The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 2465, 12 June 1901, Page 43

The Otago Witness.

WITH WHICH IS INCOKPOBATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDSESDAY, JUKE 13, 1001.) THE WEEK.

"Goou n&turo tuu £oo<i hcqsc must ever join.**— l'opc,

This is the great occasion : as we write tht Duke and Duchess of Our Koynl Cornwall are preparing to Visiio:-s. land in New Zealand. It is their first visit, and we may safely assert it will be their last. The destiny of both is too great tc admit of another, nor indeed is another visit at all a necessity. The Heir Apparent will see enough on this occasion to enable him to understand, not only what the Australasian portion of the great Empire is like, but also what it is likely to grow into during his own lifetime, which we fervently hope may be long and peaceful. For peacefulness to a monarch implies every other -good thing, — individual health and wellbeing, natural prosperity, the respect as well as the loyalty of his people. To enjoy all these things, while at the yme time you are thfc head of the greatest, richest, and most powerful Empire that history ha? yet revealed to mankind — what more could ambitious man want from destiny? If the Dukt lumse'.f could be consulted on that point he irould in all probability say: "To be kept oiit of the position as long as possible"; — a generous sentiment with which all will agree. The Duke of York, who has been paying intelligent attention to the history of the countries he is visiting, will have solid reason to marvel at the position New Zealand has attained during her short history. In 1897, foui years ago, t we here in Otago were celebrating the jubilee

of the landing )f the first immigrant ship in the harbour. Two years later they were doing the same for the foundation of Canterbury. Nelson and Wellington are a little older. The a\erage age of the entire colony is under 60 years, and the bettlement of it was retarded by savage outbreaks of warfare, the very memory of which hardly remains now, though che echoes could be heard no more than 20 years ago.

Now the Heir Apparent visits a colony which, remotely situated as it is, has still got in high degree ail the essentials of civilisation. Let it be observed that we said all the "essentials" of civilisation. There are luxuries of civilisation as well, but these we do not pretend to have. Each morning over the breakfast table we have the history of the world -supplied us from the cable. The colony has a network of railways either made or making — mostly made. The telephone system is as advanced as it is in London. We have a coastal steam service which would disgrace no country in the world. The Royal Yacht, huge vessel as she is, car* enter most of our harbours wit! perfect safety, and moor alongside of our wharves with every convenience. Settlement on the land is dotted over the entire colony, and our methods of culture are all that advanced science can make them. Our entire people are being educated under a free system which has been established for 24 years. We can send home to the Mother Country immense quantities of food to fill hungry mouths of a teeming population. And when the Mother Country is in danger or difficulty we send oiu- young men to fight fo-' her, or it may be to die for her if the sacrifice is required. Not bad work foi 50 odd years ! And as might be expected from this record, the Duke of Cornwall will find no- ■« here throughout his father's dominions hearts that beat more -warmly and loyally for the dynasty of which "he is the lepresentative here.

The idea of erecting stands for the old age pensioners in the chief cenA Stroke tre s while the celebrations of Genius. ir honour of the Duke and

Duchess of Cornwall are going on was a master-stroke of Mr Seddon' s. It was quite the right thing to do, too ; they must also be worthy to have a trifling favour bestowed upon them such as the provision of seats whence they can with comfort see a spectacle that is unique in the history of the colony. The idea is ohviously Mr Seddon's own it bas the unmistakable stamp of his resourceful brain about it. It was precisely one of those happy thoughts which everyone feels ought to have occurred to him, and which occurs to nobody until they have the lead given.

It seems ungracious to inquire into motives, but Mr Seddon has taught us to do it in connection with his own action?. It is never safe to suppose that his motives are on the surface, or to assume that the simple solution is ki his case the right one. It would be pleasant to think that the Premier was attracted with the idea that it would be a kind act to give the old age pensioners an agreeable outing on a great occasion. We have no doubt the idea was there, too, but not in the lead. We should suppose that the turn his thoughts took would be something of this sort : — "Here is a splendid oppoi'tunity for drawing a contrast between New Zealand and all the other colonies of the Empire. They spent theii ingenuity upon arches and designs of various kinds. We can show a spectacle that will be as pathetic, as significant- of the progress we have been making. never has been such an occasion as this for advertising the colony. I car point to these stands of old people and say : ' These are our pensioners, the men who have made the colony with their toil, "and now we provide for their old age.' " And then he can* complacently reflect that whatever advertises the colony advertises himself.

