The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1911.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3015, 27 December 1911, Page 51

The Otago Witness, WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 27, 1911.) THE WEEK.

" Nunquam aliu-d natura, aliud sapientia dirifc.”— JUTHITAIi. Good nature and good sense must ever Join." — POPS. “Another year is separated from the chain of the ages and drops into the gulf of the' past! The crowd hasten to welcome-' their young sister. But whiie all look forward, I look back. Everyone smiles upon the young Queen, but in spite of myself I think of the year that time has just wrapped: in her windingl sheet. The past year!—at least .! know what, she has given me, while this one comes surrounded by all the forebodings of the. unknown. What does she hide in the clouds which mantle her? Is it storm or sunshine? Just now it rains, and my mind , seems as gloomy as the sky. I have a holiday to-day ; but. what can one do with a rainy day? I walk up and down, out of temper, and determine to light my fire. 'Unfortunately my matches are bad, the chimney smokes, the fire will not burn. I throw down my bellows in disgust and sink into my old arm chair. In truth why should I rejoice to see the birth of a new year?” These lines from .Emile Souvestre’s well-known “ Uri Philosophe sous les Toits ” form fitting introduction to a few thoughts provoked by the fact that this number of the Otago Witness issues within a few days of the close of 1911 and the commencement of 1912. It is the customary time for reflection by contrast —the contrast between the known past and the unknown future. Such reflections, for instance, as George Gissing indulged in when, in the “ Private Papers of Henry Ryecroft,”' he wrote:—-“So once more the year has come full circle. And how quickly, alas how quickly! Can it be a, whole twelvemonth since the last spring ? Because I am so content with life, must life slip away as though it grudged me my happiness? Time was when a year 'drew its slow length of toil and anxiety and ever frustrate waiting. Further away the year of childhood seemed endless. It is familiarity wiGr life that makes time speed quickly. When every day is a step in the unknown as for children, the days are long with gathering of experience; the week gone by is already far in retrospect of things learnt, and that to come, especially if it foretell some joy, lingers in remoteness. Past mid life one learns little and expects little. Today is like unto yesterday, and to that which shall be the morrow. Only torment of mind or body serves to delay the indistinguishable hours. Enjoy the day and behold it shrinks to a moment. I could wish for many another year; yet if I knew that nob one more awaited me I should not grumble. When I was ill at ease in the world it would have been hand to die, I had lived to no purpose that I could discover. The end would have seemed abrupt and meaningless. Now my life is rounded. It began with the natural irreflective happiness of childhood, it will close in the reasoned tranquillity of the nature mind. How many & time after long labour on some piece of writing, brought at length to its oonrilusiyn, have I laid down the pen with a sigh of thankfulness, work was full of faults, but ■ I had wrought sincerely, had done what time and circumstance and my own nature permitted. Even so may It be with me in my last hour. Majr J look back onftfe as a long task duly completed—a piece of biography, faulty enough, but good as I could make it—and

with no thought but- one of contentment -welcome the repose to follow when 1 have breathed the word 'Finis.' "

Descending from generalities to particular aspects of affairs, the les-

The sons of the political year Political fear, are striking enough to merit mention. For both, at Home, in Australia, and in this Dominion the passing of the party system would seem to be in sight. With the breaking down of the clear-cut lines which used to distinguish the opposing political factions, and the emergence of a number of subsidiary questions, there is an. increasing opportunity for the balance of power to be in the hands of a small and comparatively obscure section of Parliament. Consequently Governments are les* and less able to retain the reins of offic* failing some more or less ignoble arrangement with the representatives of one p*, other of the lesser parties. The Horn*" and the Federal State Governments hav» had much sorrowful experience in thi*, respect, and now the stability of government which has hitherto characterised New Zealand politics is threatened in tha same direction. In no other way can Sir Joseph Ward's manifest hesitation and indecision be accounted for. So 'soon a» . the results of the second ballots wera, announced, Sir Joseph Ward stated that he was unable to r outline his future course until the Maori elections had been de- ! cided. But the election of the threw Maori members has- failed to elicit front. the Premier any pronouncement whatspever. Since he has not resigned' office it' is evident that he intends to meet Parliament. There is a consensus of opinion that Parliament should be called together at the earliest possible moment; but Si# Joseph Ward has made no sign, and probably the holidays will be allowed to ipasa ere any official announcement is made. . The Government is in a hopeless minority and can only secur© the barest semblance of stability by an unholy alliance with such of the Labour and Independent mem- ■; bers as may be willing for their own ends to temporarily support Sir Joseph Ward;. ; If the utterances of Mr Payne, the. newly. ' elected 'member for Grey Lynn, serve as indication of the terms on which the support of Labour is to be purchased, Sir Joseph Ward would be far better out of office altogether. For Mr Payne openly. suggests an ultimatum to the Prima Minister, requiring him to -abdicate ' in favour of a Labour Prime Min* ' ister (presumably, Mr Payne himself) and his assistance in the construe-; tion of a Labour Cabinet to include i the other three Labour members. - The alternative is the support of Mr Mas- < sey on a no-confidence motion against tha Ward Government. It is scarceLy con« oaivable that Sir Joseph Ward would consent to negotiate along such humiliating* lines. Under, these circumstances it 3«" the height of folly for Sir Joseph Ward t« - endeavour under any pretext to postpoua the day of reckoning j wherefore wedooM for a speedy summoning of Parliament^; tne downfall of the Ward Ministry ere th« New Year is many weeks old, to be fol- *i lowed by Mr Massey's first essay in Caibi- f net making. And'should that, attempt not : receive the hall mark of success, arid per** manence, then the way will be all the" clearer for that abolition of the party system which we firmly believe will be the '. ultimate and the solution of the political problems of this Dominion.

