The Otago Witness WITH WHICH IS CONPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1819.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2355, 13 April 1899, Page 33

The Otago Witness WITH WHICH IS CONPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (THURSDAY, APRIL 13, 1819.)

THE WEEK. " Nunqnam ailud Diluri, ailud upieatU dlxit." — Jvychil. " Oo*4 u»iur« *u<l food xut mum erer join."— Pore The Hon. J. G. Ward loses no opportunity of informing the colony Mr Vfari that he is a coming Minisat ter, and we have no ' doubt TTinton. he is one. The steps which Government papers announce him to be taking in regard feo his private affairs, in contemplation of his return to the Treasury benches, are entirely honourable to him so far as they go, though even as far as they go they only represent, under the peculiar circumstances of the past, what any honourable man would feel himself bound to do notwithstanding any technical release. Mr Ward's failure was no ordinary case. The apparently inspired announcement that reparation is to be strictly confined to certain selected recipients deprives Mr Ward of much of the credit ho seeks, and of some, perhaps, that he is fairly entitled to — for the spirit of our law is against such preferences, and though no law is transgressed in the present case the neglect of its principles is instinctively perceived, to the detriment of a frank ascription of credit such as the member for Awarua has unquestionably earned by the course he announces. Mr Ward's speech at Winton began appropriately with a well-deserved tribute to the enthusiastic loyalty of his constituents, which may well be described as phenomenal. Of its sincerity there can be no doubt whatever, and we think Mr Ward is justified in triumphantly pointing out that there was an element of surprise in the conviction carried home to the rest of the colony as to his undiminished popularity in Southland. The ex-Treasurer made his speech notable by boldly abandoning all his former non-borrowing principles and avowing his contempt for any public man who would advocate such a policy as that upon which he (the speaker) originally climbed into office. The explanation of this political somersault is, we fear, that Mr Ward has discovered -a corresponding change in public feeling. When he nailed his flag to the mast as a "■ non-borrowing " " self-reliant " Treasurer, he did so because self-reliance was then the popular line to take. We admit that he borrowed all the time, of course ; but the millions were got secretly and surreptitiously, and with much platform deprecation of any borrowing at all. Now that all these secrets have been " blown," and the party of big loans is coming to the front in the country, Mr Ward discards, his principles and openly joins their ranks. We do not intend to seriously discuss his method of proof that our present indebtedness is no burden ; jj; was written for children, and if the electors of Winton deem it good enough for them we have no complaint to make. Neither need the parrotcry about the influence of New Zealand legislation on the money markers of the world receive any further refutation ; nobody knows its childish absurdity better than Mr Ward, whose own money-lending association (which lent no cheaper than the " Tory " ones, by the way) was broken down by far other causes than that legislation by which he says he " broke down the money rings " in the interests of farmers. Mr Ward still hopes that the colony only sees one side — his own — to tho Bank of New Zealand business. It does not greatly matter now ; but he is egregiously mistaken.

The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is in principle Good a society of interference and Work. not of origination. It is a critic, endowed with unusual punitive powers, but without creative functions. This is the reason why the speeches at • its annual meeting present none of the academic dreariness so characteristic of the oratory at artistic or " mutual improvement" reunions, but possess a breezy directness that is in itself refreshing. Another reason is that the sufferings of ill-used animals are not a promising subject for hysterical treatment, and hence a note of deliberate common sense dominates the general harmony of the society's gathering. No reader of the interesting report we publish elsewhere can fail to see that the members of this unpretending but most useful association are in earnest in the best sens* of the word. They have organised their interference campaign on lines that appeal so infallibly to healthy sympathy that the reproach of being a concern for " minding other people's business" is never hurled their way; nor is it easy to name any kind of public service more modest and more entirely unselfish than that ßperformed by a member or officer of the Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. There is, literally and absolutely, "nothing to be got by it." The fact is perhaps one of the secret and unexpected sources of the society's increasing influence. The public, always prone to seek for unavowed motives, can find no flaw in the perfect good faith and earnest philanthropy (if we may etymologically transgress so far as to use this term) of the members; and it la impressed in a corresponding degrea alike with the necessity and the excellence of the work

