangerous passage between the island of Ushant and the mainland, the vessel suddenly struck, and in a few minutes, before there was time even to lower any of the boats, her living freight of! 240 parsons, principally -women and children, were sent to eternity. There are circumstances which sadly remind ua of the wreck pf the Wairarapa. It was a hazy night ; the vessel was within a f6w hours of reaching her destination; she was g>ing at foil speed, though all the circumstances demanded very cautious navigation ; and finally, tbe captain's confidence would appear to be -due to the fact that he had mistaken his position and thought he was passiDg the island of Ushant on the east, whereas it was really on the west Bide Tbe Occident happened at 11 o'clock at night, t>f cer most of the paseengers bad gme> to bed. A joyous me&ticg- had been held just previously, at which the captain attended for a few minutes to respond to a vote of thanks for -his care -and courtesy duricg tbe voyage. Parhaps within an hour of that time every soul was in eternity but the three solitary beings who, wlttnnt unison and without effort of any .'special kind, managed to ooApe the general doom. Ooe was a passenger, the other two sailors. It is a curiouj f*ct which goes occa more' to show how human beings are the sport of ciroismstatca?, that one of the three was sick in bed at the time the vessel struck. All the elements of the tragic, seldom altogether absent in wrecks, were there to the foil. There was little of the teirible noise and confusion that are the accompaniments of despair, only because the end came too quick for these ; it is surmised that most of the passengers parished in their berths. Oae of. the survivors sajs that he heard one loud, long-continued scream as tbe vessel want down. The bodies were washed up in numbers on the inlands adjoiniog, the inhabitants dieplajing great humanity in their reverential care of them and in the performance of simple burial rites. For the body of an infant washed ashore a cradle was found — there was not timber enough on the island to m&ke coffins — and decorated with flowera- before committal to its last resting place in those foreign sands. It is perhaps as well that we have -no glimpse of the laBt" agonies of those who were fated to go down with the vessel. When tbe body of au infant is washed ashore from a wreck the imsgina-' tion can tell us only too much of what must bave happened before the doomed mother relaxed her hold.

When a disaster of this sort occurs there are, of course, the usual speculations as to the means by which wrecks of the kind can be prevented. It is a vain speculation. The captain of the Dmtnmond Castle seems to have been a careful man in every ordinary sense. Ho kept closely to tbe bridge, and was there when the vessel struck. He kept sounding tbe whistle during the fog, and he had been taking soundings some little time before the disaster. Tbe probability is that had he been exactly on the course he thought he wa?, his precautions were ample for safety. But that is only another way of Baying that his judgment waa at fault., and for a faulty judgment there is, unhappily, no cure. Human error is one of the things that must last while the world is habitable.

At the present moment there are proceeding in' the Arctic regions two In the undertakings which , are Far North, among the most remarkable

ever recorded in the history of human advenlure.' The first in point of time, and perhaps in that of daring, too, is the expedition of Dr Nansen. The particulars oHt must ba well known to our readers. His notion was that an ica current ran through the Pole in a particular direction indicated by the course of wreckage, and that if he once got embedded in the ice on that course he had only to wait patiently in his vessel— the Pram— in order to be drifted through the Pole into open water somewhere about the Greenland coast. He started in Juno 1893, prepared for a five years' " cruise." Three years have now elapsed, and where he can be at this moment no one can say, the report of a few months ago that he was on his way back after reaching the Pole being without foundation.

The other advanf ure is that of M. And) 6-5, ; a Swedish adventurer, in his balloon. A3 the notion that it was impossible to reach the Pole by the ordinary process of travelling in Bledges over the ice began to be entertained, the idea of pressing the air into the service of man for the purpose began to be entertained, but M. Andrei is the first who yen- i tured actually to embark on such an expedition. He had hw balloon constructed in- j Paris specially to suit his requirements ; a rude kind of rudder of his own device was attached to it, and the balloon itself was constructed so strong and so impermeable that in the event of a descent in the ocean it would remain buoyant for a considerable period. Andiea was to take the material of bis balloon to Spitzbergen, and after waiting for a favourable wind, with bis gas manufactured on the spot, and the balloon imprisoned in a huge hohse ho bad brought with him in pieoes for the purpose, was to. wil away wh» tht oooation offered. All the ere-

liminaries of his plan appear to have suoceeded, and a week or more ago we had the newß that he had actually started. Where he also may be at this time it is impossible to say. To reach the Pole he had 600 miles to travel, but of course with a "favourable wind it would take a balloon a veryshoit time to travel that distance. Acdiee did not propose to actually land at the Pole, as for lack of gas he would of course be imprisoned there; the intention was merely to travel over it and as close as hills or hummock* of ice would permit. Such extraordinary daring deserves succea3. Andieo and his companions—there axe only the threa— may be heard of shortly in any quarter' of the world— it is quite impossible to say where a balloon won'd drift to— or they may in the course of alii tie time be ploked up at sea, or they may n.<?vcr be heard of at all, thus adding another batch to the list of victims who have perished in their indomitable attempts to make the earth yield up its secrets. For after all the main result of success in reaching the Pole would be the satisfaction of human curiosity, enabling someone- to say for the first time that he had stood on the spot where the diurnal revolution of the eaith ceases, and to tell us what the place and the experience is like.

