THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2250, 15 April 1897, Page 29

THE WEEK.

Au Bo Oir I

The Hon. E. J. Ssddon, Premier of New Zealand, leaves Wellington to-day to attend the csle. bration in London of the Sixty Years' Ksign. The I approval of the colony has, on the whole, been given to this step, and we are quite sure that now that it is about to be consummated there will be a sincere hope that the Premier may, as he almost certainly will, have an uncommonly good time in the old count! y. Her Majesty the Queen, through her Secretary of State, has asked for the attendance of the Prime Ministers of her colonies at the imperial celebration, and it I is not conceivable that, attending as they do from many remote parts of the earth, they will not be made as " happy and glorious " as the present reign itself is declared by the National Anthem to be. It is a pity that Mr Seddon seems to think it the right line to take to persistently put aside from public view the festive aspect of his trip". In oar opinion it is the only aspect that is worth considering. Ministers who take trips to other countries invariably, of course, seek to show that some vital public benefit must result or has resulted therefrom. Mr Reeves, who found it convenient to meet a. member of bis family at Adelaide, was seized, it will be remembered, with an urgent desire to "inquire into "something or other in South Australia, which colony had shortly before despatched one of its own Ministers to inquire into the identically same thing over here. Bath inquiries resulted ! satisfactorily, no doubt, and neither in the least disturbed the even current of things — or was intended to. Mr Ward also saved the colony by a trip to London, in the course of which he was presented at Court ; and Mr Seddon himself lately had a grand tour through the Australian capitals, in the course of which he •• inquired into " several things, the nature of which we (like, in all probability, Mr Seddon himself) have forgotten. The truth is that the colony is sending the Premier Home to enjoy himself, and ■ to represent N.ew Zealand in 'a certain number of processions and functions at which it is only right that this colony should be represented. It is not sending him Home to conduct its affairs, in any sense. In the former aspectof hismissionhehaseverybody's cordial goodwill, and even confidence. In the latter probably the great bulk of the intelligence of the colony would simply decline to trust him. Let him therefore cast dull care aside, take his roving commission ( and as much pocket-money as he likes, get a royal berthing through the San Francisco route, live in England like a duke, and tip the English flunkies like a Chicago millionaire, and return to us with his bill (which will be paid on sight whatever it is) and, for once, without a solitary pretence of having gone Home to "inquire into" anything in the world. As we expected, the Premier made a | desperate and finally suci Carte ce3sful fight for the valuable j Blanche. power of postponing the meeting of Parliament to as late ;as possible in the year. With supplies granted to the middle of October, a strong majority, and the command of the Order Paper, the Government are now in a position to escape all serious criticism for another 15 months. It is quite certain that when Parliament meets late this year it will ! be as effectually muzzled for all practical purposes as a Parliament ever can be — so effectually, in fact, that we shall not be at all surprised if Mr Seddon feels that he can leave even his colleagues in charge of so safe a position while he enjoys an extra month or so of his holiday. Properly instructed by him, they can so manipulate matters as to waste that extra month and enfold themselves under his protecting wing just as the constitutional means of procrasti- , nation and shelter are beginning to give out. j Ifc seems pretty clear that, in order to arrive I at this desirable iesult, the Premier had to repudiate a distinct agreement with the ' loader of the Opposition ; but no one who knows his political methods would expect i him to hesitate about a trifle of that kind. Ib would, however, have been more characteristic of Mr Seddon to have boldly announced the repudiation, instead of pleading that when he made che agreement "be had not consulted bis colleagues " — an excuse so I broadly farcical that even those colleagnes themselves must have felt the comical significance of the smile that went round the ! House. This is about the first occasion on i which Mr Seddon has found it temporarily * convenient to have " colleagues," and there j must have been quite a flutter of gratified ;- appreciation on the Treasury benches when this gracious recognition of their occasional usefulness was made. Indeed, the Hon. J. M'KeDzie experienced such a spasm of delight that he became for a moment quite '■ virtuously indignant at the notion of" the Premier getting along without him, but the amusement of the House was too genuine to be thus overcome. The main point, however, is that the Liberal party has followed ! the Premier's astute lead in consenting to <. the surrender into his hands of the virtual autocracy he seeks until the middle of next year. Mr Seddon will now go Home without a cloud upon his brow. Ifc is to be hoped that the circumstances under which Sir Maurice Tho Officers O'Borke and Mr Guinness of the were re-elected to the honour- j House. able positions they held in the last Parliament will provide ] a lesson for both gentlemen which will not j be loat upon them. As we have once or ( twice remarked in the past, the case of Sir Maurice O'Rorke is one peculiarly difficult to deal with outside the walls of Parliament. There is so very much to respect and praise, ' and yet there is a residuum to wbiob neither '

