PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2689, 27 September 1905, Page 5

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.) A fine moral glow pervades the Presbyterian no-license manifesto. Although an official document, designed for election uses, il goes straight to the cockles of your heart and stirs up all your unreasoning better impulses. Personally I feel as if grappled by a perorating revivalist and "almost persuaded," — not precisely ready for the penitent form, perhaps, but palpitating on the brink. It is a help towards this state of grace that no-license is "not Prohibition," with the "not" emphasised into small caps. "Which is to say that my private whisky, be the same more or less, is not to be stopped, and that the secrets of my domestic cupboard will not be invaded. This consideration is bound to count, of course. I• am asked to abridge other people's liberty whilst preserving my own. Here, in corroboration, T remind myself that when Mr Seddon offered the prohibitionists prohibition they rose up as one man and denounced him. Also I recall an incident already mentioned in this column, how that visiting a prohibition township I fell into talk with a leading citizen who had "always voted prohibition." "But," said he, "if you come to my house I can give you a drop of the real thing all the same." If in addition to these immunities the authors of the Presbyterian manifesto could promise that voting prohibition would rid us of the prohibitionists, they might count me in. Anything for a quiet life ! The weary iteration of prohibition or nolicense " arguments," so called, has become a nuisance intolerable. Let the apostles, paid and unpaid, of the gospel of coerciou marshal their victorious hosts for the November polling and meanwhile give us respite. I have always admired the merciful curtness of Abbe Sieyes at the condemnation of Louis XVI, when other patriots qualified their regicide vote by casuistries and Jesuitries in justification. But Sieyes: "La Mort sans phrase I" t As a matter * of academic interest, though practically of no importance, 1 notice that the Presbyterian manifesto is headed "The Isew Testament and NoLicense." Ah, yes, the New Testament ;— it has always been felt that from the no-license or prohibition point of view the New Testament needed apology. Accordingly this election manifesto proceeds to explain that "there was no licensing <s\ stem— no huge monopoly the sale of liquor — in apostolic times." Tho State did not then grant a privilege (for a fixed sum) to a. few citizens securing tbein the sole right to tracte in intoxicating drink. Hence it is impossible to find in the New Tei3tanient any direct approval or disapproval of a system that did not then exist. All of which is true and much to the point. There was no licensing system to abolish because anybody might sell liquor who chose. If follows, or seems to follow, that the peculiar iniquity of our time is legal restriction, monopoly, the limiting to a few citizens a right inherent in all. But there must be something wrong in this surprising inference; — no-license has never been strong in its logic. This weakness is well seen in what is usually said touching St. Paul. Ths trouble about St. Paul is that he really wanted to put down drunkenness but never hit upon the right way. The method ot coercion did not so much as occur to him. He had nothing belter at command than the Gospel and moral suafcion — "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess. ' this, and other such futilities. To get St. Paul out of this condemnation it is necessary to make the most of his resolve that, in a contingent case, he would "eat no meat while the world standeth." Because St. Paul limited his own liberty and would eat no meat, I may limit anolher man's liberty and say that he shall diink no drink. Talk oi logic, — here's richness ! There may be good reasons for stepping the sale of liquor, but no . one £el seems to have been able to show

