TOPICS OF THE WEEK.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVII, Issue XXV, 19 December 1896, Page 197

TOPICS OF THE WEEK.

MURDER AND MINING. THE recent gruesome revelations in connection with the Glenbrook mystery are not calculated to inspire the public with additional confidence in the man ‘ who knows of a good thing,’ the individual who has discovered a rich find in the back ranges, and wants a mate with a couple of hundred pounds to enable him to develop it. Who can tell that the prospector who seeks your money with no worse intention apparently than to make his and your fortune may not actually be seeking your life too, or that the only gold mine he has the least intention of developing is not your purse? Who knows that the outspoken, frank party who invites you to accompany him on the quest for hidden treasure may not be another diabolic scoundrel of the Butler type ? Indeed, if it is correct, as stated, that that fiend in human shape came to NewZealand, the probabilities are that he walked the Auckland Stock Exchange, rubbed shoulders with honest men, and clasped with those murderer's hands of histhe hands of scores of men who would have recoiled in horror from the wretch had they guessed his real character. One might go further without passing the bounds of probability and imagine him decoying some one of our own colonists into the seclusion of the bush and foully murdering him. I was always prepared to admit that wherever the fever of speculation is raging a selection of the worst specimens of human nature is pretty sure to congregate. The swindlers, the knaveset hoegenus omne are the vultures who fleck to partake of the spoils. But one scarcely contemplated the presence of murderers. I shall regard with much more than my usual degree of suspicion the miner who comes to me with a tale of ‘ a good thing.’ and certainly before I accompany him into the wilderness I shall take care to persuade myself of his intentions. I have no desire to pass from this fair earth just at present, and when I do wish to go I shall prefer some other mode of exit than a murderer can afford me, and a more decent burial than he gives to his unhappy victim. AMERICAN FINANCE. HOW royally they do things in the United States! Whatever it is, natural or artificial, it is always on a big scale. The latest instance of this is their deficit. No paltry tinkering deficit is that which the United States has to show, but a good substantial round sum of five millions sterling Nor do they seem to think anything of it. It depresses them just as little as a corresponding surplus would elate them. They used to have splendid surpluses until they had to invent a gigantic

pension scheme to get rid of it, and now that the balance is on the other side of the National ledger they have just as little difficulty in devising an expedient to put matters straight. The slightest turn of the taxation lever—a turn that would crush the life out of a small community like ours—sets things all right. Happy country where it is so easy to manipulate the screw ; where the pressure of it is distributed over such an immense area that no one feels it very much more than they do an extra heaviness in the atmosphere. How easy it must be to govern in such a country ! How different the task of its rulers to our men in power ! Here they have to turn the screw very gingerly indeed, and if possible by such indirect methods that the majority of the public will scarcely know that they are being squeezed at all I can fancy that Mr Seddon sighs when he reads how easily America handles ber deficit of five millions, and how nobody seems to think anything about it Here a deficit of five shillings would be sure to put the Opposition sleuth hounds on the track of the Government and give good grounds for a want-of-confidence motion. It wants financing here to make the national ledger a picture that all men delight in In the States the thing can be done by a mere schoolboy. Apparently you have but to turn a handle and it is accomplished. THE RATIONAL WAY. r I MIE prospect of an extra dry and extra warm summer _L is not a pleasant one to contemplate, especially if one lives in the Northern part of the colony. Fortunately, we have never experienced in New Zealand those fierce heat waves which occasionally visit Australia and America; we have no town like Burke within our borders on which the pitiless sun focuses his rays with terrible effect; our infant cities are always sure of a breath of fresh air at their very hearts even in the hottest weather. But, at the same time it can be most uncomfortably warm even in New Zealand, and the colonists make it still more uncomfortable by the clothing they wear and the habits of life they persist in. In a remote free little country like this it is folly for us to make martyrs of ourselves to the prevailing fashion by dressing in the ordinary attire of Great Britain. We should go about as lightly and as airily clad as possible. Some men are sensible enough to do this, and the fashion in ladies’ dresses makes it still easier for the fair sex to wear garments suited to the climate. But the big majority go about sweltering in heavy clothing, with the result that they cannot do their work half so well as if they were rationally attired, and in addition are jaded and done up at the close of the day. We sorely want a reformer to arise and to preach the gospel of rational summer attire to the men folks among us. In this day of leagues to promote everything under the sun why not have a Rational Summer Dress League ? There is another respect in which we might depart with advantage from our present day customs. Why should we not alter our business hours so that the warmest period of the day can be devoted to rest or recreation. In Christchurch a most praiseworthy effort was made to effect a change in this direction ; but apparently we are too strongly wedded to our British methods of business to tolerate innovations, however reasonable. It does not seem as if the siesta of Southern Europe, or even a brief cessation from work in the warmest part of the day, would ever be adopted by the Englishman even when living under conditions that make it very necessary. Perhaps if we made a start with the children we might in the long run get the new custom introduced. Would it not be an excellent thing for the young folks if, during the wannest months of the year, the schools opened, say at seven o’clock in the morning instead of at half past nine, and the children were allowed the middle of the day for rest or recreation. This method is adopted in Switzerland and appears to answer splendidly. Once the chi’dreti had learned to appreciate the advantage of working in the cool periods of the day the probability is that they would seek to perpetuate the practice throughout life, and I feel certain that if they did so it would be immensely to the advantage of the whole community both from the point of view of health and of the value of the work done. THE NEW HOUSE. TITHE newspapers have been endeavouring since the I election to estimate the precise results of that great political storm ; to calculate the force of the winds and tides of popular favour ; to take an inventory of the losses and gains occasioned by the triennial tornado ; and to speculate on the further changes which its after effects may produce on our little political world. I am not inclined to place a great deal of faith in these investigations. If the ordinary meteorology is very far from an exact science, the political meteorology is still further, for it is a good deal more difficult to prognosticate about men, and especially politicians, than it is about nature

