Current Comment.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXIV, Issue II, 13 January 1900, Page 63

Current Comment.

A CHAPLAIN FOR THE CONTINGENT. I understand, writes a Mr Brown to the Wellington “Post,” that the Rev. Mr Dove has volunteered to serve as Chaplain for the Contingent, and there is a very strong feeling amongst many of the leading citizens that the Government should accept his services, especially as there can be no doubt that those leaving for the seat of war will have to go into action, whilst many thought that the last Contingent would probably arrive after the war was over. At present, the Government state that there will be no room on the steamer, but surely the services of a chaplain should be considered as important as these of a doctor, the spiritual welfare of the force being surely of the first importance considering the certain danger they are going into, and many very likely to a soldier's grave. F F F OCR CONSERVATIVES AND THE UPPER HOUSE. The Conservatives in New Zealand have always hankered after an elective Upper Chamber with a property qualification for both candidates and electors, so that they could in that Chamber nullify the people’s will, as expressed through the House of Representatives. Fortunately, says the Wanganui “Herald,” the majority of the people of New Zealand have prevented anything of so baneful a change being made in our Parliamentary Constitution, and the Upper House is, as far as possible, kept in touch with popular feeling, by the occasional calling to its membership of new blood from the Liberal phalanx, which serves to leaven the whole, and make it possible for the Government to do what it was quite unable to compass when it first took office, and attempted to place Liberal measures on the Statute Book. The Conservatives just up to the date of the late general elections were so cocksure of “dishing the Whigs” and routing the Seddon Government, that their leaders had actually drawn up a list of large landowners and capitalists who were to be called to the Legislative Council to once more make up a. Tory majority in that branch of the Legislature. The Seddon Government was, however, not routed, but its opponents were, and badly so. * F F NEW ZEALAND DEFENCE. There was a time when we grudged almost any colonial military expenditure, believing* it unnecessary. Now the whole situation is changed. We have deliberately shown a determination to participate in the wars of the Empire, and must expect to be treated by any Great Power that may come to blows with Britain as a part of the Mother Country that should, if possible, be rendered powerless. That would mean that we should be attacked in the beginning unless it were known that we were effectively weaponed for defence. We must pay the price as well as secure the reward of our patriotism, and the first cost will be incurred in a largely augmented and reorganised volunteer force, armed with modern rifles which the men who handle them enn use to kill. F F F CRIME STATISTICS. The crime and offences record of the year just closed shows a diminution of 21 in the number of cases reported and of 82 in the number dealt with by the Courts as compared with the returns of 1898. The number of committals was 85, only three of the alleged offenders being females, while of the total but two females and 50 males were convicted. 'There was a slight increase in the number of burglaries and serious robberies brought before the Court—2s as against 20, but there was a gratifying drop in indecent assaults, which last year numbered 2 as against 7 during 1898. Drunkenness also showed a marked diminution, the number of cases for 1898 being 770, whereas last year there were only 642—a drop of 138. Of the other offences the figures for the years 1898 and 1899 respectively are—Selling liquor during prohibited hours, 22—

6; keeping licensed premises open during prohibited hours, o—4; allowing liquor to be consumed on licensed premises after hours. o—4;0 —4; prohibited persons on licensed premises, 3 —13; abusive and threatening language, 24—31; common assaults, 120—120; assaults on police, 26—12; assaults occasioning bodily harm, 9—B; assault and robbery, 2 —l; conspiracy to defraud, 7 —12; cruelty to animals, 17—17; wife desertion and failure to provide for children, 102— 83; disobeying orders of the Court, 129—117; cruelty to children, 4—l; false pretences, 37 —23; forgery and uttering, 14—20; indecent behaviour, 16—11; malicious injury to property, 59 —34; neglected and criminal children, 37—28; theft (undescribed), 404 — 439; theft from dwellings, 74— 26; theft from the person, 29—16; vagrancy, 22—37; neglecting to send children to school. 18—36. There were 91 cases of failure to support parents and near relatives—a return that did not appear in the records of 1898. Breaches of by-laws reported to the police during the past year numbered 229, distribiited as follows:—City Council, 185; Harbour Board 13; Government Railways, 13; Melrose Borough Council, 13. The number of prohibition orders issued was 67.—Exchange. F F F FORWARD. It is an inspiring sight, that of mankind leaving the ruins of the dead year and stepping forward with uplifted head and eager eye upon another stretch of the long, long journey that reaches away in front. There is (says the “Taranakj Daily News”) no need to look back over the past; we bear about us abundant evidence of its failures and disappointments. we have nothing to hope from it, and its record is irrevocable; and so the race does wisely to centre its hopes and build up its expectations on what is to come rather than on what has been. The instinct of Hope is one of the saving elements of humanity; without it men would soon lose courage and become the victims of despair, but with it they are nerved to face the future, and to battle on with grim determination and courage unquenchable. And thanks to this, surely, if slowly, the hostile forces are becoming subdued in one form after another. The mind of man has wrestled with social and economic problems, and by legislation and invention brought about improvements undreamt of a. few generations back. We do not say that these have all, or any, been unmixed blessings, but it is certain that the general good has, on the whole, been advanced. F F F RUSSIA IN ASIA. Our cable messages have recently reported the sending of large bodies of Russian troops to the borders of Afghanistan, but it was added that no immediate action was anticipated. Before the last mail left England such a movement was known to be in progress. The explanation there accepted was that the Ameer of Afghanistan is seriously ill and practically insane, and that as soon as he dies or otherwise eeases to reign, there will be disturbances in the country, which may affect the Russian border districts, and which the Indian Government will be powerless to prevent. The generally received opinion is that if. in such an event. Britain finds it necessary to move forward again to Kandahar. Russia will go on to Herat.—Hawke's Bay “Herald.” F F F III’MILI ATION OR THANKSGIVING. The Rev. Hugh Price Hughes may (thinks the "Lyttelton Times") have ceased to interpret the Nonconformist conscience, as some Boer sympathisers declare, but at least he retains the faculty of giving direct and forcible. utterance to sound commonsense. His reply to the proposal that a day of humiliation and prayer should be observed in connection with the Transvaal war should be tak n to heart by those who have made a similar suggestion in New Zealand. We may admit, without irreverence, that, such ceremonies appear to be going out of fashion, or at least that there is a tendency to reserve them for occasions of very grave national danger. In Australia the frequent recurrence

