THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 2390, 21 December 1899, Page 37

THE WEEK.

" Nvmuunm tllnd namra, aiiud laylentix dlxit."— JurMiL,

Last week was a dark week for Englishmen ; this is a darker. It Dark cannot be said that the Dtijs. British nation has shown a poor spirit in the face of what must now be admitted to have been many and bitter disappointments and humiliations At Home and in the colonies alike we have bitten our lips and borne in silent agony, but with unflinching mien, the entering of the iron into our souls. We have all looked bravely to the end, and we have tried to find full comfort in the knowledge and confidence which still, thank heaven, remain to us that the Empire will emerge safe and triumphant from the present struggle. But the new reverse announced on Monday is bitterly hard to bear. It is one about which no pretence can be made — it is a true humbling of our pride, and more, it carries with it the gloomiest menace of more defeat and more humiliation. For we have still all our work before vs — we have still the picture in our minds of Ladysmith, of Kimberley, of Mafeking, waiting, waiting, through the dreary weeks with the grip of famine and pestilence, ever tightening round their brave defenders — and in spite of all stern determination the unwilling mind feuls itself recognising day by day the miserable possibility that at one or other place, perhaps at all, we may — fail. The enemy is daily strengthening his lines. Unhappily, his courage and his morale are daily feeding on the highest of all mental food, a signal success against all the power' of, the greatest Empire in the world. We believe it to be wrong and mistaken in every way to fear -an ultimate declared defeat — the final lowering of our flag before unorganised hordes of Dutch bucolics. But such a weakness, such a thought, even though it 7>e but momentary, must be forgiven to a sorrowing nation this week. Every one of outgenerals had met his Majuba before ; it remained for" repulse and humbling to overtake tho Commander-in-Chief himself — and that has come. It will all be right in tho end ; but what is wrong to-day is that, though that is still unquestionably so, no success of ours can now restore to va the pride of place we have lost. Through long years to come, in spite of all the successes of the next few months in which we are still resolute to believe, our hearts and our pride will bo wrung and our memories bo lull of bitter sorrow for the last weeks of 1899. Every observer of the seamy side of Eng- | " lish manners and customs knew perfectly Avell that Hearts as soo l a / real j y bad p news should arrive from rr * SN ' South Africa, .and our gallant troops be known to be 1 once and again laying down their lives in hundreds ah the penalty of s>ome sad mis- ! take of their commanders, the anonymous newspaper correspondent who, as it were, lives by fouling his national nest, would spring to the front with a howl of ill-con-ditioned delight. Such occurrences are his time of jubilee, and never in time of national trouble has he been Ifcowu to be wanting. We waited for him la«t Aveek, and we were not disappointed. We met him on the tram and in the street, and we found him in the correspondence columns of the pre?s, exactly as we knew we should when the nation was, through its noble army, standing linn to the flag in the face of overwhelming numbers of the invaders of its territory. The temporary success of the Boers emboldens more than the Cape Dutch ; ib brings many worms and creeping things to the surface, which feast their vision and their other senses on the heaps of English dead. England, of course, is a robber ; she is engaged in taking other people's country from them. It is nothing at all to the eager fouler of the English name that England has absolutely nothing to gain, but has millions to lose* and the life-blood of hundreds of her bravest to pour out, by the fight she is waging in South Africa. It is nothing that amid all the ravings about " robbery "' no one has j ever given the faintest indication of what ! we can possibly steal in the Transvaal, nor ! ever pretended that if we " take " the land it means the eviction of a single farmer of those who are now in arms against v.«. It is nothing that we took up with heavy

hearts and with exhaustless patience the task of trying to make the name of Englishman a passport to some kind of right to live and stand upright under one of the most grinding and most corrupt tyrannies the world has ever known — we to whom in our own dominions a Boer is the absolute equal of a Briton. It is nothing that in doing that we as a nation had again all to lose and nothing to gain — for in what way did we in our happy islands, or Englishmen in teeming London, suffer personally by the intolerable wrongs of our countrymen? It is nothing that we conducted patiently for months and years the most honourable and most courteous negotiations for a peaceful settlement, the other side all the time armed to the teeth, and snarling in our faces from behind their foreignmade and foreign served guns, while we on

