Notes and Notions.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIII, Issue XII, 16 September 1899, Page 481

Notes and Notions.

-BY

THE HONOURABLE

The gasping horror, and shamed amazement, with which the news of the verdict on the unfortunate Dreyfus has been received throughout the world, has not been lessened by the fact that the possibility of the outrage was thought possible, from the persistent, and malignant bias ok the Court against the man it was pretending to try. One may shudderingly contemplate the possibility of a dreadful crime, and yet experience no diminution of the shock which its definite commission will cause. Even now with the shameful official announcement before us in the cables, one’s nausea at the very idea struggles with incredulity. Such black-hearted scoundrelism. such monstrous injustice. such moral and national degradation is barely conceivable. Yet a fact —a black sin clinkered fact it is and there seems no really practical or possible way by which France can be made to feel the irretrievable dishonour into which the "Honour of the Army” has dragged her. Had it been a semi savage monarch in Burmah or Africa, who had committed such an injustice, and the national decadence of whose State had made such a thing possible, England would certainly have taken a lively part in setting matters straight. Unfortunately the hands of all European nations are too full to quarrel with a corrupt but wealthy State over a case of internal rottenness and a miscarriage of justice. Nor. one fears, will the natural selfishness of humanity, more especially the selfishness of the pleasure seeking public, allow another way of trying to touch France in the pocket, since she is impervious to shame. If every foreigner would, so to say, "send France to Coventry,” and mark their disgust by refusal to tarry longer in the Republic than the absolute necessities of travelling across to Switzerland, Italy, etc., etc., entailed, we might do something. Will America stick to her determination to boycott the Exhibition? One fears for the frailty of such promises made in a moment of supreme indignation. But it should be so. The world should boycott France. Every decent club in England, in America, in the Colonies, should shut its doors against Frenchmen, and personally I think every decent household should do the same thing. To do so would be painful, but it would be one way, and a verv powerful way, of bringing her shame home to France, if even the humblest and otherwise amiable of her sons abroad were made to feel his share of the national dishonour in the utter refusal of any decent person to take his hand as a friend or man of unstained honour.

Certain remarks made in these columns last week on the curiously fine sense of justice possessed by children have apparently been received with kindly interest by a proportion of my readers; for I have received one or two very interesting and genial letters on the subject from various quarters. My correspondents, all of whom I judge to be in charge of children in some form or another, are almost unanimous in corroborating my assertion that while a child will seldom resent punishment, however severe, if justly bestowed, it will cherish a deep and frequently lasting sense of grievance for even a trifling rebuke or chastisement if it has not been merited. Several instances are given which space will not allow me to quote, but one gentleman, who has evidently made child life something of a study, sends me certain particulars of a most interesting description, which seem to show that a real appreciation of justice, and of the laws of retribution following wrong doing are of more gradual growth than I imagined. An American investigator, Professor Barns, has, he states, been making a systematic study of the attitude of children towards punishment. To 3000 children he has put the question, describe a “punishment you have received unjustly.” The most common answer was some punishment for noisiness, disorder, or restlessness. One quarter of the children recalled instances of having been unjustly chastised for “not doing things,” and it is worth while noting, that being scolded or slapped for doing things they did not know to be wrong was,

of all injustices, the most resented by elder children. Young children accepted merited and unmerited punishment as one of the natural ills of life.

But it would certainly appear from Professor Barnes’ investigation that the true sense of justice does not come into being so early as 1 had imagined. He set the following question (from real life) to many thousands of children of various ages:- —A 4-year-old child received a box of colours as a birthday present, and when her parents chanced to be upstairs she carefully painted the drawing-room chairs, calling to her mother, at the completion of the task, "Mummy, come and see how beautiful 1 have made the chairs look.” The problem set -to the scholars was. "If you had been the mother, what would you have done to that child?” At eight almost the universal verdict was, "If I had been that child’s mother I would have smacked her.” At nine this view prevailed: "I would have given her a good beating and then forgiven her.” At •- ten. “I should have taken the paints away, slapped the child, sent her to bed. and not let her go out the next day.” At eleven, "When her next birthday came I wouldn’t let her have anything, and I would not let her have any toys at all until she knew better. When she grew old enough I would make her pay for the chairs she had spoilt.” At twelve, ”1 should have scolded her very much, and taken away the paints till she knew how to use them.” At thirteen came great wisdom: “If I had been the child’s mother I would not have bought her the paints. I think if the chairs are thoroughly scrubbed the paint will come off all right. As for the child, I would fetch her a smack, but she wasn't hardly old enough to know better anyway.” At fourteen: "To punish the child would be very hard and very improper. Explain to the child why she ought not to do such things.” Thus at seven and eight. 60 or 70 per eent. of the children would have offered physical violence to a little child who was perfectly innocent of offence, and who, after painting the ehairs to please her mother, had actually summoned that lady to admire the work. This readiness ~to prescribe physical chastisement was not confined to poor children —it was equally noticeable among the children brought up in nice families. At 16. only one or two would maltreat the little thing. + + +

