TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10923, 12 November 1913, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

OBSTRUCTION ADVOCATED

Says the "New Zealand Times":~ It is quire true that i! the present is not the time for the potty tricks of the party politician." That admonition, however, should be applied to the Tories, for never was there a more glaring example of political trickery than this scheme to abolish the only safeguard on the Statute Book against the grossest misrepresentation and defeat of the popular will. The Liberals would betray their trust if they neglected a single opportunity to obstruct this latest and mast disgraceful instance of reaction. A NOVEL SUGGESTION. In these days of strikes and epidemics, when nobody can travel far without a "permit''" from Mr fciemplo, or a vaccination mark from Dr Vnlintine, it is a relief to turn to the cheerful effort of an Opotiki correspondent of the Auckland " Herald." who.with contemptuous indifference for society's little troubles, q|Fers a scheme by which

.lack will be able to marry his Jill at twenty-one, and start well in life. His idea is that tho State should bank £3B an behalf of every child born in the dominion, a sum which in about twenty years at 5 per oent would, ho says, amount to £IOO. When Jack, thus endowed, married Jill, thus dowered, at any time between twenty aud twontyfivo years of age, they would receive £2OO. Thus, ho thinks, early marriages would bo brought about and everybody would live happily ever after. AGAINST GAMBLING. Queen, Mary, by reason of her aversion to gambling in any form by women, has prevented the establishment of a woman's club in London, which, from, a social point of view, would have been a kind of Woman's Marlborough Club. Tho membership was to be restricted to past and present Ladies of the various royal households in England. Of course, it M'as essential that such a ciub should have the support of tho Queen. Lady Agueta Montague, the organising secretary, as soon as the successful establishment of the club was assured, approached the Queen, who consented to join, on the conditions that there should bo no card-room in it, and that male visitors should not be received. "When the conditions were made known, of the 180 ladies who formed the original nucleus of the organisation, 140 withdrew their names in two weeks, and as a result tho 6cheme has been abandoned. TENANTS WITHOUT LANDLORDS. Scattered over London there are tenants who are enjoying the luxury of living rent free in the houses they occupy. The reason for this happy state of affairs is that their landlords have disappeared, and have not left behind an agent with authority to collect tho rent. The disappearance of a_ landlord | who owns valuable property is not a matter of frequent occurrence even in | London, which,'on account of its size, is often described as a city " in which anything may happen," there are several authentic" cases on record in which the landlord, after personally collecting his rents regularly for a time, has disappeared, and left his tenants in free occupation. Of course, if j the landlord returns, the tenant is liable for arrears of rent, unless the claim is barred by tho Statute of Limitations. A case was mentioned in a London Police Court a few days ago, in whiph the occupants of several houses in a poor quarter of were paying no rent, because their landlord had disappeared. The habit of living rent free grew on these tenants to such en extent that they even refused to pay the local taxes imposed by the Borough Council, on the ground that it was the landlord who was liable for the taxes. At Hornsey, a northern suburb of London, the occupants of a row of small villas have been living rent free for over ten years. As far as can be ascer* taiueel there are no tenants without landlords in Christchurch. ADVICE. Talking to Melbourne University students, Sir George Reid said:—One of the extraordinary facts about, modem life was that the human mind was one of the last things thought of or spoken of, although it was the sovereign fact of all facta. Even from the lower standard, that of pounds, shillings and pence, the improvement of the nund was the best possible investment. No man could tell how able he could be until he tried his best and hardest, and even if 'that did not achieve the highest place, a man was all the better for having tried. Quickness of mind was very good if it were yoked up with thoroughness; but thoroughness was the more important attribute. Young people often failed, because they thought they were quicker or cleverer than they really were. It took time to become both quick and clever. Looking was one thing, and seeing was quite another, reading and understanding that which was read were also not the same. Learning with assimilation might bring a man to the highest points of lame. There wore three sets of faculties. One set stored knowledge, another set assimilated it, and the third set made use of it by means of conversation, composition and public speaking. It was much easier to become a good conversationalist, and a good writer, than to become a good public, speaker. Good public speaking was one of the most difficult accomplishments in the world, and it was impossible without intense labour and constant practice. THE GENERAL STRIKE. We would ask those unionists who may contemplate participating in this new development of an already critical situation to consider the following observations by one of the greatest Labour fighters and most sterling friends of the workers, Mr W. M. Hughes, a conspicuous member of the late Australian Federal Ministry:—" Consider what would follow from a universal cessation of work. There would, within twenty-four hours or less/ be no food, no milk, no meat, no bread, no fodder for stable-fed horses; our streets would be dark. Little children, the sick, and the aged would be the first to feel this, but all'would com© before many hours under the ban. The object of the general strike is to reduce the capitalists to extremity, but its actual effect would be to reduce the workers to the verge of starvation. If order were maintained and passive resistance —the .mere cessation of production—the order of the day, then the poor would suffer and the rich be only inconvenienced. If riot stalked toughshod through the land, then the weak would suffer, and the strong escape. In either case it is hard to see how the employer could be compelled to pay higher wages _ or the' workers' lot be in any way ameliorated. The general strike is not _ practicable, and it it were practicable it would not be effective. It is but a nightmare which, if by any chance translated into actuality, would moan social suicide. It is the wildest and most extravagant travesty of trades unionism, inevitably calculated not merely to prejudice but to actually destroy it, and bears to legitimate trade unionism the same relation that license does to liberty." SUPPLY OF RADIUM. According to Sir Frederick Treves there is not as much as eight grammes of radium in, use in tho whole world, but the Radium Institute possesses four grammes, which are valued at about £'Bo,ooo. This supply is kept in an iron room, resembling a huge safe. Fresh supplies of radium are practically vmprocurable to-day, but the scientific committee of the Radium Institute has made an important discovery, which has enabled the therapeutic supply of radium to be increased greatly, without any increase in the actual supply. Radium gives off a gas or emanation, which has the same properties as pure radium for curative purposes. It has been found possible to force this emanation into hollow plates and to fix it there by means of liquid air. Tbe radium emanation is also being stored in small glass tubes, and by means of these tubes and the hollow plates supplies of curative radium can be sent all over tho country without lessening the actual supply at the Radium Institute. If a doctor in a provincial city wanted 200 milligrammes of radium for use on a patient, the cost would be about £4OOO. but the Radium Institute can supply for a trifling sum a plate containing radium emanation which will have the same effect as 200 milligrammes of pure radium. But the activity of the radium emanation soon decreases. It sinks to half strength in three and a half days and eventually vanishes altogether. The Institute is also supplying water impregnated with radium emanation for patients suffering from gout, rheumatism and similar complaints. According to Sir Frederick Treves, the improvements brought about in the condition of the patients ■who drink radium water strong enough to be luminous, are "marvellous." ON THE RIGHT TRACK. There is a good deal to be said for the argument used by the Minister of Public Works, that settlers should

