PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2454, 27 March 1901, Page 3

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.) To people who believe in transubstantiation the anti-transubstemtiation clause in the King's oath is naturally an offence. It always has been ; I was going to add that it was always meant to be. That perhaps were an exaggeration, and, as everybody knows, this column never exaggerates. I content myself therefore with saying that the makers and framers of the King's oath were aware that it would give dire offence to certain religionists, but didn't allow that fact to trouble them. Rather they chuckled over it. The temper of the limes was not favourable to toleration in religion, nor, for the matter "of that, in anything else. As for the agelong discussion about transubstantialion, it liad come to be a discussion between top dog and bottom dog in a dog fight. Neither spared the other, but the top dog had a strategical advantage. In the British realm this advantage, after painful vicissitudes, remained with the party tLat didn't believe in transubstantiation ; hence the peculiarities of the Sovereign's accession oath. Peculiarities they undoubtedly are. It would be a pain aaid a bewilderment to the nation if the Sovereign announced himself a Quaker, a Shaker, or a Theosophist ; but the oath doesn't provide against these vagaries ; it provides only against his being a Roman Catholic ; in particular it pro- I vides that he shall not believe in transubstantiation. The men who devised these limitations had reason good for what they did ; but we won't go into that. It is sufficient that the conditions have altered. This is not the seventeenth century but the twentieth. There is no need to suppose that the evils guarded against by the oath have changed, have ceased to bs evils ; it is we ourselves that have changed ; tve have ceased to be afraid of them. I surrender the oath, then, as an anachronism, and Lord Salisbury, I observe, lias the good taste to be of the same opinion. sfow for the uplifting of Protestant testimonies on the other side ; now for Mr Eensit and the Ulster Orangemen! The peace negotiations, so called, are off, Bind the war, so called, is^to go on. Botha 5s "not disposed to recommend to the earnest consideration of his Govcrnnir-nt '' i {&• tenas Lord 'Kitchener had offered iiim.

This is "putting on side" with a vengeance ; to cap it, Kruger announces from Lis snug retreat in Holland that Botha *' had merely negotiated in order to gain time to collect supplies." These gentry seem to have the laugh of us ; but they ' laugh best-vlio laugh last. Nobody has been able to suggest — nobody on our side, at any rate — a sane motive for further resistance on the part of the Boers. A sane motive? — Yes ; but there may be motives that are not sane, and they ser-ve just as well. Botha and " his Government " — De Wet, De la Rey, Steyn, and Co. — have an eye on events in the Far East. Don't for a moment presume on their ignorance. They see the cables as regularly as we dc — a day or two late perhaps, but that is a trifle. Their friends in Caps Colony attend to all that. They know, consequently, that at the Tientsin railway siding Britain and Russia are glaring at each other over levelled bayonets, that both sides, are hurrying up troops, that peace and war seem balanced on a razor-edge. This scandalous situation does not alarm us, because we know that at the other end of the telegraph wire are the British and the Russian Governments, and we cannot believe that either means war. Bub to Botha and his friends the situation at Tientsin, as in the Far East generally, probably seems most hopeful, avost encouraging, full of the most delightful possi-1 bilities. for the development of which ifc j would be a crime not to wait. AH this j is insanity ; for if we were at war with Russia, or with France, or with both, we should hold only the tighter to South Africa. But it is for some such reason as this. I fancy, that Botha rejects the olivebranch and prefers to take . his chance of getting shot. He plays a risky game, for the British temper is not improving, and his own burghers cannot be expected to go on for ever getting themselves knocked on the head for nothing. The shot he is chancing may be a shot in the back.

Meanwhile we are dilfgently making the country a desert. Lei no one suppose that any British soldier, high or low, is in love with Jarm-burning. or practises a Dolicv of devastation in lightness of heart. Necessity is laid upon us, a necessity dictated by sentiments the most humane. We want to bring this murderous war to an *»nd ; what is the shortest way? In answer 1 quote from a London paper some J'emarks by General Sheridan apropos of his stern . methods in the American Civil War : Those who rest at horn? in pence and plontv sco but li'tla of the horrois attending a duel between armies, ani! even grow indifferent to them as the struggle goes on. ... It is another matter, however, when deprivation and suffering are brought to their own doors. Then the ca3e appears much graver, for the loss of property weighs heavy with the most of mankind, heavier often than the sacrifices made on the field of battle. Death is popularly considered the maximum of punishment in war, but it is net : reduction to poverty brings prayer i for peace more pure'iy and more quickly than docs the destruction of human life. Carrying out this doctrine Sheridan swept the Shenandoah Valley as with a besom, rendering it incapable of -supporting any hostile force. Sherman did the same in Georgia. " It is useless for us to occupy Georgia," he wrote, " but the utter destruction of its roads, houses, and people will cripple tlieir military resources. ... I can make this march and make Georgia howl! " " Should gueiTillas orbush-whackers molest our march," he said in his orders to his troons, " or should the inhabitants manifest local hostility, then army commanders should order and enforce a devastation more or less relentless, according to the measure of such hostility." This was the manner of Sherman's famous "March through Georgia." So with the Germans in France in 1870 ; *' where telegraphs were cut or railways broken, the canton or parish was heavily fined and farms burned. Guerrillas not in uniform, when captured were shot or decimated : prominent French citizens were compelled to ride on the locomotives where trains were derailed." Can anybody doubt that this was the shortest way to bring the struggle to an ending? And whatever was the shortest way was the merciful way. Beware of rose-water revolutions and humanitarian wars ; in the end they are the cruellest.

