DAILY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8317, 16 May 1905, Page 2

DAILY NOTES.

The Anglo-Japaneso EKotAKD and alliance will expire in japan. about twenty months, and already there is much speculation as to whether it will bo renewed. On the whole, public opinion in both countries is in favour of its renewal. In Japan, however^ there is a feeling that the terms. ought to be reviewed, and perhaps altered. This feeling is natural. Three years ago, when the alliance was arranged, Japan wa6 only a second-rate Power. Now that she has sprung at a bound into the position of a first-class Power, it is 1 comprehensible that she should think that terms which suited her formerly should require remodelling. As the Japanese statesmen quoted in yesterday's messages say, the alliance is no longer urgently necessary to Japan. The Russian advance has been stayed, Russia's Far Eastern policy has been shattered, and Japan is in a fair way to emerge • victorious from her nation-making struggle. In these circumstances, she may well ask herself whether the treaty of three years ago will be good enough two years hence. Bishop Julius's denun-; engmsh ciation of English so- ■ society. ciety, last Sunday, was ~. , worthy of his Lordship in his most strenuous days. Biting thotfgb it was, iii one se»is«» it was not .exaggerated. If the Bishop made one mistake, it was in not laying sufficient stress ott the fact that his picture represented only one side of society. He did, indeed, admit that there was another side, but he hardly gave to the other side the prominence which it deserves. Happily for Eng- | land, a section of her so-called " soI oiety" is not composed of loud, fast,

! immoral people. There still remains a ! i society which is old-fashioned enough I to believe in God> and with aspirations above gambling and the divorce court. Unfortunately for the credit of England the virtues of this class are less con- ' S pi C uous just now than the vices of the other one. ' It is to be hoped that theWALtham Mr Seddon will spare school. time to inspect the Waltham School when next he visits Christchurch. If he will accept the invitation which certain householders are about to send to him, he will see for himself how much the Bchool is overciWded. What steps he will then take to remedy the evil we are not prepared to say. He will find that there is much opposition among parents !to the suggestion that the surplus aft. tendance should be sent over the railway Hn« to the South Bd * School, and he will find, also that the proposal to confine each child to his own district meets with- by no means general approval. The simplest solution of the difficulty, would be to provide additional accommodation at Waltham, but the necessary additions would cost a good deal of money, and the Education Board, as usual, is short of funds. A correspondent has a public written to us oomplainNrnsANOE. ing of the behaviour of a party of youths who play football in Hagley Park on Sunday evenings, and punctuate their pastime with language of the most disgusting character. It should not be necessary to repeat the complaint. The mere mention of the matter should ensure immediate attention from the authorities, and the immediate suppression of the nuisance. At the same time it is unfortunate that complaints of this kind should be necessary. It ought not io be possible for any section of the community to turn the Park into a bear garden. ■■&