Topics of the Week.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue IX, 26 August 1899, Page 17

Topics of the Week.

MR SEDDON’S FAUX PAS. Tn these days of an omniscient press and omniverous readers, one must be particularly careful in his public statements. Quite recently Mr Seddon in criticising- the fiscal policy of New South Wales, referred to a deficiency of £3.000.000 in a way that seemed to infer that the Reid administration had been responsible for it. Of course our Premier had no wish to injure New South Wales or Mr Reid. He made his statement no doubt for the argumentative purposes of the moment. But it seems it was not. quite correct, and although no one here was at all likely to detect the error the Premier of New South Wales did so himself and cabled across a contradiction of it. The incident should be a warning to public men to make perfectly sure of their figures, and to the public not to trust implicitly to their statements. Platform orators are as a rule none too careful in their utterances, and politicians are singularly at fault in this respect. Two months hence when the election campaign is in full swing it would be interesting to analyse the speeches of the multitude of candidates in order to discuss the inaccuracy and mis-representation which they invariably' contain. Speaking of his own country’ our average politician is constantly tripping, but when he makes references to the history or polities of other lands, he flounders hopelessly. I have heard in the House extraordinary statements regarding matters outside of New’ Zealand, but as a ride they' passed unchallenged, either because no one saw’ the mistake or none thought it worth contradicting. If the rulers of other countries were so quick to pick upon little mistakes we would never be free from censure. What a'bill against us would the Kaiser have for instance. And on the other hand what apologies NewZealand might rightfully exact front those who have heedlessly- vilified her. ® ® ® A TOURIST’S PLAINT. When Herr Friedenthal, the clever pianist, visited Rotorua, he was surprised to learn that the Government had prohibited the practice of feeding the geysers with soap. In his opinion if travellers get to know that the geysers cannot always be counted to play of their own accord, and that it is held illegal to force them they- will not come near the place. From this I am inclined to infer that the musical Herr did not get his money's worth in geysers, and was piqued to know that had it not been for the Government prohibition and the watchful eye of the caretaker, he might have enjoyed as fine a display- as he could desire. I have had the pleasure of witnessing the Whakarewarewa hot waterworks at their best on many- occasions. I have seen them playing spontaneously before the soap secret was known. I have seen them playing- to order also when the use of soap,, as an irritating factor, was not forbidden. And I must confess I have seen them playing on a similar provocation since soap was gazetted as a prescribed diet in their ease. I have seen so much of them in fact that I do not in the least resent the new regulations the Government have laid down, for the guidance of these lions of Whakarewarewa. But I quite understand the feeling of the average tourist who has perhaps come all the way to New- Zealand to make the acquaintance of a live geyser, and has to leave our shores without having seen one, simply because the Government have got some sillyfad into their heads about soap not being good for geysers. If you have plenty of time to spend at Whakarewarewa the chances are that you catch a geyser “on the hop” as it were; but tourists as a rule are in a hurry. They probably- allot one day to Rotorua in the programme of their travels, and at most half-a-day to the geysers; and they go there expecting that these interesting phenomena are always playing or play at definite hours like the gong at the hotel. When they find that punctuality is not the soul of a geyser, and spend the whole afternoon waiting for him to go off and he fails to do so, they are naturally annoyed. But when in addition they learn that there is a little talisman—a bar of yellow

household to wit—that the geyser rises to like a bird. and that the use of that same little talisman is forbidden bv law, words cannot express their indignation. They feel they have been grossly deceived, and cheated, and depart vowing that they will warn others against us. To

some extent the tourists are not altogether to blame. We lure them to Maoriland with artful pictures ami photographs of geysers and fumaroles all at merry- play. We descant in little pamphlets on the wonderful showers of “diamond drift ami pearly hail" until the tourist thinks when he steps from the train at Rotorua he will find himself surrounded by a score or so of nature’s own boiling* fountains playing against.' a picturesque background of luridly active volcanoes. Now that is not fair. It is getting tourists under false pa*ete,nces. Be ought to explain things just a little more. And if it is inadvisable to make public the unsatisfactory nature of the geysers, and equally inadvisable to permit the use of soap, then it would only be proper that the Government should provide some mechanical geyser to play al stated times so that the tourists might not be disappointed. ® ® ® MILLIONAIRES IN ANTICIPATION. Some eighty claimants for the Tyson millions are in the field. Fourteen ol them declare that the dead squatter was their uncle, and thirtythree that he was their cousin. Others allege various reasons for putting in a eiaim, but the most frankly enterprising of ail is the gentleman who, thougii not aware of ajty relationship between himself anti the deceased, advances tile fact . that his name, is also Tyson as stiilieieiit ground for making a shot for the money. The claims are to be adjudicated on the first ol December; anti pne 'can imagine what great expectations will fire the hearts of those eighty, and what castle-building they will Indulge in between this time amt then. 1 -.-w of us can ever hope to know the sensation of being actual heirs to a millionaire, but the very next best thing £ should say would be to have claims in that direction. I would give something to enjoy even the remote anticipation of getting such wealth, but my family tree is much too simple, a vegetable to admit of any surprises. The reticulation of his branches is only too barrenly clear. Fain would 1 it were otherwise, and that an obscurity hung over my own birth or the history of my ancestry that might conceal my relation to some possible millionaire. I envy those people who had scapegrace uncles who left for a fatland and were never heard of, or grandfathers whose end was mysterious. There are such enormous possibilities in such relatives. It is perfectly idle for me to dream, as they can do. of ships coming home, or of lawyers’ letters announcing that they have fallen heirs to great wealth. 1 have no interest, as many people have, in consulting Lloyd's list of missing friends who are wanted to hear something* t to their advantage, because I know there cannot possibly be anyone wanting me, except to get something out of me. Hence, I must confess it, in my poverty of grounds for anticipating good fortune I envy the eighty claimants for the Tyson millions the enjoyment they must get even if they never handle a cent of the money. And consider, too, the distinction one must derive for the time being. Each of these claimants is a marked man in his own district. Alike the atmosphere of wealth envelops him, and be he clothed in rags, there will be among his friends many who will prophetically discern the purple and fine linen, and pay him homage accordingly. He will enjoy in a way the sensation of being a millionaire, and relish the anticipation much more probably than he ever would the reality. ® ® ® WHERE POLITICS ARE INTERESTING. There is at least one civilised country where politics should be free from the stigma of dullness, and that country is France. Parties as wo know them here and in England are after all very harmless organisations. They never think of attacking each