To read the English papers of the week following the Queen's death is to share a great emotion. The interval of time does not count, nor the difference of place : one feels again, and irresistibly,- the" mingled sentiments of national pride and national sorrow with which the hearts of millions were stirring. The Saturday Review has &v article contrasting the stele of feeling in the British people with that of other nations in like circumstances — that is. after the decease of a sovereign — reproducing' in jjarticular Carlyle's unforgettable description of the unliononred deathbed and t-r kMous obsequies of Louis XV, once ' L-jois the Well-beloved." It was cot

necessary to go so far afield ; contrasts quite as instructive might have bsen found at home. In how precarious a plight the monarchy was at the Queen's accession may be learned from the ferocious epigrams that celebrated the deaths of her predecessors. Here is one by W-alter Savage Landor: George the First wss always reckoned Vile — but viler George the Second; And what mortal ever heard Any good of George theThiid? When from earth the Fourth descended, God be praised, the Georges ended. Another, on the death of Queen Caroline, i 1818. is by Charles Mathews : The death of thfe Queen has caused great perturbation ; We must mourn by command, throughout the whole nation. The theatres closed, the poor actors forlorn Must starve; other subjects can eat while they mourn. ] What follows is plain ; — 'tis believed in all i corners, j The mourners are actors, the actors all mourners. There were others worse than these. Such were the farewells that usually attended the exit of a sovereign of the House of Hanover. The whole difference between then and now the monarchy owes to Queen Victoria.

Mr Seddon's hankering after the coal trade may be explained partly, perhaps, • by the bigness of the domestic coal bills and his laudable desire to reduce them — he has dilated more than once on the high price of coal in Wellington; — partly by an erroneous notion as to the profits of the ; coal companies. He fancies their profits enormous, and lie has his eye on the Westporb Company in particular. Well, in the last Stock and SJiare List, March 6, Westport shares, £3 paid up, are at £3 19s ; the interest they pay in the form of dividends is a modest 6 psr cent. It must be the retailers that make the fabuloiis and immoral profits Mr Seddon desires to confiscate. He had better direct his envy elsewhere. ' It would be difficult to lower this Government in my estimation — such are its merits ! — but that result will certainly follow if it takes to peddling coal. I would rather see it eerving beer (on the Gothenburg system, of course) , or retailing tobacco. Tobacco is a happy thought. The commodity is imported ; the supply of it conld be controlled ; the price might be anything, and we should have to pay it, for everybody must have tobacco ; obviously there are the makings of another surplus in tobacco. Then vhere are the gold mines — quartz, alluvial, Molyneux dredging, etc. What a field for Slate Socialism is here ! All mines are the property of the State — that is an axiom. They belong to the people, in other words, to you and to me. Why do we permit a few monopolists to appropriate and exploit our Waihis, Hartleys, Electrics? It is in a disinterested spirit that I ask the question, for I hold a few shares in monopolies of this kind myself. Shall I refuse to surrender them for my country's good? Certainly not! At the call of duty and Mr Reddon, and at seller's prices', they are available to-morrow. It isn't State Socialism in itself that I object to. but State Socialism r.n Avrong lines. 'Mr Seddon will be all right if he consents to postpone coal to gold.

