PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2298, 17 March 1898, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

From Saturday's Daily Times.) The Queen— God blsss hsr I—is1 — is after all to take her spring outing on the Continent as usual. Three days ago ehe was unable to go out of the country because of the gloomy aspect of international politics — the peril of war in fact ; simultaneously all public securities fell. Now we are told that it was not international politics that detained her Majesty at Windsor but "a slight biliou s attack" — one could have wished it more poetically expressed — and a gale of wind in the Channel. She will leave for Nice immediately, and consols, no doubt, will go up a point. My own private belief is that the reason " first given is the true one. Foreign affairs did look black — and look black still • — but to detain the Queen from her customary flight southwards to escape the March east winds would have been a note of alarm, diplomatically unwise as well as financially mischievous. We must keep up the appearances of faith in the neighbourliness of our neighbours as long as may be. We must seem to believe even though we have the surest reasons to doubt. The phrase " international relations " is at present a euDhemism for international bluff, and the" "Who's afraid 2" look is an indispensable part of the bluff. We shall keep it up till someone actually slaps us in the face ; then it will be seen whether we- have any blood in our veins or not. Perhaps it has gone to water. We shall see 1 The proceedings of Russia in the Far Bast eeeru. to come little short of a slap in the facß. Presuming on our Christian forbearance and humanitarian horror of war I That is a logical and legitimate development of the game of bluff. We U3edn't be ashamed of our self-restraint. Self-restraint is not inconsistent with strength and pluck. According to the London papers — and on this point I beliove them — our fleet in China waters could sweep the fleets of Russia, Germany, and France from the sea. Russia mu»t be quite aware of the factj hence her Wuiuui? will probably

; stop shorb cf the irreparable slap in tbe j face. To point the moral, the political moral, of the Wellington election is the business of the able editor everywhere, and to him I leave ifc. I have a few remarks of my own to make, but they will be- 'made from the ' point of view of art — that is, tbe black art. Not that; lam an adept therein ; but Mr I Seddon is, aicd to Mr Seddon, on the occasion j presented by this election, the country looked \ for an interesting exposition of the principles of tbe art — such a masterly display of political thimble-rigging, legerdemain, and hecas-pocus as would justify his great reputation. In this hope tha country has bsen disappointed. What Mr Seddozi bad to do was, as we all know, to carry the election for the Government. He has failed ; but that is a detail, and comparatively un- ; important-. The real calamity to be de- ! .plored, from the point of view of art, is Mr ; Seddon's utter and irreparable collapse as a I political thaumaturgist. The first thing he had to do in order to carry that election was to sssm to let ifc severely alone. There were a hundred invisible strings ready to his pulling, and he might have pulled' them all without rising from his office chair. Secretly, silently, surreptitiously, he might have manipulated the labour unions, bought up the rival Labour candidate, organi3ed the women's vote, brought the whole civil service in Wellington under a reign of terror — all this he might have done whilst virtuously seeming to do nothing. Instead of which he openly and visibly plunged into the melee, raved at ! election meetings, ranted as a tub orator at I the street corners and to the draymen, lumpar?, and loafers on the Wellington wharf. And this was thought to ba a modern Machiavelli ! Scratch a Eiusian and you find a Tartar ; frighten tha Premier and you find a West Coast — what was I going to say 1 — well, the West Coast original. Of course the explanation of the Premier's return to nature is simply that he was I frightened. It is not that he is without the I Machiavellian qualities, is incapable cf [ subtlety, unapt for intrigue, — not that at I all. But fear demoralises. In a moment of panic a Machiavelli might ba even as another man ; the deepest diplomatist, his nerves suddenly shattered, might take to his heels, or fight blindly with tooth and claw, nature's rudest weapons. iMr Saddon's collapse means that he j has been horribly frightened. In this i condition he probably remains— pouri as the ! Maoris say — dark, despondent, wrathful, i enraged in his new sanse cf helplessness. He will be calmer by and bye; but it is too much to hope that this painful snubbing by Providence and the Wellington electors will be made a means of grace to him. 1 can't easily picture Mr Seddon humbled and penitent. Perhaps if it were merely a case of impending dismissal he might be able to put a good face upon it and, when the time comes, depart, like other defeated Premiers before him, with a smile, a bow, and a vainglorious promise to return. But the ca3e, I fancy, is otherwise. You don't quit with equanimity a house in which you have half a dozen skeletons in cupboards. The " springcleaning " which will follow the departure of the Seddonites may yield some memorable revelation?. Contributing also to Mr Ssddon's mental disquiet is the certainty of a revolt amongst hi 3 creatures in the Houss. With what anger, scorn, disgust, he thinks of them — the drove of asses who will now take courage to flirt their heels at the sick lion ! Taking all things into consideration, I do not feel justified in hopiDg for any state of mind even approximately Christian in Mr Seddoa, at present. As the fiftieth anniversary of Otago approaches signs of preparation for rejoicing make themselves more conspicuous. Old identities are signifying their intention of taking part in the proceedings in such numbers as to remind us of stories ot the pensioners in tbe United States, who seem to grow more numerous every year. Or Miller has detected certain "paraphernalia" and " hose " in the Octagon, and wants to know what it is all about, having been quietly put off with the assurance that it is " all right." The City Council has added £50 to the mayor's salary on the understanding that he hands the sum over to the Demonstration Committee, that circumaavigatory process being held a sovereign remedy against municipal corruption. The religious bodies have quietly permitted themselves to be relegated to the background, or, ralhcr, I should say, to the extreme foreground, for ' fiey will have to commence their exercises

