• PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2848, 14 October 1908, Page 5

• PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturdays Daily Times.)

Spite of endeavours by well-meaning editors to enlighten hiniy the man in the I street, the man of merely every-day ■ intelhrjenice, trying to get the hang of affairs in the Balkans, still fumbles and gropes in tho dark. In this matter I am as the roan in the street. A mere look iat tlva atlas appals me — -"Eoumaiua, I Eoumelia, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, Herze- ; govina, ar.d Montenegro ; to which labyrinth of barbarous names must be nd-ded Turkey and Greece. This is the Balkan PenrnsuU in its political divisions. But no map can exhibit the race hatreds and religions furies v which divide the Balkan population;* and keep them perennially tearing at "each other's throats. ; What , is it that J has really happen-ecl in 1 this pestilent region? Are we to believe ; that above it are "the war clouds rolling idun"? For my own part I cannot make ! out that anything ha& happened that was ' not expected, and, in-deed, inevitable. Bul'^aria has cleclaixM.l her independence of Turkey. But- as Bulgaria wais already an autonomous monarchy, with Turkey as suzerain merely, the change is but nominal and Hot worth fighting about. The same in the other caee — Bosnia and j Herzegovina. Again the Sultan is ! suzerain ; but Austria- -Ikws administcied i these two States for 30 years, — net on ! principles of disinterested benevolence, we • may bs cure. They march v» ith her I frontiers, and she was bound to have ' them, coon or late. Crete, which of right 1 belongs to Greece and to Greece must i ultimately go, is another example of I Turkish 'suzerainty ; Cyprus is another, Egypt another. In each of which casea the fc'ultan's title, shadowy at the best, is valid only as long as uncontostcd. Spite of the Treaty of Berlin and of our traditional British policy of backing up the Turk, I 6ee nothing to weep over in what has happened. If, ps appearances point, European Turkey is Turkey in Liquidation, let us be prepared to divide the assets. And, as the Cornish pai-sbn said to his congregation when the wreck came ashore, Let us all start fair.

It may/ be remember<d in this connection that only tlie other day King Edward met the Emperor of Austria : aleo that a little earlier he' had met the Emperor of Germany. May wo suppose, then, that King Edward knew what was going to be done in the Balkan.?? I fancy vrc may. That- is, if the two Kmperors knew it. That they all three knew what was to be done in the end, soon cr late, we may suppose -without hesitation; but possibly it itsted with Bulgaria to set the time. Tho small igroup of European sovereigns know eac-Ji other's affairs pretty intimately, and' do not necessarily tell all they know, not even to their own Ministers. An interesting glimpse of what goes on, or may go on, within the sacred circle of reii'iiir.q personages is given in a lec-onlly-publislied extract from the corrcupondencc of t!:-3 Prince Consort with his brother of HaxoCoburg on the eve oi the Crimean War. The Prince is describing beliefs pi-evalent in England at the time, which beliefs — though he avoids saying so — may ha\e been not altogether mistaken. The Emperor of Russia wow governs England. He -telegraphs to Ootha, ycu to Brussels, Uncle Leopold to nic, I whis-per in Victoria's ear, she get? round old Aberdeen, and the voice of the cn!y Enghfch Minister (Palmerston) is not listened to ; aye, he is always intrigued against at. Court and l>y tho Court. Public suspicion may have had ground?, I repeat; though to imagine the Prime Consort- the evil /genius of the country that had adopted him was, as everybody now knows, an egregious and tragic mistake. Says an English paper, commenting on the extract given above, "At the time not only was it believed that the Prince was to be sent to the Tov^er, but a crowd actually as.«embled to 6ee him pass in, and only accounted for hie nc-n-appearance by the story that- the Queen

had declared • that if he went she vrould igo 'with him-! "