our part deliberately. Ip»fc we should be thought to provoke, left our territory absolutely defenceless and open to the enemy's hordes. It is nothing that the " taking " of another's land has all been done by our enemies, not by ourselves. — that besides sending overwhelming men into our territories when we had hardly a single solider there under arms, they have " annexed " by insolent proclamations thousands of square miles of the Queen's dominions, and mads prisoners of hundreds of the Queen's unarmed and inoffensive subjects. It is nothing that the very flags which were to have waved over the whole of South Africa according to the designs of the rebels have been seized in their camps. It is nothing that the British Empire was warned, on pain of rebel displeasure, not to move a single soldier or a single warship within her own national sphere. It is nothing, in short, that England has taken up a national burden forced upon her by her national duty, and one that only a nation of cowards, prepared to sink into perpetual subjection and contempt, could have dared to shirk. None of these things count. The kind of Englishman that shrieks with joy at any reverses as a "judgment," and impiously bawls in our faces what he knows first-hand about the views of the Almighty, and how they coincide with his own, leaps to the front in a week like last week, and is happy. Let him bawl and crow — the flag 6f England will wave over him and his Boers alike, and both will crawl under its proud protection when danger lowers as promptly as they have flouted and befouled it when for the moment it is- torn and shattered by the hail of hostile lead.

There have not been many funnier — ir, we may add, more absurd — A developments in politics Burlesque than the recent appeal of Mr Inritalion. Seddon's newspaper to the

Opposition leaders to join with the present Government in making up a coalition Cabinet. If the Government are frightened at the inferiority and irresponsibility of the queer crowd of mediocrities who make up most of their following, that is their business, and it is for them to make the best of it. The Opposition :s not on the look-out for allies tunong the political purlieus, neither has it any desire to do the Government's undesirable work for it. It would be an odd thing, indeed, if the present Opposition, or any of its members, were to seek representation in the Cabinet in a way which would legitimately excite tho scorn of both sides in the country. For years the chief source of the Opposition's weakness has been the reluctance of its chief members to contemplate undertaking the responsibilities of office. We have repeatedly drawn attention to this point, which is one that has been instinctively felt by the country all through the recent., years of political strife. It absolutely prevented any working alliance between the Opposition and the Left Wing — an alliance which an Opposition leader desirous of olfice, or egged on by others desirous of it, would infallibly have brought about upon clear terms a month after the secession of the malcontent Ministerialists. It contributed greatly to the attitude of proud exclusiveness with which the official Opposition was associated in the Parliamentary mmd — no half-hearted recruit was welcomed in the Whip's room, or helped by cunning counsel to complete his repentance and political reformation. Captain Russell was knowii to regard the idea of the Premiership with indolent repugnance ; Mr Rolleston's home interests have been exclusively Canterbury for more years than he liked to hear about, and his ways were agricultm'al aiid literary ; Mr Dnthie a-nd Mr Scobie Mackenzie never had the robust health requisite for a Minister ; Mr George Hutchison was, for some reason or other, classed among the political impossibles — a fad of political fashion for which we never paw any basis. Mr Allen was about the only first-rate politician on his side who' was supposed to be in a position to undertake office willingly, if it should come his way. And after all this, some puzzleheaded political nincompoop, writing in a journal supposed .to particularly express Mr Seddon's personal views, invites the surviving leaders of the Opposition to think about crossing the floor and helping in perpetuating administration of the class they know, though the populace has not believed it, to have been correctly described in Opposition speeches and newspapers for the last three years at least. What such monstious rubbish really means no one need particularly concern himself to un- ' der.^tand. It is &uflieient that the whole idea is supremely pieposterous.

The Colonial Bank liquidation made one of

its jack-in-the-box leaps in-

"Xo to tho recognition of a Information." startled public last week. It

is beginning to be one of the things that most of us recollect, as the Scotchman is said to joke, "Wi' deeficulty." The unfortunate shareholders, through no fault of their own, have exhausted the mine of public sympathy which once yielded them its treasures (about all the treasures, •we fear, that were ever in store for them). They are like Captain Dreyfus, in retirement : their wrongs are as glaring as ever, but the public has worn out its capacity for deploring their misfortunes, and could not be ilogged into indignation even were Magus Vigers and Simpson to htretch out the endless business to the/ crack of doom.