of days of humiliation han led to something approaching a reaction, and a drought would have to be excessively prolonged and exceptionally severe to induce such an appeal now. But, in truth, the present is no time for the sackcloth and ashes of woe and despair. There is more nobility in Mr Hughes’ proposal of a "day of thanksgiving for the readiness of Britons to surrender life itself to ensure freedom and justice for their kinsmen.” It. is well that the Churches and the people should pray daily, as they do. for the safe return of gallant men to their homes. Cardinal Vaughan was but expressing the thought that is in the heart of the nation, when he directed a public united supplication for the speedy success of the British arms and the consequent conclusion of the war. We will neither forget nor ignore th e reverses that our forces have sustained; but we need not magnify' them into national calamities. F F F SHOULD OUR PRIVATE MARKSMEN BE DISCOURAGED. It seems to me (writes “Club Shot” to a Wellington paper) that whatever of success we have achieved in the war has been largely due (apart from the superb infantry rushes in the face of accurate deadly rille fire) to the accuracy of our artillery fire at all ranges. Now, the whole training of an artillery man is aimed at making the soldier a.n accurate shot with the field gun. But it is an admitted fact that artillerymen are usually better rifle shots than infantry men. Why? Because the same knowledge of effects of wind, light, and distance bear on the accuracy of big gun fire apply to small-arras fire, and it is only common sense to assume that if the infantry man’s training was centred more in the effective use of the rifle than in the usual company and squad movement his shooting with the small arm would equal that of his comrade, of the field gun. In New South Wales rifle club men may purchase ammunition from the. Government. Storekeeper at the rate of 6/3 per hundred rounds. The New Zealander may get his ammunition where and how he can. which means that he pays 11/ per hundred for a very inferior article (when he can get it at all).

With .the great bulk of club men the question of a little Government assistance in the shape of cheap a.uimunition is a. vital one. There are many young men of 17 to 20 earning a very small wage to whom three shillings on Saturday for practice is a. prohibitory price. Consequently after one or two tries with the rifle they drop out, and are seen no more on the range. To many rifle shots this weekly sum is a mere trifle, but they well know that. unless the youngsters can be assisted to continued practice the club must sooner or later die.

Club men desire only moderate help, but they think that ’help should be given them as a right, not a somethingto be. begged for on bended knee, cap in hand. They know their value to the country is at least as great ns that of the ordinary volunteer, and they are cheered by the knowledge that at. last the value of the expert shot is likely to be better appreciated by the community. F F F KIPLINGESQE WAR. Long courses of Rudyard Kipling have created in the English mind a conception of war and the part played therein by Tommy Atkins, utterly at variance with facts. Poems and tales, based wholly upon English experiences in lighting’savages, have taught the. slaughter-loving section of the English public to expect a British regiment, to "disperse” any enemy that stands up to it within the hours prov.ded bv the Early-closing \ct. and come home comfortably to tea. The modern Major-General must live up to this ideal or perish, so far as bis status as a provider of sensational copy .s concerned, and it he doesn t stand well there he hud better be out of service. All the Generals, from the beginning, have been playing to the gallery. The idea that there was any opposition in front worth reckoning has not, before this last week or two, struck any of them. Their business was not merely to win—that was a task too ridiculously easy to worry over—but to win a j:v Kipling — to take the Africander position before breakfast — to march serenely like Kiplingesque demi-gods through the entrenchments of the enemy. Methuen's and Buller's attacks were made in front, in daylight, seemingly without reconnaissance, apparently without precaution against ambush or surprise, and with

the fixed idea that Hie enemy stand in the same intellectual relationship to themselves us a six-tooth wether to a Supreme Court Judge. Ths business of the enemy was to art after his kind—i.e., after the kind of Kipling's enemy, the enemy depicted in Kipling’s military tales —and disperse before the superior genius, resolution and equipment of the British. As to strategy, why should a British general strategise? White attempted that at Nicholson's Nek, and fell in. If he had only been content to stick to the tactics whieh press and publie (instructed by Kipling) demand, the successes at Elandslaagte and Glencoe might have been continued indefinitely. The methods of the British leaders must obviously be short, swift, and business-like. Kipling has explicitly laid down the plan and specifications to wQiieh British generalship is expected to conform. A battle between Briton and Boer must satisfy the expectations of the nation, trained for ten years in the ...pling school. or it had better not tnke plaee. “Up then conies the regiment, and pokes ibo 'eathen out.” was the ideal set up by the Jingo bard, and the regiments were accordingly set to the task of realising it.—Sydney “Bulletin."’