THE PELORUS GUARDIAN and Miners' Advocate. TUESDAY, 6th DECEMBER, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Pelorus Guardian and Miners' Advocate., Volume 21, Issue 90, 6 December 1910, Page 4

THE PELORUS GUARDIAN and Miners' Advocate. TUESDAY, 6th DECEMBER, 1910. TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Very few people know the price New Zealand pays when it Cost of our approaches the EngLoan. Jish money-lender for

a loan. That the charges are heavy for the accommodation received is clearly explained by the Mercantile "Gazette." That journal, in a reference to our last loan, says:—" It is interesting to note the number of charges and concessions borrowers are obliged to pay and make when floating a loan in the London market. Take the five-million New Zealand loan that we are now dealing with. There is the difference between the price of issue and the par value, that is 30s per cent, to those who ; convert the bonds into inscribed stock before the Ist proximo. Then comes the underwriting charge of 1 per cent., and the brokerage of Then there is the stamp duty to be paid to the Imperial Government and the inscription fee to be paid to the Bank of England. Then we have to take account of the bill for printing and advertising the prospectus. Having made all the above concessions and paid the charges one would suppose that we had discharged a ll obligations in connection with the loan, but this is not so. The proceeds of the loan will not be sent to New Zealand in gold—in any case we have no use for gold. We are exporters of gold, and the bauks see to the importation of sovereigns and half-sovereigns necessary to meet the currency demands of the country, and our requirements in this respect ma into a few thousands a year. The proceeds of the loan will be sent out to us in goods, and a part of it will bo used in paying for services, etc. Thus £1,250,000 will come out to us in the shape of a 'Dreadnought' battleship, and the rest of it in various commodities on which the British will make a profit. Then there will be the freight on the goods and the insurance and the middlemen's profits and charge 3. It will thus be seen that in lending to New Zealand or to any other self-governing country or dependency the British take a vary heavy toll."

Speaking at the Anglican General Synod in Sydney, The Church Dr Mercer, Bishop

and the of Tasmania, asked Labour Party whether it was a fact that Australia was divided roughly into two sections.

He would not name the sections politically. He would avoid politics, aud speak of the social conditions of the people from the point of view of a churchman. Was it a fact that with one of those parties the church had no connection ? The church had no connection worth speaking of with half the people of Australia, yet churchmen talked about the Church of England being a national church. Until the church got hold of a nation's men it would not be a national church. The church was downright conservative as a whole. He had received an abusive letter, telling him a subscription would be withdrawn from a poor starving country rector because he (Dr Mercer) was a Socialist. " I am a Christian Socialist," asserted Dr Mercer, "but I have committed myself to no political party." He believed the church of Australia was in a very parlous condition. He believed the crisis was genuine, and if churchmen allowed their political feeling to run away with what should be their downright sense of Christian brotherhood they would damage the church. "We are allowing these fellows to feel that the church does not make it possible for churchmen to take any keen living interest in their national aspirations. When I go among them do you think I barrack for Socialism? I never touch it. I speak of brotherhood and a higher plane of living, and I have nothing to do with any political platform at all. But Ido keenly feel that we at present are losing opportunities of making the Anglican Church the really national church. We want to show these people that while we can fight politically against them we can still stretch out our hands in brotherhood, and say we can be members of the same church and be brethren. Thus we will sweeten politics, and take the sting out of the serious danger which threatens politics at the present time." What can with advantage be added to this splendid oration ? Nothing but this : That religion, with a halo and a capital E, is elbowing Christianity off the sidewalk, and that sturdy churchmen of the Bishop's type are the men who are destined to rescue the congregations.

Although the indeterminate sentence has been intro- " Coddling" duced in Victoria the Prisoners. system has not been given a fair trial. The Government have failed to provide the conditions necessary to success. No attempt has been made to provide a thoroughly equipped reformatory prison, and in the absence of this requirement it has not been found possible to make the new method of treatment and control really effective. It is important that habitual criminals should be separated from the young and hopeful offenders, but to comply with the Act it is necessary that such men should be detained in a reformatory prison on reaching the indeterminate stage of their sentences. Yet, eren under unsatisfactory conditions, it is possible to show some encouraging results. As regards the members of the criminal class generally, it is said that they have a fear of coming within the scope of the Act. The opinion is expressed that, given efficient machinery for carrying out the provisions of the Act, there could be little doubt that good and permanent results will follow. Several amendments are suggested whereby it is thought the working of the system may be improved, but the essential requiremenc is a suitable site and adequate buildings and workshop for a reformatory prison. On the question of reform in prison working, it may be well to bear in mind the warning of those experienced in prison administration that it is possible to go too fast and too far. Commenting on the ameliorative proposals which Mr "Winston Churchill •has recently suggested in England, a prison chaplain pointed out that there was real danger in any reform which would make prison life more attractive than honest toil, carried on outside the prison walls. The failure of the existing system to act as a deterrent he attributed to the fact that those responsible for the administration of the criminal law have devoted too much attention to the classification of crime, and have not given sufficient thought to the classification of the criminal. In New Zealand the; prison life of many of those sentenced to goal is one long holiday. Babbit-1 shootin? and trout-fishing are not unknown to prisoners in certain of the tree-planting camps, and it is on record that one prisoner obtained permission, or at any rate was allowed, to attend a race meeting. Under circumstances such as these the idea of prison acting as a deterrent is farcical.