Th© direful effects of heresy, even though it be only alleged heresy, aTe revealing themselves in unexpected quarters. ; It seems clear that the Rev. Gibson Smith's book has Drought about the moral rain of a whole Presbytery. There is just one loophole of escape — the proceedings of the Dunedin. Presbytery as reported in Wednesday's Daily Times may have been an undress rehearsal of the Proceedings of the Pickwick Club, ecclesiastical version, designed - -for • presentation at the next Dunedin Compel-. tions. * Mr Blotton (of Aklgstfe) rose to order. Did the honourable Pickwickian 'alludeto him? — (Cries of " Order." " Chair/ '"Yes," '" No,". "Go on." !i Leave off,*' etc.) Mr Pickwick would not be put ■ down by* clamour. He had alluded to the honcurab'e gentleman. — (Greßt - .excite- . ment ) - Mr Blottom would only say, then, that he repelled the hon. gent's fa!se and scurrilous' imputation with profound . contempt. — (Great cheering.) • The hor. gent. w*3 a iwnibug. — (Immense confusion, and loud cries of. " Chojr " and. " Order.") / . . % ( Mr A f Snodgbass rose to order. Hethrew himself upon the chaiT.— ' {" Hear.") * He wished ; to, know whether this disgraceful contest between two mem- - bsrs of that club should be -allowed to continue. — (" Hear hear.") The Chaibkan was qiiite sure, the hon. Pickwickian Tvoiild withdraw the expression he had -just made use of. Mr Blottok. with all poesibV Tespect for^the chair, waa quite fcure- he would not; — etc., etc. Regarded as an attempt to adapt- this for local purposes, giving it an ecclesiastical setting, the proceedirige in Presbytery might paes with a word" of praise. But, unfortunately," one Presbyter found himself unable to see the joke ! -The *Tlev. Mr Pairmaid : It is very evident that we .had better have this pri-" vate. "VV« shall 'be the laughing stock of the public. I beg to move that this be taken in private. Motion lost. Taken in private, the proceedings, vre must suppose, would have been much the eaine, only more co. At a later stage the game Mr" Fairmaid, still protesting, still in n«ed of the surgical operation, intimated that he really must withdraw. And' withdraw he did, even as Tighteous Lot withdrew from the Cities of the Plain. If less intent onsaving his Own soul. Mr Fairmaid might have .recognised a great opportunity. Let dogs delight to bark and biie, Fo* 'tis tlnSir nature to; — he might have said, taking up hie parable' from IJr'Watts.' H " • "' - - . - But, brethren, you should never let Such angry passions itee ; Your^_sacred hands were .never meant To tear, each -other's eyes. ; Birds in their little n-ests figree, i And 'tis a shameful sight When members of cne Pxesbyt'ry Fall out, and chide, •and fight. For, if not histrios rehearsing, they were just children squabbling — naughty children, for whom the admonitions of the nursery, with Dr Watts and his Divin© and Moral Songs, -were exactly in point. - ,

I Taken seriously, taken at their best (ar..d bad is the best), these doings in Presbytery were .much ado about nothing. Ou-p member had imputed to other members what he called "wire-pulling." Amongst men of the world — amongst educated men, I was igoing to say ; but that would get me into a scrape; — amongst men of the world, then, in the smoking room of a club, in the common room of a university, an imputation of~this kind would evoke merely a bantering reply, and all would pass off in good humour. Why not? You wish to move someone at £" distance, and you write him a letter. That i* " wire-pullinft." And where is the harm? If the fnd towards which you move your coiTCopondent is a good end, the stronger your wire the better, and" the oftener you pull it the better. In the Presbytery cas« the end was un- ' doubtedly good, so far, at least,- as. theuproar permits it to be made out. "-Here is So-and-so who has written a mischievous book ; but he is a good fellpw in,- the main ; w^at is the uee of making a row' about it? — lh& leas eafd the better." If each zealot of orthodoxy now 'collecting faggote for the burning of a heretip could have had a wire of this tenor attached to his lug, with a di&tant but competent wrist to twitch it, the peace of the Kirk might have been better cared for. Curious that no one in Presbytery bethought him of defending " wire-pulling " on its merits. Curious, too, the morbid touchiness all round. Everybody had enrolled himself in the Order of the Thistle> — .Scotch thistle. — his motto, Nemo me impune lacessit. Which, put it as you m ill, was never a Christian moTto

Mr Bernard Shaw, plnywiight and stage manager, has laid it down as an axiom that " the elocutionist is a born fool.'' Sir Charles Santley, in his own lino of things as great an authority as Bernard Shaw in histrionic^, delivers a judgment equally hard to digest. It is about the leaching of f-inging, and is contained i« a htt'e \olume just published entitled "The Art of Singing.'* My experience tells me that the less pupils know about the construction of the vocal organs tie better — in fact, »s I heard a master once remark, better they should net be aware they had thioats -except for the purpose of swal-. lowing their food. "He adds," says a reviewer, *' that all the time he was studying under, and acquainted with, Manuel Garcia, he never heard him say a word about larynx, pharynx, glottis, or any other organ used in the production and emission pf the voice. From which it will be gathered that Santley at least hajs small sympathy with the new-fangled science of voice production and its professors." II to these two learned Thebans,

Shaw and tSantley, there is any value in corroboration from the antipodes, they may have it. In earlier days, listening to the elocutionist and^ the pupils of the elocutionist, I have Suffered fools gladly ; but those days are long gone by. Rhetorical airs and graces of the artificial kind will move me never again. Nor any singing less natural and" spontaneous than that of the birds. I do but sing because I must And pipe but as the linnets sing — is, or should be, the rule in every case. There is an infinitude of things to teach and learn in music; the gift' of song is a thing untaught and unteachable.