respect nor praise can be honestly assigned. Sir Slaurica holds the record among Australasian Speakers, and on the whole deserves his proud pre-eminence. He has some of the qualities of a heaven-born Speaker. He perhaps had them all onee — for he is one of the unfortunates in this respect, that his later career has brought him more constantly under the censure of the critic than his first years of occupation of the Chair of the House. On several occasions during the last Parliament his official action must have been felt by his friends to be indefensible — oa one special occasion it could only be adequately I described as deplorable. Beyond and out1 side of his official action, moreover, there were grave circumstances, of whioh one sees the reflection in the reports of special correspondents, but Which were of £he kind , that only justify explicit censure in the last extremity. Sir Maurice ORorke's re-election was probably a right action on the .Hou*e's part. Nevertheless, we choose to consider it i a more or less experimental action, and if i Sir Maurice has the wisdom we willingly ■ attribute to him, he will think bo too and shape his course accordingly. It remains for him to renew in bis last term of office the lustre be has in the past undoubtedly shed upon the honourable office of Spaaker. Aa to Mr Guinness, it was clearly Mr , Seddon'a duty, in common gratitude, to propose that gentleman as Chairman of Committees, and to force the election through if he could. That, with so strong a pa r ty ' majority at his back, he so nearly failed in [ doing it, and only did it at last through the I active or passive help of Opposition members, is a fact that supplies all necessary criticism and draws the moral for itself. Mr Guinne39 will have to recognise through the coming sessions that an Opposition has its rights. It is rather a pity that it required the substantial strengthening of the Opposii tion by the electors to bring that obvious fact dearly home to Mr Guinness'a mind. There is probably no better way of elicitiDg a true judgment from the " Silence general public on any controis versial matter than by Golden." placing the letters between the parties before it in full. Somehow or other verbal discussions, no matter how well sustained, do not in the same degree arouse that instinctive perception which is so rarely astray, though they may with entire success appeal to reason. i The correspondence between Mr Hislop and j the Premier is a case in point. It is felt < that the truth reveals itself not so much by what is expressed as by what is not — not so much by Mr Hislop'a perhaps somewhat too extended arguments aud sarcasms as by Mr Seddon'a transparent evasions and vaguu excuses for retreating from the correspondence. Mr Seddon is certainly exhibited by the letters in a moat unenviable ligh', but a light in which he is not now shown for tbft first time. With a view to work up his nominee's chances for the Suburbs seat, the Premier hinted in public that Mr Hislop had bought the notorious Mnlvaney letter for cash. Apparently he did not count upon the hint being reported in the paper*, as fche'se ', things do their work more effectually when aimply dropped about ; but in due course be waß