PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3019, 24 January 1912, Page 11

PASSING NOTES.

(From Saturday's Daily Times.)

To be leader of the Unionist Party in the House of Commons, A. Bonar Law, vice Arthur J. Balfour resigned. Hero perhaps will history note a turning point in the fortunes of the Unionist Party. For myself, though a Balfourite through and through, I am more than content that Mr Balfour should retire. As leader of the Unionists in Opposition, Mr Balfour was too good for his job. But Mr Bonar Law!—it is a name to make the old hereditary Tory—landed squire, country parson—gasp and stare. Or gasp and swear. In reality the Bonar Law appointment is a gift from the blue ; not the less do they feel it a dose to be swallowed. Mr Bonar Law ‘.‘is not of the land, not of the grand old ruling class, not a Churchman,” says one Unionist paper, grimacing sourly. “ His defect is that he is not rooted in the Conservative tradition, does not touch the Tory imagination ; one cannot connect him with the public school system, the University system, the Services.” Quite true; delightfully true. Mr Bonar Law is of the British beyond the Seas, a Scottish Canadian, in religion a Presbyterian. And by all this the better equipped to lea-d the Conservatives, say I. He supplies the urgent desideratum, new blood. Benjamin Disraeli was still wider of the Conservative tradition,—-a Jew, “thoroughly and unchangeably a Jew'.” Yet the Conservatives did very well under Dizzy.

Incidentally, the rise of Bonar Law illustrates once more the curious felicity of Scotchmen in getting to the top where least you would expect them. r lhe Conservative rank and file are not Scotch, not Irish, but English; yet at the head of them they have now a braw Scotchman, — and him wi’ a Glesca’ accent, by all accounts. There is a Scottish tang in rulings from the Woolsack in the House of Lords ; the Lord Chancellor sitting there, head of the law, with precedence over all poors not of the blood royal, comes from North of Tweed. From North of Tweed comes also the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the English Church, with precedence over the Lord Chancellor even;—the church before the law. His archiepiscopal brother at York is of the same privileged nationality, a son of the manse to boot. It used to be said that the North Pole when found would be found in the society of a Scotchman. A Scotchman would be there or thereabouts. That prophecy has been thwarted by Peary, a selfish American, who found the North Pole, or at least says that he did, but reports nothing of any Scotchman ; except that he left one in camp within a day’s march of the goal. Why so? That the Scotchman might not share in the honour and the glory. Peary may have found the North Pole, remarks Mr Chesterton, but has certainly lost all the rest of the world—by his meanness. There remains the South Pole. The Terra Nova, wo must hope, will bring news that the South Pole has been annexed by an authentic Scotchman, in fact, by Captain Scott.

Next to the merit of his nationality, there is to be welcomed in the new leader of the Unionists a note of firmness and confidence not always sounded by his predecessor. Mr Balfour saw round too many corners. But Mr Bonar Law is a simpleminded fighting man who knows exactly what he wants and won’t be happy till he gets it. Moreover, he has a serviceable gift of humour. Hero is an example taken at hazard from the Third Reading debate on Mr Lloyd George’s National Insurance Bill. Defending his Bill for the last time, powerful, truculent, unsparing, the Chancellor of the Exchequer left an opponent nothing to say. So it seemed. But Mr Sonar Law, coming next with a threocolumn speech, rattled along in this easy style :

Tho right hon. gentleman’s point is that we began to make capital out of it at bv-elections. Who began it? (Cries of r ‘ Kilmarnock.”) Kilmarnock did not begin it. Wait a moment. At the Hull election in June (cheers) the following leaflet was sent by the Liberal headquarters to that constituency. Until after that no leaflet of any kind against the Insurance Bill was sent from our offices. —(Cheers.) Now what is this leaflet? There is a picture of a workman ill in bed and tho Chancellor of the Exchequer with a copy of the Insurance Bill.-—(Loud laughter.) I admit that if you look only at the

picture we have no reason to take olfonce. —(Laughter.) On the contrary, I think the light hon. gentleman could bring a successful action for hbel against the artist, for looking at the pictuie alone one would think he had come to pick the workman s pocket. (I>oud laughter and cheers.) The sting of this joke is in the tail. is a suspicion and more that the . illdigested national insurance scheme picks the workman’s pocket; and for no better purpose (in Mr Bonar Law’s phrase) than that of “giving most to those who need least, and giving least to those who need most.” On the whole, the Lmomst choice though a compromise needs no apology. The "story goes that one « £ rr J he . ch ‘ ef f “ the other side said of it, “ Ihe fools have blundered on the most formidable leadei they could possibly have chosen.

The Outlook is mustering examples of Bible ignorance, and has no difficulty m showing that there are boys and girls in District High Schools who don t know the Apostle Paul from the Patriarch Noah, or Revelation from Ma.acm. It is the old story, deplorable enough and indubitably true. But I would like to ask the Outlook whether it is only against boys and girls that this indictment lies. How many kirk-goers nowadays are able to bail up the minister as Dr Guthrie was sometimes bailed up in the wynds of Edinburgh with “Gang ower the foondamentals”? People for whom there is comfort in “ that blessed word Mesopotamia ” would probably be unable to say whether Mesopotamia was a person, or a place, or something to eat. The French, who have a mania for examining, have lately taken to examining conscript soldiers in history, geography, general knowledge. Says the Spectator : The answers are among the most curious things we have ever read. Of the young men who had been at school five, six, seven years, a large percentage knew nothing about Napoleon, nothing about the Great French Revolution, nothing about Bismarck; many could not tell the name of the President of the Republic, nor answer the question ‘ What is the Flag?’ Asked ‘What is England?’ some were ‘ completely ignorant ’; one answer was, ‘lt is a French country ’; another, ‘A hostile Power’another, ‘A town.’’’ And so on. As to ourselves and the Bible, well, the Bible is a large book. I am afraid to picture the results of an adult examination. But the amazing credulity that makes possible so many fancy religions is of (ominous significance. In things secular, I am of opinion that if voting at elections were made contingent on examination, and the questions were ; What was the Treaty of Waitangi ? Who was Sir George Grey? What was the Indian Mutiny? Who fought the Battle of Waterloo ? and others of the same range, there would be a considerable reduction in the New Zealand electorate.

