Topics of the Week.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVI, Issue I, 5 January 1901, Page 10

Topics of the Week.

Looking Backward on 1900. Now that we have fairly started on our partnership with the new year and the new century, it is not without interest to turn retrospectively to the year that is behind us for ever, and to recall in the briefest compass the main events of the [last twelve months. The year, it will be remembered, opened gloomily enough. The fortunes of war had not been with us in the previous few months, and the outlook was not particularly bright. But the young year speedily brought comfort to our pride. Early in the month a very determined attack on Ladysmith was repulsed, and a day later a fresh feeling of national hope and confidence was aroused by the arrival of Lord Boberts at Capetown. For New Zealand the middle of the month will ever lie sadly memorable, for it saw the gallant charge of the New Zealanders, when poor Connell and gallant Gourlay were killed in the brave execution of their duty. About the same date a brilliant young nobleman was killed in the Earl of Ava, the son of the brilliant Marquis of Dutferin. The seeoud New Zealand Contingent left on the 20th of January, and a few days later we were first elated with the news of the capture of Spionkop, only to be disheartened later to hear that owing to inexcusable blundering and maladministration Spionkop could never be connected with glory in the annals of the war, but must always painfully recall inaptitude and disaster. February opened in a manner calculated to entirely dispel the feelings of dejection caused by the blundering at Spionkop, and all things considered was probably the most successful nionth of the year, so far as the war was concerned. The seventh of the month saw Hector Macdonald Successful at Koodoosberg, while five days later we tasted the first of a series of exciting triumphs in the relief of Kimberley by General French. Hardly had we ceased congratulating each other on this splendid event before there arrived the greater news that the aged but invincible “ Bobs ” had defeated Cronje at Koodoosrand, and that the great Boer general, with 3,000 of his men, had surrendered to the British. This was great news indeed, and when, on the very next day, the cable arrived that Ladysmith had been relieved, we all went half delirious with gratitude and joy. Those were days which will live long in all our memories and make the month of February a red letter one in our lives, however long we may live. March witnessed the first sign of Kruger weakening. On the ninth of the month he attempted a bold bluff ”by proposing peace with the guaranteed independence of the Republics. Naturally there was but one answer to such a proposal. On the 13th Bloemfontein fell into our hands, and the Transvaal Peace Delegates left on their futile mission to Europe. The confidence of the British nation in the Government, and in her army, was in this month shown by the fact that the " Khaki ” loan for the war was enormously over-subscribed, not less than £ 500,000,000 being offered to the Treasury. The third and fourth New Zealand contingents left at the end of the month, on the last day of which was received the news of the disaster at Koornspruit, when 200 gallant fellows were killed and 17 New Zealanders were captured. In New Zealand the month saw the death of W. Crowther, M.H.R. for Auckland, a man whose sound common sense, uprightness, and blunt honesty had won him the respect of political friends and opponents alike.

The Queen’s visit to Ireland was not merely the most noteworthy event of the month of March, but was in many respects the most important event of the year. It was in every way a brilliant success, and how far-reaching its good effects may be, it would be almost impossible to predict. A dastardly attempt to shoot the Prince of Wales at Brussels station miraculously and providentially failed bn the 4th of th« month, the 15th of which witnessed the opening of that splendid but foredoomed failure, the great Paris Exposition. On U»e 27th, the Duke of Argyle, one of the ablest controversalistß of our day, died at a ripe old age. The famine in India began during this month to seize hold on the public Imagination and sympathy, and large subscriptions

were sent to relieve the 85,000,000 persons stated to be actually starving. The tendency for disasters to oocur during the last days of the month will no doubt have been remarked on as a coincidence, and the 27th of March added to the score with the fire at Ottawa, when damage to the value of over £1,500,000 was done. New Zealand, it will be remembered, immediately went to the assistance of her sister colony. The Retrospect Continued. May will ever be associated with Mafeking in our minds, for on the 18th of the month that gallant little garrison was relieved after a siege of seven months. Few will be able to recall without a smile the exuberant delight of the public, and the quaint way in which the most staid and reserved inhabitants of this colony expressed their pride and their relief on that occasion. It was a national outburst, when joy for once broke through the British reverence for stiffness and ventionThe Boxer troubles in China began to loom large on the horizon in May, and there were serious riots and outrages in Pekin on the 27th. For once, however, the month closed with an auspicious event, for on the 29th of May Lord Roberts entered Johannessburg unopposed. June saw the arrival of Roberts at Pretoria, and the majority of the war critics at once announced the end of the war. As we now know this was extremely optimistic, and there seems every possibility that it will be next June before matters are settled. Affairs now assumed a very dark shade in China, and in June the news of the war from the East entirely eclipsed in interest and sensationalism that fixun Africa. The attack on the Legations, the capture of the Taku forts, and then the repulse of the relief force under Admiral Seymour followed in rapid succession, and on the last day of the month the warships from Auckland left for China, thus bringing colonial interest even more strongly to bear on the trouble. July was ushered in by the awful Hockbecken Dock fire in New York, and from this to the middle of the month came conflicting accounts of the trouble of the Legations at Pekin. On the 15th, however, circumstantial details of the supposed massacre were given, and all of us gave up hope- \ Tn South Africa July was important, witnessing the surrender of Pnnsloo’s 500 Boers to General Hunter. Onee again the month closed darkly with the murder of Humbert of Italy, and the death of the Duke of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, sometime Duke of Edinburgh.' Lord Hopetoun’s appointment as Governor-General of the Commonwealth was gazetted in July. August gave the lie to all the ghastly stories of the massacres at the Legations. and on the 15th of the month it was known they had been relieved. It also witnessed the discovery of a plot against Lord Roberts at Pretoria, and the sack and looting of Pekin. The main events of September were the. Galveston tidal wave tragedy, and Kruger’s flight and resignation; also the promotion of Lord Roberts to the supreme Command of the British Army. October was a month of importance to New Zealand, for on the Ist Lord Ranfurly left to annex the Islands, and on the Bth the Cook Group was made part of the Umpire- Kruger left for Europe on the 22nd of October, and on the 27th the Transvaal was formally annexed. The rest of the year is too recent to need recalling, but looking baek it must- be admitted that the last year of the Nineteenth Century was by no means the least eventful. The Duration of the War. It is enrlona to look beck now to the time when we sent off our first New Zealand Contingent to the war, and to remember how freely expressed was the opinion that they would not

