The Otago Witness,

Otago Witness, Issue 2402, 15 March 1900, Page 37

The Otago Witness,

WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (THURSDA-Y, MA RGII 15, 2900.) THE WEEK. " Sunqu*m »!iud natura, aiiud sapientia dixit."— Joyinal. - "flood, nature and gooi sense must oruf join."— Pop*. , , , « Tie fact that the plague is present in three of the cities of Australia is a very disquieting one. The epidemic is the most dread that can visit humanity ; only those, perhaps, who have been within the area of its visitation, or who know something of its literature, can form an idea/ of how dread it is. The resources of medical science are almost powerless against the plague, and, indeed, the bare notion of a prophylactic which should contain any culture of ; the plague, however atienuated, is in itself a horrible idea. To cope with such an enemy it is clear that every " reasonable safeguard should be adopted, and the community must be prepared to submit to any kind of loss or inconvenience which may give reasonable hope of affording protection. Whether it be necessary to maintain the stringent and lengthy quarantine iust inaugurated is a matter yet to be decided. If it is found necessary it must be continued, no matter what the commercial dislocation may be. The health of the people is the supreme law. But one terrible feature of the disease is that it runs its course in from two to five days, so that there may he something in the contention of Dr Alexander that the voyage from Australia is a sufficient lest of the* possibility of infection. The two grand objects to aim at in this colony are, first, to use every known means to prevent the disease from reaeh*ing our shores; and, secondly, should it get a footing, to be prepared with the most prompt and perfect means for complete isolation of the cases. There seems to be no doubt that the disease is clisttfcgwted by. qrifc Jft^ iU rats are

An Appalling Tisltor.

| healthy is therefore. ' the * time to make a crusade .against them,, remembering that rats are themselves good scavengers, and i that their extermination — or- reduction, for extermination is out of the question, — i should be accompanied by every effort at individual and corporate cleanliness which can be devised. On the Avhole, we should say that . Avhen every precaution is taken ' the danger of a destructive epidemic in these colonies is small. Plague is an I epidemic of eastern origin, which, finds the conditions favourable to it in SAveltering filth. It delights in heat and insanitary moisture, but like all epidemics hjs- • tory proves that it can run an appalling course in temperate, 'and even cold, climates. Witness tne despairing remarks of Pepys the Diarist, that, in spite of the frost, the mortality in London in 1665 went up to 7000 in one Aveek, with numberless .cases that he had reason to-belieA^e were not recorded. EA r eryone hurried away from a plague patient, for the disease, as Pepys said, " makes us more cruel to one anpther than we are to dogs." One entry' in | tlie diary Avill be for ever remembered for its pathetic vividness : " .uord, lioav everybody looks, and discourse in the street is of death and of nothing .else, and few people going up and doAvn, that the toAvn is like a place distressed and forsaken." But between London in 1665 and the Australasian - colonies of to-day there is an immeasurable gulf. Had Aye • a Chinatown in our midst 'like that of San Francisco Aye might have reason to quake. And, as it is, everything in "the nature of a den in NeAv Zealand must be noAv subject to such -inspection and overhauling as it never had before. It is at a time like this that Aye in NeAV Zealand have reason to be thankful for our merely provincial cities.

TuV War.

The war news of the week is . unexciting, but .^extremely "satisfec^oTy. The Boer 'forces arc-com-pletely demoralised, and have become .a mere rabble. The two .Republican talk bravely enough about the grand stand to be ultimately made, and the terrible things that are yet in store, but there is one factor Sipon which neither of them seems to calculate — : namely, the willingness of their pastoral following to submit to further dangers, hardships, and losses for a perfectly hopeless cause. President Kruger harps on the word " indej>endence," and, under ordinary circumstances, it' is a very good word indeed upon which to ring the changes. But independence means something quite different to Presidents Kruger and itsteyn and some half dozen' Transvaal officials from what it does to the Boer farmers. To the former, it means comparatively high positions in the eyes of the world, with dreams at least of greater things to come. It means also fine local positions — in .common phrase, extremely lucrative billets. Twenty years ago, President Kruger had to borrow the money to take him as one of a deputation to London. Now- he- is well known to be a millionaire. £>o_ that independence means to him some-.thing-very much more than the niere satisfaction of his patriotism. But to the Boer farmer, when the militant passions of the moment are allayed, independence means very little to him. The loss of it may involve the imposition of an" English tax instead of a Dutch one — with certain compensations in the way of immunity from commandeering and so forth ; but he will be left with the same perfect freedom which his, kinsmen in Cape Colony enjoy. Granted that he would very much sooner be under Boer than British rule, there must be a limit to the dangers and losses he is prepared to undergo for the luxury of the former. , There is much evidence to show that the original Boer notion of war with Great Britain was that of a sort of glorified and extended Majuba, with abundant opportunities of sniping rooineks from behind rocks," tempered by occasional visits to the farm to straighten things up a bit, and get the crops in. The reality has already proved something very different. With Cronje and 'his army prisoners, with Joubert resigned in disgust (if the report be true), commanders in disgrace,' disruption and retreat everywhere, and the sniping going on in the wrong direction, the prospect of a last _ desperate stand does not, we may be sure, assume very alluring colours. The Boer position I becomes pretty accurately revealed when we find President Kruger endeavouring to | buoy his people up with the hope of foreign j intervention. | ' Urom the British' point of view the one ■ "anxious feature — and "it is distressingly anxious— is the position of the gallant Baden-Powell and his heroic little gar- ; rison. It would be a, desperate sorrow to the whole nation to see the fine fellows 1 driven by famine and disease to surrender. That they will hold out to the point of human endurance we may be sure, as we may also that every effort is being made to relieve them. The morning clangour of the Dunedin bells would have a sweeter sound now than they had on the long-to-bo-remembered clay of the relief of Ladysmith — and that is saying a good deal.