confronted with a civil note from Mr Hislop, asking for his authority for the state- . menr, and assuring Mm that it was uuS founded. To this letter no reply was returned j for a fortnight, and when one did come ie was j Bimply an appeal to Mr Hislop to "agree that ; replies to the queries are unnecessary " — : rather a forlorn hope, one would think, but apparently the only one ths Premier could i think of. Mr Hislop naturally did nob sgree, bat Mr Seddon prudently took refuge in silence for a few days more, and then issued , his actual defence. This was (I) that Mr 1 Hislop had at any rate done something slue : (2) that there was something omitted from ■ the paper which reported what he (Mr Sod- i J don) said; (3) that he said it jocularly ; and i ' (4) that he never said its at all. Thi3 b<iing ' ■ the case, " seeing that his time wa* more : than fully occupied with public business," i ! the Premier once more crept away into i [ silence, sabmitting meekly to a final castigaI tion in Mr Hislop's most, caustio atyle, and • probably regarding his steamer ticket a<« the ; best possible answer fo it. As we hay& said, 1 there is no possibility of rnisumlerstanriing j I left in the mind of anyone reading the j letter?. Opinions may differ as to whether or not Mr Hislop overdoes the tcarifioation j business, but there will hardly be the slightest j diversity of judgment on the merits of the ; case. j - ! Mr Ward complained in his wpeech on the chief debate of the session that he had been 11 attacked for 18 months " in consequence of j Bometbing he said in London raapectiDg the i New Plymouth bondholders. This shows a truly curious sense of proportion on the parr. jof the member for Awarua. Nobody now i cares much what he said about the New , Plymouth bondholders ; but there are still a great many who do care, and most afcrongly , reprobate, the character of certain cate1 gorical statements about the finances of the I 1 colony made in London by Mr Ward in his j ' capacity as Colonial Treasurer. For reasons) j , that have since transpired, the astonishment ; ! originally felt; in the colony when the : reports of these statements came out • does not now exist, but the tlisj approval — to put it mildly — is ai strong j as ever. To talk about any statements made j to the New Plymouth bondholders and the criticisms upon them, and to ignore the I financial statements made to the London -i I world in general and the emphatic remarks ( ' made here upon them, is as though a man • I who had been shattered by a charge of > grapeshot should grumble about the suffer-, ing caused by bis corns. Mr Ward, by the way, who is nothing if not self-possessed, remarked that what be was complaining of was "a specimen of the way public men were attacked who went Home for the colony." We readily admit that there is a sense in which this from Mr Ward 1b subj lime. 1 Mb Batgek's philanthropic enterprise having j proved to be not all plain sailing, and some I things having been said and quoted iv the ' course of it which, as he says, he hardly ex- I '■ pected to see published, he has desired to withdraw from it, but there does not seem to be a way out — that is, not in the way Mr j ' Batger now seeks ; bat for obvious reasons he