All this does not detract from Mr Seddon's credit for giving birth to the idea. To say that he acts from mixed motives

is after all to say what is true of nearly eveiybody else. But it is to be feared that his method of advertising brings its punishment with it. He is too unrestrained, and his ideas are too obviously designed "to last his time only. To use a cant phrase he "lays it on too thick." He has talked so loosely about New Zealand being the "working man's paradise," and so forth, that he ha« been taken at his word. The colony is regarded as a country where things are so organically different from what they are anywhere else that inevitably, where men have made sacrifices to get here and then find that they have to fight their way as cruelly as a newcomer would in any other British colony, they are much disappointed and complain publicly that they have been deceived. That was the position of a good many of the Clarion men recently. Their disappointment was relative not necessarily to what they had been told of tht colony (although that probably was pitched in a tolerably high key), ibut to the pictures of it their owp imagination had formed. And that, let it be borne in mind, was in good times, when men «-ere in demand everywhere. If strangers, depending on work, come to the colony in depressed times, when oui own nnemploved are gathered about the street corners — and there are some uncomfortable signs that we are approaching that condition alreadv — what could they think, except that that was said of New Zealand was a pack of lies?

There ate signs that the temperance movement is about to undergo a The Parting new phase, and is gradually of having new life put into it. the Ways. Curiously enough, it would seem if the era" of practical progress was going to commence iroin the date of the splitting in two of what has been called the Temperance party in the past. The new party 's made up of those who recognise that you can never eradicate the moderate chinking habits of a people, but that there is abundant scope for the amelioration of the degrading vice of drunkenness*. The old party are the prohibitionists, the men who regard drink

as a thing accursed, and who decline to consider anj remedy short of the total exclusion of the stuff from the country. A moral reform of the kind is pretty much like a political reform : if you can't get as mucb as you m ant get as nuch ai 3 r ou can. TJie problems to be solved are mainly two. The first, a mighty one, is how (assuming that you recognise the impossibility of obliterating the drinking habit) are you going to control the traffic in drink? The second is, What is to be done with those who already drink to excess, or are hubitiril drunkards? On the solution of both these problpms opinions naturally differ — and in tact the only point upon which all parlies can find common standing ground is that drink is a frightful individual and a national e\il, responsible for the annual waste of thousands of \a"uable li^es. Although opinions on the first problem are ?o diver&e there is one point upon which they will practically agree — the man who sells the liquor must make no profit on the sale,— jthat is, his salary must remain the same whether he lells one gallon or one thousand. That is the central principle of all the suggested reforms, whether it be the Gothenburg system, -or complete municipalisation of the public houses, or the system now being,cautiously tried of private trusts. At the International Temperance Congress, held recently in Vienna, a Russian representative gave a somewhat glowing account of tv system in vogue in his country, which consists simply in rendering distillation a Government monopoly. This, so far as ifc. goes, has the desired re- ] quisites. The customer gets a sound liquor, he does not get it too chfeaply, and he gets it from a man who has no interest in the selling of it. But, like the Gothenburg system, it falls short oi a complete experiment by not including beei, which is responsible for a large share of the drunkenness of every country. It is in Scotland that the system of trusts rinds most favour. The movement m Scotland in favour of temperance is so strong as almost to merit the name which has been applied to it — of an "awakening." In the :ounty of Fife there are several public houses successfully managed on the temperance principles above mentioned. The profits are being, and have been, utilised in various beneficent methods — in providing libraries, reading rooms, bowling greens, anJ football grounds, etc. Thez*e is in Edinburgh an agitation to place the whole drink traffic of Scotland under a national trust. A movement is well advanced for placing the district of Glasgow under a trust. The time is evidently not yet ripe for municipalisation, but there is reason to believe it is coming, and the trust system, if generally successful, will pave the way for it. It is not to be denied that the new method has got dangers of its own to guard against, but they are so small when compared with the hideous evils of the present system -that we can afford- to turn our eyes with ! reasonable hope to its inauguration. At all : events it is much better than clamouring for the unattainable and making no pregress at all, — 2xcept the slow progress which comes with the lapse of time, the increase of education, outdoor exercises, and impioved sanitation.

The problems of how to deal with the victim of drink is a smaller The Human one in some respects than Problem. the other, but it is a thorny

