THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Volume 26, Issue 2419, 26 July 1900, Page 35

THE WEEK.

11 S'unquitn aiiuii natura, auud sapientia. dixit." — Juvenal. "Gooci nature ana gooa sense must ever join." — Pope,

The electors of Waihemo have done what,

on the wxiole, we expected "What the them to do — they have, of Election the two candidates before Meant. them, returned infinitely the

better man. This is all the more creditable, inasmuch as it has not been the fashion among constituencies generally *of late years. At the same time it is just as well that we 'should cherish no illusions as to the meaning of the election, as some newspapers are ready now to do. Mr Mackenzie" had a large majority, /and Mr Mackenzie declared himself to be an Independent; but it does not in tiie least follow *that 'the election was a- blow at the party system. We really , cannot flatter - ourselves that New Zealand electors are so ready to act upon conviction on matters of abstract politics. We do not suppose a solitary elector of Waihemo,. in casting his vote, gave a thought 'to the party system. We may go further, and say that Mr Mackenzie himself did not. It 'suited him at the time to call himself an Independent, _ and there the matter ends. x-«or will Mr X.lackenzie's entry into Parliament affect the condition of parties in the faintest degree. Then the return of Mr Mackenzie does not in the least indicate a change in public opinion on political matters or the decline of the power of Mr Seddon. That change may come — probably will begin before very long, but the election for Waihemo was not affected by any such ghange. Finally, Mr Mackenzie's majority does not mean that the reseni — resent, that is, to the voting pomt — the presence of an interloper in the shape of a Liberal "organiser." They do everywhere, as a matter of fact, resent the presence of such meddlers,- and the groans for the man Edwards, called for by Mr Mackenzie, were responded to with much heartiness. But the election did not turn upon the- p)-esence of Mr Edwards there. If the majority of the electors had wanted to profit by his services they would have tolerated him readily enough. There were two principal factors in the election. The first was that there is in calibre and capacity for iisefulness, an immense gulf between the two candidates. The second was that the political atmosphere was calm enough — we might say dull enough, to leave the minds of the electors free to choose the best man. There was little either of passion or prejudice. At the general election in Decembei* last the people did not know what was before them. The defeat of the Government was a possibility, if not a probability, and there was. much' passionate desire, followed by effort, on the part of the " Liberals " to prevent what they regarded as a catastrophe. Since then there has been rather a glut of Liberals ; the Government following is too strong ; a good, sound-headed, independent man or two is badly wanted. Mr Mackenzie presented himself to the electors of Waihemo* as such a man, while poor Mr Guffie did not come up to the scratch at all — in more ways than one as it happens. Mr Mackenzie was recognised to be a "live" candidate, his personality was taking, and his speech vigorous. And the electors felt themselves free to act upon a recognition of these qualities. Would that it were always so !

There is, however, a lesson which Parlia-

mentary candidates may well draw from the present election. It is odd that the les-

Figliting an Election.

son should require emphasising, and to the majority who mix themselves lip with elections we imagine it does not. ' The lesson is that candidatss must not insult a community, or trade upon their tolerance, or play tricks with them in any way whatevig*,. It was extremely dis-

respectful to the people of Pal'merston, Dunback, and' Flag Swamp, that Mr Guffiie, after advertising meetings in these places, should fail to' keep his appointments, neglecting at the same time to send an apology, and evidently quite imable to show sufficient cause for the failure. We feel tolerably sure from what we can gather about Mr Guffie that he by no means desired to shew any disrespect for the inhabitants of the places mentioned. We should suppose, indeed, that modesty, or at all events lack of confidence in himself, impelled him to keep away as the election approached from populous centres where the meetings might be of a crucial character. It seems probable that Mr Guffie said -to himself > '-' I'll only make matters worse by speaking at these places, and inviting comparisons with my opponent. I'll therefore keep away, and let Messrs Arkle and Robertson do the, mck for me." For it is a little too much to expect any one to believe that Messrs Arkle and Robertson went to Dunback quite by accident, to find Mr Guffie not there, and to address the meeting for him, and then repeat the performance at Palmerston. In these latter days" New Zealand constituencies are, unfortunately, sometimes ready enough to accept candidates without any brains, but they do like the signs of courage and* some self-confidence. But Mr Guffie was peculiarly unfortunate in at least one of his proxies. In every district there are men who, while they may have ability enough to be of some assistance to a Parliamentary candidate, have to be kept absolutely in the background in order that their services may avail anything at all. Mr Arkle is an excellent specimen of the class. The Government may not have, selected a good candidate in Mr Guffie, but they certainly showed their wisdom in choosing him in preference to Mr Arkle, whose rasping and aggressive style and glib disingenuousness of statement — for no one in the district makes even the common pretence of belief in Mr Arkle's " Liberalism " — wrought such splendid work for Mr ' Mackenzie at the Palmerfton end of the district. But let a proxy bs ever so capable and ever so popular, the candidate ha\. to do his own work, and if he docs not feel equal to the task he should not be a candidate.