It is really very good of Mr Ssddon to promise that he will no longer carry en bis stonewalling* taotics on the Barikirg Committee. Bat looking to ,the fact that he ia Premier of the colony— a faot.wb.iob. he seems very frequently to forget himself — it would have been very much better had he not initiated such tactics at all. Mr Seddon professes that his only object in obstructing was to prevent the Opposition getting hold of something which might be used by them in the no-confidence debate. Unfortunately for the validity of this excuse, it is not allowable for the House to make use in debate or in any other way of anything that may transpire in a committee inquiry. The Speaker wonld sharply have put a stop to any member who endeavoured to make use of. the evidence. We have a very distinct recollection of breach of privilege cases ariiing out of the divulging of what takes place in committee before the report comes in. It ia true that the press i* admitted to the present inquiry, but the wellknown rale as to not commenting upon the evidence in any way of necessity still exists, and is as binding upon members of the House as upon outsiders. It is much more likely that Mr Seddon has at length perceived that his continued obstruction on the committee was producing a most unfavourable impression upon the country, even upon his own supporter*. If there is nothing to conceal, Mr Seddon need not be afraid of what may be revealed. And, as we stated last week, it was quite impossible for anyone to come to a conclusion- other than that he was afraid to leave the committee alone for a moment.

One of the curious features of the present state of politics in New Zealand is the gen'tra! readiness to make and apparently to accept vital alterations in the Constitution. The latest specimen of a "reform measure "—for that, we presume, ig what it would be called— is the Constitution Act Amendment Bill just introduced. It .proposes to adopt the "Norwegian system (a proposal years ago laughed out of the Victorian Legislature) by which both Houses on certain occasions Bit and vote together ; and to inaugurate the referendum of »rbich we have heard aomuoh of late. We should not ventnre to > deal with so large pnd so important a subject in a very abort note but for_ one fact — namely, that the same Bill "proposes to dispense with the life members of the LegUUtive Council, who are supposed to be willing to retire gracefully with their free railway passes and tbetiUs of "honourable." Now, as the Bill whioh aims at doing this can only become law by receiving the assent of the Councillors proposed to be retired— a large majority of the Council -we may as well dismiss it at once as ao electioneering squib. If the Government really wished to adopt the referendum- (the taking up of the Bill was a mere sop to the mover, Mr O'Regaii) they would nover have incorporated with it this ridiculous provision for I reforming tho Legislative Council. Nowhere outside asylums will people be found willing to vote for the cutting of their own throatP. Life membership in tbe Coaßcil may have its bad side, but at least a Council compoied of life members is better than one staffed from , time to time with men pledged for a certain' number of years to carry aut the behests of the Ministry of- the day.

Charles Kingslev in a celebrated lecture of 20 years ago declared tbat eminent lawyers and famous orators who, like Lord Palmerston, lived to a great Bge would always ba found to be deep-chested men—" men who had a peculiar power of using the diaphragm to fill and to clear the lungp, and therefor* to oxygenate the blood of the whole body." Tbe active and healthy brain requires a large supply of healthy blood, and to maintain the blood in a state of health it is essential that •the chest should be capable of taking deep draughts of the life-giving oxygen. Since Kingsley's day the close connection between physical and mental health is much mere widely understood. All those who attended the a?sault-at-arms of the High School boya in the Garrison Hall the other night could not fail to perceive th*t the principle ia understood and appreciated in DanediD. The display there made would be apt to astonish any parent who happened to see it for the first time. If well-do veloped muscles and well-braced nerves are of value in after life— and there is scarcely a department in which they are not a large element in success—the boys of the High School should be able to hold their own anywhere. Strength, nerve, decision, the power to endure were all shown in f nil process of cultivation, and the authorities of the school may well be congratulated on the progress it is making in physical culture. In Mr Hanna they have got hold of a- treasure — exactly the man wanted for the work, for he evidently knows how to push the boys to the utmost in the way of training, while never for an instant steppiDg over the boundary line of care. Altogether the aisault-at-arms was a very gratifying dliplay.

Dv Blaubibb's celebrated book " Trilby ' is one of the kind whiob. having levera

very effective situations, do not nevertheless lend themselves easily to the process of dramatising. The scene at the last where Trilby falters and breaks down as Svengali dies ia the strongest in the book, but'it is impossible' to represent it os the etage. But apart from the inherent difficulties presented by the book iteelf the dramatic version given in tho Princess. Theatre seemed by no means to make the most o£ the situations in the book. The representation, too, would be very disappointing to those who had read the encomiums of the Melbourne press. The true note of criticism was struok (if we remember right) by the Sydney Bulletin, which declared that the company depended for sucoeßs upon the get-up and acting of Svengali and the good looks of Trilby. That is largely the c«se. With the exception of Srengali himself, and perhaps l'Zou Zou, Gecko, and Madame Vinard, the chief characters of the play were greatly milconceived and in many ' respects wholly travestied. There is no. more effective scene in the book than that in which Mr 3, Bagot with her clerical brother-in-law calls upon Taffy and the Laird to make inquiries about the charaoter of Trilby, but it. was wholly spoiled in the rendering. Taffy in the book is awkward and embarrassed as he answers the queries, but at tho same time full of admiration for the nature of Trilby and pity for the anxieties of Mrs, Bigot. .- In the play Taffy roars put his sentiments in true melodramaticstage style. Little Billee in the book is a gentle, ingenuous youth, with a streak of modest geniu* in- him. • Oa the stage 'he is— well, he isn't Little Billee. He too roars too much all through, .and especially while Trilby is on her death-bed he roars out his love and devotion in a style calculated to make very short work of herindeed. Those who have not yet read Trilby — and among habitual readers ihc-re cannot be very m»Dy — will get all tbe more enjoyment out of the book by seeing the play first.'