The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1927.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3830, 9 August 1927, Page 47

The Otago Witness. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, AUGUST 9, 1927.) THE WEEK.

"Nunquam allud naturo, alhid sapientia dfili.* -JUVBNAt,. “Good nature and good aenso must ever join.”— fsra.

The Moral of the Budget.

The moral of the Budget, presented to Parliament last week by

the Minister of Finance, may be stated in a few words. The Financial

Statement contained no surprises; there was nothing sensational in Mr Downie Stewart's presentment. It is true that the year’s operations show a balance of revenue over expenditure of a little over half a million, but against this ist be set the alarming tendency of th •evenuc to decrease and of the expenditure to increase, a state of things which calls loudly, for remedial measures. The difficulty in the case consists in the fact, stressed by the Leader of the Opposition in the subsequent discussion, that one-half of the Dominion’s national income goes to discharge the interest bill. The gross public debt sliqws an increase for the year of nearly £7,000,000, bringing Jie total debt to the sum of over £245,000,000, requiring an annual charge of over £12,000,000. These and other permanent charges have to be met; they are beyond the power of Parliament to reduce or control. Moreover, the Government stands committed for the next two or three years to an extensive programme of public works, involving a considerable expenditure and necessitating further borrowing and a consequent addition to the public debt. Already the burden of taxation amounts to £l2 5s Gd per head, and it is not desirable that this should be perceptibly increased. Nor is it easy for the Minister of Finance to discover many new channels for swelling the revenue. Some curtailment in de-

partmental expenditure may be practicable, but there is not a great deal of hope in this direction. The Minister's proposal for tariff revision and taxation on luxuries will be anxiously awaited as offering some solution of the financial problem.

A Significant Failure.

The hope fondly indulged in by all lovers

of peace that the Threerower Naval Conference at Geneva would lead to a permanent re-

duction of naval armaments has been doomed to disappointment. Strangely enough, the now admitted complete failure of the deliberations is ascribed . the inflexible attitude persisted in by the representatives of the United States, on whose initiative and invitation the conference was arranged- When Britain accepted the invitation to attend and take part in the deliberations, it was on the distinct understanding that the special geographical position of the British Umpire, the length of intcr-lmperial communications, and the necessity for the protection of food supplies must bo taken into account. When it came to details it was soon revealed that America was determined to ignore all Britain’s special circumstances, and to insist upon America’s naval standing being on an equality with that of Britain, and upon all points In short, the proposals resolved themselves into a demand that Britain should remodel her navy according to the ideas of the experts at Washington. Such an attitude, from which the United States declined to swerve, rendered all further discussion abortive, and the conference has ended in indefinite expressions of friendship and understanding. President Coolidge, who first proposed the conference, is said to be mortified beyond measure at its failure. Whether the mortification is responsible for his determination not to stand as a candidate for a further term as President is a matter for conjecture. The outstanding ' fact about America’s policy is that decisions on international questions seem to be determined by the influence they are likely to exert upon local American politics. With the average American it is America first and Europe a 10. way after. When all is said and done the failure at Geneva may be set down to American narrow parochialism, which sets the idea of naval dominance higher than the peace of the world and the reduction in the cost of the maintaining of huge armaments.

The Union of Christendom.