Polling tlie Strings.

There is the best reason for believing that ' ' the Boer organisation, as we have said, is rapidly tumbling to pieces, and that a campaign is setting in," not of fighting, but in favour of intervention. First of all, - we have President Steyn, I while prudently retiring from the Orange i Free State to temporarily safer quarters, gasconading about the manner in which the Boers are going to " astonish the world"" in the Transvaal. This is a pale replica of President Kruger in the beginning of the war, when he told the world I that the price England would have to pay 1 for the two Republics would " stagger lnxmanity." The people who really astoni&h the world or stagger humanity don't talk about it beforehand Then we have threatened "risings" in various parts of Capci town. We may be quite sure of this, that had any rising been intended the operation ! would have been carried through before now. People don't rise when alt the advantage ot rising. is over, and little but the danger of it reniains to theni. tfimilly^

Aye find the Africander Bond in CapetoAvn, after keeping timidly in tlie background Avhile the Boers seemed to have some faint hopes of success (President Steyn recently denounced the Bond as the worst enemies of the Boers, declaring contemptuously that they could do without their help) noAv beginning to agitate in favour oi the independence of the tAvo Republics. Noav, all this has been foreseen and expressed a long time ago — before Lord Roberts made his coup, and Avhile the Avar seemed to be going in favour of the Boers. The Lorenzo Marquez corespondent of the London Times, writing on January 20 — that is, mere than seven Aveeks age — throAvs a little light upon these later indications that seem so ominous to outsiders. In a communication to The Times he gives the substance of a conversation he had just had Avith an '■ unbiassed gentleman. ' whose knoAvledge of the Boer vIeAVS and position before Ladysmith " entitle him to speak Avith authority." He informed The Times correspondent that the failure of the Ladysmilh attacks and the inability to make progre&s elseAvhere had " completely disheartened the fighting line."' If the Boers saAv any chance of ultimate success, he said, " they Avould fight as cheerfully and pluckily as ever, but in discussing the situation apart from their leaders they slioav an absolute AA^ant of confidence, and question the wisdom of undergoing hardships, ..endangering their liA*es, and sacrificing their personal interests Avithout a prospect of any eventual adA r antage. Rven some of the commandants share this vieAV " (Aye iioav know that Botha, for instance, Avas one). The gentleman went on to scout" the idea of a big stand atLaing's Nek or in the Transvaal ; and said that although there Avas no open rupture betAveen the- Transvaalers and Free.. St iters, _" there" was an entire absence of friendly intercourse. Then came a statement Avhich is significant., in vieAV of the recent cables just alluded to. "Recent indications seem to point to the desire of the -Boers to inaugurate a vigorous campaign in favour of intervention. In this they will be supported by .the Africander Bond."

Noav, if these were the indications Avhile the Boers outAvardly appeared to be flourishing, need Aye be surprised to see the same indications in full deA r elopment? Does it require any special acuteness of sense to overhear "kruger say to Steyh, or Steyn to Kruger : " The game is now up ; there is nothing for it but to stir the fear or pity of the Avorld by the stagger * humanity talk ; to move the ploAv-going Cape Dutch to frighten the English Government Avith a rising, and to incite the wretched Africander Bond to, at least, agitate on our behalf. It is our only chance for independence.' And, after all, there is nothing remarkable in the position now taken up. For persistence is a Boer national characteristic, and their leaders have hitherto only had to deal Avith lVir Gladstone. To-day they have to deal Avith no person in particular, but Avith a nation that, in consequence of a mad Boer ambition to rjuje South Africa, has had to shed the blood of its bravest, and. squander its resources in tens of'millions.

