THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2252, 29 April 1897, Page 29

THE WEEK.

" Nunquam aliud natura, aliud sapiGLtia dWit."— .luvieNAr. "Good nature aud good sense mu^t e\er join.'*— l*opk.

To understand rightly the circumstances of the Hawke's Bay disaster, Tlio it is necessary to know Napier Northern and its district. Without a Deluge. knowledge of the peculiar local conditions, it saems quite difficult to realise that floods on go really tragic a scala can have so suddenly overwhelmed half a province, taken many lives, and wrecked many scores of othars in this pleasant colony of ours. Neither does the extent of country over which the disaster has spread come home to the minds of those to whom Petane and Tarawers, Pakipaki and Te Ante, and Pnketapu and Pakowhai are so many Maori names and nothing more. The truth and the magnitude of the disaster have, however, been proved beyond all possible doubt, and impressed with melancholy vividness on the minds of all who have read — as all, indeed, should read — the independent reports from the scene of the disaster. We see no reason to deprecate, as some have done, the expression at Friday's public meeting of a certain guardedne«s in accepting the first distracted estimates of the extent of the calamity. Those who take part in relief movements have a certain kind of moral responsibility towards the public to whom they appeal. Their reason should not be permitted to sucenmb to the operation of natural sympathy, even though reason's claims be forced with somewhat of an effort. It is curious that the public is ready enough to suspect extravagance where the objects of public charity are ordinary paupers, who have become so in the ordinary course of human affairs and under unexciting circumstances, whereas when relief is te be administered to the victims of a eonsational calamity the tendency is to condemn the slightest manifestation of scepticism as savouring of heartlessness. In the present case, however, that stage has baen passed, and there is no room for question that a disaster of the first magnitude has overtaken a large number of our fellow colonists. Apart from that, the widows and orphans of the men who gave their lives to save others have a paramount claim upon the country, whose records these brave men have illuminated, and whose part it should be to cheer the lonely lot ot those whom a rare heroism has left bereaved. It cannot be a matter for doubt that all who can help in the gracious duty of relief will cheerfully do so.

The Premier and the Minister for Lands, between them, have made a Over-explaiiied. fearful mess of their " explanations" over the Bushy Park scandal. The only sensible thifig said ; from first to last by either of them was the ! suddan declaration of the Minister for Lands when at last his fencing and shuffling resources had been exhausted by pointed qtieg- ■ tioniag : " You will get no more answers out of me to-night." «' I didn't think I would," said his questioner quietly, and gat down with all his objects effected. The result of the Ministerial excuses has undoubtedly been to excite a widespread feeling that the affair is worse than it; looked at firat. We havo never taken any extreme view of it ourselves, and have expressed strong doubts as to the soundness of certain inflated estimates fas we deem them) of the value of the place ; though, on the other hand, we hava certainly not concealed our view that such a transaction as this between two members of a Ministry coffld not possibly take place under a scrupulous and self-respecting Government, nor could Mr M'KeDzie possibly reconcile his own sharo in it, either with his general political professions or with his special ' engagements to his constituents. But the more the details of this very closely kept J secret leak out — and, be it noted, the trans- } action being one virtually in State lands the j people have every right to be told all about it, instead of being kept in the dark by every possible means that the participators can devise — the more clear it becomes that an audacious piece of land-grabbing on Mr M'Keczie's part has been achieved by virtue of an unblushißg piece of favouritism on Mr I Seddon's. The pretence that the land was ! "publicly advertised" is of course con- • temptible, and wo cannot waste time or space j over it. But the notion of an Assets ' Realisation Board realising its estate by j selling it to its political friends without requir- i ing a single shilling of ready money — a fact \ which the Minister for Lands, after fencing with it to the utmost of his capacity, has at last been practically compelled to admit — is so ludicrous a travefcty of the boards very : name that it is no wonder the discovery excites the liveliest suspicions about the ■ whole affair. We should really very much ' like to know whether too remaining pro- ' perties of the Assets Board are going to be ( "realised "in this highly oiiginal fashion. J Not, we presume, unless some more Ministers' ' sons are in want of a large estate on the j < buyer's own terms. < —— I <

The Spectator has recently taken pity on ' i that section of civilised man- i Stock Exchange kind — after all, nob an insig- < Secrets. nificant one — which is outside the mysteries of the 1 European stock exchargcs, and has under- . j taken to explain vrhy all kinds of stocks and | t shares that apparently have not the remotest j t connection with questions of war or peace j go up and down with every breath of polit cal t rumour. Probably the only reason why this a has not been done before is that editors c would not condescend to imagine it possible li that everybody did not know all about it. ■ d They would as soon have thought of setting 1 apart a column or two for the instruction of t the nation in spelling, or for expounding the v operation of the rule of three. It would not . ii be $& all surprising if certain of these editors n were to be found locked in their sanctums o after the publication of the Spectator's a article, away from all human observation, h and intent upon learning: at last in a simple ' f<