achieved. The report this year disclosed continued usefulness, and entirely justifies the existence of a society w,hose func- ! tions, beinc as we hare said solely those ; o T ' interference, require for their due vindication a clear public appreciation of their necessity. When, moreover, we peruse the list of officials and members of the society, all fear of its becoming " finical " for want of something showy to do vanishes at once. Some of the most practical and level-headed men in the community are helping to shape its useful and honourable course. Rural- experts may perhaps chuckle over the knitted urban brows which result from a determined tackling of such problems as the etherealisation of rabbit trapping or the true bearings of the restraint of a swishing tail ; ■ but there is no class, we hope, that will not, after a report like last week's, both believe in the society as a real factor for good and wish it every success in all future years until it shall have triumphantly • undermined the reasons for its own existence. The Governor, having performed the herculean task for which we Too Masjr gave him every credit last CookitcH. week — that is, "having officially visited every" municipality in .the colony — has betaken himself to Rarotonga, where • the usual chronic row is evidently in full still. Mr F. J. Moss, most unlimited of all fillers of Parliamentary Blue Books and most impressive of " proclamationers," has been duly deposed, and Colonel Gudgeon reigns in his stead ; but the mild revolution involved in the exchange does not seem to hnve soothed the interminable wrangles of the Arikis to any conspicuous extent. Some of them now want Mr Moss, together with other Europeans whom they name, deported from the islands in her "Majesty's ships. ''These people were continually causing trouble. If they were out of the island there would be "no further trouble." One feels quite shocked to think of respectable and benevolent Mr F. J. Moss being referred to in such terms. Of course no one, in the meantime at any rate, need take for granted the correctness of the j accusation. It is so easy to say that if only your adversary were out of the way every thine would be smooth and delightful ; and we fancy the deportation of a batch -of Englishmen at the demand of a league of native chiefs would be a piece of work hardly to the liking of English naval officers without at any rate authoritative English backing. . We are inclined to gather from the brief report of Colonel | Gudgeon's reply that he rather agrees as | to the inconvenience of having one's pre- ; decessoi unofficially installed over the way, j but hardly sees his way to going the i length of ordering Mr. Moss into exile, i We must try and take the troubles of our queer semi-dependency seriously, and trust j to Lord Ranfurly to get at; the fights and wrongs of the squabble. It would never \ do to have H.M.S. Mildura " shelling the j bush." to reduce the Mossites to submis- ! sion and vindicate the-sovereign rights of the ArikL Government and Colonel Gudgeon. Much better, _ indeed, bring . away Mr Moss and Colonel Gudcreon too. Mention of Rarotonga serves as a reminder that the perennially A Modern interesting subject of the • Ethnical Pitcairn islanders has reProblom. cently been brought offici- j ally before the British Go- , vernment in a sense not altogether reas- j surlng. H.M.S. Royalist — now engaged in bush-clearing and the instruction of the ' natives in conchology at Samoa. — visited the island last year, and found that something must be done unless the small' community is to be allowed to relapse into a condition of virtual idiocy for want of occupation and from the usual results of persistent interbreeding. The history of the island and its inhabitants is tolerably fa- ! miliar to Australasian readers. The mutiny < on the Bounty took place 110 /ears ' ago. The sailors turned their captain loose ' in an open boat (where he spent several , weeks before ultimately fetching the island J of Timor)' and found their own way to | Tahiti, whence they disappeared into space . for a period of nearly 20 years. Then the ', mystery was solved by the American sealer ' Topaz, which discovered on the lonely t islet of Pitcairn the remains and descend- | ants of what had once been a band of j mixed Bounty mutineers and Tahitians. Natives of both sexes had been taken by J the nine white sailors from Tahiti, but early in the history of the settlement the Tahitian men had one night murdered all the whites with the solitary exception of a sailor named Smith (afterwards called John Adams) ; and in their turn all the Tahitian men shortly afterwards met their death at the hands of the enraged women. Either that, or mutual murders went on (as one story said) till, at any rate, the population resolved itself into Adams and some women and children, from whom the present r^pulation of 142 people descends. Neither before nor after | the annexation of the tiny rock to our Empire in 1839 has its shipping list been extensive. During two decades before the visit of the Topaz the little community had been swallowed up in the Unknown ; the next arrival was six years later, then an interval of nine years occurred, then five — and then (perhaps biased by these unwonted contacts with the outer world) they left Pitcairn in a body to go back to savagery in Tahiti. But that did not suit, and they returned to their islet. Another " emigration policy " — this time their Canaan being Norfolk Island — met with only partial success, portion of the islanders remaining on Pitcairn Island ; and for nearly half a century those wh,o remained have given up jhe attempt ever to be anything but Pitcairners. It is the most pathetically microscopic piece of patriotism in all history. But all this retrospect does not bring us nearer to the British AdFitcairn miralty reports of last year. Up to. Date. Rear- Admiral Palliser, who visited the place in April, and Sir G. O'Brien (High Commissioner for the Western Pacific) who went there fn August, made practically similar re- I ports a3 to the meutal and physical