arrive in South Africa 11 the fighting w*js over. Aa each MMeeedlng contiugmit was despatebed the same opinion was expressed, but each time with decreasing confidence anal Blackening unanimity. Now that we are in the second year of the war, there is yet another contingent to be dmpatebed, and not one is found who dares to hope or to prophecy that they will not be required to take their share of fighting, and mayhap stand the brunt of several sharp engagements. It is obvious now that even so astute a judge as the veteran “Bobs’* was somewhat optimistic in his expressed opinion as to the probability of an early cessation of hostilities. The duration of the war is indeed one of those things in which it is very unwise to attempt prophecy, and even in hazarding an opinion it is better to allow an ample margin of “ifs and ands.” It is the generally expressed belief of men who have been at the war, that should De Wet be captured the last hope of the Boers would be extinguished. Undoubtedly if we can get hold of that brilliant, brave and daring guerilla general, we shall have done much to break that indomitable pluck which has carried the struggle on for so long. As a fact, we know the Boers are sick to death of fighting. They are methodical, easy-going folk, fond of their quiet simple life, fond of their farms, and anxious to be at work again. To suppose that they are continuing to fight because they are being deceived with lies of British reverses and coming foreign reinforcements is, according to no less an authority than Mr Patterson, absurd. The average Boer is not the unintelligent ignorant man who has been so often painted for us- He knew perfectly well how many men would be sent against him, and all the stories we were tola of the Boers believing the whole British Army was but a few thousand strong, were grotesquely incorrect. But the reason of the fighting is bitterness. The racial bitterness is stronger than we can comprehend. We are accustomed to think of it as a Dutch feeling. It is not. It is an Afrikander feeling, and it is absolutely universal in South Africa. We are hated with a bitter hatred and distrusted with a profound distrust—a distrust which it will be almost impossible to eradicate, so deeply planted is it in the national mind. But famine, rain, and the approach of absolute starvation are doing their work. Every day the natural easy going nature of the BoeT, and *his love for bis farm makes fighting more irksome, and with a bad grace he may now at any time submit. But those who look for .a restoration of amity between the Afrikander and ourselves, and the creation of a feeling of confidence in British rule, have a long time to wait for that millennium. o ♦ o <> ■© Settling Down Again. ' x The holidays are over, and most of us are settling down resignedly for another prolonged spell of "the daily round, the common task.” No doubt we are the fresher and stronger for our few days of leisure, but with these short holidays the first effect is, to the majority of us, not altogether satisfactory. Even when our work is pleasant and congenial, there is something very trying in the resumption of effort after a brief period of idleness. We feel a distaste and disgust for tasks which in the ordinary course * We attack with all cheerfulness, and even interest, and we possibly commiserate ourselves as being little better than slaves. Often in this mood ■ we freely anathematise holidays as being more trouble than they are worth, and at first sight there is something in this objection. Many of us have to work so hard before and after a holiday that they do really seem of doubtful benefit. But though we cannot perhaps always see it,* I think even the most dearly bought holidays are of benefit. They practically compel us to take our minds off every-day affairs, and the very distaste with, which we approach their resumption shows that the rest was necessary. Moreover, after we have settled. down, after we have, so to say, “got into our stride again,” there is an increased vitality and interest at once noticable, and which is distinctly traceable to the holiday respite. The benefit of these intermittent breaks in the routine of work would be eves more pronounced if we went about our holiday-making mare thoughtfully. That very phrase, for instance

i -holiday-making— gets at the weak point of the usual system. We Insist on “making holiday,” that w, on doing something more or less energetic. We go for more or leas tiring excursions, or spend, perhaps, the day at a raeeeourae endeavouring to win other folks’ money. Of ail forms of downright hard work, this is the hardest, and if, as is usual, we lose our money, it is not wonderful that the holiday leaves us more tired physically and mentally than it found us. It has been said that we British take our pleasures sadly, but it would be more correct to say we take them as we take our rest, energetically. We make too much of a business of both. It is a good fault in the main, and has made us what we are in the world; but it would doubtless prolong most of our lives if we were able to import some ®* *“ e capacity of the Latin race for idling into our too energetic natures. To see an Italian or a Spaniard enjoying his dolce far niente is to take alesson in the true art of being idle. Only with them it is not art, but nature.