Once more a project for the union of

Christendom looms upon the horizon in the World Conference on

Faith and Order, now in solemn session at Lausanne in Switzerland. The assembling of this conference, which is being attended by 1000 representatives of some 90 national Churches, hailing from all the Christian countries of the world, is the outcome of 1G years of patient planning and careful organisation. The idea of a conference which should not attempt proposals for immediate reunion, but should rather discuss the prospects of reunion, emanated in the first place from a little group of visionaries belonging to the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States, and after a good deal of preliminary work the conference has at length materialised. Bishop Charles H- Brent, of Buffal >, who is presiding over the conference, is one of the foremost men who is convinced c the possibility of ultimate reunion. He has pointed out that this conference at Lausanne is the most representative gathering that has been held since the division of the Christian Church centuries ago. The Bishop also expressed the opinion that the vitality of Christianity is being sapped by its i ternal dissensions. and that a kingdom divided against itself will never be able to win the work! over to its side. Already in the conference discussions the vexed question of a common creed has emerged, and i.iis may well be the rock upon which the entire project for reunion may founder. Bishop Gore put forward the ingenious suggestion that, failing the framing of a creed acceptable alike to the Protestart and Roman Churches, all people subscribing to the Christian faith should set out in pursuit of the moral and social aims of Christianity. Such a quest might act a- a preparation to face doctrinal questions in a more harmonious spirit. Tne proposal reveals the outstanding barrier to all proposals for reunion. The sentimental side of the question receives hearty endorsement from the majority of the leaders of the several Churches, and on general principles there appears to be c.-iplete agreement. As soon, however, as practical proposals for reunion .come to I”; discussed all the traditional differences and hostilities begin to appear, and the end is chaos. It may be hoped, however, tnrt at Lausanne some progress may be made towards the realisation of wha.. after all, is a splendid ideal.

The Shakespeare j Memorial. s

At a time when the public of Otago is being treated to an en-

joyable season of Shakespearian drama, the scheme for acquiring

Dorchester House in the West End of London and tranfornring it into a Shakespearean Memorial Theatre should arouse universal interest. It is not so long since the Memorial Theatre at Stratford-on Avon was destroyed by fire, and the appeal for funds for its rebuilding has not evoked a commensurate response. Indeed the fact has been commented on that it has been found necessary to appeal to America for the funds to re-erect the Memorial Theatre at Shakespeare’s birthplace. The proposal for a memorial in London has been long before the public, and a certain

jnm has been subscribed towards its erection, but differences of opinion as to ■what shape the memorial shall take has hitherto hindered any action. Should the Dorchester House project find favour there is at last a hope that something may be done. Many years ago Victor Hugo twitted the English people on the absence of a statue to Shakespeare, and of more recent years Mr W. B. Yeats echoed a similar complaint. “ The people of Strat-ford-on-Avon,” he wrote, “ have remembered little about him, and invented no legend to his glory. They have remembered a drinking bout of his and invented some bad verses for him, and that is about all. Had he been some hard-drinking, hard-living, hard-riding, load-blaspheming squire they would have enlarged his fame by a legend of his dealings with the devil, but in his day the glory of a poet, like that of all other imaginative powers, had ceased, or almost ceased, outside a narrow class. The poor Gallic rhymer leaves a nobler memory among his neighbours, who will talk of angels standing like flames about his deathbed and of voices caking out of bramble bushes. The Puritanism that drove the theatres into Surrey was but part of an inexplicable movement that was trampling out the minds of all but some few thousands born to cultivated case.”

Stonehenge in Danger.

An appeal has been made by a number of men influential in

politics and literature to safeguard Stonehenge against the inroads

of the speculative builder. A sum of <35.000 is required to purchase 1444 acres of Salisbury Plain, thus ensuring the preservation of Stonehenge from otherwise inevitable extensive building. To permit this would be to destroy that sense of solitude which is peculiar to Stonehenge with all its x mystery. It is noteworthy that Mr Thomas Hardy has participated in the appeal- In his novels, especially in “ Tess of the D’Urbervilles,” he has dqnc much to make Stonehenge live in the minds of his readers. After quoting the passage describing how Tess and Clare spent the night on the Altar Stone, one writer says: “ Stonehenge sadly requires such romantic passages as this to renew its interest, for truth o tell the first glimpse of this mysterious monument of prehistoric ages is woefully disappointing. No use to strive against that disappointment as you come up the long rises from Amesbury under the midday sun and see its every time-worn cranny displayed mercilessly in the impudence of day. The interval between anticipation and realisation is too wide, and the apparent smallness and insignificance of the great stone circles must unwillingly be admitted. The comparative insignificance is, however, largely the effect of their almost boundless environment of vast downs tumid with the attendant circles of prehistoric tumuli, each tumulus or borrow crowned with its clump of trees like the tufted plumes of a hearse.”