Topics of the Week.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXVIII, Issue XXII, 31 May 1902, Page 1069

Topics of the Week.

Peace. Peace! The sentiment is warm at our hearts, and the words are trembling on our lips. As I write the deep sea cables are perhaps thrilling with the decisive message that is in turn to thrill the Empire, but this page of the paper goes early to press—confound the exigencies of weekly journalism—and 1 cannot wait to hear the news.from England. What messages are coming to hand, and they are coming thick and fast, are so pregnant with hope that we all feel justified in getting ready our flags and decorations. lYow many long months have the latter been lying aside waiting for the happy day! So long, long has the war dragged out that there must be half an inch of dust on them by this time. Bring them out and get them ready for the auspicious occasion. What a lot there is to say regarding it, nut one is handicapped in saying it now, when the chances are that by the time you, dear reader, get to these notes, you may know far more about the position than I do now, and are probably much too busy celebrating the close of war to trouble reading stale conjectures. o o o o o The Premier’s Understudy. The colony has lost nothing by the absence of the Premier from it Mr Ward fills the vacant place so well. It is not merely that the latter efficiently discharges the functions of the office, but it is evident he aims at playing the role on the same lines as Mr Seddon has played it, giving the same readings the same attitudes, so that those casually interested in New Zealand affairs might not be aware that it was the understudy and not the original that occupied the stage. In this way the colony has really two Premiers to boom it: Mi’ Seddon on tour to advertise us abroad, and Mr Ward at home to perpetuate the Seddonian traditions. That speech of the Acting-Premier at Denniston last week is an instance of how well he is rendering his part. I felt as I read it that I was listening to the insistent note of Mr Seddon roaring defiance at the world. The theme was one that never fails to inspire the absent Premier to the limit of his eloquence, and frequently I am afyaid beyond the limits of discretion; it was the destiny of New Zealand in the South Pacific. Who does not know the familiar broad touch of Mr Seddon when he takes up his brush to sketch the map of the Pacific ten or twenty years hence? But Mr Ward at Denniston was even less sketchy than the Premier has ever been. He drew the blue-pencil of authority down the map somewhere between the 160th and 170th degree of longitude with the remark that all to- the right of the line was New Zealand's by the divine right of geographical position. “New Guinea and another island he could not (or would not) name came within the sphere of the Commonwealth, all other islands of the Pacific naturally came under the control of Maoriland.” I don’t know that Mr Seddon, in his most irresponsible moments, ever gave a more distinct unofficial intimation of our intention to ring fence new for ourselves, and it need list surprise us if the intimation evokes hostile comment on the other side. The Australian newspapers have already warned the country to beware of the aggrandising spirit of Mr Seddon, and they are keeping a watchful eye on him during his travels, fearful lest he .should break out in some w’ay detrimental to the Commonwealth. What can such watchfulness avail, however, when no sooner has Mr Seddon left our shores, than another Seddon springs up in the absent one’s place, preaching the same pernicious doctrine. If they had imagined Beddon-

ism was a creed with one priest, and no disciples they are mightily mistaken, for here’s an apostle as fervent as his master, and goodness only knows whether this heresy may not affect the whole population. To Australian eyes the position is more serious than ever. Ths Coming Coronation. In connection with t.he Coronation festivities in Auckland, it has been decided after a great deal of discussion this way and that that- the children ar e not “to be butchered to make an Auckland holiday,” as an opponent of the juvenile treat expressed it to me. The arguments in favour of making the occasion a children’s one especially were many and strong, but the one argument against was stranger still, and that was the probability of bad weather interfering with the arrangements. In the summer time we could Eave organised a gigantic children’s celebration which the youngsters would, have enjoyed immensely, and which would have marked Coronation Day in their memory and ours for the rest of our lives. In the winter time, however, it is quite another matter. Any great outdoor gathering of the youngsters would bo attended with risks. Unless we could count on a bright sky overhead and. dry'ground under foot the poor little pleasure-seekers would stand a fair chance of catching more cold than enthusiasm. It would be downright cruel to marshal and parade thousands of little children in a wet paddoek or along our muddy streets, and those of our cities who intend to make the juvenile demonstration a feature of the Coronation festivities may find unless favoured with exceptional weather, that they have made a mistake. That is their affair, however. Auckland for her part is going to revert to the stereotyped methods of celebrating—the military review, the fireworks in the evening, and so forth. Yes, after a desperate attempt at something original the Northern city has had to fall back on a procession and rockets. Bocal ingenuity- may, of course devise some adjuncts to these, and is indeed likely to do so. 'A suggestion comes from the country that the Government should run the trains free on that one day, so that the country people may come to town to celebrate the King’s crowning with their town friends, and those of the town dwellers who have no stomach for celebrations can hie them to the country to get away from the din. But, of course, that suggestion is for the Government to consider. So far as the city itself goes, a morning service, a military procession, and a fireworks make up the civic programme. » o o o o o The King’s Voice. There's a divinity doth hedge the King, not merely from treason, but from the prefervid loyalty of his subjects as well. The latest attack on His Majesty of which we hear took the shape Of a request from Wellington for a phonographic message from the Sovereign. The astute Secretary for the Colonies, Mr Chamberlain, met the thrust, and parried it before it reached His Majesty’s person with a regret and an explanation that if one colony received a phonographic message other colonies and dependencies Would look for a similar boon—a result which the Secretary no doubt thought it neediess to point out would entail a very severe amount of work on the already over-taxecT monarch. If King Edward himself could hhvw been got at I quite believe he would not have shirked the ordeal which the sending of separate messages by phonograph to each of the colonies would involve. He is so complaisant that I can easily fancy him sitting up late into the night telling to the talking machine how much he appre-