The one does follow some fixed law if we could but understand it, but the politician is a law unto himself. However, although we may not very largely increase our stock of political wisdom by such examinations, there is a genuine human interest in wandering by the Parliamentary shore and looking at the jetsam in the shape of members who have been cast up by the election wave, or in pondering on the cruel fate of those who have been overwhelmed by it. Things familiar and things strange are scattered there, or, to drop for a time a metaphor that may wound the dignity of members resplendent in their new honours, one comes across some old and some quite new faces among the gentlemen who have been chosen to govern us for the next three years. Not unfamiliar are the genial lineaments of the Hon. W. Rolleston, surmounted by that curious old-fashioned hat. Conspicuous for broad culture and courtesy, he is a welcome addition indeed to that assembly, and his presence there is all the more pleasant since it entails the absence of that verbal mitrailleuse, Riccarton Russell. One’s faith in humanity is not altogether destroyed so long as an electorate has sense to distinguish between the ‘ many sounding ’ Russell and the once leader of the Opposition. I sincerely trust that Parliament has seen the last of ‘ Riccarton.’ The gaiety of Parliament is sure to be increased by the addition to its ranks of Scobie McKenzie with his sharp Scotch wits. The House has gained in attractions from the gallery point of view by the triumphant return of the shepherd of Mount Ida. In his enforced retirement from politics Scobie has doubtless pondered many things, and members and visitors will certainly get the benefit of his accumulated jocularity. The raucous voice of Fish will once more be heard in indefatigable onslaught on the Government benches, but he must needs feel lonely without his bosom friend, Buckland, of Manukau, whom fate has again thrust back from the delectable seats. The volcanic Fisher, with his fiery, ready eloquence and his rare good humour, will lighten the dull evening with many a lurid glare; but the volcano will play on the Government side this time more decidedly than it last did. All these were once familiar faces and familiar voices in the House and lobbies, and now they have come again to prove at least two things — the changeable nature of popular favour, and the magnetism of politics. In regard to this last, is it not strange how those who have once tasted of the sweets of Parliamentary power hanker after the spring ? Seldom, it would seem, does a member renounce once and for all the joys of the House. He may honestly intend to do so when he leaves it voluntarily or involuntarily, as the case may be, but like the Anglo Indian soldier who sighs amid the dust and din of London for the palm trees and the pagodas of the Hast, ten chances to one he will long for the old days. In that way it appears to me that there is growing up in the country an army of professional politicians, who when out of office attend to their business in a perfunctory sort of way, while in their hearts they are longing to re-enter the political arena, and intending to do so at the very firstopportunity. Do you think that any of those who were worsted in the last fight will never fight again ? Do you suppose that we have heard the last of E. M. Smith, of G. W. Russell, W. Earnshaw, Dr. Newman, Buick, the boy orator, or Jackson Palmer, beloved of the ladies ? Never. On the shield of everyone of these gentlemen is written in bold characters the word Resurgam. If they are not called away from the earth before another election campaign dawns, depend on it you may expect to hear them shouting their respective war-cries. And it is natural. How can you suppose that having once had the making of the laws in their own hands they can tamely submit to be legislated for ? To one who has walked about clad in all the glory and dignity of rulership it does seem a big drop down to common citizenship. Once a politician always a politician ; once an M HR. always an M.H.R.—at heart at least. Let us trust that the tendency is not hereditary, for in that case we shall be inundated with candidates at every general election, and be distracted by a thousand and one theories and fads. Heaven knows we have enough already.