The Week in Review

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 18, 28 October 1908, Page 1

The Week in Review

The late Mrs. Knox has left £70,000 to charities, nearly £40,000 going to Auckland. The largest bequest is £20,000 for a home for incurables, and this will probably be added to the £lO,OOO left by the late Miss J. M. Thompson for the same purpose. Auckland has been peculiarly fortunate in the matter of generous benefactions from her wealthy citizens. The late Mr. James Dilworth left £lOO,OOO for the erection and endowment of a training institute for orphan boys and sons of poor people, Mr. Mackelvie left £57,000 for the Public Library and Art Gallery, and there have been a score of other bequests running well into four figures. In this respect Auckland resembles Bristol, which has had more given to it by its men of wealth than any other tbwn of its size in England. Queen Elizabeth bequeathed the celebrated Clifton Downs to the city for ever, on the grounds that Bristol women were bo ugly that they needed something to compensate them for their affliction. Auckland is hardly' likely to receive a bequest on that score. JX JX The proposal to establish a line of mail steamers from Wellington to Tahiti to connect with the boats from Papeete to San Francisco has occasioned considerable protest in Auckland. From the first opening up of the South Pacific the North of Auckland has been regarded as the natural centre of the island trade. From the point of view of the mails, it is not easy to sec that anything is gained by making Wellington the port of call. On the most sanguine estimate the time taken for the mails to reach London will be 35 days, and even this is likely to be exceeded. From Auckland a far quicker passage could be made than from Wellington. But we. already have a service by way of Fiji and Vancouver, which is far from being a success, and it is hard to believe that the new route will be of any real postal value. JX But many regard the subsidy of £7OOO as being in reality an attempt to divert the trade of the islands to Wellington. Auckland has built up a largo connection in the South Pacific, and the value of the trade is increasing year by year. There are steamers already running regularly, and it is unlikely that these will be discontinued. We shall simply have two sets of boats engaged in a trade that can only profitably employ one. Had tho subsidy been given to the Auckland route, not only' would it have meant quicker transit of mails, but encouragement would have been given to a trade already established, and one that has proved a source of considerable wealth and profit to tho province. It is doubtful whether even with the subsidy the Wellington service will be payable, and tho service already existing will be placed at a serious disadvantage. JX Professor Allen, who presided over the medical congress at Melbourne, drew attention very forcibly to the decline in the birth-rate throughout Australasia. He characterised it as deplorable, and pointed out that tho decline was most marked in the middle classes. He said that this unwillingness to accept parental responsibility could only merit unqualified condemnation. Undoubtedly tkio increased cost of living has had much to do with tlie decline in the size (of families. Amongst the rich and working Masses the falling-off is not so notice-

able, but in the great class that comes be ween the diminution is clearly marked. Whilst the wages of the workers have increased, the earnings of the professional classes have shown no corresponding rise, and the purchasing power of the sovereign has fallen. Though undoubtedly a great factor in the problem, the increased cost of providing for n family cannot be said to be the sole reason for our falling rate, and we must look deeper for a reason if we hope to mend it. jX jX On all sides there seems to be a decreasing sense of parental responsibility, and a corresponding decrease in filial affection. Stories reach us of parents who care nothing if their boys are charged at the Police Court with theft or other offences. They treat it as a joke, or else they confess that they have no control over their wayward offspring. Not only this, but from different parts of Australia there still rises the cry of the children. We read of little ones, some of them mere babies, who are treated like slaves by their unnatural and selfish guardians. A case was reported the other day, when on one farm six children, the youngest only eight, were compelled to rise every morning at 3 a.m. and milk 50 cows before breakfast. They walked three miles to school, and milked the same number of cows on their return after the day’s lessons were done. They never got to bed before 8 o’clock. We believe such cases are by no means exceptional, and the corollary is to be found in the growing lack of filial respect and obedience. JX The root of the evil lies in human selfishness, and the habit we have acquired of shunting all responsibility on to the State. In other days Englishmen believed that they owed a duty to God and to their country. The most sacred part of this duty lay in bringing up children to serve the nation, and no sacrifice was deemed too great to accomplish this end. Parental discipline was stern but wise, and character was formed both at school and in the home. But in our enlightened age we evade individual responsibility and individual self-denial. We pay taxes to the State because We must, and we are more concerned about paying than doing our duty. The craze for legislation and State control wll pass away as the craze for ping-pong has passed away. Meanwhile we are being forced to witness the working out of the eternal law that anything that tends to weaken the incentive to individual effort tends also to weaken national character. JX JX Few societies are more worthy of support than the 8. John Ambulance Association. Under the patronage of the King and the Prince of Wales, the society has extended its operations to every part of the world. The objects of the Association are:—The instruction of persons in rendering First Aid in ease of accidents or sudden illness, and in the transport of the sick and injured; the instruction of persons in the elementary principles and practice of nursing, and also of ventilation and sanitation, especially of a sick room; tho manufacture and distribution by sale or presentation of ambulance material, and the formation of Ambulance Depots in mines, factories, and other centres of industry and traffic; the organisation of Ambulance Corps, invalid Transport Corps, and Nursing Corps; and generally the promotion of instruction