subject to touch. The difficulty arises out of the fact that you cannot use any form, of compulsion to the man or woman who may still be saved. They are not far gone enough for that, and when they are they are probably past salvation. The tendency of the evidence of physiology is to prove that the habitual drunkard "is suffering rather from a disease than addicted to a vice. It is said that at quite an early stage in the progress of the malady certain physical changes in the structure of the nervous system may be detected by the microscope. If this be really so, then, 'n the language of the London Times, ' r is is as foolish to punish an habitual drunkard foi getting drunk as it would be to punish a paralytic for inability to run." As a matter of fact the police very ra-rely arrest a man for being drunk unless he is at the same time disorderly or reatint some disturbance calculated to annoy other people, or sa helpless that it would not be safe to leave him alone. If there is any fault at all it* is that the much-abused police, like the people generally, are apt to be too lenient and easygoing with drunkenness. But of course there is all the difference iv the world between punishing a man with fine or imprisonment or both for irunkenness and having him committed to an institution for the care and cure of inebriates. It may not be generally known that in 1898 an act was passed authorising the establishment of such institutions wherever they are required, though so far as we are aware no practical step has been taken to put the law in operation. The victim of drink may either apply himself to any judge or magistrate to be committed to an institutior of the kind, or some relation oi even friend may apply for him (or her), and if the judge or magistrate is satisfied that the application in th? <ndividuaPs interest is a proper one he may commit nim for any period not exceeding 12 months. The judge fixes the scale oi fees fo,. board and treatment. The law, though doubtless iD practical operation It would require amendment, seems well enough designed to serve its purpose. That purpose, however, is strictly limited by circumstances which so far as me can see can never be wholly got over. The institution could only be utilised by those -«ho lament their weaknesses and really want to get cured The contented diunkard, the man who has no objection to " take a spell " in a retreat of the kind, and deliberately celebrates his release by flying to the bottle, would have n right there. The man who has injured himself by excessive drinking is in no different position from the man who has injured himself from excessive eating. In both cases, coming out of the inebriates' retreat oi the hospital,

they must both exert their -\\ill- in defend themselves against a recurrence of the evil. All this pie-supposes that these inebriat" institutions are established and m operas tion, which is not the c-aae. Bat the re-\ centiy reported purchase by the Government of Orakanui certainly looks as if they were going at last to put the laws in force' in this part of New Zealand. It will be an unprofitable business for a Jong time (so fai as direct gains are concerned), and will have to be worked with great tact and judgment.

There is ? story told ol Addison when

Secretary of Stale tha-t lie Outs'.de tlie had to prepare a letter of Common condolence (or something of Place. the sort) to a foreign Power,

and that after wasting soma hours without making anj r progress it was impatiently taken from him and handed to a clerk ir the office, who produced, the article in p few minutes. The clerk afterwards u«ed to boast that he could do that which Addison failed to do. The stofy is very likely to be true. It was the clerk's business, and the conventionality of the job was no doubt hateful to Addison. But the difference between the two men is easily discerned. If the clerk had been required to write a number for the Spectator he could not have done it to ' save his soul. If. on. the other hand, Addisonhad persevered with his task, and .done it after his own fashion, it would h.ave>been a very much finer piece of work than the clerk's. We are led to this reminiscence by' consideration of the terms of the various ad.dresses about to be poured in upon the Duke of Cornwall. It is, we are aware, an unprofitable exercise. The probability is that the Duke himself will never see them. But if the spirit ever did move hin? to read them we imagine he would be turned from his purpose by the desperate conventionality of nearly all of them. They are commonplace to a degree — 3xcept that from the City of Wellington, where the council has evidently gone outside of itsalf to get the document drawn up. It is not that there is anything extraordinary about it, . but that the writer has obviously not sought for a model anywhere, but has hammered the ideas out of his own brain. If airvone wants to see the difference between, the commonplace and the original let him place the Dunedin and Wellington addresses side by side and read them*both. When the reader has got. through the first few lines of the Dunedin address he feels he h-'s had enough. The mind ."huts up with a snap against any more ; the sense thai you have heard it all a hundred times befoie is not to be got rid of. "I have the honour on this unique occasion in the history of Dunedin to offer you the congratulations of our citizens upon the enthusiastic welcome that has been everywhere extended to your Royal Highness," etc. How take Wellington. After the opening paragraph. wMch simply offers the visitors " a hearty vrel?conie" to the capital of the colony of,N-e«c ealand. we have the following: — " Physically more remote fronj Ihs mother country than any, other part of His Majesty's dominions, New Zealand claims nevertheless to be as close as any in its attachment to the Crown and the Empire. The exile from the Old Land who has settled in the colony has changed his ?ky, but not his flag : he has adopted a new country without losing his old one; and his children, and his children's children, have inherited from him the love for a land which he rnav have left for ever and they may never set. To them, as to him, that land is still Home.' "

This -is at once true aud very -well expressed. So is the concluding r-\raprraph : "We trust that your Royal Highness may carry away a lasting impression of the loyalty of our colony, which it is certain, that the presence of the Heir-Apparent to the throne will have done much to stimulate; and that your Royal Highness- may bp a witness that the miles of ocean which divide the British race throughout the -world aiv. not for us an estranging sea.'' It ;s; s not often that an address of the kind gets such good stuff put into it.