and comprehensible way the elements of a question of which it had been the ba«ines3 of all their previous lives to assume a knowledge too profound for common expression. The explanation, when it comes to be made, is found not to be profound at all. " It is easy enough," the writer says, " to sco why foreign bonds, and cousols too, should be depressed by diplomatic difficulties on the Continent, and there "is some colour of justification even for Home railway stocks, seeing that in any case war in Europe would disturb trade; but when it comes, for example, to American railroad shares or West Australian mining ventures, It is not to ! be woadered-at if weakness in such entirely unconcerned securities as these, seem to be ?n incomprehensible myi-tery." But there is really no great -mystery at all when you understand it. The holders of the securl- , tie 3, such as foreign bonds and consols, i which are naturally affected by the posJ sibility of war, are holders also of securities which war would not directly affect; and when their financial position is weakened by a sudden drop in the former' class, they throw the latter upon the market to strengthen their accounts and prevent uneasiness at the banks which have advanced them ready money on deposit of their now depreciated securities. They must | realise on what can be sold, rather than on a sacrifice of what can be only with difficulty got rid of. Another effect of war rumours is that speculation is reduced owing to the fear of dearer money; and everyone understands how the repression of speculation cheapens prices. Banks become cautious, and restrict credit even beyond the ratio imposed by the fall of values; stook exchange operators thereupon get hard up, their fellow operators get suspicious, and all feel the necessity of produoing a cheque on demand, which they may not be in a position to produce unless they realise on consols, American railu, Johannesburg mines, and other undoubted investments. Then again a war means two at least enormous new fields for investment — first, the supplies for ths contendißg armies; and next, the war loans, Indemnity loans, and so on which the belligerent* must sooner or later require. The desire to be after the new love leads, therefore, to the wholesale discarding of the old. These points are the gist of the matter, and throw a good deal of light on the meaning of the periodical telegrams about depression caused on the J3ourae» of Europe by war rumours, even in stock* —such as, for instance, copper mines — which ought by rights to be absolutely I stimulated by the occurrence of a great I war. i | j ! j , S ! j j : ! ; ! \ , \ ' } j • , y l l : l <

■— The unequal struggle between the Turks and the Greeks can only end it' The War in they are left to themselves ! the East, in one way—the demonstra- ! tion of the utter impotence ' of Grecian resources against the Ottoman power. Natural sympathy is all with the Greeks; what may be called specific sympathj—the realisation of the true rights and wrongs of the actual present position—must be given, however reluctantly, to the Turks. The Greoiae snatch at Crete was barely cocdonable on the ground of almost intolerable provocation, and as an expreuion of the national feeling that even a desperate enter- ' prise, and the chance of setting Europe in flames, were better than the total inaction to which the Greek* have hitherto been cortiemned. But the provocation of the frontier war was not at all so readily excusable, It was not only, in fact, indefensible in . itself, but it was an acb of suicidal madness j from the perpetrators' own point of view. There was no pratence that the country was in a condition to defy alone the armies of the Turk, and its Government had the clearest possible notice from the Powers of Europe that it need not hope for the slightest help from outside. The National Leaguer?, it is true, with more or less unacknowledged j support of the Central Government, had j made a kind of attempt to rouso ths sym- j patby of Macedonia, the adjoining province I of Turkey ; and there was the vague reliance upon a risiDg in the semi-independent principalities which is at no time altogether fanciful. But even if all this had amounted to more than a merely theoretical means of help, nothing could excuse the provocation of war w^ile the frontier towns and the frontier troops alike were in a condition of total unpreparedncss for a serious conflict. The Turk, savage and brutal as he generally is, makes a splendid soldier, as the Russians have oklj too much reason to know; and given a capable leader a Turkish army is almost as formidable a force as the be.itequipped battalions that Western Europe can put in the field. The Greeks had from the beginning absolutely no chance., They are warring with the whirlwind, and they will have to sue for intervention on their frontier by the very Powers whose intervention in Crete they have so fiercely resented. " The country that breaks the peace," said Mr Balfour in the House of Commons when he announced the probability of war, " will not be allowed to reap any advantage from its act." The prohibition applies virtually to Greece alone. Turkey wants no cod quests in Grecian territory—would probably accept none if it were offered. Greecs dreamp, perhaps not hopelessly, of her lost dominion in Macedonia and in Crete. From any point of view, Greece must lose by her present desperate course of action. Europe cannot but be 1 endangered, and the unspeakable horrors of war, wantonly and uselessly precipitated £ upon the innocent, will bring misery and c lesolation to thousands of bomeo. v

Che temper of the Balkan States in the present crisis is exactly what might have £ seen expected. Land-locked Sarvia, we are £ old, is agitating for the cession of a Turkish )ort, but as her coastline is 100 miles from C he sea at the -nearest point and her capital 0 it least 200, this apparently small demand b nay mean, when developed, a bid for a very t arge access of territory. Otherwise, it is o lifficult to see why the possession of a t tarkish port should be any more valuable to 8 he Servians than the acquisition of a special ° rharf in Dunedin Harbour would be to the v nhabitants of Queenstown. The require- c nents of Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria are °j n a more modest scale. He does not _ pparently want any more country, but he n] ias sent to Constantinople a wholesale order hi or bishoDS. which the Sultan, it seems, has pi

not hitherto been able to see bis way t& supply. A threat to mobilise an army oa ! account of a dearth of bishops is a somewhat novel development in international, affairs, but the Sultan has wisely concluded that under the circumstances resist j nee to the Bulgarian epiecopomania is hardly worth the candle, and he has pacified the Prince and his aimy by providing them with the desired consignment of prelates. This encouragement will doubtless result in further modest demands from Abdul Hamid's troublesome neighbours (he has not yet heard, for example, from the King of Ronmania and the Prince of Montenegro, among others), and he will ba very fortunate if he can buy off all these affectionate dependents at the price of a few packets of episcopal writs.