Mr G. B. Nicholls, secretary of the misnamed Temperance Alliance, which understands temperance as prohibition, writes to the Daily Times as follows :

I- have records from the Dunedin press showing, in the three years preceding the ISOB poll, 4500 offences, accidents, and crimes took place through drink. Since then the arrests for drunkenness have increased, and all the facts point to this number being exceeded during the next three years.

That is, during the years 1909-10-11. Sc. that right down to the present date wo have been having in Dunedin each year at least 1500 “offences, accidents, and crimes” caused by drink. This pans out at about 30 a week, or between four and five every day, including Sundays. Here is a fitting place to recall that a reverend gentleman of Mr Nicholls’s way of thinking saw—in his mind’s eye—2so young men drunk in Dunedin streets on election night. To be quite precise (so accurate are we !) what he saw was 250 young men between 20 and 25 years of age. This is a more serious affair than that of Pitt and Dundas when reeling into the House at an after-dinner session :

“ I can’t see the Speaker, Pitt, can vou ?”

Can’t so© tho Speaker, Harry?

Zounds, I soo two !” Bad enough to see two; how much worse to see 250 i It is a clear case for a prohibition order. As to that spectral series of “offences, accidents, crimes” caused av drink, —1500 per annum in Dunedin alone, —it falls under a remark of Walter Bagehot’s about degrees in mendacity — the positive, the comparative, the superlative. There are, said he, lies, damned lies, and statistics. Ido not apologise for the adjective, it is literature, and it is classical.

This adjective lias strangely lost caste during the last hundred years or so. In polite circles we can only hint at it euphemistically and periphrastic-ally. (I hope these sesquipedalia verba won’t break down the linotype.) We talk of the “ big big D.” Our grandfathers had no such squeamishness; or rather the big big D was for them an ordinary term of reprehension; neither it nor its derivatives savoured of profanity. This is a fact to help ns when next, in books of memoirs, we hear them talking. That brilliant Peninsular soldier General Craufurd, who a hundred years ago this day—January 19, 1812—fell in the breach at Ciudad Rodrigo, is remembered for many things; amongst others this, that he incurred Wellington’s displeasure for risking the Light Division in an exposed position beyond the River Goa, contrary to orders. “I was in no danger whatever, sir,” said he. “ But I was through your conduct,” replied Wellington. ‘‘ Damned crusty this morning,” said Craufurd. falling in behind, his chin in the air. Wellington writing to Bcresford of his fruitless attempts to reduce Burges without a siege train, says : “ I can’t tell what to make of this damned place.” As the Iron Duke of later days lie was not above saying that there were hings about which he “ didn't care a twopenny damn.” And we have Lord Melbourne dining at Windsor and saying

within the hearing of the scandalised but secretly delighted Queen that a political rival of his was “a damned renegade.” In Shakespeare “ damnable iteration,” “ damned be he that first cries hold, enough,” with a hundred other examples, are no more profane than “ damnable heresies ” in the writings of an apostle, or “he that doubteth is damned if he eat.” For “ damnable” we are to understand “ condemnable,” and so on. W hat is the drift of all this? Am I arguing for a return t-o the speech of our ancestors ? Goodness, no ! Other times, other manners. Nowadays the big big D as an ornament of conversation betrays not only a regrettable want of moral control, but a scant vocabulary and a poor taste in words. It is of the literature of other times that I am talking, in that let us have the courage to read what we find.

Of half-a-dozen correspondents with equal claims 1 select at hazard two. Strictly, it is a selection made by time and space. “ Old Grenadier ” desires a wmrd with “ a certain member of the House of Commons who has accused the British soldiers at the Battle of Abu Klea (to-morrow, January 17, is the anniversary) of being murderers, and British soldiers generally as being the scum of the earth.” Would it were possible, my worthy friend, that you could reason it out with him by help of a cross-belt. They say queer things in the House of Commons. An example I have here ready at hand shall be produced for your benefit next week. Meanwhile make way, like the gallant man you are, for “ A Mother of Five ” who is concerned about the birth-rate. 'What the birth-rate wants is financial encouragement.

Let us pay for something- that would really benefit us. I knlow of many who would have families if they could afford them. I for one would do my share. I could instance one woman of 50 who, when I put forth my views, said she would try; her best once more. What ar© your views on the subject ? In answering this, don’t ridicule it too much, for 1 am sure there is a, mine of common sense behind the scheme.

Ridicule it, my dear lady ?—nothing is further from my thought. The patriotism of your offer, and that of your friend aged 50, stirs me to emulation. I am resolutely prepared to do my duty by the birth-rate. And if a tax on bachelors would be of service, or in your own case a State subsidy for number six, you may count on my vote. Civis.