TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10995, 6 February 1914, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

BRAINS AND BRAWN

It is customary to refer to the Spartans as affording an object lesson in all that makes a race self-reliant and virile, and so they were in their day, but conditions have altered vastly since then, yet the essential principles remain applicable just as much to-day as two thousand years back. There is no country in which the need of brainy brawny, self-controlled men are required more than in New Zealand, and conditions of life here are pre-eminent-ly favourable to the production of the finest type of humanity, says the Tarariaki "News." It does not at all follow that encouragement of physical training, cadets, Territorials or Boy Scouts means militancy. On the contrary, these and similar organisations tend to the upbuilding of the race so that mentally, morally and physically it will improve vear by year, and be the means of. mailing the conditions of life more in accord with the enlarged opportunities and privileges that naturally follow in the wake of the larger intellectual cnpacity which must result from a higher standard of education.

SPOOK AT WHITE ROCK. " There is a mysterious light high up on the cliffs at White Rock, Lower Valley (says the Wairarapa "News" in awed accents), and on pitch dark, stormy nights, when the wind howls mournfully, this beacon flickers, burns steadily and goes out, comes again, and is gone. Tho most exhaustive searches in daylight reveal nothing—no cover or caves in which anyone might hide, and the cliff where the light shines is very difficult to climb. A well-known man in the Valley Avatched for the light one night and essayed to discover what it was, He was a, big man, with plenty of courage, and utterly unsuperstitious (or thought he was). There were several other men with him, for, having an awe of the uncanny light, not one of them would accompany him, saying that the light was a 'ghost' lamp, and they would not go near it for a fortune. The venturesome man went alone. a,nd a- half-hour later he came back in furious haste, slammed shut the door of the whare where the other men were, and sank white and exhausted on tho floor. What ho saw he could not (or would not, for fear of ridicule) explain; but it is a fact, nevertheless, that he will not pass the place now anywhere near the midnight hour on a dark and stormy night."

MYSTIFIED MR. ALLEN. When the Hon James Allen permitted himself to be interviewed in Dunedin tho other day he declared that it was difficult to say why money was so plentiful in London at the present time—so plentiful that the New Zealand loan of four and a half million was subscribed several times oyer—and then our extremely sagacious and logical Minister of Finance went on to claim that the success of the loan must be largely attributed to the great and manifold'virtues of "Reform." The Wellington "Times" asks what sort of a statesman Mr Allen takes himself for if he finds it difficult to give a reason for the present plentiful supply of money for investment. _ Does he know nothing about the relation of cause and effect? asks our contemporary. Does he imagine that the easing of the London money market is an accidental circumstance? Is he of opinion that anybody who knows the elementary principles of finance is as puzzled at the conditions, or as ignorant of tho causes, as he confesses himself? It is the most childish rubbish to pretend, or try to pretend, that anything the New Zealand Tory Government has done or has not done can have stimulated applications for our loau on the part of investors in England. How, for instance, does this square with the fate of a Prussiau loan the other day, which was subscribed in London seventy-two-fold? So far as we are aware, Prussia has no self-styled "Reformers" of the saintly Massey-Allon-Fisher type, and vet her loan was infinitely ahead of

ours from the point of view of oversubscription. And W'v>,t Australia, too, with no heaven-horn Tory " Reform Party, hut a Labour Ooveriunent in power, asked the British lender for .£2,000,000 and was promptly offered £11,000,000. It almost looks a? though Mr Allen does not read the. newspapers. If he did. lie would surely not lie so mystified at the change in Hie money market.

THE OTHER SIDE OF THE QUESTION. So far from lovo of sports or devotion to outdoor pastime unfitting young men to tnko part in public affairs, says the Wairarapa " Ago," it is a wellknown fact that some of the best, wisest and most public-spirited of British statesmen havo been noted athletes in their youth—oarsmen, footballers, runners, cricketers. "Wo have never hoard that our New Zealand statesmen, Sir Julius Vogel. Sir Harry Atkinson, Mr Secklon, Mr Bal lance, Sir Joseph Ward or Mr Masscy prepared themselves in any special way. as young men with a view of serving in public capacities. The most successful were essentially men who, when young, freely mingled with their fellows, sharing their struggles, thoir work and their pastimes. When in later years circumstances, or the ambition which often begins to stir with maturity, impelled them, without possibly any previous thought at all, into public positions, the knowledge of men arid things that they had subconsciously absorbed proved to be all the preliminary training they needed. The public man's training, in' fact, begins after he has taken his first plunge into public work, and it depends upon his brains and energy how far he will go. Probably the very best kind of preliminary training a young fellow can havo for serving his country in a public capacity when the opportunity comes his way, or the duty is thrust upon him, is that which he has received in assisting the work of his sports organisation or other matters in which he is interested. Wo have the illustrious example of one of England's best and wisest Kings, Henry VL, to show that the best kind of training for public service is the study of mankind—not in books, but as one of them. We have therefore no- dread anticipations of > what wiJl happen when football-loving young men of New Zealand are called upon to replace the present generation of politicians, The_ more they have rubbed shoulders with other young men, the broader their outlook will be.

