PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2623, 22 June 1904, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's D lily Times.) About the war, British and Continental opinion shows a tendency to jump to conclusions. Russia must win — that is the conclusion. The more Japan looks like winning, the more emphatically do military experts, politicians, financiers and able editors assure each other that appear- j ances are illusory — things are not what they seem. The more Russia is humiliated and the more consistently monotonous her revers-es, the greater the unction with which is repeated the consecrated phrase, Russia mvst win. Why must she win? For answer we get the surprisingly insufficient reason that she cannot afford to lose. Surely there is such an argument as "needs must." But, n?xt, her neighbours and friends — 1 was going to say her " pals " — connot afford to let her lose. France, for one. How should France endure to see her indispensable ally discredited and rolled in the dust? Germany, for another. Should Russia he finally worsted, Japan would have grown so big, China so subservient, that Germany's tenure of Kowchow, Shantung, or whatever the Naboth's vineyard may be which she has appropriated just south of Pe-chi-li, would not be worth a month's purchase. Politely warned off, Germany would have to go. It is even conceivable that Britain herself, Japan's faithful and most sympathetic al!y (sleeping partner, the Russians and other Continentals account her), would, in the hour of Japan's triumph, be requested to evacuate Hongkong and leave the Far East to its natural and original owners.

These seem good reasons for chanting in chorus that Russia must win. Meanwhile Russia goes on consistently losing. Her losses at sea might perhaps be explained away ; naval warfare is essentially flukey ; and, anyhow, the sea is not Russia's element. But since the Yalu it is evident that Russia is no better able to take care of herself on land. If the neighbours of Russia, cannot) allow her to lose, they will have to do something more than barrack for her in tfra European press, that " something more " may come ; meanwhile they will a little longer wait on the chapter of accidents. Originally Japan had six battleships ; of these she has lost one. Jusfc a touch by mine or torpedo sufficed to do the business of that one ; and now there are five. If one battleship may be lost without a fight, why not two? — why not three? There may or may not be submarines in Port Arthur ; there are certainly torpedo craft, and off the entrance there* seems no lack of floating mines. If Japan loses her battleships, or even three of them, she loses command of the sea, loses the campaign, loses everything. A ■battleship is a commodity that Japan cannot produce for herself, nor, can any neutral sell it to her. Spite of the huge disparity in the scoring hitherto, the chances of the war at this moment are balanced as on a razor-edge. The accidents of a single day might put Japan virtually out of action. These considerations are not likely to be overlooked in Europe. Their moral for sympathetic friends who are saying that Russia cannot, must not, shall not fail is, Bide a wee !

We have had a breeze in hat are known as ecclesiastical circles, — nothing unduly severe, no damage done, merely a stiff sou'wester, of value for clearing away fog, malaria, and mephitic exhalations generally. It has been noticed that Dunedin is always healthiest in sou-west weather. To drop' metaphor, t'urr* lias been a ncvs.pa.per tilting between the Geneva gown and the cassock ; neither vestment has suffered any irretrievable rent ; both are just as fit for wear as ever. But what is this? — I have merely dropped one metaphor to take up another ! You see, lam reluctant to say in blunt English that the Rev. This has been slans-whajiginor the Rev- Tha-tj in

