The Week in Review

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 8, 19 August 1908, Page 1

The Week in Review

The depression which inevitably follows a debauch of pleasure and violent excitement, even when these have been of the most innocent and legitimate description is doubtless being experienced in Auckland this week, just as it was in Christchurch when the Exhibition finally closed its gates. The dismantling of decorations, the removal of Venetian poles, and the destruction of triumphal arches are proceeding apace as the paper goes to press, and accentuate the gentle and resigned melancholy which appears to pervade the northern capital, and which will doubtless soon lull its citizens into that proverbial apathy from which the visit of the fleet and the high pressure life of the past week temporarily aroused them. There can be no doubt as to the success of the. festive week. The responsibility laid by the Dominion on the shoulders of Auckland was undoubtedly not of the lightest, and the characteristic climatic languor of the place made southerners w’onder if she would rise to the occasion. That she did so, even Wellington, naturally an observant and sharp critic, will probably ungrudgingly admit. Not merely was the welcome, as a welcome, well done, and a credit to the Executive, as we observed last week, but it furnished also a very admirable example of the orderliness, good humour and sobriety of the entire community. In this respect, th<l visit was a very striking object lesson to the pessimists and anti-liquor fanatics, who so constantly contend that we are going to the dogs by reason of hotels and strong drink. The general excitement, the enormous influx of visitors, and the atmosphere of festivity which prevailed, might have occasioned a very considerable tendency to intemperance, and in an Old Country city would infallibly have done so. In Auckland it certainly did not, ami the police have openly testified to the ama-zing absence of drunkenness in the streets by night as well as by day. Isolated cases there were, of course, amongst our own people .as well as amongst the American visitors, but these were quite extraordinarily few, and were for* this very reason more noticeable. To see groups of drunken men or boys was exceptional. Of what city of the Old Country under similar circumstances could this be written, and of which could it be added that cases of intoxicated women were practically unknown. J* d* The visitors, too, were, as a whole, exceedingly orderly and well behaved, and in this connection it is only just to remark that the crews of the. battleships had been very cruelly libelled by rumour, preceding their arrival. ' It was currently reported that th? men were of about as low a class as could be conceived, the offscourings and rejects of many nations, and that trouble would surely arise when a few thousand of them got ashore together, probably by day, and certainly at night. It was, indeed, suggested by a particularly pruriently, prudish section that the curfew* bell should be rung and young people called within doors by eight o’clock, a preposterous idea, scarcely redeemed from its sheer nastiness by its unconscious humour. It was, likewise, proposed to insult the visitors by refusing to allow liquor to be sold at the race meeting arranged for their honour, when on ordinary and similar occasions it id invariably tolerated, thus suggesting that Americans were less to be trusted than ourselves. The rumours were baseless; the men were a sober, free-handed, and good-humoured set, and we have yet to hear of any offence against our women folk who were to have been protected by BO ridiculous an dimpoasible a device as the curfew.

Since the above was written, our attention has been drawn to a Press telegram from Wellington, in which the Rev. R. F. 8. Palmer, a New South Wales prohibitionist orator about to tour the colony, assured a Wellington newspaper man that he passed through Auckland in the height'of fleet week, and that the city ‘’had been treated to a bachanalian orgy for fleet week. There were hundreds of drunken men to be seen in the streets, both in uniform and civilian dress.” It is a thousand pities that a community cannot sue for libel, and that the prohibition person who fabricated this preposterous, wicked, and malignant falsehood cannot b? brought to book for the same. A more gross perversion of fact, a worse and more mischievous attempt to create prejudice and make capital out of an extraordinary and happy occasion has never been made, even By the most intolerant of these travelling and irresponsible agitators. ( ’A lie which is half a lie is a difficult matter •to fight,” and is, therefore, the cowardliest and most contemptible weapon to use in any movement or controversy. That a few cases of drunken civilians and sailors were to be met with has been admitted, but •fudge Kettle and Inspector Cullen have, in open court, expressed their pleasure at the rarity of intoxication during the week, and surely these gentlemen are in *a better position to judge than a professional lecturer who is so prejudiced that he cannot apparently help making gross and cruel misstatements of fact and throwing undeserved obliquy on a well-ordered, temperate and genial people, who behaved in a way which did honour to themselves* and to the Dominion. As Mr Palmer is to lecture through the colony, and may repeat the libel, it would perhaps be well if some public notice were taken of his utterance by the people of Auckland. Ordinarily one would not trouble about such persons or their absurd statements, but a city which acted for the Dominion suffers in honour under such an insinuation, and it is perhaps fitting that it should be publicly and indignantly repudiated by the Mayor, councillors and Executive who carried out the welcome so successfully. The Australians are much exercised at present over the threatened destruction of their native birds, and they are urging the Federal Government to absolutely prohibit the exportation of the plumage or skins of birds. Mr. Deakin was quite in sympathy with the views expressed by the deputation which waited on him in connection with the matter recently, but he very sensibly pointed out that it was a matter in which legislation could do but little. The women really controlled the matter. Mr. Asquith lias realized the danger of thwarting women’s desires in the matter of the suffrage, and Mr. Deakin probably realizes that any attempt to interfere with feminine headgear would be a far more serious matter than interefering with their right to vote. The matter is, however, more serious than might at first sight appear. Many of these birds are the avowed enemies of the insect pests so ruinous to all farmers, graziers and fruitgrowers. Their threatened destruction for the purpose of purely decorative display in women’s hats is viewed with alarm by the agricultural population as well as by naturalists, and it is to be hoped some step will be taken to stop the wholesale slaughter of these feathered friends of man.