The Tablet, as might have been anticipated is in a great heat over my note of la*t week — hystei'cally violent and vomiting vituperation a<? from a pom-pom. Controversy Avith the Tablet is of course out of the question ; one must draw the line somewhere. But I may notice one or two things — such things as are intrinsical'y interesting. First, it was " through the courtesy of a friend " that the editor discovered last Saturday's Daily Times and the Pass.ing Notes column. He doesn't see the morning paper, obseive ; oh, no ! — he has no notion that the writer named " Civis " stiU exists until the fact is brought under his notice " by tho courtesy of a friend." Than this beginning nothing could be more ingenuous, nothing more characteristic ; and to the beginning corresponds the rest. It will be remembered tliat the object of my note last week was to gibbet a slander. Mr Bvodrick having stated in the House of Commons that certain Boer women in British keeping had been put on "reduced rations," the editor of the Tablet declared that the object of this policy, was to starve these unfortunate women into submission to the lusts •of the- • soldiery. ..1 do not quote his words; -I quoted them -last week, and once is enough. Noi r do* I characterise the slander.' Epithets' and adjectives would be wasted^, tii tfting'mjiy 6s left to stand in its native, horror.. Well," the interesting fact is that the editor neither recants nor apologises. He ignores that matter altogether. He is diffuse upon things irrelevant — Aulus Gelliiis, the Cuban war, the last election : irpo'n the one essential thing whereof it behoved him to speak, and speak as a penitent, lie^ is silent, — betraying the •while his conseiousnefs oi what it is by the care with' which In •avoids it. -The whole business etfEoi'ds n curious study in tiie

morbid pathology of a mmd — I suppose we may call it a mind. Quarrel with the Tablet — not if I know it ! I should as soon think of quarrelling with some disagreeable phenomenon of Nature. The Tablet is the Tablet ; and when you have said that all is said. . - ; Cms.

Some time ago the Government placed an order in America for 6% railway carriages of a modern and up-to-date type. A -portion of the order has been completed, and the cars are being fitted together in the Addington Workshops. Thirty-three have been allotted to the Kurunui-Bluff section of the railways, and in a month or so it is expected they will be in regular use. On Saturday the department took one of them out for a trial trip, and ran through to Dunedin, going on to Invercargill next day. The car ran very smoothly, and the result of the trial was highly satisfactory. The | new carriage is a, double corridor car — that is, it i 3 divided in the middle by a cross passage closeable by gates. In one hah* the corridor is on the right, in the other half on the left, of the car. The corridors, instead of having a wire fence on the outside, are closed and windowed like the ordinary side of a carriage, so that the passenger does not have to encounter dust, smoke, or rain when in the corridor. There are five compartments, larger than those on the old cars, and comfortably upholstered, and one at each end is labelled ■ " Ladies only.'' The "seating capacity of the" cars is limited to 30 passengers each. cars will be used for the north and south express service, and it is expected" that they will be sufficient for the ordinary traffic,- except on holidays and special occasions, when it will be necessary to supplement them with the ordinary carriages. The'Tapanui sly-grog cases whioh were adjourned from last month came on again before Mr Stratford, S.M., at Tapanui on the 19th. The first case was that wherein James O'Dowd, boardinghouse-keeper, was charged with selling liquor on New Year's Eve to two men named Fearnley and Williams. Tho case for the prosecution was heard last court day. For the defence, evidence was given that at the time the sale was supposed to have taken place defendant was engaged playing billiards. Defendant was convicted, and fined £40 and costs, to bo recovered by distress, and in default of distress one month's imprisonment without hard labour. The Crown Prosecutor called his Worship's attention to the fact that' imprisonment with hard labour was preferable to imprisonment without the latter, Mr Fraser adding,, to those at the table, that it was tantamount to solitary imprisonment. His Worship said he was aware of what Mr Fraser said, but imprisonment without hard labour was not fo humiliating 1 . He thought that in those cases persons convicted and sent to prison should not altogether lose their character by being sent to work with ordinary criminals. Two informations were laid against Patrick M'Cann, but the Crown Prosecutor intimated that he decided to offer no evidence. There was only one witness for the Crown, and he did not deem it prudent, in a district like that, to prosecute with one witness. The Court of Appeal heard further argument ot the 19th 'nst. in the Dunedin case of John M'Phee v. Wright, Stephenson, and Co. relative to a claim of £370 4s 6d for oats which the respondent had rejected. Our Wellington correspondent telegraphs that Mr Hosking, on behalf of the respondents, moved that M'Phee should be stopped from proceeding with ths appeal on the ground that he, without the consent of the respondent, disposed of the oats, and thereby accepted the judgment which he now sought to appeal against. After an adjournment Mr Justice Williams said the court was unanimously of opinion that the appellant by his conduct Bad precluded himself from prosecuting the appeal.- The point, however, was one- of considerable importance, and their- reasons would eventually be given in writing. Three sums of £20 each have been promised towards the Queen's statue memorial fund. . .At a meeting of the committee of the Technical Classes Association on Monday afternoon' (Mr G-. M. Thomson presiding) .Mr J. F. Arnold, M.H.R., was present, and gave full explanations of the result (detailed in yesterday's issue) of his negotiations with the Government re a grant for extensions of the association's 'premises. On the motion of Mr Cohen, it was unanimously resolved to record on the minutes a hearty vote of thanks to Mr Arnold for co successfully carrying out his mission. The resignation of ter Kidston.-Hu.nler as leather of 1