fact I couldn't do it, such is the delicacy of my feelings. Metaphor is the nearest approach I can make. Besides, a clerical duel is all feint and parry; there arc buttons on the foils ; no harm is done. Metaphor again ! What I mean by the last sentence is literally this — that there exists a form of pulpit rhetoric, inflated, reckless, irresponsible, which, when directed ' by one cleric against another, is less mischievous than it looks. Ecclesiastical ■ quarrels were at one time dangerous. But 1 in this, as in so many other things, we are I better than our fathers. For one thing we drink less whisky. I have just come across an authentic extract from the diary of a Scotch shepherd ; date — say the Disruption, or thereabouts. Sabbath. — Up in the morning at six — a dram (whisky). Went out to see the sheep — a dram. Came "home to breakfast — a dram. Looked round the house— a dram. Washed and dressed for church— a dram. Took a brandy before going to kirk, lest I should smell of whisky in the house of the Lord. We drink less whisky, and we pray less against the Pope; when we fall out about religion — there are few things in life worth falling out about, and religion is one of them— we don't mean all we say. Any more than Mr Gladstone meant all he said when,\ fresh from Oxford, and writing his juvenile essay on Church and State, he elaborated arguments which, according to Macaulay, would have warranted the roasting of Dissenters at slow fires. This is a rather far-fetched illustration; but I have just been reading Mr John Morley. Under the eye-catching crosshead '•Mangling Done Here" the Pall Mall Gazette reviews a volume of- selected poetry, the selecting and the editing, also the mangling, done by a feminine hand. I j do nob give the lady's name; it is of no consequence, and humanity restrains me. I The single point of interest about her is that she~corrected her own proofs. That fact is certain. No mortal printer unassisted could have achieved the same distinction. She corrected her own proofs ; from which temerity has resulted an " epidemic of mistakes," a " carnival of errors," not confined to the body of the book but also " raging fiercely in the index." We have, '• tha fact mused upon the dusky height." where fact should be poet. There is something startling about this gem from Omar Khayyam — "Ail, moon of my delight also know'st no wane!'' And there are no fewer than six " howlers " in the five little stanzas of one of Browning' -3 best-known pieces, " May and Death." Among thess we will cite the following lines, just to show to what lengths a careless anthologist can go: — " There must bo many a, pair of friends Who arm-in-arm decrease the warm Mcon-berths, and the long evening ends." Decrease moon-berths! Could nonsense be more clotted? It is hardly necessary to say that " deserve " and " births " are what the poet wrote. Also the poet must have written " eveningends " with a hyphen, making it a compound noun, or the clotted nonsense is still with us. But after all, what do we expect from Browning? I have a profound respeel for the Ring and the Book, and «, liking for one or two other thing 1 : ; but in the lines quoted above it is not too clear to me which version one ought on the whole to prefer. Printer's errors, as I remarked the other week, are not seldom an unconscious striving after better things. ■ However, let us pass on : i In Keats's lovely lyric " In a dr.ear-nigh.ted i December,' 1 the word "my " is substituted for " thy " in the addresses to the trea and the Lroolr, with most murderous effect, so that the : poet is > made to speak of his branches and his j liubUings. Here we find Tennyson asking the Wild Bells to ring out (inter alia) " The iaithful coldness of the times," which is n °t at all what he really wanted the bells to do. Shelley is made to tell us that joy has taken fright (not flight) ; and Keat«'s daffodils are forced to live in a great world instead of a) green world. After these and other similar absuidities the whirling brain scarcely notices such pseudoMiltonic expressions as portable (for potable) £old ; and " drained through a limber," where the last word i 3, of course, an aberration fiom "limbec" or alembic. This reviewer himself can do mangling when occasion, requires. Mangling is perhaps not the word ; his flattening-out is in the manner of a steam roller. Of course it is the undoubted privilege of an author to choose his own typography (provided lie can pay for it) ; for the matter of that he may choose his own spelling. Carlyle, for example, sprinkles his pages with capital letters in a fashion that is German and barbarous. Open him anywhere, — the more excited his dithyrambics, the more plentiful his capitals; e.g.; "It j was not the Dumb Millions that suffered here; it was the Speaking Thousands, and Hundreds and Units, . . . the fright- !

fullest Births of Time." . . . etc., •etc. — where every noun is in top-hatted full dress. Quite opposite is the taste of Mr John Morley. He must have commanded the printer of his latest book, the Life of Gladstone, to "keep it down," which, I think, is the technical phrase for avoiding capital letters ; otherwise Macmillans would never have turned out a typographical oddity having whig, tory, wesleyan, and similar nouns all in " lower case," church of England with a small c, and Roman catholic likewise. This is the influence of the author; his whim it is, clearly, to affect a drab sobriety as of the Puritan and the Quaker — that is, of the puritan and the qitaker with small initials. At first the eye is irritated by these departures from the normal ; in every other sentence the attention is disagreeably challenged by what seems a defect of spelling. Presently, however, you perceive that Mr

"When our Navy shall sweep o'er the seas — Not the subsidised navy of Ned — God bless him ! we'll tackle the breeze, And the battle, and breakers ahead, With a knowledge — no matter how coaled — That we'll steer both swift and secure Through the cold-cutting seas of coughs and of 6neeze, SVith Woods' Gkeat Pefi-ebhint Cube.