Another aspect of affaire which deserves consideration, at the juric- - tion of the Old and the New Years is the relation ; of nation to nation, involv* ing as this does tha farreaching questions of peace and war. It is significant that the year which has seen in the arhitration proposals between England and America (the most solid basis of a permanent World peace) has also seen a remarkable v increase of armaments on tha part of all the Great Powers. The attitude of the nations the one towards the other at the present time is far from ' peaceful. It is to the credit of diplomacy ; that despite the conflicts of opinion that ' the year has witnessed, between France and s - Germany and between Germany and Eng« land actual hostilities have been averted. f But the revolution now (proceeding in China, and the war in progress between ■ Italy and Turkey, are evidences of the extremes to which th© nations are pre- 1 pard to go in the evolution of nationality - and in their efforts of aggression. Although the propaganda of Peace has been actively and strenuously circulated,. during the past year, the root season for the avoidance of war is mainly economic.. - Thanks to the writings of men like Bloch and Norman Angell, it is gradually dawning on the consciousness of the nations that war under any circumstances is a losing game, which reacts as disastrously on tha conqueror as on the conquered, and thaft only by a proper system of arbitration will the best interests of all be. forwarded.. It is confidently prophesied that ' the ". time is not far distant when war civilised nations will be deemed as antiquated as the duel. Indeed, it is in the gradual spread of the same gospel that. - the setllement of the disputes betweenLabour and Capital must be found. The. . year 1911 has been marked throughout its. course by many of the most acute labour struggles that the world has ever wit-., nesjsed, and the end is not yet. That conflict which must eventually ensue in co-operation has had eloquent. manif esta- ' tion in the woman's movement, as seen in the analysis of the institution of marriage, in the pages of current fiction, and poli- . tically in the demand for woman's suf- . frag© in the older nations of the world.: One authority thus summarises the re-\-sults :—",The movement towards sex equality makes rapid strides. Women'' doctors are found everywhere, womeq, lawyers practise at the French bar, women ministers of religion are common in the United States and not unknown in England. Nearly every university has opened; its doors to female students, though Oxford and Cambridge still refuse them the

The [ntcriiHtlonal Year.

degrees to which they are entitled. . . . In° every department of life and work women play a part of increasing importance. No voice so powerful as that of Mill is raised on their behalf; but their ideas have been forcibly expressed Toy Biich writers as Ellen Key, Charlotte Gilman, and Olive Schreiner.-' Although the New Year dawns with problems in plenty asking for sound solution, yet the horizon is full of hope. At the dawn of a New Year lviaeteruiw-ii s words have suitable application : —" We are just at the moment when a thousand new reasons for having confidence in the destinies of our kind are bein"- born around us. For hundreds and hundreds of centuries we have occupied this earth, and the greatest gangers seem past. . . "'. It -is much that the choice remains possible .and that hitherto nothing has.been decided against us. Every hour that passes increases our chances of holding out and conquering. It may be said that from the point of view of beauty, enjoyment, and the harmonious understanding of life, some nations—the Greeks and the Romans of the commencement of the Empire, for instance—were superior to ourselves'. The fact none the less remains that the sum. total of civilisation spread over our globe was never to be compared frith that of to-day. . . . We never ftad so many good reason® for hope. Let us flherish them. Our predecessors were sustained by slighter reasons when they did the great things that have remained for us the best evidence of the destinies of mankind. They had confidence when they found none but unreasonable reasons for having it. To-day, when some of these reasons really spring from reason, it would be wrong to show less courage than did those who derived theirs from the very circumstances whence w T e derive ifinlv our discouragements. We no longer believe that this world is as the apple of the eye of one God who is alive to our slightest thoughts; but we know that ft is subjected to forces quite as powerful, quite as alive to laws and duties which it behoves us to penetrate. That Is why our attitude in the face of the ?nystery of these foroes has changed. It Is no longer one of fear, but one of boldl- - It no longer demands that the slave shall kneel before the master, or the creator, but permits a gaze as between equals, for we bear within ourselves the equal, of tbe deepest and greatest mysteries." J ' ■■'-"

The New Tear.