South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1897.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 8778, 13 March 1897, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. SATURDAY, MARCH 13, 1897.

The “ tremendous trumpet blast” about the defenceless state of New Zealand, a few notes of which we published yesterday, ought to waken colonists up to the necessity for looking round and e«ti_ mating the probabilities of the fu. ture. The case was put in a nutshell so far as the protection of our ocean highways is concerned: “ The gunboats we are supplied with, steaming six knots, are supposed to protect steam ships steaming 16 knots from cruisers steaming 18 knots.” Allowing fora little exaggeration, “ Absurdity ” is writ large over the whole face of the naval defences of this colony. The Admirals and the Admiralty have their own schemes for placing the naval squadrons, and as they can spare but one big boat and some small ones for Australasia in time of peace, they could spare no more in time of war. Should England become involved in war with any maritime Power, our freezing works may at once shut down.

“ The Queen has given an additional £SOO to the Indian Famine Fund.” She gave £SOO some time ago, so that she has set an example worth £IOOO to those who have incomes equal to her own, which is £60,000 over and above the £300,000 a year paid to maintain the “ Court.” The Royal example of giving one-sixtieth of the the Royal “ pin money ” may seem a paltry one, but if followed throughout the Empire would produce a very large sura. The Mansion House fund would be many times £400,000 odd. Nevertheless it would look much better on the part of her Majesty, if she showed more than a thousand pounds’ worth of compassion for the people who have given her an additional title of great weight. It has been suggested at Home that it would be a reasonable thing to set the existence of the famine in India against the fact that the Queen has made the record reign, and to wipe away the famine before spending money on a pageant for which no one will be a jot the better.

A suggestion has been made by a Derry paper that the Queen should consent to the sale of some of the superfluous Crown jewels in behalf the Famine Fund. There is the great Kohr-i-Noor diamond in the Crown which is never worn, valued at some millions, that could be sold and no one be the loser (unless it were the buyer). A purchaser could probably be found among the mad .millionaires of America, or if the sale is disapproved of on any ground, the bauble might be pawned at a good figure that would send up the Relief Fund like a catapult.

The Prince of Wales’s name has not yet been mentioned as a subscriber. The fact is the Heir-apparent is said to be hard up just now, and actually pressed to pay a big bill due to the estate of the late Baron Hirsch, the “ bosom friend ” of the Prince,and a still bigger bill due to a Scotch millionaire.

What has become of “ the shingle question”! 1 The newspapers and the newspaper correspondents have dropped it altogether. And nobody seems a penny the worse. Occasionally one meets with people in the street who—speaking with an air compounded of mystery and confidence—say “ Just wait till we have a real old souther, and you’ll see.” There does not appear to be any “ confidence trick ” about this, so we’ll just wait.

In fact though, the shingle question has broken out in a new place. We cannot get rid of it altogether. Formerly, when the operation appeared to be more suitable than it would be now, this journal advocated “ shingle shifting,” now it is going to advocate it again, in another place, and with another meaning. This is that the Borough Council should shift a lot of ■ the shingle from North street and other streets, which prevents the ful width of the street being used. That is unless some better means can betaken for restoring these highways to their intended uses. In any case, these and many others should be gone over and all loose large shingle lying about in odd pebbles should be picked off, pebbles too large to be driven into the solid by any weight, but large enough to be a very great inconvenience to traffic, and a cause of extra wear on the fairly good roads they are scattered over, through the pounding given to the formation when a loaded wheel bumps down from the top of one of them.

The Porte is held up by Turkophobist journals as the most lying Government on the face of the earth, and some of them quote in proof the following extract from a recent circular despatch to the Ottoman Ministers in the various European capitals“ Since the foundation of the Ottoman Empire, as is proved by history and the facts themselves, all peoples who have come under its rule have enjoyed, without distinction of race or religion, and on a footing of equality, the greatest protection and benefits of justice, and the paths leading to prosperity have always been kept open to every one." To Westerns this appears a claim so extraordinary and foundationless as to be a downright and wilful lie. But when we recall, as we can without much difficulty, cases in which European Governments—andjeven colonial Governments—have cried “ All’s well ” when all was far far from well, was very ill indeed, it is not so hard to believe that the Turkish Government may really have believed what it stated in the foregoing paragraph.

Great amusement has been caused in England by declarations made by aMr Louis Sinclair, as a candidate for Romford at a recent bye election ,Jsuch as

“ Now, gentlemen, T want to tell you that I am for England for the English. I want England to come first, second, and third, and the foreigners to come a long way after.”—“ I believe in England for the English, and am opposed to the immigration of pauper aliens to compete with English working men in our already crowded labour market.” — “ What I had in my mind was that large i numbers of very poor and half-trained workers from other countries had been, and were still being, brought in to compete with our own people and lower their wages, and that this was a menace to our own toilers and to our credit as a nation of manufacturers.” The laugh came in here : that at the time Mr Sinclair made these declarations he was a foreigner and an alien himself, applying for a certificate of naturalisation, which was completed some days after the foregoing doctrines were published in his election addresses and his explanation of them.