THE PASSING SHOW.

Waikato Times, Volume 98, Issue 16125, 25 October 1924, Page 13 (Supplement)

THE PASSING SHOW.

COMMENT AND CRITICISM. (By "Free Lance.") The appearance of a Bill to amend the Licensing Act has, of course, set our friends the "drys" and "wets" at it again. Equally, of course, neither side is pleased, or at all events, say they are not. The Licensing Reform Association, by which it seems to be assumed by many folks, is meant those friendly to the "Trade," wants the matter hurried up, so that the public may be educated before the election comes on. The Otago branch of the New Zealand Alliance has also demanded more expedition, and incidentally has characterised some of the Licensing Committee's proposals in its report to Parliament as "an outrage against the prohibition vote." One might safely assume that no committee of Cherubim, let alone any ordinary human commission , could ever bring down a report that would be the least acceptable to both sides. So there would be more wails and additional ' "education" of the . public. Which leads to the conclusion that a great mass of electors, not particularly biassed in either direction, arc probably pretty well "fed up" with a subject that has been drummed into them for donkey's years now. The average New Zealander would like the matter settled fairly soon without much caring which way it went, so long as the country got a rest, from the everlasting verbal bombardment on the liquor question.

One has heard Jhat Scottish folk are disputatious and by nature dearly love argument. It may also be that this fondness for argument confers the power of appreciating the other fellow's points if he makes them. At alt events the Arbitration Court judge, at a sitting in Dunedin recently, expressed his pleasure that so many disputes which came before the Court in Dunedin were either completely settled, or very nearly so, in the Conciliation Council. "Otago in this, as in other matters, certainly sets an example to the rest of the Dominion," added His Honor. \ very handsome bouquet indeed, and one not likely to diminish Otago's "guid conceit" of itself. We of the North Island, inspired by our Southern friends' example, must mind our p's and q's after this. One does hope, however, that Otago won t parade its virtue too aggressively. Regretlablv enough, the good little boj who never docs, wrong runs against many a dig from his less regenerate fellows, and there may perhaps be a joint in Duncdin's harness somewhere. » * *..'. *

What has the rest of Hamilton done, that its Tennis Club should year by vear call down the bounty of Jup ei Pluvius upon the town when i.could do with a little less rain. seem to matter much what the previous climatic conditions have been, but as soon as the Tennis Club decides upon an opening day for the season the heavens are rent asunder and the taps left running. One thinks that for the sake of others the Tennis Club might acknowledge defeat and delay its proposed opening function until a little later next season. **a * * Dean Inge, one Tias read, Is sometimes referred to as the gloomy Dean His humour, however, is undeniable, as the following extract, from what an English publication describes as his delightful speech to the members of the American Bar Association shows:—Said the Deanv Geo ge Washington was not founder of the America people, but only of the American nation. That distinguished statesman, who never told a he, once declared that when a young man he threw a dollar across the estuary of the Potomac. , I have seen that river and I must ask you to remember that money went much farther in those Llays '" „ Mention of Dean Inge recalls that in a letter to the Morning Post recently hc put rather a poser to that section of Labour which regards all military training as anathema. He asks if the world is to belong to the high standard white worker or the low-stan-dard Asiatic toiler. That is to say, how is the white worker with a high standard of living and comfort to prevail over the Asiatic, who works 14 hours a day and saves out of wages on which a white man would starve? From an economic point of view, he savs the white labourer is so far inferior to the Asiatic that if the former is to exist in comfort the latter must be kept out by battleships and bayonets. • * * •

"It seems clear, therefore," continues the Dean, "that the claim of the white labourer to a much better standard of living than ever before has been reached by his class must commit him not only to a policy of stringent protection, but to militarism. If the Asiatic can give mnch better value for his wages than tlie white man (and this is the sole serious charge against him), he can only be kept at home by telling him that he will be shot if he tries to compete witti the whites."

According to individual views upon military training one does not fear or hope that disarmament will have proceeded far enough in outtime to deprive us of this argument to the oncoming Asiatic should it be necessary to use it. But without doubt the problem provides food for thought. Perhaps the anti-militarist idea is that the Asiatic labourer may be taught to demand a higher standard of living for himeslf, thereby rendering himself a less economically formidable competitor with the white manual worker. Even so, the mass to be leavened is large, and one does not think that the white races should be in too great a hurry to discard altogether the military devil they do know in favour of a problematical world-peace angel of whose nature the earth has as yet had no opportunity of learning anything.

The drift to the towns again. A Gisbornc man, presumably a farmer, while in Wellington noticed branches of blackberry protruding beneath a hoarding on a vacant section in Lamblon Quay, and on going to the back of lhe structure found a well-established area of this pest to pastoralists and landholders generally, in regard to blackberry, however, the rural community is unlikely to grudge townsfolk participation in one of Hie particular privileges of country life. A few rabbits to live near Hie blackberries would not be missed from somu •—*U .of the Waikaio either.