From the very beginning of the war it has been a subject of general remark that there has beerr quite unusual difficulty in ,

■From Within. ,

getting any information whatever from Within the Boer lines — not of the enemy's movements only, but of the personal attitude of the individual Boer towards the war. Some interest, therefore, attaches to a Boer military diary, kept by a burgher who was captured at Enslin, some portions of which are forwarded by the correspondent of the London Times at the Modder River. The correspondent rightly says that much more reliance can be placed upon a diary of the kind than upon the mere statements of 'prisoners. Unwounded prisoners, he says, are frequently surly and uncommunicative, while Avoundecl men, on the other hand, are apt to reflect their oavii depressed feelings of the moment by describing the Boers as sick and tired of the Avar. The diary in question Avas kept by a Boer who seemed to have no passionate feelings oA'er the Avar, and rather lacked enthusiasm, which, of course, make his observation the ,truer, .and his judgment the clearer. Leaving Johannesburg for the Free State early in November, he expresses himself as surprised at the enthusiasm of the Free Staters, and says that the Avomen and children offered him refreshments at every stage along the route. ArriA r ed at the Boer laager, he records the fact that there is no ff drill or military exercises, except in tffe construction of entrenchments, and in the instructions given as to sentries and ammunition guards at night. But there were daily athletic sports arid (curiously) nightly meetings of debating societies, Avith singing and prayer. The day's work, Avhile in fixed camp, commenced at 4.30, Avith religious services,' followeu by coffee at 5.

" I am more impressed than ever," says the diarist, "at the wonderfully fair and manly spirit shown by the Free State Boer — the utter absence of all brag and bounce ; the quiet, resigned way he speaks , of Britain's power, and their own small chance of victory is really astonishing to one who has till now seen the worst side of the Boer nature. Every Boer fights for what he rightly or wrongly considers his liberty and country, and if he perseveres he *will be most difficult to beat ; but it has yet to be proved if he possesses the necessary stamina for prolonged Avar." Referring to the rumours that have all along - been current among the British as to the' difficulty of keeping the Free Stater up to the fighting mark, the following entry is of interest, arid has much of human nature to corroborate it : —

" Another thing that struck me in the Boer character is the absolute fear he has before the fight, and the cool and collected way ho behaves when in it. When our laager left Kaffir River we expected to be in action in a few plays' time ; the result was that out of our- lot of 200 men over 50 applied to the doctor for a ' sick' certificate, Only one suck was granted, so about 25 per cenb. of our men funked it ; this, I am told, happens with every commando, but it has been proved in many instances already that the very men. jYlig

pretended sickness -when -there was a chance of meeting the enemy were the pluckiest and cooiest when under fire."

Finally, it is curious and rather consoling to find that the Boers. are disposed to curse their Intelligence department for its ineffectiveness.

All this was written before the British army had got properly in the field. A pre-sent-time diaiy, equally temperate, would be infinitely more interesting.

Tn every department of life it is the unexpected that happens. The human mind is excellent fo drawing deductions from existing facts, but it can-

Coiiceviinis Horses.