So far, indeed, ,as those gentlemen have committed themselves by their latest bulletin, that might actually be the case. "We can assure you," they reply to an anxious inquirer, "that we are most anxious to close up this liquidation, but unfortunately are at present unable to do so.'" The public — or the most credulous portion of it, which - has swallowed wholesale certain loudly-vaunted fairy tales proceeding from London, and has thus innocently assisted in some " good business," both commercial and political — will perhaps be a little puzzled to learn that the banner in the way is still composed of those eternal oats, or their double (they generally had" a double, and anon would seem to vanish utterly, again appearing in some unexpected quarter to tho bewilderment of the faithful), and that Brooke and Co. and Connell and Co. are still troubling the earth, although we all supposed their wraith to have "evoluted" months ago into the shape of a landau and a pair of horses. Moreover, Mr Justice Williams has also been engaged during the week in unravelling kindred matters of "law — at the instance, this time, not of " another bank," but of "the" bank — and\ltogcther it seems that while we yet slept (or were lulled by the 'fairy tales above alluded to), the old game was being kept alive. "We have no information," say the liquidators, of anything to the contrary — though the public have had plenty of' it, mostly on undisclosed authority. Perhaps now that the election is over the liquidators may get some too. It may come from Brooke and Co., or from Connell and Co., or from elsewhere — but whencesoever they may derive it, we should advise that this time the public should follow their lead in regarding inspired London coi respondents as being, for this purpose, equivalent to "no information."

The Bishop of Dunedin did not perhaps t» achieve for himself a niche

X Brare in the educational temple of Weru. fame by his address to the

boys of the High School, which was uneven, and wanting in fibre ; but he made a very fine speech indeed at the meeting of the Patriotic Fund promoters on the following evening. A prominent clergyman has often much to rifle when he speaks as a patriot and dares to number among the duties of a great nation the duty of protecting its citizens and of defending the State against dishonour. There was no sign of shrinking or shirking about Bishop Nevill when the first resolution was handed to him to move, and we cannot too highly commend his brave and weighty testimony to England's blamelessness in the present war. " Everyone of us," the Bishop boldly declared, " must first of all acknowledge that this war was absolutely forced upon us ; that it was a thing from- which we could not escape with honour ; that it was a necessity." We rejoice to note that here the speaker was interrupted by an irrepressible cheer. "At all events." he proceeded, " I venture to put that forth as my opinion, and I do not think there will be many to disagree with me when I say that the resources of diplomacy appear to have been quite exhausted. Indeed, we may say that they were carried to extreme lengths before we came to this terrible conclusion. And it is evident, I think, to all those who have in. any way studied the subject, that to have withdrawn would have been something not only disgraceful to us as a nation, but also would have been nothing less than disastrous to our Empire." We repeat that at the present juncture these are brave and fearless; words, and they are the words of truth. We unreservedly agree with the Bishop of Dunedin that " all those who have in any way studied the subject" cannot but be unanimous that the British Government never desired war ; that it most earnestly and patiently strove to avoid such a calamity, and that it even went to the verge of "deliberate rashness in postponing the armament of its colonies lest it should provoke an enemy armed to the teeth to make the first move. It is those who have not " studied the subject," and will not study it, who love to fling mud at the statesmen of their country, and at that country itself, and to hurl the epithets " bully " and " robber" at the responsible Ministers of the Queen. These are they who, sitting in their padded chairs, cast a contemptuous glance over the sea at brave Tommy Atkins scaling the deadly .ridge, and mutter, "murderer " ; who heacK the dishonourable race for cheap applause by sneering at the flag and the Empire ; who hold up the cause of England to contempt because it is the cause of England, and for no other reason on earth. They are only a few ; and the many owe a warm tribute to the champions who, like Bishop Nevill on Friday, dare to make them fewer.

The Australasian, to which able journal we naturally look for an expla"Pro Patria nation of the extraordinary Mori." fact that since Federation

came in five 1 out of the six Australian Ministries have gone out, has a curious solution to offer. Our contemporary attributes the helter-skelter tumble of the Governments, which resembles nothing so much as the behaviour of a contingent of ninepins in a skittlealley, to the loosening of mere Slate ties of all kinds now that the Greater Australasia is prominent in all men's minds. As an element in the pi - oofs adduced of this interesting theory, it is mentioned that the one Government which does survive is that which rules over the colony which does not regard federation as imminent — which, indeed, through its Premier, Sir John Forrest, is at the present moment doing its best to put a spoke through the wheel of the Federal coach. In other words, the West Australians do not look forward to an imminent Central Administration, therefore they hold fast to the Government they have got ; while the other five colonies, having accustomed themselves to the coming regime, have ceased to care how internal State affairs go, thus causing a general party looseness and a go-as-you-please spirit in Parliament which has let the anybodies in all round. The theory may perhaps be said to derive some further support from the case of our own colony, where no Federal spirit has yet arisen, and