elated the loyalty of this, that, and the other colony. Happy those portions of the Empire which came first in the list in such a case, for then their messages would have all the freshness of the King’s voice, and his best choice of sentiment, while those whose turn came latest would have to be content with a somewhat raucous message, and pardonable commonplace greeting. I suppose we in New Zealand might have counted on a “first proof,” to use an office term, but even before that had been ground out repeatedly in every centre and corner of the colony it would be sadly the worse of wear. Making allowance for the tinny tone which the machine would impart to the full utterance of the Sovereign—for it is no respecter of person—Wellington as the capital and the other cities in their order would have a chance of getting the Royal message in good condition, but what would it be like before it got to small up-country towns. There is something positively derogatory to the dignity of the throne in the idea of a King’s voice worn to a mere squeak, evoking not respectful attention, but a smile ra-; ther, from one audience after an other. In that view it is better that the phonograph megsage is not to be sent. We have surely imagination to translate into the King’s own tones any message he may choose to send us in writing, if such translation is necessary. Eor the life of me I cannot see IiQW it is, but this is the age of speech. o o o o o School Committees and Boards. The position as between the Auckland Board of Education and the CitySchools Committee is one interesting to all boards and school committees throughout the colony, for it opens the question of what are the relative powers and functions of both. That question has never been properly settled, because it has never been properly- opened. Parliament has in tr. loose sort of a way defined the jurisdiction of each body, but usage has had much more to do in actually determining it. And the effect of usage has been to give the boards larger powers than the Act concedes them. It was most natural that this should be the case. In so many instances the board was undeniably more qualified to decide educational questions than the bulk of committees in its district. In the case of scores of country places the members of the local school committee are less suited to judge of the qualifications of a teacher or the educational requirements of the place ‘ than the board is, even were the former in touch with the teachers, winch they are not. Hence it has become customary for the board to dispense with any save a purely formal consultation with the local body on the question of fresh appointments and similar matters. But the members of a schools committee in such a centre as Auckland city stand in a very different position from the ordinary country school committee. The much larger scope of their work and the greater importance of it demands, and, as a rule, calls forth a close and interested attention to the work of the schools. Then they are men quite as able to judge of educational requirements and the qualifications of teachers as are the members of the higher body, and in regard to their own particular sphere of duty even better able. Conscious of this, they are likely to insist on the right to be consulted by the Board, which the Act allows, and have every reason to resent the slight put upon them if they are not consulted or their recommendations ignored. Some of us may think that in resigning in a body as a protest against the Board’s treatment the Auckland Committee went to the extreme, but it was probably the only course that would bring to an issue the question of the actual powers of the two bodies, and have them more clearly defined. As to the imputation that the Board, in ignoring the Auckland Committee’s recommendation, did so in order to unfairly favour its own favourites it is, no doubt, an interesting point in the controversy, but it has not directly to do with the larger question.

To Extinguish Volcanoes. To the scientifically Ignorant the results of science do not seem merely wonderful, but they suggest that there is nothing in heaven or earth that science will not accomplish. There are people who are quite confident that before another ten years railway and steamboat shares will be unsaleable, and mankind wandering at their own sweet will amid the upper regions of the air. The weary road by which science has toiled up to the height of her present achievement is quite left ont of the reckoning by them, and they look upou each fresh triumph as a happy inspiration, or a fortunate leap in tlie dark. The great discoverers and inventors in scientific fields are just so many lucky individuals who stumbled on Nature’s secrets as they were mooning along life’s h'gliway, or rummaging in the by-paths. To the prevalence of this notion we owe no end of irresponsible schemes and theories put forward by folks, often sensible enough otherwise. I think we must number among these that latest theory propounded by Mr Sanford, of Auckland, for the prevention of volcanic eruptions. Mr Sanford may be right in his extraordinary conjectures—it is not for a non-scientific person like me to dogmatise on the matter—but it is a little strange that students of volcanoes have never advanced a suggestion in the least like his. Mr Sanford’s belief is that the internal fires to which we attribute such recent perturbations as have swept a whole city away in the West Indies had their origin on the surface of the planet at a time, I presume, when the latter was in a molten state; and that the eruptions are due to the water of the sea leaking through the*crust, and being converted into steam. This last idea, I understand, is in a large measure accepted by the scientific world. No one in that world, however, can claim to have anticipated Mr Sanford’s proposal for obviating this terrible generation of steam, which is nothing less than to pour down all the volcanic vents of the earth some chemical, the action of which would extinguish the fire without making steam. What the chemical shall be he leaves to the scientists to discover, merely venturing an opinion that the thing need not necessarily be expensive, and a suggestion that the nations should aet in concert, in the matter. But it is only natural that wo should look to Mr Sanford himself to discover the necessary extinguisher. Ho could scarcely wish himself more favourably placed than he is here in New Zealand, with volcanic vents galore on which to experiment. From a business point of view it would pay him to set early to work on his researches, for it is certain that with the terrible possibilities of destruction before them the Antilles will be purchasable for an old song, and to a man who has the means of putting out for ever the fires which at present threaten to consume them, they should be more profitable than and as pleasant as any New Zealand islands. - >33'