and carrying out works for the relief of suffering of the sick and injured in peace and war, independently of class, nationality, or denomination. It is proposed by the Auckland Centre to erect a building which shall be properly equipped with a ground floor, central hall for Ashford litters, stretchers, and brigade work, where men from the country who have passed in First Aid can, when on a visit to town, freshen up their knowledge by practice, also offices for secretarial work, a staircase for the private rooms of the man-in-charge, and upstairs a large lecture hall, with waiting rooms, for examination pupils, and the nursing brigade. Towards this building £572 4/9 has already been collected, and on Saturday next, ‘•Ambulance Saturday,” further contributions will be invited. All of us are liable to meet with an accident, and the work of alleviating the pain and suffering caused by accidents is one that appeals to the sympathy and support of all who have the welfare of humanity at heart. JX <£l Mothers who are fond of having their babies photographed without the adjunct of the long christening robe should take warning from the horrible fate which has befallen a photographer at Feilding. A proud mamma had her infant of eight months taken without so much as a yard of draping. It was bad enough had she merely intended to bury the photo, in the pages of the family album, but the picture was actually exhibited in all its unblushing shamelessness in the photographer’s studio. This was too much for the pious' people of Feildiug. The strong arm of the law was invoked, and the Magistrate ordered baby’s photo, to be destroyed. In vain did counsel for the defence plead the precedent of eminent artists, and quote Buskin in extenuation of the enormity of his client’s action. The Court would have none of it, the picture was indecent, and had been rightly seized by warrant. Henceforth baby must be photographed in full regimentals and we would suggest in the case of very young infants that a top hat should be provided to prevent the indecent exposure of the bald spots that occasionally peep ord through the insufficient covering nature has provided for baby’s little head. Tho problem of the unemployed is taxing Hie resources of the British Government to the utmost, and the London County Council has endeavoured to meet the difficulty in some small degree by authorising the expenditure of £281,000 for the electrification of the trams. Captain Hemphill, the deputy chairman, moved for a vote of a million pounds, but this was negatived as being beyond the means at present available.. The Local Government Board has also during the last four months sanctioned loans for local works of utility Io the extent of £4,388.000. a sum largely in excess of the average. The Water Board proposes spending £520,000 on an additional reservoir, the post office will take on 8000 extra hands at Christmas, and the War Office has sot aside £200.000 to enable 24,000 men tq. join the reserves. In addition to these large sums, the Admiralty is spending 104 millions on naval construction, and the work has been commenced six weeks in advance of the usual time. v** J* Great as these schemes are, the Government proposals make no pretence of finality. It is admitted on nil hands that the relief afforded can be at best but temporary, nnd that the measures are merely anodynes. Ignore it as they may, the free traders cannot but be convinced that there is something radically wrong with their fiscal policy. Trade is leaving Britain for other lands where