deterioration of the islanders, w..) cJi api pears — no doubt as the result of p3*'jpetuaf intermarriage, idleness, and over-popula-tion — to be alarmingly progressive. Already "if they are questioned, the questions must be put in plain, simple language, or they do not understand." Yet their simplicity does not seem to bo without some of the ideal virtues. They, do not drink, or smoke, or eat meat ; and they are consistently devout as regards their prayers. Yet in 1896-7 there w!ere, among other interesting events, two murders — the ]>erpetrator of one of them, if we remember rightly, being afterwarda hung in Fiji. To prevent the islanders lapsing into complete imbecility, it is nowproposed to deport them to 'Norfolk Island. The Westminster Gazette lately quoted from the Blue Book on the subject some of the laws and regulations which govern the settlement. Citizens of Dunedin who are still irresistibly curious as to the true origin of a certain by T law I recently proposed may here perhaps find i its hitherto unsuspected inspiration — some industrious City Councillor has been reading vi precedents in the Statute Book of Pitcairn Island. Here are one . or two samples showing how closely the model has been followed in Dunedin: — No person or persons -to bring cocoanut or cocoa-nuts from T'other Side or' any part of the island without their, being accompanied by one of the authorities or churchwarden*. . ' The Westminster Gazette professes bewilderment about the connection between coc'oanuts and churchwardens, and says the rule "suggests uses for those officials which are strange to us." Another law is [ Should any dop; be found killing fowls of en ting eggg, is to bo killed for. the .firßt often cc. Draco might have framed that, and lost none of his laurels. | No hogs -are allowed to run loose, only in case of sickness is not so clear as might be desired. Th» [ animals on Pitcairn evidently want a lot | of reculating, for a further regulation pro- ' fSdes: i __ [ i\o person or persons are to kill any ca* 1 unlea3 doing him damage. , This is an excellent text for the pres* correspondents who are " booming " accuracy in grammar just now. The law proceeds : ' - Should a dog go out with his master and fall in with a oat and chaae him, and the owner of the dog make all effort to save the cat, this will Bare his dog, through" the rat die afterwards; but should no effort be made to save the cat, etc. One wonders whether it was before or after the framing of these excellent laws that a British Admiral described their authors as " lapsing into imbecility." ' It was finally admitted the other day in j . the Imperial Parliament A ttetnrn that the body of the Mohdi to the had , really .been taken', oiit. Middle Ages, of ti s gaudy t^ mh at Om _ - durman and thrown into the Nile. Moreover, it is admitted, this time at any rate, that the deed was. done by direct order of the Sirdar. • Lord Kitchener | himself, after in one telegram from Khari toum indignantly denying the imputation : laid, upon him in regard to the wholesale ; killing of wounded, has followed up the message by another expressly admitting and justifying what Mr Redmond called in the House of Commons " this outrageous desecration" of the Mahdi's tomb. Let full weight be accorded, by all means, to the Sirdar's official excuse for the. act. The maintenance of this "sanctuary in \ts integrity, he declares, might at any time have led to. a recrudescence of trouble in the Soudan ; and it was therefore necessary to impress the dervish mind by casting this final indignity upon the Prophet's corpse. There is considerable .force in these statements, no doubt ; and allowance mus*- be further- made for the unique completeness of Lord Kitchener's knowledge of the intricacies of the Arab mind, a knowledge no Home critic can hope to rival. ...i we can say is that the reasons emphatically do not satisfy us, and that we. regard this wreaking of indignity Upon a dead enemy, be he saint or' savage, as a bloc upon the British name and a legitimate handle for.. the enemies of "brutal" England. With due acknowledgment of' our technical ignorance, we will add that Ye very much doubt whether the_ . effect of such an act upon the native mind will be at all what the Sirdar represents; It was a hateful expedient at- best, if it was not also the ghastly mistake we believe it to have been. The subject is an unpleasant one even to discuss : indeed, the like of it, as the act of a victorious British general, has never come under the notice of modern journalism. Some kind of sullen defence must, of course, be offered by patriotic Britons to the inevitable foreign censure ; but many a manful performer of that patriotic duty will curse Lord Kitchener in his heart for giving him a cause like that to defend with tongue or pen. One of the cable 3of the week refers to a special development of that Influences really funny movement of amongst English hotelRationalism. Tkeepers which is intended to express the ' dislike of that branch of "the trade" to the tlass of feminine attire absurdly described as " rationals." In this instance the high priestess of the "reform," Lady Harberton herself, wag the victim of the injustice at the ha .ds of a landlady of the old unconverted school. The viscountess- was apparently cycling in the obnoxious garb, and called for refreshments at the establishment kept by this lady, who refused her access to the public dining room and told her she could have her meal in the bar parlour with the men — the " other " men, as she may probably have expressed it. Lady Harberton, who must really be weary of the innumerable troubles into which her trousers are perpetually getting her, appears to have represented the outrage to the Cyclists' Tom ing Club, the re.sulfc being, not an action for damages, but a prosecution of the landlady. This case, taken by itself, might be dismissed as a trivial pleasantry of the day ; but as 9