s * chemistry was accepted, and Mr Niven ap3 i pointed in his stead. It was decided to 1 ; discontinue instruction in photography. The J f committee resolved to continue the branch I ', classes at Port Chalmers, and to add shorl5 hand and typing to the local syllabus. Dur- • ing a discussion on the appointment of teachers a general opinion wrs expressed that t in future years an earlier start would have , to be made, and in all probability three ' terms, instead of two, would be instituted. Operations for the current year will be com- _ menced the fir3t week in April, but pupil* \ will be enrolled befoie the Easter holidays. : During the past fortnight 4216 animate ' were slaughtered at the City Abattoir, of ■ which nine were condemned as unfit for 1 food. Laxity of parental control has during the ; past few weeks been responsible for the : painfully frequent appearance of small boys , in the Police Court. Isolated instances of juvenile crime may of cour-e always be • looked for in any community, but when ife becomes common it can only be regarded with a grave and disquieting feeling. On rh«r 19th two sturdy, well-grown boys of niu» and 11 years respectively, and of quite a. different type from the " street arab," who invariably gets into trouble sooner or later, came up before Mr Graham on charges of entering shops and stealing confectionery. The pair have been playing truant for some time, and discarded the parental roof for the shelter of a -tank out near Anderson's Bay, where they slept at nights. The father of the youngest had no explanation to offer the court for his neglect of his offspring, and merely remarked that he could noffeam a living and look after his family at tl*. same.time. The other lad was represented by counsel, and his parents were not present. Mr Graham recommended the boys for a sound whipping by their parents, and dismissed the cases, with the threat tha'., future misconduct would iand them in tha Industrial School. This, however, did not seem to cause either the boys or their parent* much concern. In another case, where a. young lad was guilty of house-breaking an* stealing a revolver, his Worship decided tf: entrust the remainder of his upbringing tc the State, and committed him to the Industrial School. A very famous Lancashire " identity," 1 known to the Gentiles as Sir J. W. Maclurc, M.P., invariably spoken of in the Midlands as " John William," has just succumbed (says the London correspondent oi the Melbourne Argup) to the rigours of a quarter of a century of public dinner?, directors' luncheon?, and champagne therewith, at the comparatively early age of 6b. He was of 'late years the most shining lighfc in the House of Commons, for his broac\ pink countenance shone like a doctor** lamp ; his thick white hair, whiskers, and' moustache shone from afar, and co did hi 5 ? vast white waistcoat. He was the embod' r ■ment of that Lancashire "bounce" whio'i. is considered de legle in your true " Manchester man." ' If is tolerable because it also covers shrewdness, average generosity, and other solid things, such, for example! a? a million sterling which "John William. 1 * j raised for the relief funds at the time of the : great >; coiton famine" of 1562-5; £60,000. which he raised mainly by his own personal 1 influence^ again, to restore Manchester Cathedral, etc. Cultured reticence was not one cf hij virtues. In the House they used to tell how "John William," anxious to awf» a young Tory colleague new to tho place, explained. "Look thee, lad; whenever I want aught from Ministers I just go straight to Michael— and I get it." "But who's Michael?" asked the youngster Why, ' Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, of course." ' Ah," said tho new member, modestly, " I always have to ask 'Bobby' for favours of that sort." "But who on earth is Eobhy?'" asked "John William." - "Why, Lord Salisbury, of course." Sir J. W* Maclure was, I fancy, the champion " guinea, pig " in the House ; director of* innumerable companies— but latterly he had got the : name, as piomoter, of wanting everything for himself. The Benevolent Institution Trustees met as usual on Wednesday, Mr C. Sayncs (chairman) presiding. The other members present were Messrs K. M. Clark, R. Wilson, J. Green, J. Gore, and the Hon. Hugh Gourley. Accounts amounting to £133 0s 9d were passed for payment. Tenders for the year's supplies were received and passed over to the Finance Committee for their report. The secretary reported a donation of straw hats and ties from Mr J. Wallace, draper, and a donation of boys' collars from the New Zealand Clothing Factory. The gifts were received with thanks. About 32 relief cases were then de.\lt with.