the workers arc protected, and British goods are being undersold in the Home markets by the dumping of foreign productions. The by-elections are all going against the present Administration, nnd though other factors may have had weight, there can be but little doubt that the main element in the reaction has been the proved failure of Cobdcnism. Some form of protection is urgently needed for revenue purposes; it is still more urgently wanted as a means of protecting the British workman against outside competition arid securing for him ft fair return for his labour. <l* Bishop Julius lias recently been speaking of the Press as the modern pulpit, and he deplores the indifference displayed by many religious people towards such a powerful influence in our lives. For religious papers, as such, he has but little regard. At best they only succeed in reaching those who are already persuaded of the truths they preach; at worst, they become partisan organs and tend to stir up sectarian strife and illwill. But the great daily and weekly Press reaches a far wider audience, end many who never enter the doors of a church can be reached through the newspaper. Church people seldom think of sending accounts of matters of ge.ieral interest, such as the Lambeth Conference or a clerical meeting, to the papers, and they complain as a consequence that religious matters are ignored. A bright-ly-written paragraph is always welcome, and the busy editor is not such a pagan as he is often supposed to be. Tho Bishop is quite right when he lays the blame, not on the already fully occupied staff of our great dailies, but on the indifference and apathy of churchmen themselves. JX The Australasian Medical Congress has carried a resolution that hospitals maintained by charitable donations and Government grants should be free to all patients, and that patients should sigil a uccia ration that they arc unable to afford medical attendance. They also Ouoplcd a resolution that no medical man should pass for admission to a friendly society or association for professional attendance at contract rates any person whose income from all sources exceeds £4 a week, and that no medical inau should attend at contract rates on any member whose income exceeds £6 per week. With the first resolution many people will be found to agree, especially as regards free treatment for poor people. But our public hospitals are now so well equipped and so thoroughly up-to-date, that it would be a little hard to exclude from their benefits persons of moderate moans who might be able to pay for private attendance of a sort, but who would be quite unable to afford the many necessary adjuncts to medical treatment that are to be found in such perfection at our large institutions. But the resolution dealing with Friendly Societies stands on a somewhat different footing. Mr. J. Kershaw, the corresponding secretary of the New Zealand branch of the Manchester Unity of Oddfellows, describes the resulting situation as very serious. These societies exist largely for the encouragement of thrift, and many members by means of economy and industry have raised their incomes beyond the stipulated £2OO a year. Thus the more provident amongst our working classes are to I>c penalised for their prudence by being deprived of the benefit of medical attendance at contract rates. The Friendly Societies of New Zealand paid the medical profession last year the large sum of £51,470, besides the amount paid for cases rot. under lhe rules, and they seem to be receiving but scant consideration from those whom they so largely help

to support. An Mr. Kershr.w so pertinently points out, the British Medical Association has practically formed itself into a trades union, and that being so there seems no reason why it should not bo brought under an award. In any ease, the position taken up is lacking in dignity, and is hardly in accord with the recognised traditions of the learned professions. In Queensland, the Government and Opposition parties have entered into a combination under the premiership of Mr. Kidston. This has ended the three party system under which the extreme motion of Labour practically dominated the House. Both Mr. Kidston and Mr. Philp were formerly quite unable to attain or hold office except by pleasing the Labour members. The real cause of separation between Government and Opposition in Queensland has disappeared through the unanimous feeling throughout the Commonwealth in favour of a, White Australia. The “black labour/’ eo strongly supported by Mr. Philp, found only one advocate in the Federal Parliament, and the question is thus finally settled. Henceforth in the northern State there will be but two parties: the “moderates,” who advocate a policy of progressive reforms, and the “extremists,” who seek to upset, the fundamental principles on which industrial society as at present constituted rests. It is probable that as time goes on other countries will revert to the two party system, and the lino of cleavage is likely’ to be that which now obtains in Queensland. J* Bulgaria’s independence has been practically recognized by Turkey, M. Dirnitroif, counsellor to the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, having concluded a verbal agreement with the Grand Vizier, Kainuit Pasha, by which it has b.’en agreed to accept the present situation and set up a commission to settle financial questions. The great outstanding difficulty in the way of a peaceful ecttleinent is the attitude of Austria in regard to Bosnia and Herzegovina. The Porte insists that the question of annexation must be settled by the Powers, whilst Austria refuses to submit the matter to arbitration at all, and in this she is supported by Germany. Servia is clamouring for war, and it cannot be said that even yet the danger of a general conflagration is past. But it is probable that every art known to diplomacy’ will bo tried before there is a final appeal to the sword. The editor of the Church Gazette Bends’along the following letter, which, fearing presumably a lack of sense of humour amongst some readers, he has hesitated to print in his own paper: — S. PAUL AT ATHENS. (To the Editor.) Sir, —Happening to pick up a copy of your paper in a friend’s house, my eye fell on the following sentence: “Like S. Paul at Athens.” Will you allow' me to correct this? S. Paul has never left the colony, and is at present at Whangarei, having been bought by Mr. Johnson. He was by S. Leger out of Satanella, and won the Welcome Stakes in 1895, the Auckland Guineas in 1896, the Great Northern Foal Stakes in 3895, and he ran second to Waiuku for the N.Z. Cup in 1897, carrying Bst. 71bs„ and next day won the Metropolitan Handicap with Bst. 131bs. Of course, there may’ be an Athens in New Zealand, but the only Athens I am acquainted with is in Greece, and is situated in the Attic plain, which is bounded on the East by Hymcttus (3,368 ft. on the North-East by Pannes (4,634 ft-. and on the West, and South by the Saronic Gulf, in whose waters lie Salamis and Aegina. lam sure S. Paul never visited Greece. —1 am, etc., The accurate knowledge of horse-rac-ing and the useless information concerning the height of mountains, etc., etc., as imparted by our school teachers, combined with the absolute ignorance of the Apostle, is too delightful for words, and comment would be indeed impertinent.