The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1908.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2842, 2 September 1908, Page 51

The Otago Witnes s. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 1908.)

THE WEEK. ■* R»q«ua ailed nawra, allad upitatla dlrit."— J«w«w "ttMd auur* a*« g»tl mom man *r*r ;•!■.■- —r*rs. The anxiety universally felt regarding the fate of the Hawea has, ; TfceHanta's happily, at length been I Drift. allayed in the news thafr ! the disabled vessel has returned to Sydney in safety, she having been racked up by the Bakanoa. It was towards the end of July that the Hawea. left Newcastle with a cargo of coal for , Gisborne, and we are now informed that I her shaft broke exactly, two days after 1 she left port. Consequently the steamer ' was drifting at the mercy of wind and wave for nearly an entire month. It is difficult to picture the concern which ' must have filled the hearts of all on board, more especially as for the first two weeks of the drift the weatber was so ' rough as to preclude all attempts at repairing the damage. So soon, however, - as the gale had moderated and the sea' • had sufficiently subsided to allow the ' engineers to get to work, Ijhe delicate and i hazardous business of repairing the broken propeller was proceeded with. And . it is a distinct tribute to the courage and , skill of the Hawea's engineering staff that the operation was so far successful !as to enable the vessel- to steam 167 miles 1 towards Sydney ere she was picked up and taken in tow by the Rakanoa. It is significant of -the risk which, even in the scientific twentieth century, attends the profession of seafaring that despite the fact tfiat numerous vessels have been scouring the ocean for the last two or three weeks in search of the missing boat, the Hawea did not see, a sign of any other craft until August 26, or almost 1 a month after the accident. AH this goes to show that the position of a dis1 abled steamer is even a degree worse than» that which used to befall the old sailing ships ; and it also evokes the question a« I to the possibilities of inventing or adopts j ing some safeguard against such accidents, for scarcely a month passes but in some part of the wide ocean one of the great leviathians, oftentimes crowded with passengers, goes adrift, owing to I some defect either in the steaming or steering gear. Happily these accidents have hitherto not been attended with serious damage or loss of life, although, the expense incurred for salvage has occasionally been very large. But it only needs some such accident to be productive of a terrible tragedy at sea for a frenzied public outcry to be raised against the neglect of proper precautions. Thus the suggestions thrown out by a Sydney contemporary are deserving of consideration by the Government, should the steam ship companies concerned not see their way to do something. The first precaution is the insistence upon every steamer possessing a double screw, so that an accident to one propeller would not leave the boat in a crippled condition. And equally important is the idea of fitting up steamers with apparatus for wireless telegraphy, for the example of the American fleet clearly shows that this apparatus has now passed the experimental stage, and that it has been so far perfected as to keep folk on shora acquainted with the movements of ocean- , going vessels. It is understood heavy royafties are charged for installations, and that this is one reason why nothing has been done so far by the Australasian Governments and steam ship owners, but doubtless mutually satisfactory terms coujd be arranged if the question were seriously grappled with. Readers of books like Upton Sinclair's " The Metropolis " who Reform in the credulously swallow all the United States, remarkable scandals retailed in that volume as gospel truth are quite certain to conclude that American society is rotten to the core. It is pertinent to inquire, therefore, whence comes the impulse from which has sprung the legislation in favour of Sabbath-keeping and Anti-gambling

