TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10925, 14 November 1913, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

EPITHETS. The honourable member for Ashburton referred to Mr Edward Tregear as a " political shunk." The honourable member for Ashburton is a political accident. The electors are likely to see that it will not happen again. ROBS HEAVEN. After travelling oyer Australia and witnessing some racing at Flemington Commissioner George Alva Adams of the Panama Commission was asked what his impression of the Commonwealth was. "I think this country robs heaven of much of its argument," was the unconventional reply. THE SPORT~OF KINGS. It has been discovered that loaded shoes are part of the equipment of certain racing stables, in Australia; also that the stipendiary stewards have been nobbled; When they took no action against "pulling" jockeys they were jeeringly referred to as the "three blind mice." When they took action powerful interests behind the scenes agitated for their removal from office. The sport of kings 1

SIR TREGEAR'S EXPLANATION. A Tokomaru correspondent writes as follows to the " Dominion " :—Mr Tregoar's explanation of his Opera House "scum speech" reminds me of a story I heard in South Africa. An officer of a regiment was occupying a house close to the railway line and station many miles up country. One day he received a telegram from Capo Town that the G.T.M. (General Traffic Manager) wanted the house at once. This put the officer in a rage, and he wired back at once: "The G.T.M, caai G.T.H." This,

of course, was an insolent reply to a. superior officer, and the offender was called on to explain. Seeing that in his temper ho hud got himself in a mess, he explained to his commanding officer that his telegram meant: "Tho G.T.M. can Get The House." IMPOTENT. It is not all likely, s.nys the "New Zealand Times," that the country will bo reassured at the attitude taken up by Mr Massey, which seems to assume that in tho face of a grave national crisis, threatening to continue almost

indefinitely, and certain to inflict further heavy losses and much suffering upon the community, tho representatives of the people in Parliament assembled should continue to bo impotent. If Parliament were not sitting there would unquestionably bo a widespread and reasonable demand for a special session. But Parliament, is sitting, and the people are entitled to ask why it is allowed to sit with folded hands and merely witness tho crisis, instead of dealing' with it as a national body charged with national responsibilities. CHRISTIANITY IN INDIA. An extraordinary mass movement towards Christianity amongst sweepers, leather-workers and other degraded casts is exciting attention. "Tho Indian Witness " states that in Bardwnn, , Baroda, Muttra, Rurki, Punjab, Meei rut and Bastar nearly 150,000 have been baptised, and that it is hoped to | make shortly 2,500,000 converts. Critics assert that the missionaries are baptis- | iug without sufficient instruction. In j any case, it is undoubted that thousands of people are abandoning Hindu modes of worship and caste ceremonies, and that other castes resent tho conversions. The missionaries say that newly-baptised persons are being made the subject of great persecution, that they are beaten, the roofs torn off their schools, their books destroyed, and tho scholars driven off. A CASUAL'S EARNINGS. "Waterside Worker" writes to Wellington " Post" :—" lam a good worker, strong, willing and able, married man, eight clnldren, most of them grown up, age a little over fifty. I have been a sailor and know all about cargo work. I can hold my own with the best of them, but I can't crawl to the bosses; no good worker can." A statement enclosed gives details of earnings for tho year 1912—a total of £Bl 3s 6d. From July 12 to October 1 the writer says he was " laid up, ill, from strain of the heart, and got no compensation." The weekly earnings ranged from 3s to £4 Bs. From January 1 to September 10 this year (33 weeks) the earnings are given as about £6l, an average of about £1 17s a week. The receipts ranged from lis 4d to £3 4s weekly. FIRE INSURANCE RATES. Says the Feilding "Star 31 :—It is very important that the statement refarding fire insurance rates made by Ir A. H. Sutton at Monday night's meeting of tho Chamber of Commerce should not be overlooked. Mr Sutton pointed out that where the private company endeavoured to raise tho rates on his property by nearly 50 cent, the State actually made a reduction on his old rate. Eeilding_ business men have a strong caso against tho companies. The rates charged hero are practically the same as those imposed before the water supply was installed in the borough, and though we have one of the best water schemes in the dominion, with an expert fire brigade fully equipped, the companies steadily refuse to give consideration to these facts. The State office, which has just completed its most successful year, does give consideration, 1 and it is reported has the largest business in Feilding. EUGENICS. Says a Sydney exchange:—Miss Kathleen Goldrick, an apostle of the gospel of "Eugenics," has been lifting up her voice in this city. Kathleen E reaches about the breeding of human eings as if they were prize stock of pink-legged Dorkings or racehorses. According to her theory, marriage should not bo undertaken by the unfit, and only those who are morally and physically perfect should be allowed to marry and propagate their species. I think her idea is a brilliant one. The only trouble is that so few of us could come up to tie standard; most families have some moral or physical weakness somewhere. For instance, most of our grandfathers were drunkards; if they were men of any breeding they would have scorned the idea of going to bed sober. As the result most of us have a strain of gout and rheumatism in our blood. If we are debarred from marriage on that account flag that braved a thousand years will have to be hauled down, for the British race would become extinct in no time. TVANTED—LEADERS. Firebrands-cause fires. ! And it seems that just now Labour needs a fire brigade, says the Greymouth "Star." With so many hot and burning words in the air there is need for us to remember that there is no economic salvation in incendiarism—the incendiarism of inflammatory ideas and words. And, to change the metaphor, what is the good of pulling down the house if everybody must perish in the ruins? The workers must get good leaders, not men of incisive speech, whose power lies in the appeal to passion and class, hatred, but men of character and education, who possess a deep love for the country. Adventurers will not do. Men who are here to-day and away to-mor-row cannot serve the workers satisfactorily. They must really belong to the country. They must be characterised by that spirit which will do right even though the heavens fall. This is not a time for cunning. The only policy that will meet the needs of the case is one which will stand the test of the highest principles and the noblest ambitions. Its watchword must not bo paralysis, but progress. •' WOMAN AND LADY." Referring to the fact that for the first time in his years of experience of such' gatherings ladies were present, Judge Backhouse introduced a little humour into the proceedings of the paying over of the stakes in connection with the boat race between Paddon and Arnst, held at the Hotel Australia in Sydney. I have_ been to numerous of these gatherings," he said, " when the money has been handed over to the winner of championship races, but this is the first occasion on which we have had the ladies present. It is a very good thing indeed that a man, whether he won or lost, should have the womankind present, either to congratulate him or to condole with him. I think the word woman is a very much better word than lady. When I hear ' lady,' I always think of the witness in the box describing the person in the dock as ' the lady who does the washing for the person next door.' (Laughter.) The fact of the women being present tonight will probably necessitate us changing the old lines, ' Woman without her man would be a savage,' into ' Woman without her man is now a savago." (Laughter.)