not extend its deductions into the future Avithout being almost inevitably wrong. In no department does the unexpected happen Avith greater certainty than in the commercial. Some feAV years ago it seemed that the spread of railAvays had quite certainly doomed the country inns everyAvhere to extinction. (Suddenly, the bicycle appeared, and all these same properties acquired a stronger lease of life than ever. But a couple of years ago eA'en it seemed as if the bicycle had itself doomed the horse to all but extinction. The .livery stableman. avlio Avas wont to. drive a ihriA*ing trade in letting hacks for holiday riding and journey-making, had to look gloomily on Avhile bicycles in hundreds Avere pouring into the yards of country hotels. It seemed hopeless for the horse to compete with a -rival that required no food and neA r er got tired. Then motor cars and kindred machines fceemed as if in the nea future they Avere going to do aAvay with the race of carriage horses. They may yet, of course, but the unexpected in front of them is as hard to get' past as a Boer entrenchment. But the same Boer hhra r completely resuscitated' the hack — for all time, as Aye short-siglited human beings Avould put il. Horses are more in demanr now than they haA'e been for many long years past. When the Imperial Government Avere first courteously accepting thr offer of Australasian troops for Sout 1 Africa, they committed themserves to the unhappy qualification, "unmounted men preferred,'' a phras>e that- Aye may be sure party politicians Avill not let die in a hurry. The Avar upset all preconceived ideas, and taught us that horses Avill be in great remand while Avars are waged. It is, of course, not the Avar only Avhich has raised the price of horses. The real factor i« the improved condition of the' colony consequent upon increased yields and higher prices for produce. Hor&es of all kinds were higher in price from 1871 to 1875 than they are nowj and they will doubtless be cheap again. But the horse for purposes of defence Avill aiAvays be required, will, indeed,, be a vital necessity in such a colony as NeAV Zealand. . And one of the questions of the* near future Avil l be — have Aye enough of them, and are tht of the right stamp? South Africa is doub 4 lefts a trying country upon horses, and the " salted " horse of whatever kind" has, the advantage. But even after making allowance, for that fact the experience of the war points to the superiority of .the .smalleranimal of the semi-pony stamp. The Imperial (in which Ave^ include' the colonial) cavalry and mouhtea infantry have of late added a mobility to our army Avhich. has had very " gratifying results. But our highest mobility is -not to compare Avith lhat of the Boers, Avho have moved about Avith quite extraordinary activity, and have succeeded in taking- aAvay their heavy guns in the midst even of a rout in a marvellous 1 Avay. No doubt, as compared Avith ours, their horses would b"e reckoned hopelessly inferior, when submitted to present day tests, but in Avar alone — probably the severest test of all — they are undeniably superior. The English cavalry horse may be "a very good-looking animal on and Avhile he has plenty of oats in him, or cA r en " mealies," he may have much endurance of a kind : but the model Avarhorse in an undeA r eloped .country »is, after all, .the animal that can do long journeys in a hot climate, that can subsist on grass when nothing better is to be got, and that is sufficiently swift or active to get its rider out of an occasional tight place. We may have such horses in NeAv Zealand, but we suspect they are, a diminishing quantity. The old Sydney stock horse — Avhose very existence is occasionally denied, so complete has been the change in the style of breeding — Avas precisely Avhat is nosy required, but he is as completely gone as the Boer independence. And the problem iioav- remaining Avith us is, -hoAV are Aye to- get the stamp required? We believe that Aye shall yet have to look to the Arab for the blood. The Ar/ib laid tvs foundation of the present English racehorse, but the special qualities of the ancestor have long been lost in the more brilliant descendants. It seems likely that Aye shall have to go back to the fountain head — at least, for the sire, and proceed on totally different lines in our methods" of breeding.

A farewell meeting was held at Milton on Friday evening on the occasion of the departure of Mr and Mrs M'Kenzie and Mr Walter Carruthers and Mr Houlton Forlong for the New Hebrides. The last-named was unfortunately prevented from attending. Mr John Wilkinson presided, and among the speakers were the Rev. Messrs Hounsell and Miller, Mr John Gibson, of Ashley Downs, and Mr Rutherford, of Timaru. During the eAening a purse of sovereigns was presented to Mr M'Kenzie. Portions of fche Waikakahi estate are a forest of grain slacks. The yield has been large, and a visitor tells us that nothing meets the eye but stacks and threshing mills. There are about six mills on one part of the estate, humming away in the effort to secure the stooks from the weather. — North Otago Time*.

At Wyndnam on Saturday evening a meeting of settlers interested in securing an 1 amendment of the Rabbit Nuisance Act was held, when a committee was appointed to go carefully over the Rabbit Act, and suggest such alterations therein as will make it less arbitrary and more acceptable to all landowners and occupiers- who ' endeavour honestly to abate the rabbit nuisance. / A young man named George Attwood was | committed for trial at Wyndham on Friday -oil a oharg© of. stealing a maro valued at #17,*

and a saddle "and bridl" -Valued: a-* &£■ fch^ property, of., John -Hutton/ Fortr-isa. isaiß was not forthcoming, so accused VI ij con-- ( veyed to Invercargill 'Gaol to await the Supreme Court sittings on June 5.

The funeral of the victims of the Toiro firflfc at Warepa on the 7th was the largest^ ever held in the district, the residents of thef whole countryside turning out to pay a lastp tribute of respect to the dead,- and to manifest their sympathy with the bereaved - and! sorrowing parents. The Rev! Mr Kilpatriek' and the Rev. 'Mr Ourrie conducted an im-> pressive service at the graveside. ' :

Messrs Hugh Craig, John Elder, John Inglis, George Jeffery, W. S. Laidlaw, . Johii Michael, James' Rivers, and Wm. Liying« ston have been nominated -for election as mem,- 1 bers of the Tuapeka Licensing Committee^