which is providing the people of New *sft>ijc and othei States, and NewYork and other cities with their latest sensations. To the thoughtful observer it is evident that the party of reform in America is making headway and gathering strength as it goes, and that the natural recoil from the corruption which too long has vitiated all departments of life and work in the United States is coming "about. There are signs that the practically unlimited sway exercised by predatory wealth is being shattered upon the anvil of honest public opinion, and that a new and brighter era is dawning for the people of this great Republic. And these puritanical enactments represent the efforts of reform to fight and conquer the monster hydra-headed evils which have wrought so much havoc in $he past. Governor Hughes, of New York State, is making a gallant fight, and according to all accounts he is winning hands down. As long ago as April last a New York contemporary thus records the progress of the battle :—": — " The forces in the New York Senate antagonistic to public decency and to loyalty to the fundamental law of the State have inflicted a temporary "defeat upon Governor Hughes in his fight against race-track gambling. By a vote of 25 to 25 the bills repealing the Percy-Gray Law, which for thirteen years has nullified the explicit provisions of the Constitution, that there shall be no gambling permitted in the State, and making gambling within a race track equally a. crime with gambling outside the race track, failed of passage. The measures had passed the Assembly with only three dissenting voices. . . . 1^ is reported, with how much truth it is impossible to say, that the race-track interests have spent 750,000 dollars in their opposition to the attempt to destroy their special privilege in the exploitation of vice. The bills have failed for the moment, but Governor Hughes has only just begun to fight. Within twenty- four hours of the vote on the bills, he sent a special message to the Legislature once more urging the passage of legislation ' to abolish the existing discriminations in favour of race-track gambling. \ In no ■uncertain words the Governor pointed out to them their duty. ' The failure of the upper branch of your honourable body to pass the measures designed to effect this purpose, after their passage in the lower branch, cannot be regarded as disposing of the matter. The Constitution, with its peremptory mandate, still stands. . . . The evil of race-track gambling flourishes not in spite of the law, but because of the law. Legislation pretending to carry out the Constitution provision in effect nullifies it. You are not asked to accomplish the impossible, or to write upon the Statute Books a visionary scheme of moral reform. You are asked to rid our law of a vicious discrimination, whereby offences equally condemned by the Constitution are punished as crimes if committed in one place and are encouraged by the absence of suitable penalty if committed in another.' " Possibly because the twentieth century has produced so little in ■cMorie* the way of real genius, ofßaale. public attention is continually being turned towards the great men of the past, and centenaries and celebrations are organised to keep their memories green. The announcement that the committee for the Dante celebration at Ravenna have invited King Emmanuel of Italy and the < Pope to participate in the event, and aIBO that the Pope has no* only wbscribed £400, but has agreed to send his representative, reads strangely in the light of past events. It shows, too, how completely time heals all wounds by the strange ironies of the future. Northern Italy in the middle of the thirteenth century, at the time of Dante's birth (in May, 1265), was divided into two great political parties, of which the one known By the name of Guelf s looked to the Pope as their head, while the others, the Ghibellines, looked to the Emperor. And yet to-day the Pope consents to honour the man who fought so consistently the papal policy, and who, by reason of his resistance, was sentenced to poverty, exile, and death. It will ever remain + stain upon the fair fame of Florence that she drove from her city the great poetical genius who is the chief glory of Italy,- and many have been the attempts to gain possession of the poet's remains ; but all in vain : they lay in Ravenna. Paget Toynbee's little "Life of Dante" gives an interesting account of the sevei-al endeavours on the part of the Florentines to recover from Ravenna Dante's boners, from which the following extracts are taken :—": — " The history of Dante's remains from the time of their burial by Guido da Polenta, in 1321, is a most curious one, and shows how jealously the people Of Ravenna guarded the treasure which had been deposited in their keeping. Boccaccio, in a chapter of his ' Life of Dante,' headed ' A Rebuke to the Florentines " reproaches them with their treatment of Dante, and urges them at least to recall his uead Kody from exile, adding, however, that he feels sure their request for his remains would be refused. He exclaims, ' Ravenna, bathed as she is in the most precious blood of numberless martyrs, whose remains she to this day preserves with the greatest reverence, as she does the bodies of many high andmighty emperors and other men of renown, either for their long ancestry or for their noble deeds — Ravenna, I say, rejoices not a little that it has been granted to her of God, in addition to Jier other privileges, to be the perpetual guardian of so great a treasure in the body of him whose works are the admiration of the whole -world, him of whom you Jcnow not how to he worthy. But, of a surety, her pride in possessing Dante is not so great as her envy of you by whose il.ime he called himself ; for ehe perceives that she will be remembered only on account of his last day, while you will be famous on account of his first. Persist then in your ingratitude, while Ravenna, decked with your honours,

shall boast herself to the generation to come.' "

