Topics of the Week.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXX, Issue VII, 14 February 1903, Page 427

Topics of the Week.

The King’s Illness. The cables concerning the illness of the King last week were, as such messages usually are where royalties are concerned, very reassuring, but, with past experience to look back upon, one could not feel so absolutely confident that all was really well as one could desire. We cannot but remember that the serious condition of the late Queen’s health was kept a close secret till collapse had set in and when there waspracticallynohope whatever of saving Her Majesty’s life. Again, the very day before he underwent that dangerous operation, when he was at death’s door and in mortal agony, the King drove through London, and the cables commented on his improved looks, while the indisposition was set down as nothing to be seriously alarmed about. Yet, as we guessed, the position was of the gravest, and it was touch and go for the Monarch’s life. It was only -when it was absolutely impossible to keep back the news that the public were let into the secret of how serious was the crisis. So, again,now we weretoldatfirst itwas a mere cold. Then the eat was let slightly out of the bag by the statement that the period when complication might ensue was past, from which we gathered that there was after all a time of anxiety. In faet, the insistent optimism of the messages was alone enough to make one slightly suspicious. No doubt, this extreme caution to avoid giving alarm is necessitated by the large issues hanging at stake on the life of such a personage as the King,'though exactly why in a settled community such as ours where the succession is certain and no foreseeable complications are likely to arise, there should be so serious a financial side to the question of the King’s death, I have never been able to understand. If the King were to be pronounced in danger to-morrow consols and other similar securities would have a smart fall. I cannot understand why. Sentiment and business are not hand in hand, and deeply, deeply as we should all grieve at the sei ious illness of the King, it is not easy to say why it should affect national securities in such a steadily governed nation as ours. But at present the latest news is good, and we may thank heaven the attack was but light, and once more heartily and sincerely pray God Save the King.

When Cocks Combine. ’When doctors differ things are usually rather uncomfortable for the patient, but certainly the very mischief will be in it for all of us when cooks combine. And to combine is their avowed intention. The principal cooks of Auckland, together with the waiters, held a large and enthusiastic meeting last week, at which it was determined to form a soci-

ety, or union, and a committee was appointed to draw up rules, etc., etc., and to make the necessary arrangements. This is rather a serious business for us all. It has long been said, with wisdom, that we are all at the mercy of our eooks, and if this was true of individuals, what will be our position when they are combined? Their powers will be tremendous. They will be able to make almost any demand, for, supposing they were to strike and call out every cook in the country, what should we do for our dinners? It is no subject for levity; dinner is the most important event of the day to a not inconsiderable portion of the community, especially of middle ag< d and elderly gentlemen, and the bare notion of having to go without, or cook it for themselves, is enough to make their blood run cold. For, make no mistake, “the general”—a race rapidly becoming extinct, by the way—will unquestionably amalgamate with the cooks and waiters, and, on the occasion of a strike, they would be also called out. Besides, what horrible plots against our digestions may be planned and carried out by a combination of cooks and waiters! What revenges might not be worked on our helpless and hapless internals! With

what secret glee the associated waiter w ill perchance watch us consuming some toothsome but deadly entree, concocted by his nefarious colleague the cook, knowing how we shall afterwards writhe in torture! How many trains may their carefully considered and combined delays cause us to lose, and what bills may their associated ingenuity contrive for us! It is bad enough to offend a cook now, but at present one can transfer one’s custom. But when they are combined it will be quite another matter. Once offend a cook and you will be done for. Your name will go down in the “black list,” and then heaven help you. For a first offence, perhaps, one might be let down easily, such as being served with rare or underdone meat if one ordered it well cooked, or vice versa. For a second misdemeanour slow poisoning would probably be inflicted on one, while if one erred a third time all cooked food whatsoever would be refused. Just imagine sueh a wretched delinquent journeying faintinsr from restaurant to restaurant, or hotel to hotel, vainly imploring a morsel of eooked food, offering untold gold for the unprocurable chop, or the sternly refused steak. Cold and callous, the eooks and waiters would refuse his every appeal, till the wretched creature w uld become insane and frantically demolish his beef and mutton raw. But, to be serious, though I have chosen to be flippant on the subject up to now, the combination is one winch will have general sympathy. The hours are certainly long and the work of cooking in this climate —especially in summer time —must be verv trying. and professional cooks and waiters are just as entitled to try and ameliorate their condition as any one else. May they succeed. o O O O o