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matter of fact it is not an isolated case at all, but is connected with a settled and definite movement among British hotelfceepers that has been hardening gradu1 ally for many months. The powerful Cyclists' Club has evidently felt the seriousness of the position, and the flouting of the prophetess herself gave the best possible opportunity for a trial of strength. Tho question at issue is really not easy of solution. It is not to be supposed, of course, that licensed victuallers (especially female ones) axe more sensitive to suggestions indicating the female form as bifurcate than other people. They simply find that the reception of unskirted ladies at their dinner tables keeps the skirted ones away; and as the latter are, sad to say, so far in the majority — a staje of things female parliaments constantly assure us is merely temporary — the obvious result is lobs to the innocent victualler. The re*sult has been that in many hotels a regulation has been instituted that the skirt must be donned on arrival. The utmost devotion to rationalism is not incompatible with compliance with a rule dictated clearly by perplexity and not prudity, and most ladies, it is found, fall in "with it. In Lady Harberton's case, of course, a principle* was at stake in which she was prepared to go to anything except the dressmaker's block ; and the result of the two dames ruffling their indignant feathers at each other was the prosecution in question. No doubt the defence cited the experience of the Paris police, who, for reasons unnecessary to enter into here, have found it absolutely requisite to enact that "rationals" shall only be permitted in the streets when embracing, or otherwise propelling, a bicycle. It is painful to have to add, in conclusion, that the prosecution failed. A caee of considerable interest was argued before his Honor Mr Justice Pennefather in Banco on the 11th. It was an appeal from the decision of the magistrate in a case brought under the Factories Act against the management of the Salvation Army Rescue Home at Rockyside. The object of the proceedings was to bring the Home under the Factories Act, subject to inspection and other conditions, on the ground that the laundry at the institution was a factory in the same sense as other public laundries in Dunedin. Mr Graham, S.M., dismissed the case in the court below oh the ground that it had not been proved that the persons working in the Rescue Home laundry did bo for hire or reward. In the course of the argument, his Honor pointed out that if the act applied, a. girl of 15 who had not passed the Fourth "Standard and who was an inmate of the Rescue Home could not be employed there, and that though it might be well that the sanitary provisions of the act should be enforceable, there could be no need for provisions apaiust - excessive labour,for as soon as any inmate felt she was doing too much she might stop working altogether. The 'decision of the lower court .was sustained without counsel for the respondent being called upon. Mr Wilkinson, however, mentioned that the Publio Health Act ijave all the needed power regarding proper sanitation, and said that the principle of the refuge was " Grape, not the reward of works." His Honor replied that it wo* ." a tenancy frank&lmoigne," a legal term from the Norman French, signifying a tenancy in which the tenant is free from temporal service. The appeal was dismissed "Vithout costs, none being applied for.