where — as a consequence, the Australasian | would no doubt say — Mr Seddon has recently emerged from a crucial trial far stronger even than Sir John Forrest. At any rate, our contemporary is pretty sure of his ground, and as the sudden upsetting of five strong Ministeries right on top o - : the Federal poll is a real phenomenon, and can hardly be altogether disconnected frori Federation — the theory of a mere coincidence is a strain on belief— it may jierhaps be accepted for want of any better explanation. This is how the Australasian puts it : — " With the prospect of an Australian Parliament and an Australian Government; coining into existence next year, the interest in State politics has" been killed. What Ministry is ruling has ceased to be a ques-> tion of supreme interest for Victorians in Victoria, or for New South Wales people in New South Wales. We are looking forward to the politics of the Commonwealth. State Ministries have ceased to- have a platform all to themselves to posture on. It has ceased to matter whether they go on playing or 'make their exit, and as they have all been playing for some years, the audience, with. a yawn, has, in each playhouse, begged the actors to take themselves off." It is pretty hard on the actors, who, while busily engaged in their ordinary routine work, have been also diligently ;md unselfishly preparing and rehearsing hchl.id the scenes the great spectacle which is to so signally glorify their languid and ungrateful audience. Where is the theory that virtue is its. own reword? Our contemporary, the greatest champion of Australian Federation, has proclaimed to Australian public men that the chasm between the States and Federation can only be bridged with their political corpses. It is 'a grim theory, and can hardly be called a stimulating one ; but it. may be true for all that, for such is public life. y /

In the account of tho wrecks that have occurred in New Zealand published in tho Duily Times and Witness Christmas Annual, the statement is made, in referring to tho loss of the Kakanui, that she " was known to have been unseaworfchy." Wo exceedingly regret tho publication of the words in question, and desire to say that wo do not- consider Uk opinion so expressed is in tho slightest degree founded on fact.

Tho Manawatu Times understands that" thi Roy. J. Chisholm has accepted the call from the Main street Presbyterian congregation, and will in all likelihood bo prepared to take xip his duties on the Ist of February.

The Bruce Herald stato3 thai the Prohibit lion-party lodged with the clerk of tho Magistrate's Court, Milton, a petition signed ty over 50 voters asking for an inquiry to b* made by the Stipendiary Magistrate into certain irregularities alleged to have been mad« in ,taking the recsnt licensing poll iv Bruce.

A singular 'capLure was. made by a youth on the bank 3of the Waihopai River, near Invercargill, in tho &hapo of a shellfish of large dimensions. Reference to the Standard natural history leaves no doubt that it is a mud turtle, very common in tho south-easl of the United States. Tht> length of the-nhel) of the capture is 7in, and from tho tip of the tail to the beak llin. The weight is 21b: Each of the four feet are provided with fiv« claws v The body contained munei-ou; eggi! It doubtle?s camo ashore to deposit them on the sand. Other turtle of larger nza have been s-een in the locality, and efforts are now being made to catch them. How they reached tii« locality is a mystery.

Mr W. M. Shore, who has been for the la3i 25 yeara a rosidont of Kaitangata and 15 yean mine manager for the old Kaitangata Railway and Coal Company, as well as acting for a year and a-half in the same capacity for the New Zealand CollierieHys*iailway, and Oil Syndicate, is now severing his connection with tre latter company, with the intention of retiring into private life. This step has been forced on Mr Shore on account of continued illhealth, and by medical advice a compleU? vacation from active duty being considered absolutely necessary. We are 'sure that th« large circle of friends to whom Mr Shore is known will regret to learn thic. Mr Shore lias been a busy and energetic man outside his official'duties. He has beon a J.P. for many years, familiarising himself with almost every act passed by the' Legislature. Be was mayor of Kaitangata for 10 year», and chairman 5f tho Town Board previous to thejscorporatitnj of Ihe borough. He was also chairman of th 1 * local school committee £or many years cuid a member for tho district on tha Bruce Conn-.y' Counfil. He has acted for tho Government in the capacity of examiner, for mine managers' certificates under the Mine 3 Act for the last 11 years. It is to be hoped that a rest fron active life will give him a ppeedy recovery, and that he will ere long bo again fit for activ* duty.