other, except with their tongues, and their ooieeta amt aims involve uo very revolutionary changes. When the opponents of a Government meditate its overthrow, they proceed on perlectly constitutional lines, and succeed or fail, as the ease may be, without any serious disturbance in the country. There is no violent transition from one administration to another, and we all know pretty well the extent ui the change the newcomers may seek, to make. Within Parliament there is no party sworn to reverse the whole existing order of things, and the assembly is not affected by any such party beyond its walls, simply because no such party exists. In Great Britain, though I believe there are still a few cranks who mourn the Stuarts, there is certainly no immediate danger of another '45; and here in New Zealand I am not aware that any individual, much less a party, entertains disloyal monarchical designs on the country. In France there exist all the elements that should render the profession of polities singularly exciting. The game is one of much larger license and enormously greater possibilities than with us. The struggle of parties inside and outside of the Assembly is on much more serious lines, and the issues much more momentous. In Great Britain a political crisis may end in a dissolution of I‘arliameut. In France it may almost as easily finish in a national revolution. To be an actor on such a stage may well beget in French public men the theatrical strut and the melodramatic manner which so frequently marks them. Our public men can never hope to attain that pose. Mr Seddon has occasionally essayed it when the salvation of a Bill was at stake, but there the comparative triviality of the motive made bis effort somewhat ridiculous. Similarly Mr Monk, ready to sacrifice himself for a railway, does not evoke the applause one would expect. ® ® ® CRICKET CRITICISM. The great cricket campaign. EngItirnT versus Australia, has not ended in a way to give complete satisfaction to anyone in either hemisphere, am! cricketers especially are expressing their disappointment nt a result which was entirely due to the short time nllow'ed for each match. Drawn'battl'. s which were the feature of the wav are always unsatisfactory affairs in the field of snort. On the other hand, though the issue of the campaign has not given unalloyed pleasure to either side, it can claim to have given a bigger average satisfaction to all the contestants put together than they would have derived from a decisive victory. The result of the struggle leaves room for limitless speculation on what might have been. Either side can easily persuade itself that had the matches been played out to a finish it would have had the majority of wins to its credit. The Englishmen, or rather the English newspapers, informed the world almost before time was called in the last test match' that the Australians owed their dominant position to the three days’ system. They did not put it quite in that rough fashion but that is precisely what they meant. Our boys with a real indisputable win to their credit arc not likely to be so churlish as to deprive their opponents of whatever consolation such a reflection may afford them, but deep down in their cricket loving* souls 1 fancy they will find it hard to 'assimilate that theory of the campaign. Whether they are able to do so or not it is perfectly certain that the public of Australasia will never accept it. Let experts in the game argue as they please about probabilities, the great Australian public will never believe but that their boys would have been the victors whatever had happened. Thus will it stand in the traditions of our .Southern cricket fields when the older fellows tell to the young colts the. story of the 1899 team. ® ® ® WHO GOVERNS? PRESS OR PARLIAMENT? Mr Wise, one of the Parliamentary “lords” of New South Wales declared the other day that he would rather be governed by the worst Parliament ever known than by the best newspaper ever_ known. As a politician Mr Wise is nattirally prejudiced in favour of Parliaments, and I as a journalist, am naturally prejudiced in favour of newspapers. Hence it is not to be expected that I would endorse his sweeping judgment of the relative merits of Parliamentary and newspaper Government, As he admits that a good deal of the govern-

ing n 'W-a-day< is done by the Press, s I would contend that on the whole it is n t d*-ue badly. I suspect that Mr Wise ;*.nd the Australian press are not on the best of terms. You will usually find that when a colonial

politician has not received the appreciation he thought he deserved from the newspapers, he is particularly careful to let everyone know the with-

ering contempt he entertains for that form of literature and the absolute, indifference he feels towards the ojiinion of editors generally. But the newspaper man smiles supreme. He remembers that even the first Napol-

eon, a hundred years ago when the newspaper press was in its infancy, confessed that four hostile journals "ere more to be dreaded than a thousand bayonets. He remembers, too.

how. no further back than the last election perhaps, the same member got five thousand slips of a complimentary newspaper paragraph ciixmlatod through his constituency, and on more than one occasion grew eloquent on the wonderful wisdom anti insight of journalism generally. When ir conies to a question of shaping the public opinion of the country —and that every one must admit is an important step towards governing it—there is little doubt which—the Press or Parliament—does most. Thespeeches of politicians anti the proceedings of Parliament, who would know of them were it not for the newspapers, and what a large proportion of the electors do not even trouble to read them in the newspapers, bin take their opinions from the comments of the journalist. Nay the politician himself more often than not gets his opinions and a great deal of his inspiration from the same source.