that they may be found in the New Testament. As respects St. Paul in particular, I fall back on my oia refrain ; Paul the Apostle to Timothy: — "Take A little wine for thy stomach's sake." Inference plain from this, admonition, Paul tho Apostle votes— No Prohibition. In Thursday's Daily Times a LabourSocialist, after comfortably alleging against "Civis" "wilful misrepresentation or inexcusable ignorance," goes on to illustrate these qualities in his o\vn person by denying that there ever was any scandal of the Six Hatters, or any scandal of the shipwrecked Lascars — clapped into durance as undesirable immigrants. The Australian press duly chronicled these incidents at the alleged time of happening, and to this hour has not ceased to be exercised o\>er them; — but, as Falstaff says, " Lord. Lord, how this world is given to lying !" We will suppose that no such incidents ever befell, and will also conclude that there has never been any White Australia policy, such as a misguided Bishop of Carpentaria, so called, denounces m the Times of to day (Friday) as " a policy of dog-in-the-manger," and "absurd. 1 .These things, let Us say, are not realities, but hallucinations, _ fantasies, bad di earns. It remains to inquire how the Labour-Socjalist party contrives to foist such delusions upon us, and get them every where believed. Take up any paper you choose — you will find them cropping cut, along with references direct or indirect to a growing tyranny that abridges liberty right and left. Men may no longer live as they like, work when they like, play when they like,- eat what they like, drink what they like. Barbed-wire fences are to hedge us in on every, side, our new moralists erecting some, the Labour Socialist party the rest. If these things are not so. the all but universal belief in tKem will take a good .deal ot" explaining. / j *"War between *» Germany and Eng- ; land !' shriek the newsboys incessantly in ; the Freidrichstrasse," writes- the Berlin s correspondent of the Paris Figaro, August ; 1. Then he explains. A Berlin daily had suddenly blazed out into alarmist : and sensational announcements, — that : foundries, forges, dockyards were work-, in°- a£ high pressure, and that the (jerman fleet was proceeding to sea under sealed orders. All this because the in-; offensive British fleet in the exercise ot j its "-eneral over-lordship had meandered into the Baltic ! Even the saner and less hysteric utterances of the German press on this subject are interesting; e.g\ ;. What does th.* British fleet come to do? First, to make soundings in the Belt and in the Sound; to photograph important points cf the coast; to study the nature of the fortifi<>fllions." Next, ft conies to mufee a grave political demonstration, -which mKvns :—" Conchide all tho treaties you like!— l have the power. I have the dominion of the ssaa, even in the Baltic. In the face of you all united 1 do not feel myself menaced." But what is more than interesting, what, is absolutely comic, is the German notion that the Bajiour Cabinet has need of a war to keep it in power, and §.ut the British fleet up the Baltic in search of " incidents," such incidents as the blowing up of the " Maine," or another Dogger-bank affair. Incidents might come sufficiently apropos for the BaJfoxu- Cabinet. King Edward VII is too much identified with the _ Balfour Cabinet to witness its fall -with indifference. Lotitle by little the King: has appropriated foreign affairs. But tJio fall of Balfour and the victory of the Liberals -would put an end to the personal government of Edward VII. "Wherefore, etc. Wherefore the King and Mr Balfour had sent the fleet to the Baltic in hope that ] something would turn •up to justify a declaraticn of war ! And yet the Germans are thought to be an intelligent people. The other day being in a public place I heard or overheard some interesting [ disclosures respecting the authorship oi j this column. From what then came to my ears I could, an I would, convey to t the public certain information of a surprising kind. I could mention facts, I could name names. I don't see why I ; shouldn't, either, except for a habit of secretiveness which', like other vices, , grows by that it feeds on. If the cap j I wear 'knew my secrets, I should burn : that cap. Loiiis XI, I believe, antici- ; pated me in this remark; but I am content to say ditto to Louis XI. Thers was a time when the,partner of my home and heart used to say that Mrs Civis, o.f whom she heard occasionally in Passing Notes, seemed a very sensible woman with opinions strongly resembling her own. Of course that primeval condition of simplicity and innocence could hardly be expected to la&t. As a matter of fact it burst up in a calamitous explosion; but I still recall it with pride, all the same. A recent number of the London Spectator contained a letter of a type painfully familiar to me, and not altogether unfamiliar to the editor. Here it is : Sir,— l aim sickened "by the want of chivalry often displayed by writers in the Spectator,— for instance, in ' The -Antisep-tics of Conduct ' in your issw? of May 27. The constant and wearisome reiteration of the Spectator's pet sneer at woman— namely, thut they have no ■sense of humour, has in it one saving touca, of humour in the fact that the writer oi all these aiticles on social and othea: topics is so conspicuously devoid of humour himself. I have smiled at timas at the p'atitudes and banalities into which an otherwise intelligent man is batrayed by this veiy lack of the sense of humour Th.l 3 protest I am aware will be ussless, n,s to some minds these ridiculous co nip an sons between the sexes, with coveit sneers at the cue sex, have an inexplicable fascination.— l am, etc., H. S. FaCHAKDSOEf, Moyallon Grange, Gilford, County Down, Ireland. To which (he editor appended a footnote in these terms : Tho articles "on social and other topics "' are Ly 110 means all written by one writer. It happens, however, that Ihe paper in question was from the pern of a woman. Nothing L is more hkelv, to caiise coiifu?i(Jn than the