An English. "Commission on the Feeble Minded" — tliat is the official title— has reported, ■ amongst other things, that "it is ,in the country districts, and in the remote parishes untouched by communications from the outside world, that feebleness of intellect is most outstanding." It may be so in England, but on this side of the ; world experience — my own experience, for example — conducts -to a tery' different generalisation. Solitude and seclusion u*k "remote- country districts develop the -reflective mind, the philosophicvision, -a disposition to apostrophise ." Civis," coupled- with an .independent spirit in the matter of orthography. I have a letter here, for instance, headecT 1 " Theoritic Nonsense." It is addressed to the editor, but- the editor, finding it too much for him, hands it to me. "Theoritic," being in the title, may be allowed to stand ; other eccentricities perhaps the printer will adjust : — Sir,— The Witness is brought to this back-block of bush from a> township usually called Diehappy, on the Main Drunk line. TVe are fairly well removed . from Devilisation, »cd make our observations; from purely natural points. W© oannot hope to be entirely free from the ignorance and prejudice which is common to all, and your valuable paper helps us to perceive that the great diversity of .*. human thought and action must continue in * manner analogous to tho principle of evolution in the- material universe. Continuing, he proceeds to explain that " men's opinions move by that .continual and eternal principle of change -which emanates from that primary and almighty agent called heat" — a general obeerva-. tion conducting to certain particular cases, amongst which I find resurrected, to my utter confusion, " the guard and his. rifle on a train chasing an engine-driver," and this "as an .example of its being self-evident that he conld never succeed 1 ' in his efforts." Apparently this phantom "guard " and driver' are still- careering through the bacl£blocks J , * dominating the bucolic imagination, ' eternally pursuing and - pursued, Iti& an, "idea worthy of .Dante." '. ,- /. v

But my real concern with this rustic sage is. to put him right on the subject of Agnosticism. >•. ■- , , He '["Cms"] also gave an exhibition, more in the way of satire .than either truth <ir jndgjaent, by accepting an ideafrom the grave of an eminent' Christian whose ready wit -was greater than' hia learning. By such idea it was sought to show that Agnostic and IgnoramW were equivalent in meaning. '". Cjyis " knows very 'tvell x that' his illustration was equivalent to * A falsehood, although it probably came from Mr Spurgeon' as a fallacy. Without stopping to criticise this lucid indictment, I proceed to remark of " Agnostic" that it is related to a Greek verb, " agnoeo," "I do not know," and that it means one who does not .know. " Ignoramus," though used as a noun, is first plural, present indicative active of Lath* -" ignoro," " I do not know,'" and has come to mean eijactly wha* " agnostic "''means, — one who does not know. Apologising for this display of learning, I dismies my philosophic friend with a quotation from one whom perhaps he will respect as a brother sage — Thomas Carlyle:. " Tho Agno3tio doctrines are to appeai-anee like the finest flour, from which you might expect "the -most excellent bread ; but when you come to feed on it, you find it i& powdered glass, and that you are eating the . deadliest poison." Cms.

The Union Company's training ship Dartford has arrived at Weliiog'ton. She will be fitted up for 20 or 30 boys, who will be inntruoted in seamanship and navigation. The question of dharitablo aid .again cropped up it the last .meeting of the Bruce County Council, when the chairman,' after making tome -very strong remarks on. tho subject, said lhafc a conference of local bodies was absolutely imperative fbr the security of ratepaj-ers. The fii-o which broke out in the Otago Cooperative Fat and TalJow Company's Works at Cattleyards lato on the sth, made a ckan sweep of tho whole premises, and tho lc=3 sustained is set down at £1000 over and above tho uwurancee. The works were covered to the extent of £300 in tho Manchester office, £575 being on the- building and machinery, and £225 on the stock. The effects of an electric thunderstorm which passed over Invercargill on Sunday, 4th inst. were particularly noticeable in connection with the telephone service. No less than 24 telephone instruments had to be sent to Bunedin pn Monday (says the Southland Times) to be mended. The damage to the telephone service was most apparent at. the country terminal station*. The electric fluid was observable on all the telegraphic instruments. At the telephone bureau a "ehutter" is a email attachment '^ which fells, whenever a subscriber rings up. the exchange, and some idea of the con* fusion 'caused tho attendants may be gathered when it is mentioned that during the passage of the storm over 200 of these ehutters were freed and caused to fall by the action of tho continuous lightning? flashes.

An authority oa leprosy attributes tho lerribie nrnlady to the eating of offal of fish. • He thinks the canning of whitebait J -should be under Government supervision, j Leprosy is only common in Norway, so far , •s Europe is concerned. But if is also met j with' in Iceland, South Russia, Portugal, Spai% It*ly, -Turkey. «nd Greece, all round' 1 th« cmt«t cf Africa m Asia, and America, j

A Goro wajnwriter had a startling experience on Wednesday (says the Standard). He was about to paint a sign, but found ths live electric wires unpleasantly Dear. He threw a sack over them. 'Ihe sack must have been damp, for it quickly burst into flame. The sack communicated tho fire to the iadder, and one of the wires fused and dropped to the ground.