ac 930 am. The synod will not enjoy itself in characteristic fashion by resuming tho discussion on the question of union, but will doubtless find some suitable subject of contention. Upon the question of union I may observe that Mr Begg and Mr Sutherland have executed a masterly flank movement by visiting Oimaru and holding forth to the laity there at what was termed an anti-union meeting, though as the meeting passed no resolutions the hostility may exist only in the imaginations of the spostles of isolation. I observe that the We&leyans view the preparations with a patronising eye. The conference congratulates the Church of Otago on the attainment of its j abilee, but tbe mover quietly remarked that tne aforesaid church ooly followed up the work begun by a Wesleyan minister in 1840. The minister was the Eev. Mr Watkin, whose opinion of Waikouaiti may be tersely summed up in his welcome to his successor — " Welcome to Purgatory, Brother Creed. I fear, however, it is incorrect to say that the Church of Otago took up the work. On the contrary, when Mr Creed came to Duaedin they would not give him any place to preach in but the gaol. Correspondence of that date shows how tolerant tbe early settlers were, and how cheerfully they- accepted itinerant preaching. Luckily the Weslejans do not care. I observe that the conference values contingencies so lightly as to spproach the subject of fire insurance without a tremor. The composition of addresses to the Governor leaves much to be desired as a rnle, and I fancy a competent literary man could reap a tidy harvest by going ahead of his Excellency and instructing mayors and town clerks in the elementary principles of addressing visiting magnates ; also, it would not be amiss if these civic functionaries, or those who are functi officio (as Mr J. F. M. Fraser delicately put the relationship between himself and Mr F. R. Chapman), could be induced to cultivate a sense of proportion. Let us suppose that " his Excellency the Right Honourable Uchter John. Mark," &c, receives a hundred such addresses. What do the givers thick he will do with them ? I might hazard the Purmise that when he returns to Northland House in Tyrone he will fit up a " New Zealand " room and stock is with souvenirs of his stay in the coloxiy. He will naturally adorn the walla with the addresses. What information will the usual run of address convey to the reader ? None at all, except perhaps that John Smith was Mayor of Paraparapakinini and James Brown town clerk. This can hardly be termed either instructive or interesting, however gratifying it may be to Smith and Brown to find their names figuring in the ancestral halls of the Knox family. Why do not the framers of these addresses make them either humorous or descriptive. An all-wise dispensation ha 3as a rule denied to civic functionaries the quality of humour, but then humourists are cheap. If the same dispensation has also denied them descriptive ability, let them summon the übiquitous photographer. The result would be mementoes of real interest, more especially if a personal touch could be added by including his Excellency's railway carriages in the view, with, say, Lord Ranf urly blowing the fire with his hat in order to make the " billy " boil, and the cook in the distance gathering more sticks. Oa the subject 0! iaternational relations, with which I have already dealt, a correspondent writes : — I do not read my morning paper now with the enjoyment of former times. I am essentially a Boan of peace, and it seems to me that the world is gradually bufc surely becoming more irritable. Take up your Times any morning you chooge. You will see that four great Powera are snarling at each other over the carcase of China, with Japan ready to spring at any of them which crosses her designs. The attitude of the Boer in the Transvaal is distinctly surly. The French and English are glaring at each other on opposite baaks of the Niger. Spain and America are nearly coming to blows over the destruction of the warship Maine by a submarine mine, accidentally or wilfully exploded. Cr«te is by no means pacified, nor Greece by any means content. There is actual war on the Indian frontier, and in the Soudan, and neither is going quite as well as could be wished. Luckily for us the conductors of newspapars do not foster sensations, else we should have our morning paper decorated with startling headlines in big type as if it were a theatrical poster. And yet nothing seems to happen. Jonathan secures an " option " over all the men-of-war beicg built in Europe and

Spain subside?. Tne Emperor of Germany's " ccown of thorns " tarns ou6 to be a reference only to his physical affliction. President M'Kinley is only taking advantage of the nation's unanimity to do what he had long desired to do — namely, strengthen the fleet. The assailams of the King of Greece will turn out not an emissary of some dangerous organisation, but an irresponsible crank. Oar expectations or our apprehensions are beicg continually roused, and yet nothing seems to happen. The man afc the other end of the cable must be a pessimist of the worst type, or eJsa bis liver is out of order. He reminds me of the printer who was everlastingly •• stopping bss press " to give the latest news. On cae occasion he surpassed bitnself by saying : "We stop the press to say that nothing ha« happened since we went to press." Civis.