The subject is probably not so enticing to the majority as to myself, and the few kind people who have written to me, so I will add no further remarks to this, save to say that I still believe some children, even of eight, would have bitterly resented being punished for the chair painting offence, and that far less than “70 per cent.” would have seen the unjustice of punishment towards another. Interesting as the professor's statistics are. I do not think them infallible. The children probably answered his question as they conceived "a grown up” would like it answered. Really sensitive children such as I was thinking of when I wrote last week would never lay bare their thoughts to a casual questioner of this sort. ♦ ♦ ♦ A novel and really entrancing theory has been propounded at a meeting of the South Dunedin Borough Council. It is that there are other microbes than those which attack the body, microbes, that is to say, which attack the mind and the temper, and one councillor aroused the Mayor to a white heat of anger by insinuating that certain dignitaries were subject to "special meeting’ microbes which incapacitated them.” It is not my intention to inquire closely into this special variety, but rather to look at the broad question thus opened up: the possibility, that is, that all our faults and foibles, all our temptations and peccadillos, are due to microbes. The festive reveller, who dines not wisely but too well, is not perchance the victim of his own perverted tastes, but of bacchanalian bacteria: the gay lothario and the flirt, whose conduct we have all found so reprehensible, have been the victims of an insidious microbe. Nay perhaps the tender passion itself is a microbe, a microbe which flourishes exceedingly in these days of budding trees and open flowerets.

but which is fed and brought to its highest perfection by summer nights and moonlight picnics. The temper microbe has by the way been very much in evidence in Parliament lately, and seems to thrive exceedingly on a diet of alleged scandals to the unearthing and demolishing of which both sides of the House seem giving almost undivided attention.

The "small loan" microbe apparently lives all the year round, and once a victim has been attacked with it it rarely leaves him. The disease is not infectious, but those attacked by this microbe are usually studiously avoided. , .

However, the subject is somewhat beyond me. 1 leave it to our professors and scientific exerimentors, but our thanks are due to the South Dunedin councillor who made the brilliant suggestion. The "swelled head" microbe affects them rather it would appear, for during the same meeting the Mayor observed gracefully when speaking of the Dunedin City Council: “I hmd that there are bigger duffers in the Dunedin City Council than on the South Dunedin Council—(laughter)—by a long chalk. You gentlemen suppose that because a man goes about with a belltopper and a big cigar he is better than anyone else.” What kind of hat does the Mayor wear one wonders? ♦ ♦ ♦ No doubt it is but a question of time, and when the affairs of the butchers and bakers and candlestick makers, etc., have been brought to that perfected state which gratifies the professional agitator or conciliator. or whatever he is called, that attention will be paid to the bank clerk. That his case is far harder than any of those which have lately been before the Board cannot be argued. The masters in no trade in New Zealand would dare to even attempt such terms as those which are enforced on the employees of most of our banks. They are in most cases compelled to subscribe to a guarantee fund in case of any embezzlement on the part of one of the bank’s service in any part of the colony. If a teller makes an error, and pays away a ten or twentypound note instead of a one pound, he has to find the difference himself, whereas if the mistake is the other way round the bank pouches the lot. His pay is outrageously disproportionate to the services rendered, and in most cases to the rate of banking profits. Taking it as a rule, the wealthiest banks arc those that are most stingy. And when the case of the bank clerk has been set right, there are other professions where if interference is ever justifiable the Government might very well interfere. Several of my readers will be able to put a name to some of them.

“Go on the land, young woman.” Such is the new reading of an old dictum as set forth by that somewhat eccentric but versatile peeress the Countess of Warwick. Those of us who have visited London may have come across her ladyship's smart bonnet shop and millinery establishment in New Bond-street. An imposing establishment it is, with the full title of the' noble owner emblazoned across the windows. Three years ago when the writer was in London, it was much patronised by Americans and South Africans, owing to the announcement which was, 1 believe, partially true, that the noble countess herself fitted hei* clients between the hours of two and four. Her charges were stiff, and one or two garments I saw in the windows did not from a masculine point of view seem to justify them, but no doubt it is something to be “fitted” by a real live ami rather beautiful countess. No doubt it was the success of this sop to snobbery that evolved from the brilliant brain of the Countess the idea of converting Warwick Castle and the Warwick estates into a limited liability company. Whether this idea succeeded 1 never heard. The financial critics on the influential dailies were somewhat severe on the prospectus, and as the Countess has since broken out in a new place perhaps it died a natural death. The new fad—l mean idea —is really sensible, and might on a modified scale be adopted in New Zealand. The Countess thinks more of our young women should go on the land; that instead of becoming typists, and miserably paid shorthand writers, and under clerks, etc., they should go in for market gardening, nurserymen’s gardens, flower culture, homemade jam-making, fruit farming, and hen farming. Now, all these profes-

sions could be easily and profitably conducted by ayudieate* of young women in this colony, and the idea is decidedly worth considering. In poultry farming especially women should be able easily to compete with men. With the facilities and improvements now being made for shipment of frozen chickens and ducks, ami the high price* available in Loudon. this is seriously a speculation well worth a trial.