Boccaccio was a time prophet. Five times the Florentines The Tonib begged Ravenna to return of Dsnte to his native city the ashes at fianena. of their great poet, each time in vain. The first request was made in 1396, three-quarters of a century after Dante's death. On this occasion it was proposed to erect monuments in the Cathedral of Santa Maria de Flore to five illustrious citizens of Florence — viz., Accursius, the great legist; Dante, Petrarch, Zenobio da Strada, and • Boccaccio, and it -wob resolved to secure if possible their •mortal remaine, doubtless for honourable interment at the same time. The petition for Dante's remains was refused by the Polenta family, the then lords of Ravenna, and a second request, preferred on similar grounds, some thirty years later was likewise refused. A third attempt appears to have been made, in 1476, when interest was made with the Venetian ambassador by Lorenzo de Medici, but though the ambassador promised compliance, nothing was done, and the hopes of Florence were once more disappointed. At the beginning of the sixteenth century a fourth and most determined attempt was made by the Florentines to get possession of Dante'e remains, an attempt which had very remarkable consequences. From a letter written by Cardinal Pietro Bembo in June, 1515, it appears that Pope Leo X, who belonged to the Medici -family of Florence, and was also by virtue of the league of Camorai (1309) Lord of Ravenna, had granted or promised to . the Florentines permission to remove the poet's remains from Ravenna. Four years later (in 1519) a formal memorial was presented to Leo by the Medicean Academy, urging that the removal should be carried out. This memorial was endorsed by the great sculptor, Michael Angelo, who expressed his willingness to design and himself execute a fitting sepulchre. Leo granted the request of the Academicans, and forthwith a mission was despatched •to Ravenna to bring Dante's bones to Florence. But meanwhile the custodians of the poet's remains had taken the alarm, and when the tomb was opened by the Florentine envoys nothing was to be seen but some fragments of bone and a few withered laurel leaves, the relics, no doubt, of the crown which was laid upon the bier afc the time of the burial. There is little doubt that Dante's bones, which were still intact in 1483, when Bembo restored the tomb, were secretly removed by the Franciscans in chargfc between. 1515 and 1519. The secret of their disappearance was well kept fa Ravenna. Two hundred and sixty years later (in *L 782) the tomb was once more restored, and at the inauguration by Cardinal Valentino Bonzaga it was opened for the purpose of verifying the remains. At last, when preparations were being made throughout Italy for the celebration of the sixth centenary of Dante's .birth, in 1865, the Florentines once more petitioned for the return of Dante's remains to his native city. For the fifth and last time the request was refused, the municipality of Ravenna claiming in their reply, " That the deposit of the sacred bones of Dante Alighieri in Ravenna could no longer j in view of the happily changed conditions of Italy, be regarded as a perpetuation of his exile, inasmuch as all the cities of Italy were now united by a lasting bond under one and the same government." Whether the municipality* when they returned this answer, were aware that the "sacred bones" of Dante no longer reposed in the tomb which was supposed to contain them does not appear. At any rate the secret of the empty tomb could not much longer be kept from the world at large, for the opening of the tomb and the identification of the poet's remains was part of the programme of the Sexcentenary Celebration. Preparations for this ceremony were already in progress when the startling announcement was made that a wooden coffin containing the -actual bones of Dante had been accidentally discovered bricked up in a cavity in a neighbouring wall. A subsequent examination of the original tomb in June, 1865, showed it to be empty, with the exception of a little earthy or dusty substance, and a few bones corresponding with most of those missing in the chest discovered, and these were certified by the surgeon present as belonging undoubtedly to the same skeloton. On June 16 the bones were enclosed in a double coffin of malnut and lead and solemnly consigned once more to the original sarcophagus in which they had been laid at the time of the poet's death. And there "by the unbraiding shore " they now rest safe in the custody of the faithful citizens of Ravenna, who have been true to their charge for neaily six hundred years.