It is quite evident that an era of rather shameless plunging has set A General in in Wellington. EveryScranible. body wants to get his " screw " raised, but at the same time everybody declines to assist his neighbour bo such a consummation until he feels sure that his neighbour Avill assist him. There is a story told of a free and independent elector who, in -addition to congratxxlating a candidate upon having won a seat, gave him at the same time a piece of gratuitous advice : " If," he said, " yoxi get half a chance at the Treasury, shove your arm up to the elbow." The entire " Liberal " party in Wellington seem to have taken the advice to themselves ; they want to shove their arms up to the elbow. We have already given our opinion that the salaries of Ministers are too" low. We are perfectly aware that most of the present members of the Cabinet Avould probably not earn in private' life as much money as their salaries,- amount* to now. That, however, is one of tile accidents of the moment. The .position of Minister is an honourable and a responsible one, and. the salary should be at least a respectable one. But at the same time we agree with Captain Russell, whose remarks on this subject in the debate on ,the Address are worthy of attention, that if the salaries are raised the travelling allowance should be abolished, — in fact, it shoiild be abolished as it is. When Ministers travel they are entitled to travelling expenses and travelling allowances. Their travelling expenses are simply their disbursements, and cover the cost of the travelling. The travelling allowance is a fixed sum of 30s per day, and though supposed to cover private expenditure the Minister is supposed to incur, is in reality a perquisite, and for some years past has been regarded as such. We see no use for mincing matters on this disa,greeable subject. The fact is that the travelling trips of Ministers, now so large a feature of " Government " in New Zealand, is a profitable business, and if it were not so there would be much less , of it. We have a recollection of a Government supporter who in a speech excused the amount of' the travelling bill on the score that Ministers were poorly paid. Therefore let the salaries be increased by all means, but let a stop be put to the degrading sj^stem of eking out the salaries 'with travelling allowances. As for the demand for an increase in the honorarium, it is surely a very shameless one. The plea that the business and the cost of membership is increasing is pure nonsense. On the other hand, the honorarium is now £240 a year as against the £150 at which it once stood ; now, as always, there is a free pass on the railways, and members if they choose can now get their letters and telegrams on public business franked. The honorarium is an honararium and not a salary. It is intended as something which will enable the humblest to attend the session in comfort ; but the assumption is that when the session is over he' will engage in his' business or his work, as the case may be. The l>resent honorarium is, therefore, a liberal one, and can well remain as it is. The electors should by this time, we imagine, begin to see the mistake they have made in decreeing that their Government should be altogether free from the controlling influence of an effective Opposition.

The latest number of the Nineteenth Cen-

An Appeal to Humanity.

tury Magazine has an article which is about as full of pathos as 1 anything which has been written on Avar subjects since October last. It contains an appeal on behalf of wounded war horses, an appeal for a proper veterinary system as an adjunct to the army, which would not only enable the commonest dictates of humanity to be attended to, but which would lessen the now enormous loss of horses in Avar time. The Avriter commences by pointing out one of the lessons of the war — that success and the duration of campaigns depend on the -number; condition, and proper care of the animals em-

! ployed to mount our troops and for trans- , port purposes. It is tolerably well known that when Lord Roberts made his entry into i Bloemfontein his army was practically horseless ; but only those who had seen the sight could realise the ghastly state of the 150 miles of road between Bloemfontein and Kimberley with wounded, exhausted, and d} r ing horses. The description of the correspondents will give some idea of the state of affairs. Mr Hands, of the Daily Mail, says :— " There were horses that had been hit, horses that had been broken down with overwork and underfeeding, horses with hideous saddle sores hidden by clustering mounds of flies, horses abandoned for every conceivable defect and all along the river side where they found grazing and' water, they were- wandering about — helpless,, forlorn, abandoned creatures; who looked at you dubiously as though" they feared you were bringing them more of glorious warfare." More vivid and distres- ! sing is the description of Julian Ralph : — ■ I " Between battles a dozen deadly forms of disease seize the horses, and they have to | be flung aside and left to die in the dust. In battle their legs are snapped off, their bodies torn and the heads shattered, and there is nothing to do but, to leave them to | the vultures. " . . . But of all the pitiful heart-rending sights I have ever seen, none [ has compared to this view of hundreds upon j h\mdreds of dead and dying horses on this hundred miles of " war's promenade. The [ poor beasts had done no 1 man any harm — i in fact, each had been a man's reliance — | and to see them shattered by shell, and ! then ripped open by vultures before they were even dead, was enough to snap the lenderest chords in one's breast. They had | not deserved, and could not understand, their I horrible ill-luck. For some reason hundreds ; had dragged themselves to the main road I and had then died, either by the track of the waggons, or by its side. ... As I would come up before the prostrate body of a beautiful steed it would slowly and painfully lift its head and- turn upon me a ! pair of .the most pleading woe-stricken eyes I full , of a hunger to know' what I could do j for it. . . „ My companion , use"d to | turn and look back at these dying horses | only to find that they were still straining their sad .eyes after the cart. Then he would say, 'He is looking at us yet. What can we do ? ' " % . \ The description is agony to those who have imagination enough lo realise the scene and know what the horse can be to '„ man. Julian Ralph himself probably was not conscious of the .pathos of his remark, — " for some reason hundreds had dragged themselves to the main road." The instinct of the suffering creatures taught them that ; the track had some sort of connection' with : the tending care of man. . But in war time it is a cruel road. Such is .the harrowing description. What, i „ then, is the remedy? 'It is

j , The „ '' ■ Eeniedv.

not a case oi'hearuegjs cruelty on the part. of the, soldiers.