IN THE NAME OF COMMONSENSE. The latest and strongest testimony in regard to the futility of the strike method comes from the Adelaide " Herald," the most up-to-date Labour newspaper in Australia, which sets out tho position in this fashion :—We are not blaming' the general strike advocates, neither are we questioning their sincerity. We can only say of them, as Mark' Twain said of the bull charging, the locomotive, that while we may admire their pluck we despise their judgment. The point we desire to impress upon the democracy concerning the general strike is its utter and pitiful futility. The spectacle of unarmed men, fired by a splendid cause, charging a perfectly disciplined and armed battalion may be splendid, but it is not war. The courage of the Dervishes who at Omdurman raced into the rain of Maxim bullets was inspiring, but to fling life away m that fashion did not promote the interests for which the Dervishes fought. Long ago when the Chartist agitation was at its height the genius of that movement, Francis Place, taught the workers a lesson they should never forget. Instead of leading his followers against Wellington's soldiery, which would'have meant certain death, Place placarded the hoardings of London with the words, " Go for Gold." The financial stability of England was thereby threatened. Wellington capitulated and the Reform Bill was passed. To-day the weapon used by Francis Place would be indefensible from any point of view, but when industrial trouble threatens it is a Labour man's duty to say to his fellows, "In the name of commonsense, of the experience of the centuries, do not play the game of capitalism. Don't strike, but vote." Every strike depletes _ Labour's treasury, diverts the attention of the workers from the only means of industrial salvation, and makes their task more difficult. The labours of Sisyphus, who was condemned to roll a stone up hill for ever, only to see it fall back again, supply a moral which should not be overlooked by tho few who, forgetful of the bitter lessons of the past, still champion the general strike.

THE TROTTING OUT OF " BULLS." Tt should be said that the trotting out of what are called Irish "bulls" was a : custom by no means confined to the Nationalists, savs Sir Henrv Lucy in the Sydney "Herald." I recall one or two from the stockyard of Ulster # members worthy of Sir' Pat O'Brien in his prime. "When Mr Gladstone's Home Rule Bill of 1892 was to the fore, Captain Craig declared, ""The naked sword is drawn for the fight, and never again will the black smoke of Nationalist tar-barrels drip on the Home Rule wind to darken the hearts of Englishmen." The spirit of prophecy was at fault, the mixing of metaphors is sublime. It was another Craig, also an Ulster member and still, with us, who in debate oil the Irish Labourers Bill remarked, "If this Bill passes. I see before the Trish labourer a future from which he has for too many years past been kept out." Whilst bulls are scarce in the House of Commons, it is the more pleasing to hear them roaring in pastures beyond Westminster. Mr Larkin, revisiting Dublin and addressing a crowd from one of the windows of Liberty Hall, noted that the English trade delegates had shown themselves hostile to the Transport Union. "But," proudly boasted its founder, " our Union can stand solid on its own bottom." By odd coincidence Mr Austen Chamberlain, of all men, speaking at Manchester the same night, unconsciously, undesignedly, came in competition with the Irishman in this particular game. "The sands are running out," he said. " and unless the Prime Minister acts quickly, events may take, the reins out of his hands." This hint of the desirability, not to say the necessity, of arresting the running out of the sands by judicious handling of the reins, is good. Perhaps because it is briefer. I should be inclined to srive the palm to Mr Stanley Wilson, M.P.. who, making the best of the small Unionist majority that save him a seat at Holderness, said, "We managed by a short head to dam the flowing tide." Sir Henry might bo reminded that his phrase. " the trotting out of . . . 'bulls,'" is in itself not without merit!