attempt to penetrate the secrecy which hides; raid, as we are firmly convinced, -rightly hides, the writers of newspaper ailicles. — Ed. Spectator. Let no one ticense me of inventing this as a parable- of ''Givis' and his critics. ]fc is a kindly gift of Providence, invented: Vfudy to my hand. Here is a teller which, as a pendant tg the above, comes in very naturally : Deav " Oivis," — I enclose cutting from one of yom recent humorous artioles: — '" From a correspondent : "Tsushima; Admiral Togo v. Admiral | Kogo: — ' Civia ' will please note how the spelling and pronunciation of ' Kozhclestvent.sky' is hereby simplified, although the suggested improvement is, perhaps, a little belated." " ye&;y c& ; —pity we didn't guess it six montn3 ago. Though" destined to point a moral, tho name borne by the Russian Admiral was totally unfitted to adorn a tale. No other such bai baric array of consonants is known to tho page of history, I should say ; certainly in this war of hideous cacophanieS none has cropped up more exasperating to the pressman and tho linotype. Yet, had we known it. ' Bozhdestvents'ky ' might liavs been softened down -into two prophetic syllables lhyming with Togo. Just now our fealing is that of a bravo men in misfortune one should speak fympathically, taking no satirio liberties with his na.me. Nevertheless without offence we may reflect that if the suggestion of this correspondent had been, revealed to us earlier, say about the time of !the Dogger-baalc affair, it would have been a comfort in more ways than one." You will find it rather worn and foiled, the reason for which being that it has passed; ihraagh rlie lianclg of all my friends •who i.a-ve the eligfcf&st reputation for humour. Sorry am I to confess that not one has yet penetrated the depth of humour hidden in the lines. The puzzle seems to bo to guess a word of two syllables which will soften down " Roslidtstventsky " to rhyme with Togo. One bsiUiant- humourist -to whom I applied tells me 'it "can't be dona, so it is " N0.g0." _ Please elucidate -and let me get some' Bleep.*" — Yours, v _ Puzzled. This must go without comment; the addition of a single word Would spoil it. But since there is a question of names, I will condescend to another joke, — not pay own, any more than the one above, — an old, old joke, bxit difficult. - If necessary I will- explain it next week. — American visitor to English hostess : " Some of your old family names are so sweet ! — I learned one yesterday. You spell it ' Cholmondeley ' and you pronounce it ' Marchbanks.' " Civis.

I A matter of some importance to shop* j keepers is likely to engage the attention o£ the courts shortly. A short time ago the proprietors of the Drapery Supply Astooia- ■ tion thr«w open their George street premises for inspection to the public from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m., after having obtained permission to bring their employees bade for the hours stated. Although no goods were sold, it is contended that the. fact of the premises being open to the public on tbe> " occasion referred to amounted to a breach of the Shop Hours Act. Our Waikouaiti correspondent writes: — "It is satisfactory to be able to siate that Constables Burrows and Hilliard have been. successful in tracing the delinquents who threw stones through the windows of tho express train when it was passing through Goodwood on the 17th August last. More will he heard of the matter shortly." Mr Hanlon, as president of the Otago Cricket Association, on Friday complained with some strenuousness of the shocking ' deterioration of Otago fielding. At practice, he says, the batter is so netted round that he can only drive a ball towards the bowler, and if it passes tho bowler it is fielded by the übiquitous small boy. Wherefore, the art of fielding has gone out in this region, catches are dropped, and so on. Players 101 l around, when they should be up and doing. Can it be that, in this one region of our sports, we ara coming within the contagion of the evil so much discussed of late> on the other side — "Australia's weird expectancy," to wit? Talking the other day with the manager of a well-known firm of hotel and restaurant keepers, he told me (says Mr H. *W. Lucy, in the Sydney Herald) that for at least five years the decline in consumption of wines on the premises has been steady, is ' even increasing. Last year they sold 11,000 j fewer bottles of champagne, 10,000 fewer I claret, 5000 of burgundy, and 3500 of hock. , The report of the Commissioners of Inland Revenue for the year ended March 31 last, the period covered by the manager's statement, shows that this abstention from drinking extends to the consumers of beer. Fol" five years this also has been steadily falling away. In the year 1899-1900 the consnmpj tion of bear per head of the population of > the United Kingdom sfood at a fraction j over 32gal. In the financial year closed Irsfc j March it had fallen to a fraction over 28gai. Whether this is due to altered taste, or growing sobriety, statistics do not show. Pursuing the question in another direction, a member of the House of Commons, director on some «f the largest British aucj American brewing comparres, tells me thafc cider is, in this country, steadily coming into use to the displacement of the beet jug. Another curious thing he noticed w?« that, whereas in America drink in hot wea* | ther appreciably sent up the sales of beer, in England no such result followed. The amount of the contribution which the delegates at the half-yearly district, meeting of the M.U.1.0.0.lj 1 . on Wednesday resolved to make to tho Dunedin Hospital Extension Fund was £25, not £10 as stated irr our report. The original proposal was to vote the smaller sum, bufc the feeling of the meeting was strongly in! favour of granting the larger amount, which eventually was unanimously voted on the motion of P.P.G.M. Bro^ Wilson*

•- On Monday last (says the Clutha Leader) Hie hands at Leonard and M Kenzie s ohtffcu'ter knocked off in consequence of STdSKS infringement of the rules laid "Sown by the Arbitration Court by the employer. The places were soon filled and the work proceeded with.

' The longest perfectly straight reach of railway is claimed by travellers to be that of the Argentine Pacific railway, from Buenos Ayres to the foot of tho Andes. For 211 miles it is without a curve, and has no cutting -or. embAnJinient .dfiCUfik. than j»2ft ox U*