1 ' " Let .the anti-cruelty people^ rave as they may.," says Julian Ralph 7 " there are other -things to think of besides humanity in the heat of great battles." 'it is ' ' too true • the , trooper has ! his " own 'deadly- work to ,do, \ and he cannot always t attend | to the pathetic "claims even of suffering humanity. Mr George Wyndham, Undersecretary for War, explained that " soldiers I always shoot badly-wounded horses after 1 or during a battle whenever they are given | time to do so — that is, whenever the operation does not involve risk .to 1 human life." 1 It seems clear that there -is room for vast improvement and reform where all that can be done for " the unfortunate but now allimportant war' herse is to give him the chance, when mounted, of being shot by the overstrained and pre-occupied trooper whose own life is every moment in imminent danger. Towards the close of last year ' permission was asked of the War Office for a special corps of private- persons to go out to South Africa whose duty it would be to alleviate or end the sufferings of abandoned animals. The request had to be refused, because tHe work would be outside the Geneva Convention, so that there would be no protection for the men. performing the merciful duty. Even ambulance men, it appears, are "liable to, be fired upon when found killing wounded animals. The first I step" to" be taken, therefore, as Mr WyndI ham suggested, would be, to move for an ! alteration in the terms of the Geneva Conj'vention. But that would be of small use I without an Army Veterinary department properly organised, and it appears that, except in the Indian army, there is no such department now. There are a few veterinary officers, but they have no status in the ! army as medical officers have, no rank and no subordinates to do the work under their [ direction. If a sufficient veterinary corps ' were attached to the various mounted diviI sions of the army, thousands of valuable horses might be saved for future use, while a phase of the most, shocking cruelty might at least be greatly ameliorated in the ope-rations-of armies 'in the field.- The subject is one of no small importance to a colony like our own, which is but thinking of the organising a mere nucleus of an army for defence. The little we can do in this direction we may as well do thoroughly. Horses are essential to mobility, and mobility is •the very soul of defence in such circumstances as ours, so that quite apart from the demands of humanity the care of horses would become a most important consideration, and well ■ worth the study of those concerned in defence matters. We noticed that Colonel Webb the other day made a most comprehensive and valuable survey of all the lessons the South African war thrust upon our notite. His one omission was the necessity for a Veterinary department, and his excuse is that necessity has not yet been recognised by the Imperial authorities.

Mr David M'Oubbin. Findlay, solicitor, was on Tuesday admitted by Mr Justice Williams as a barrister of the Supreme Court.

A special meeting of the Kensington School Committee was held on Tuesday when it was decided to recommend the Education Board to appoint Mr James Methven^ of Maungatua, as first assistant in the

. . . -^ -«» _ school, in place of Mr Walter 'Eudf,) 1 ", wht has been appointed relieving teacher*.. At Invercargill ~on Monday, before J£r Si E. M'Carthy, S.M., Fanny Wade and Mabel Wade were fined £2, with costs amounting to £2 7s, on a charge of allowing a girl under,. 16 years of age to remain in their factory op/ the statutory half-holiday. For the defence^ it was contended that the girl was only a/ pupil, but as her mother wished her to get all the experience she could, Mrs Wade had al- , lowed the girl to go to the factory through the day to gain experience. His Worship said if the pupils had been taught elsewhere than ' in the ordinary factory it would have been • different ; but where the" pupils were working with others, they 1 might have been, taken in ' simply as a way of avoiding the Employment * of Girls- and Boys Without Payment Prevention Act.

Acting on medical advice, the JRev. R. Jj ' Porter, of St. Paul's, has had- to relinquish, his ministerial duties in the meantime., The ' North Otago Times understands that Mr Porter had decided to send in his resignation, but the managers intimated that they would; not accept it, preferring to give their pastor an extended' respite from work 'for the re- ' cuperation of his health.

The Cromwell Argus 'stales that Mr Fenton. Walsh, -who died in the Dunedin Hospital " oh Thursday, came to. the goldfields hr the early days. He was a native of Launceston, and worked in the Cardrona and Shotoyer. dis- - tricts for- some time, afterwards Agoing to ' Cromwell. The cause of Mr Walsh's death • was cancer. He leaves a widow\ and three*. ■ children to mourn their loss. , r N At the annual meeting of the -Whiton Jockey • Club on Tuesday evening -the following officebearers, were elected for the ensuing year : — • President, Mr James Hunter- (re-elected); vice-president, Mr W. Swale; treasurer, Mv E. R. Kidd; secretary, Mr J. L. Wilson; committee — Messrs J. Woods, R. Wilson, Clark, Jno. Hamilton, Kidd, Baird. Finnegan, and Jones. Auditors, Messrs Daly and WyllieV