need not yet conclude that he is going to bs compelled by the law of the land to pay tha6 extra £3000 or £4000 for nobody knows (or at any rate says) what. The probabilities in this respect are not at present legitimate matter for comment, but the application for Mr Batger's release is, and we hardly think that there will be many to whom the reasons so ingeniously urged by Mr Chapman on his behalf will appear otherwioo than unduly thin. The plain truth evidently is that once more a carefully planned scheme has failed to come off in tho way it should go, and Mr Batger saw nothing to be gained for anyone by going on with it. •But he had offered some £3000 or £4000 fop nothiDg (according to the principal legal advocate for the sale), and that is too good a price for the article to be readily dropped. The liquidators are sellers of that nothing for that price, and not knowing where else to dispose of it to such advantage, they are naturally unwilling to see the desirability of rescinding the contract so clearly as Mr Batger does. He is now in this exceedingly odd position: that having failed in his second application, his most fervent prayers must be directed to the hope that ho may also fail in his first.

The delusion that a returning officer is still what he alwayß waa before the "spoils" system oame in — an impartial officer ohosen without regard to party politics — is somewhat upset by the descent made upon the Treasury by the Armstrong family, the paternal Armstrong at their head. Mark Twain has a story of a "Great Beef Contract" whioh illustrates the methods that give^riso to incidents like the Armstrong raid. Mr Armstrong ptre was produced somewhat mysteriously from the Government bag about the tims of the general election, and sent to act as returning officer for the Wuirarapa district < where a member of the staff af the Ministerial newspaper was standing for eleclion)in place of the resident magistrate, who had officiated on former occasions. Mr Armstrong thoughtfully took his family with biro, and with equal thoughtfulness proceeded to spread them out upon the work in hand. The result we have in the interesting series of Treasury vouchers just; presented to Parliament, which recall in sorno degree the r.urions bills that came in on the conclusion of the Hon. Messrs Seddon and Carroll's tour among the Maoris. Mr A. Armhtrong, the " organiser of victory," wants about £35 from a grateful country ; Mr A. L. Armstrong will be content with £5 ; Mr W. L. Armstrong modestly ratos himself as UDder £4; Mr E. It. P.Armstrong sinks Gven below £3; and Mr K. Fairbrother (vaguely described as " a relativa " of this enterprising family) barely raises his own little item above £4. But then there are, fortunately, such things us extras ; and with extras the family bill is raised to £143 odd, a sum total which probably induces in the :rmltiludinoaß Armstrong} a feeling of. genuine astonishment at their own moderation. We are not told how much of it whs uaid to people who are uot Armstrongs (IF there was any room for such people in the returning officer's quarters), but the genera! affect muab be a feeling of thankfulness' that; on the vfhols the Premier is given to foisting biß Mends npon the country in retail lots, and only exceptionally marches tham In j)' battalions like chis.

Dr Wolfekden, the inventor (or reinventor) of the gold cure for dipsomania, is in Auckland, explaining its benefits to the Ministers' Association— a body we take to bo religion*, not political. We were under the impreHflion that this speciQc bad been giveu an extended trial in America, and that the results were disappointing ; but it may bs still hoped, apparently, that there is something in it. The treatment consiats Jn causing rho patient to swallow daily a certain amount of gold in solution — the actual form in which the metal is administered being that of its common chloridp, a salt largely need in the arts — whereby, i« is said, a positive distaste for alcoholic liquor is gradually induced. The process in probably, so far as it is successful, more psychological than physiological iv itrnature, and this will account for the uncertainly hitherto observed in tha results. Ii; is a cure not strictly analagons co faith-heal-ing perhaps, but dependent like if. upon obscure phenomena of the nervous sjstera, and like it erratic and generally questionable. In spite of these drawbacks, if it cm be shown that the salt is comparatively haimless to a healthy person, and that even in a reasonable pareencsge of caseo it supplies an aid ro victims of alcoholism to throw off the demon's grip, it is well worth welcoming and making the most of. Dr Wolfenden's mission should be regarded therefore v?ifcb helpful interest.

The presentation of President Kruger's iittio till for damages in connection with the Jameson raid caused some amusement in rho House of Commons on February 18. The worthy Boer has already received from the tines inflicted on the captured reformers some £100,000, and to this ho now adds for " material " damage the coasoientiously calculated cum of £G77,93S 3s 3d. Simultaneously he olaims a round raillion for whafc he calls " moral and intellectual damage " to bis flock— or, as Mr Chamberlain suggested, possibly the telegram meant that the million included the former sum, in which case the impairment of the moral and intellectual faculties of the injured Boera would be exactly readjusted by the payment pi £322,061- 16s 9d— to be expended probably in medical • comforts, so soothing to the unhinged nervous system. The English papers make merciless fun of' President Kruger's first appearance as a " coats olerk." One of them says: "-What moral damage was done to the Boers by the raid they are perhaps too damaged in intellect to explain. And yet there must be a fair amount of intellect left in the Transvaal to enable such a very accurate estimate to be made." On tha other hand, the official German newspaper* (which have probably not yet learned, bub will learn sooner or later, that itisno^business of theirs, or their Emperor's either) affecb the most lofty moral indignation at tha spirit in which the. demand was received bj the House of Commons, and express c. confident belief that Mr Kruger will eet it. W« xriah he mass