The City Police Court on Tuesday, during the hearing of the Banwell charges, presented -' vary much the appearance of a fancy goods shop. Vases, mirrors, " tea-pots, water-sets, clocks, and ornaments of great variety, were contained in large iron baths, two go-carts occupied the floor of the court, and on the table fronting the clerk's desk were innumerable parcels containing rolls of cloth.linen, and fabrics of many kinds. The hearing of the charges occupied pretty well the whole of the day, and some record work was done in the morning, when four indictable coses were

put through.

Our Roxburgh correspondent telegraphs: — "Mr Rawlins, M.H.R., addressed his constituents here on Monday evening. His address was mainly -on the lines of his Lawrence speech on Bth March. He received a unanimous vote of thanks and confidence on the motion of Messrs C Cooper and J. Sands." A meeting of the Dunedin Presbytery was held in First Church on the 11th, the Rev. I. Jolly (moderator) presiding. The Presbytery considered in private- two matters — one affecting "the North Dimediu congregation, and the other the Lumsden congregation. In the North Dunedin case 'the presbytery heard the petitioners, and also some rebutting statements, and then adjourned till Thursday.

The Olutha Leader states that nothing has yet been decided upon respecting the lighting of Balclutha. Mr Watt is engaged erecting a water gas plant at Pahiatua, and is subject to a heavy penalty if the works are not . completed to time. In the meantime inquiries are being made with regard to acetylene gas. The idea amongst- a number is to secure a plant of their own, unless, as is probable, arrangements may be made for the erection of an acetylene gas plant on the site of the old works. It is understood that the present holder, mains, and connections , would prove suitable for acetylene. Both the Presbyterian and Wesleyan churches felt the loss of the gasworks very keenly on Sunday evening. It is barely twelve months since the former had the gas installed at a total ooßt of somewhere about £30, having in all about 40 burners. On Sunday evening the service had to be conducted in the class room, lights for th« main building not being available. The burning of the gasworks has been a severe blow to the township. It is estimated that a reversion to kerosene means an initial expense of quite £]50. The Borough Council is also severely hit, the lamps on the main street and on the bridge, and the council chambers and library, having been all lighted with gas. - Our Lawrence correspondent informs us that the lOondyke dredge, which is to work the lower portion of Wetherstonos Flat, was .to have commenced work yesterday, but at daylight it was discovered that from some cause or other she had sunk to the bottom of the dam. The owners have now to let all the water out of the dam and pump the pontoons dry before they can .get her again in readiness for another start. The Clutha Leader on Tuesday commenced

its career as a bi-weekly

Mr E. H. Oarew, S.M., held a sitting of the Oldage Pensions Court on the 11th, when lie granted nine full pensions, four partial pensions (one at £16, one -at £1% and two at £12), and rejected three claims.