Mr. Deakin, by the way, seems to fol low Lord Rosebery in his distrust of the powers of the legislature to affect re forms against the inclinations of the people. It is to be feared that Lor.l Rosebery is the voice of one crying in the wilderness as far as the present generation is concerned. He preaches the gospel of self-reliance to an age trained to look to the State for the supply of all its wants, and he doubts the moral value of legislation in a century which believes that men can only be made good by Acts of Parliament. He reminds us that England’s greatest men have been great in spite of the Government and not by means of the Government. Neither Clyde nor Warren Hastings relied much on others, they played a lone hand and won on their own. The fact that in 1900 no fewer than 2000 new laws and ordinances were passed throughout the British Empire is an eloquent testimony to the noble lord’s contention that we are relying less and less on ourselves, ami lean on. Acts of Parliament for support rather than on our own grit and moral stamina. Sir Robert Anderson, the distinguished head of the Criminal Investigation Department at Scotland Yard, approaches the same subject from a rather more practical standpoint. He contends that all legislation which seeks to suppress licensed houses leads to the springing up of low class clubs and other places where drunkenness and gambling reign unchecked. .Sir Robert is an ardent temperance advocate, as well as the greatest living authority on crime and criminals, and his words ought to carry weight. .If statistics are any guide, the farmers m the Dominion are doing well. From figures recently supplied, we find that the total value of farm produce for the last twelve months was estimated at the enormous sum of £26,500.000, a sum almost sufficient to pay for the upkeep of the entire British navy, and more than sufficient to pay the interest on the English national debt. All kinds of minerals, manufactured goods, and other forms of merchandise exported were valued at £3,283,000, so that it will easily be seen how great a part the farmer plays in adding to the prosperity of the country. The capital invested in farming is estimated at £120,000.000, while the total value of all factories and workshope in New Zealand, including land, buildings, machinery and plant, is only a tenth of that sum. Farmers are apt to complain of the little attention given by the public to questions affecting farming, and certainly the magnitude of the interests involved seems to demand that those on the land should receive every consideration at the hands of our legislators. “The value of expert evidence,” formed the subject of some strong comments by Mr. Justice Edwards in his charge to the Grand Jury at Auckland. Some young men employed in the Postal Department were charged with stealing postal notes, forging signatures, and obtaining money. The only evidence against them was that of several handwriting experts, and the judge remindc the jury how very precarious this evidence necessarily was. Anybody can call himself an expert in hand-writing just as anybody can call himself a n expert in hair-dressing or face massage or telling character from the bumps on your head or the shape of your nose. The trouble is, as his Honor pointed out, that when an expert witness is called to support a case, ho often shows an unconscious bias towards the view he is specially called to support. The unreliability of such evidence was strikingly illustrated l in the famous Piggott forgery case. Several of the foremost handwriting experts in England swore that the letters wore written by Farnell. So positive were they, that in