Butlee has probably only two functions left to perform in the world's economy — to get interviewed by reporters and to get safely and speedily hung. The latter operation he is naturally not eager to hurry on, but tho former appears to b9 life and happiness to him, and he met the swarm of reporters at Auckland more than half way. What be had to tell them amounted to no more than the usual vulgar brag of the captured criminal about what he would have done if. he! had only had a chance. He would have scuttled the Swanhilda; he would have "shot six of them"; he would have done this, that, and the other brutal and bloodthirsty thing — if only things had been different. There is no earthly reason why anyone should believe these wretched boasts. The man who has been puffed up by a course of notoriety o£ the Californian order, and brogs of his unlimited brutality, never did, so far as is known, any more daring crime than the shooticg of an unarmed and tristful friend from behind his back. The one salient feature of the Butler murders, each and all, was their hideous/ unredeemed cowardice, unless indeed their devilUh treachery may be said to rival that quality for first place. Strange that the creature, in his last hours on earth should so eagerly seek public appreciation for his assumed character of the daring and reckless brigand.

If it be true, as now reported unofficially from London, that tbe British Government, has leased for a term of years, or in some other way acquired for its exclusive use, the important South African harbour of Delsgoa Bay, a stroke has been effected comparable only in significance to the purchase of the Su*z Canal shares by Lord Beaconsfidd in 1875. Thin latter political achievement was effected at a cost of four millions sterling, and at the time probably neither Lord Beaconsfield nor the British nation cared mucu whether the investment was pecuniarily profitable or not, the objects of the transaction being quite independent of its financial results. The Government, however, way doubly rewarded ; for while the political advantages of this dating step were ful'y »qual to their anticipations, tho ssha.'sw shortly afterwards began to return a splendid revenua to the Imperial Treasury. It ie hardly likely that in this latter respect' the Dulagoa Bay operation (it it has really been effected) will follow the achievement of 1575 ; but as regards its Imperial importance at the present juncture there can be no question as to its taking rank with the celebrated Egyptian precedent. As the South African squadron has been ordered to make a demonstration this week in Delagoa Bay, and is already there, we shall probably learn the tinth in a very few days. May ife be such an to truly redound to the glory of the Bsitwa Empfce.

[ Australian federation is accomplished — bo i far a* a poliUoal convention can accomplish it. How far that mar turn out to ba [ depends more upon the people than upon i the politicians whesj efforts have, we deiibevately affirm, risen on the whola to greater heights of true fctatosmanehlp'thnn any of the political movements of recent years in the colonies have attained under the stress of parties. We havo great admiration for the manner ia which ths convention has been conducted, but small belief in its immediate result?. It has not "caught on "; and it is quito certain that in the smaller colonies the measure of preponderance accorded to the laTger ones will be held to ba dangerous to local autonomy, while iv the latter Chore will be a feeling that the convention has in some way or other tended to low€r them -.from their high eßtate. It is, therefore, equally certain. that there will in all the Australia:; arise a political cult, and probably one with a most formidable following, whose watchwords' will ba " No Centralism," or perhaps, with a' due definition of the term, even "No Surrender." The adherents of those who bear such standards may not themselves (and we think will not) be the majority ; bat having with them virtually the whole mass oil the indifferents, they will find no difficulty in obstructing for a time, at any rate, tbe still tremendous difficulties in the way cf Federation. Therefore, while unreservedly acknowledging the fine work of the recent conventioD, we thick its future honours will lie in its historical, but not its intimate, connection with the foundation of the Australian Commonwealth.

The Gisborne artesian bore is down 705ffc, but no water has yet been struck.

The Tuturau settlers refused to accept Mr Saxton's proposal fca erect a cheese factory on condition that the milk suppliers should take up 1000 £1 shares in the Dunodiu Co-operative Company, which he represents. After Me S&xton h&d addressed the meeting, we glean from the Wyndbam Farmer's report, Mr James Gait jsaid , Mr Saxton's mission happened at a rather inopportune time, as Southland people had a bit of a scare of late over share- run. concerns. A share canvasser was looked on askance nowadays— something like a book fiend. He failed to see what benefit they would deriva by accepting Mr Saxton's offer. Besides, how were they to know whethsr that gentleman's company might not "go squash " in a couple of years or so, like some other companies many of those present hud unpleasant recollections of ? Further, in the event of Mr Saxton's company falling to tht ground — of course, ho did not lay it would ; bub one never knew what might happen these times — the Tuturau shareholders would have to- pay up the remaining 15a per share, and yet would have no claim on their factory plant «C premises.

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