This, from the Vossischo ZeiUing, seems to &how that in advertising os in other arts and industries the Germans are beating us easily. The operations of the London Tunes in Encyclopaedia Britannicas, hugely, successful in England, are now extended to this country, and at the present writing (Friday) there remain only two more days — to-morrow (Saturday) there will remain only oxe more day — on which you mayhave a stupendous book of 35 volumes at less than half-price. I don't know how ifc is done, the thing is a puzzle ; but nexb week — "and ever after," says the advertisement — you will have to pay for these 35 volumes, which no self-respecting person can do without, more than double what is asked you to-daj-. Beginning the sale of a commodity by offering it at half-price is a new departure ; but to catch up with the Germans the Times should have begun. by presenting the Britannica to every, buyer of the book-stand whereon to put' it. Here is an explanation of the advertisement quoted above :

Every approved applicant receives an absolutely new outfit of shirts, coliars, cuffs, etc., for his own personal use. "In their own interest the company supplies best and most lasting materials." The profit comes from the washing charges. This is 110 fc so impossible as it appears at first sight. At least twice the cost of a. shirt is spent on tho washing of it before the laundry has made ifi unwearab'.e. A, laundry company interested in the preservation of linen — and not, as many people suspect, in league with the manufacturers to destroy it — might easily find it profitable to provide the capital expenditure for the sake of the washing charges. A London paper suggest*, that there should be- free silk hats, to be ironed once a week at the vendor's, and fres boots for the daily twopenny polish. Already, I believe, there are doctors vho give free advice provided you pay for the medicine. The principle may be widely applied, and I await developments.

The Public Works Uopartmc-nt lias evidently determined to now push on the Otago Central railway works as speedily as possible, and tenders have been invited for the supply of material and erection of the second bridge over the Manuhcrikia River near Galloway Flat aud a short distance- thi3 side of Alexandra.

It is anticipated that wr.ca the City Corporation's hydraulic works al Lee Siream are completed there will be 0 considerable amount of surplus powtr to di-po^e c? ; bufc before the City Council can -tippJy either power or lighting for the city it ;> ueoevsary that it should obtain an authorising order from the Governor-in-Council under "The Electric Lines Act, 18S 4 .'' The Tramways Commutes of the City Cour.cil is now taking steps to obtain the neot.sary ord-er.

At the beginning of la«t week there were 110 patients in the Hospital. During tho week 17 were admitted and ~0 discharged', while the deaths of Arthur Smythe, Maria Moreland, and Hugh Trainor are reported ; the number of patients now in the institution being 94-.

At the Central Mission service in the Garrison Hall on Sunday afternoon th« Rev. W. A. Sinclair said he had visited the slums of Melbourne under the guidance of a detective, and there caw th& opium dons and some of the blackest spots in the city. What was wanted at the present time in politic? was Christian men. who would fearlessly do their duty. — (Applause.) There were many such men in the New Zealand Parliament, and there were many in Australia. He had the pleasure, while in tho Commonwealth, of an interview with the Speaker of the Federal House, who took a very active part in Christian work, and who stated that Le esteemed it a- greater honour to -twite " M.P." after bis name as signifying "Methodist; preacher" than as signifying " Member of Parliament." A number o£ other members of Parliament took part in. the Conference proceedings, and he- (MrSinclair) was glad to cay there was quite a 1 leaven of Christian, men in the Parliament of Australia.

A meeting of the Maori Council v, hi eh has under its jurisdiction the affahs of tha Natives living south of the Waitaki was held at the kaik, Colac "Bay, on Wednesday and Thursday. The Southland Times states that many questions of detail were di'ciussed 1 , and two matters of broader importance, autli calling for legislative action, were dealc with. 11l the firot place the Natives ask that the Native reserves, of which there ara some 150,000 acres, south of the Waitaki should he placed under the jurisdiction o£ the council, with power to le\y rates end construed and maintain roads — powers which' are at present in the hands of county councils, the Maoris having control only of tha dog tax. It was further resolved to endeavour to obtain recognition of the Maoris,'rights o\er their fisaing grounds. These rights, they maintain, Here among the conditions of the Treaty of Waitangi, and they, want their exclusive fishing rights further?, preserved to them by the Legislature. Having finished its business the council adjourned on Thursday night to meet again; in the spring either at the Bluff or "Waikouaiti.

Morley has method in his madness ; in the end I am not sure that you don't, bsgin to like it.

As a pendant to the note in Friday's Daily Times on " Advertisers Mid their Ways," ri.ad the following : ! ! Yon need not buy linen any irore ! I

For the LINEN DELIVERY CQ. Ltd., 85, Friedericlistrasso, will supply you with all you want FREE OF CHARGE', You only pay for tho WASHING .