al! probability the “Times” would have won its case had it not been for the masterly cross-examination of Sir Charles Russell, who proved Piggott to have forged the letters. He did this by getting him to write down the word “ hesitancy.” The word in the letters was spelt “ ency ” instead of “aney,” and when Piggott made the same mistake, the great barrister cornered him. Montagu Williams complained that he lost thß Lamson ease because while the Crown called several experts to prove the presence of poison in the sweets the doctor had given to his nephew, his client was too poor to be able to call rebutting experts to testify that no poison was present. Williams said) that for another hundred pounds or so he could have called for his own side exports quite as distinguished as those sailed by the Crown. It is related of the present English Chief Justice that when he was at the Rar he handed two documents to a handwriting expert, and asked him if they were in the same handwriting. The witness replied that it was easy to see that they were by different hands, amt pointed out differences between them, which he said a trained eye could detect at once. Counsel rather disconcerted him by exclaiming, “Well, there you are wrong, for I just wrote them both myself." d* It is not easy to see what, the Lambeth Conference has accomplished to justify its Icing pondering of weighty questions. On the subject of faith and modern thought, the encyclical is singularly disappointing. Not a word is said to divert or guide, and the bald statement that •■materialism does not possess the strength ami attractiveness it once did” is hardly justified by facts. Men are perplexed by problems raised by Biblical criticism, by scientific discoveries, by the ever-growing interest manifested in the. study of comparative religion. The old faith must be re-stated in terms oi modern thought if it is to appeal to men of to-day. Such re-statement we looked for; instead we are given bald platitudes about the historic creeds and the dangers of secular e location. Matthew Arnold charged theologians with a want of intellectual seriousness. Men debate the very foundation of the Christian belief, and the encyclical recommends a re-transla-tion of the Athanasian creed and the alteration of a few rubrics as being the things best calculated to advance the cause of the church. Truly the mountain has been in labour and the ridici* loos mouse is brought forth. On the allimportant question of Christian re union the encyclical has little to offer of a practical nature. It indicates the remoteness rather than the nearness of the corporate re union of the Churches of divided Christendom. This is not to be wondered at, considering that the Anglicans and the Free Churches hold entirely opposite views on questions of fundamental importance. The Anglican regards the bishops as. being direct successors o* the apostles, endued with apostolic gifts and capable of transmitting these gifts io others. The Free Churches regard the episcopate as an ancient and, on the whole, a practical form of church government; but they refuse to regard the bishops as being in any way men possessed of superhuman or extraordinary gifts. The published results of a conference attended by over 200 bishops will go far to confirm the Free Churches in Hug opinion. A distinguished visiting Mr. Courtney, who represented the “Sydney Daily Telegraph" at the recent fleet festivities, hail some exceedingly complimentary ami pleasant things tij say of the Dominion and its people aS the supper tendered to Southern anj Australian pressmen by Auckland newspanel* men and proprietors. He considered I Im Maoris the undoubted arist* cracy of all native races, and opined lift;

Baine climate, condition, and natural environment s which had made them so would also result in treating from the people of the Dominion “the white aristocracy*’ ‘of the Southern Hemisphere. “New Zealanders,** he said, ‘‘were born hosts and entertainers, and he had been particularly struck by the spontaneous enthusiasm shown by our crowds, which was in marked contrast to the self-con-tained and rather shy demeanour of New South Wales crowds on similar occasions. Australians,” he explained, •‘felt just as much as we did. and their welcome to .American sailors ami Press visitors would Is? just as sincere, but the Australian had not the facility of expressing his pleasure ami delight with anything approaching the cordiality whit'h was so characteristic of the people ol these beautiful islands.” jc To some of us, this expression of opinion will cause a shock of pleasant mirprise. If there is one thing in which we had imagined we were, as a people, somewhat seriously deficient, it was this very capacity to openly enthuse, this absence* of shyness and “inaiivaist* honte.” with which Mr. Courtney credits us. Time and again we have remarked in these columns on the shyness of a New Zealand audience ami crowd, ami their apparent physical inability to give a rousing, roaring cheer such as surges up a London street when Royalty is passing, or when there is any pomp and circumstance in the departure or return of troops in the public streets. 'This strange nervousness —for nervousness of showing our feelings, and fear of looking ridiculous it really is—has kept ns semi silent and apparently apathetic on two occasions at least of late years, cither of which would have sent a London crowd delirious with excitement, (hie was the visit of the Imperial troops, who were frankly amazed at the quietness of their passage up our streets, and the other at the. tour of the Duke ami Duchess of York, who were allowed to drive by with such ghosts of true British cheering that one felt with some humiliation that it was almost impossible to get our people wound up save at a football match, when all reserve is broken down in the excitement of the national sport. Yet, here is'‘a well-qualified judge who says we are just what, we had hoped to be, but imagined we were not. Of course. Mr. Courtney was speaking by comparison, am! we must, one fears, trike the‘compliment (sincere as it was) with due humility. If wo are easily excitable and enthusiastic in comparison with Australia. it is well, but. we fear the latter must in this ease be apathetic and difficult to rouse to a degree almost tragic. Few names are better known throughout the English-speaking world than that, of Ira D. Sankey, and thousands who did not know him, except through Ins hymns, w ill yet fee! his death as a personal loss. No hymnal has ever attained anything like the popularity of Songs and Solos. The circulation of over 50.000.000 copies has never been ap-' proached by any other book except the Bible. Nor is the reason far to seek. These hymns touch the heart by their simplicity and their evangelical fervour. The public does not want dogmatic teaching in its. hymn>; it wants something that. expresses t he heart's adoration. •‘Hail to Thee. Trisagion.“ may be sound doctrine, but ‘There Were Ninety and Nine’’ is sound doctrine, and something more. It is the old Gospel appeal to all those who have fallen by life's wavside; it is the picture of Christ, not as the Second Person in the Trinity, but as the Good Shepherd — the picture so dear to all Christendom from the days <>f the catacombs to our own. The mission of Moody and Sankey left its impress on cultured and uncultured alike*. Men like John Addington Syinonds and Matthew Arnold and A. (’. Benson have given their tribute, ami what |)c QuincCy described as the Pariahs »»f Oxford-street and the Fast End have brought theirs. None of our modern so-called missions, with their processions and strange rituals, have produced a tithe of the effect produced by these two great American evangelists. Sankey’s hymns are still l he favourites with our own people. If Hohl the Fort” , is not as popular as of yore, “Shall We Gather at the River” is likely tp retain its hold on the affections of our congregations for all times. J* v!< ' Thr news cabled this week that an English doctor has been captured ami tortured to death in Morocco is deplor-