make at their own cost the roads they require, and not expect their properties to be improved at the expense of the general taxpayer, says tno Dunedin "Star." If a little plain taUc of this kind were more frequently indulged in it would assuredly have a wholesome effect. Everybody is in sympathy with the backblocks settler, who, with limited capital and a family depending on him, is doing his best, to make a permanent home. His position is particularly difficult if he is in rough country, or situated where material for road-making is expensive. But having taken up land at a rental of a shilling o reighteenpence an acre, with the right of purchase, has he any right to expect that the State will present bun with a road that will cost a great deal more than the purchase-money of bis land? it appears that a few days ago, at Whatigamomona. a settlement thirty n:iles distant from Stratford, a deputation wai ted on the Minister in reference to a road which had been lying in abeyance, never having progressed beyond the bridle-track stage, for thirteen years. A harrowing picture waa 'presented by the chief spokesman of the pitiable position in which these poor isolated settlers, with their wives and families, were placed owing to Government neglect. Their sufferings were heartrending, their burdens too great to bear, and what aggravated matters was that other roads had been made with promptitude. The Hon Mr Fraser seems to have rather astonished them by the nature of his reply. He bluntly told them that he knew something about this road. To make it would be difficult and expensive, and the cost would exceed the value of the land. Remonstrances followed, but the Minister, who is invariably plain and practical, had by far the best of the argument. He'was assured that the land was good grazing country and would support two sheep to the acre. "Then, said the Minister, "the landowners should make the road or nssist in. doing so, and not call upon the community. The Minister of Works is to be coraI mended for the sound advice he has | administered. The backward state of a great deal of pastoral country is due to the wet-nursing by the State. Instead of being advised to help them selves, the settlers have been taught to "grab" as much laind as possible and then sit like Robinson Orusoes and call on the Government *io improve their properties. If land is of any value at ail it is worth roading, and the cost of roading should be made a primary charge on the properties. A policy of this kind vigorously followed up would prevent aggregation and some of the worst evils connected with our land system. Can it be denied that large and valuable properties, whero there is ample scope foi close settlement, are scandalously unimproved simply because the State feeding-bottle has never been taken away from them?

JOHN SMITH SAVED ENGLAND. By means of infra-red rays, a mine attach to a cruiser's side was exploded' at a distance of eight miles.—Cable message. Out of the 6outh came the German fleet, grand, led by the super-super-super-triple XXX. Dreadnought Blutwurst, upon which flew the flag of Admiral Donnerwetter himsetf. Nearer they came, until John Smith, cowering beside his trusty etrike-me-pink rays in the bottom of his boat, could hear the harsh words of command and smell the garlic in the, sausage on board the great war vessels. Behind the Blutwurst came H.I.M.S. Dachshund, a tower of steel; the Sauerkraut and Pretzel came next, with the cruiser line, headed by the Deutscherturnverein and the Norddeutscher-tfloyd-Gesellschaft in column of fours, right about turn, left wheel. Abaft the binnacle the small torpedo-boats or the Frankfurt type streamed like polonies in the wake of- the huge ships of the line. "Halt!" cried John Smith. "Another step and I sink you 1" Admiral Donnerwetter went purple in the face. ' " Yoost you keep dot boadt away und don't our paint scratch," he cried. " Odervise, ven we England dake, you shall be prosecuted." "Your blood be upon your own head!" said John Smith solemnly, taking off the muzzle from his Strike-me-pink Ray. "With a roar the magnificent Blutwurst blew up, followed by the Dachshund and the Sauerkraut. The air was full of brass buttons, trombones, lager beer, delicatessen, vice-admirals, 12in guns, binnacles, scuppers, portholes and bad language in German. Turning his Ray upon the remaining ships, the intrepid Smith blew them all up. Then, waiting for fifteen minutes while the admiral described his parabola, he rescued that dignitary from the sea, and took him, a prisoner of war, back to England.