STATE OWNERSHIP IX AMERICA. The announcement in the "New York Times" that the Wilson Administration is contemplating legislation which will ultimately involve the Government ownership of the telegraph and telephone hues of the country, caused astonishment both in New York and in Washington. There were prompt unofficial denials, which found swift circulation, if not credence, in Wall Street, but the knowledge that the Federal operation of the parcel post system has proved such a remarkable success is another reason for the widespread belief that the suggested policy will be recommended by the President when ho has succeeded in persuading Congress to put the Currency Reform Bill on the Statute Book. It looks as if the Federal authorities will sooner or later so extend the parcel post sys-

tem as to drive the express companies out of business, and it is being suggested that tho Government might acquire and utilise the long-distance telephone lines to compete with tho telegraph companies. How much it would cost the Government to purchaso the telephone linos is being worked out, and data are being prepared dealing with the old question as to the constitutionality of a measure to establish a Federal postal telegraph system. EVILS OF CASUAL LABOUR. Even if the intermittent nature of tho employment which is offered on tho wharves were to the advantage of the employers, it is certainly not to the advantage of the public, "says the Wellington " Post." The injury that the whole country has sustained from the experience of this last few weeks gives the whole country an interest in tho settlement and a right to bo consulted about it, and tho pubjjc interest clearly demands that the instability which is inseparable from casual employment shall be limited as far as possible. Forty or fifty years ago, when our exports and imports depended upon sailing ships which came and went at long and irregular intervals, tho employment on our wharves necessarily partook of the same uncertainty. There are still, and always will be, seasonal fluctuations in our sea-borne trade, but the regularity introduced by steam and the growth of population has greatly simplified the problom by reducing tho margin of chance. Yet in the matter of waterside employment the crude, hand-to-mouth methods of tho old days apply with no essential change. The 'calculable and comparatively even flow of traffic across tho wharves would surely now admit of a large nucleus of permanent employees to mitigate tho uncertainty of the present system of employment and the irresponsibility that it brings with it. iMEDDLESOME EDITOR REBUKED. There was once a Prime Minister of New Zealand who was fond of exhorting the Maoris to avoid all such frivolous excitements as races, billiards and tangis, and to devote themselves religiously to their potato-patches and their cows. It was excellent advice, no doubt, hut it would not have been given to a European audience. . It w.is probably a similar patronising habit which led the "Manawatu Herald" to suggest, when reporting the fact that Rangi Topena., a Palmerston North Maori, had spent £6OO on a motor-car, that the money would have been expended to better advantage in improving " the conditions under which ho lives." This would have aroused the fury of a pakeha car-purchaser, and had a newspaiper made similar comment on the private affairs of a freehorn native rangatira of two or three generations ago the printing premises would have been invaded by a " rob-bing-party" such as Maning describes in "Old New Zoaland." But Rangi Topena did not take to the tomahawk. He wrote a letter to the editor. "I reasonably think," he said, "that the remarksmade about me would damage my credit or create the impression that I could not pay for oil to run my car; and it gets on my nerves to hear the people, talk that 'Rangi will soon bust,' etc. Well, if that prediction comes true. I am content to go to work: but I beg to state that I could buy the ' Manawatu Herald,' lock, stock and barrel, as far as money is J don't think it fair" for my colonial friend to advertise me without authority when he dare not do it about his pakeha friends. It may be hohas made a mistake to which any man is liable; if so, I will excuse him'; if it is not a mistake, then I can only put it down to ignorance." It was not an undignified rebuke and it should have convinced the editor that a Maori is just as sensitive as a pakeha to meddlesome advice.