able in regard to the unfortunate man himself, and for those relatives left to mourn their loss and to picture in their imagination his awful sufferings; but public* sympathy can scarcely be wasted on the case, and wp trust the “yellow” press of the Old Country will not at* tempt to work up any excitement over the matter. Months ago Britain very properly gave ample arid public notice that she was not disposed to waste money ami life in looking after anyone silly enough to trespass in Morocco, and who might be captured and held up for ransom by one or other of the tribesmen. A notification of this sort is always a spur to soane ill-balanced minds, to do precisely what they are warned not to do, and it was inevitable that sooner or later we should hear of the death of some irresponsible person or persons such as this doctor. All we can do is to thank Heaven that it is no worse, and to hope that this incident and a policy of masterly inactivity on the part of th? British authorities will combine to prevent similar but perhaps more serious catastrophes in the future. J* It will not do, however, one fears, to be sanguine on this point. Only those who have travelled considerably know the crass stupidity, blatant ignorance, and brutal selfishness of a certain typo of Britisher who mistakes these undesirable qualities for pluck and daring—or. as he would put it, “British bulldog breeding.” A wilful and complete disregard for the feelings and prejudices of others, a colossal and ludicrous belief in their own wiisdom, and of their importance as British subjects, makes such per-, sons the shame of their countrymen in all parts of the globe. You will see it in Italy, ami especially Spain, and will be. amazed—if you know the race —at the patience and forbearance of people who would not for one instant tolerate in their own folk such impcrtinencies or insults as those these idiots place constantly upon them. That they escape without the savage hint of a knife in the ribs or neck is due, think the fool tourists, to fear of Britain. Nothing of the sort —patience is extended because this (lass of traveller is contemptuously looked upon as a monied lunatic, who knows no better, and who is made to pay for his ill manners,., through the only place where experience has taught ho possesses any feelings—i.e., his pocket. & But in more distant, more primitive peoples, this protection of folly not infrequently proves futile. In less than a couple of years’ residence in the River Plate some two decades ago. the writer knew personally of four cases where men of this stupid type were “done to death” in a manner which thrilled one with horror, but which was thoroughly welldeserved, and of which very properly no notice was taken, save by the local authorities, who also very properly let the avengers, or murderers, escape after a farcical inquiry and nominal line. In one instance a young fellow', barely twenty-five, insisted on visiting a young married woman in the absence of her husband, and this after a distinct statement from that individual that these attentions were unwelcome. He laughed, (tame once too often, and was duly, deservedly, and scientifically knifed. Other cases were similar, or hinged on disregard of well-known etiquette of the country. Knifing, where murder is only a secondary crime, is common, and the number of scatter-brains who lost their lives owing to vanity, stupidity, and folly’ was considerable, ami would have been greater but for the good-humoured contempt of the Spaniards, Basques, Neapolitans, and half-breeds for the illbred race who assumed such absurd airs of arrogance and superiority, and who were, in their eyes, simply mad. One hopes Morocco may teach a lesson without further loss of life; but one is not sanguine.