Crimes Against Children. Terrible and repugnant as is the very idea of inflicting capital punishment on women, one cannot but feel that the execution of the wretched creatures convicted of baby murder in London was most amply justified, and that the carrying out of the extreme sentence of the law was wiss, and will have a salutary effect. There can be little doubt that the case sheeted home to the women was onlv one of many they had been concerned in, and it is all too probable that they had carried on their terrible traffic in infant life for years without interruption till over-confidence in their immunity from discovery by the police and increasin'l' greed and brazen daring resulted in the inevitable Nemesis—arrest, trial and death. It is to be feared too that in London, and in all largo cities indeed, the crimes of baby f irming and infant murder are terribly prevalent, The matter is so siekeningly easy and the chances of discovery are so horribly small that the temptation to some of the community is irresistible. No one who has not lived and attempted some social work in the slums of cities like London or Liverpool can have the remotest conception of the surpassing wretchedness of the children of the gutter and the awful mortality amongst them. The marvel is not that so many die. but that any live. How much of the neglect and starvation is unavoidable or due to mere carelessness and improvidence is impossible to say. but that there is a sinister percentage of cases where cruelty, intentional neglect, and deliberate starvation put inconvenient babies out of the world is incontestable. These murders—for murders, and cruel murders,theyare—added to those of the fearfully large army of baby farmers, must bring the total of tha sacrifice of infant life to a very appalling figure, so that it is but right when the law on some (unhappily rare) occasion is able to take the culprits red-handed, such an example should be made as is calculated to strike terror into the hearts of those who in fancied security are carrying on the same dreadful work. The same principle should apply in cases of cruelty to children. The unwillingness of magistrates to interfere between parents and children, and their singular apEarent obtuseness in discriminating etween what is salutary parental dis-

cipline and what gross cruelty, is responsible for an amount of suffering and wretchedness impossible to compute, and at which the hearts of those who have seen something of the matter shrink back appalled and nauseated. It has always seemed to me that magistrates are too often culpably finniking in this matter. Surely, to a well balanced, judicial, connnonsense, and withal a humane mind, there should be little difficulty in drawing the line between wanton, prolonged and cruel torture and such a beating or other punishment as might be necessary to bring an unruly child to its bearings. Yet, even where cases are brought into Court, and this is all too seldom, the average magistrate shillies and shallies, and either dismisses the ease in pure inability to make up his mind or inflicts a fine which, of course, brings a fresh crop of blows and brutality to the unfortunate victim. Baby farming is probably better looked after in New Zealand than in most countries of the world. We have taken almost every possible precaution to avoid abuses by the kindly females who are willing to adopt infants ‘ for a consideration,” but no effort should be spared not merely to insure that these infants are kept alive, but that they are properly and kindly treated. If there is a death it must be. we have decided, accounted for, but whether these enquiries are as searching as they should be. and whether registered baby farmers are visited as frequently and as unexpectedly as is desirable in the interest of the helpless atoms of humanity entrusted to their charge, is another question, and one I should hesitate to answer off-hand in the affirmative. Defunct Si, Valentine. Next Saturday is St. Valentine's Hay, and I greatly fear scarce a single young xv oman s heart iu this colony beats the quicker for the information. I question indeed if one per eent. of modern maidens either - know, or care, when is the feast of St. alentine or remember anything of its traditions. Twenty years since, when I, too, wits young, I remember the postman used to stagger under the loads of valentines; nay, 1 have, in the Old Country, seen handcarts pressed into the service, and the whole household, from kitchen wench ..p. in a state of bubbling excitement as the missives were delivered. They were expensive things, too, in these days, except, of course, the “ugly ones,” of which more anon. Elaborate creations of paper lace, silvered, or even gilded, with a brilliantly emblazoned pair of human hearts conjoined, or a single one transfixed with an arrow (the shaft of Cupid), might cost your love sick swain anything from a shilling to a sovereign, and when, as was sometimes the case, a present of ear-rings or a bracelet lay hidden in the papery folds of the love missive, the value would rise far above that. The idea of choosing sweethearts, and being speciallyprivileged to declare one’s passion on tlie fourteenth of February, arose from the tradition, mentioned by Shakespeare, Spencer, and other earlier poets, that in England birds choose their mates on that day. As children, I remember we used firmly to believe this, and to watch the antics of sparrows, finches, etc., etc., in full confidence that they were sweethearting and picking their companions for the year. It is not generally known, I believe, that in the real oldfashioned Valentine's Day of early Erg land, sweethearts did not choose their own loves as they did later. They were chosen by lot, and married people could participate. There were, in fact, mock betrothals and mock marriages, and I've no doubt much fun, and perhaps a little mischief, eventuated. It is, I think, somewhat of a pity that we have so easily let these old customs and traditions drop. They were, some of them, passing foolish, but it was the sort of foolishness which made for innocent laughter and enjoyment, and appreciation of the lighter pleasures of life. We are apt to be too utilitarian and strenuous in our ideas of enjoyment nowadays. We take our pleasures as we do everything else—competitively. We must ever be in rivalry to someone, we must always work at beating some record, we can never for a moment take life easily. If we are forced to do so, we speedily find it, as we term it, “slow." Vhy should we not find comfort in slowness —so-called —sometimes? I think we

should be healthier and happier ii rushed less. This, however, is somewhat adrift from valentines, the subject on which I started. The ugly valentine was a coarse bit of vulgarity, whose demise no one can regret. It was aimed at hurting the feelings, and, though it would be a foolish person who would take such pitiful spite to heart, they did unquestionably sometimes inflict pain. Valentines, like the mistletoe, have, I suppose, had their day, but mistletoe, or no mistletoe, the boys and girls, and even their elders, will continue to kiss, and even if St. Valentine is dead, it is still true that “Tis love, *tis love that makes the world go round.”