The Week in Review.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 9, 2 March 1910, Page 1

The Week in Review.

The Strategic Value of Railways. LORD KITCHENER has explained the absolute necessity of a strategic railway system for Australia, and without presumption we may say that the same adviee must apply to New Zealand. Another military expert, Sir Edward Hutton, has, it is true, advised that it is of no use to build lines for defence purposes till we have men to send over them; but this difficulty will 'be overcome by the time the new Defence Scheme is in good working order. To the commercial welfare of the Dominion which in itself is, or ought to be, sufficient spur to the authorities to hasten on the linking up of the country, must be added the necessity for a practical system of strategic railways for defence purposes. No interstate difficulties can arise in New Zealand as has been the case in Australia, but even in spite of these difficulties across the water, Mr. Deakin assured the inhabitants of Ballarat and Maitland that Lord Kitchener’s advice is to be acted upon at once, and that preliminary arrangements are already .being made for opening up negotiations between the States for a transcontinental railway. To the layman in these mattens the idea of a line to go through vast tracks of land which make such a huge blank space on the map seems somewhat extraordinary, but the last report of the surveyors of at least part of the blank space, is to the effect that there are approximately 25,000,000 of acres of land •which, they describe as fair to good,” and as capable of carrying over a million and a-half sheep. Again, on the South Australian side, there are considerable areas of hind which will be available for pastoral purposes after the line is run through.

The advent of a railway will give almost any land a higher value, and it is considered by the authorities tliat if the West goes ahead aa it has done during

the past decade, the end of another ten

years should see a profit of something like £lB,OOO.

As applied to New Zealand, now let us consider the position as regards New

Zealand. Though not perhaps of such paramount importance as in a continent like Australia, yet the dire need of railways—and efficient railways—is obvious to all who have the Dominion’s welfare at heart. One of the first steps must of necessity be the linking up and expanding of the northern lines both in the North and the South Islands. The completed Main Trunk line from “Farthest North” to Wellington, and from Picton (Which has been mentioned as a candidate for naval honours) down to the Bluff, must assuredly be the working basis. Other cross-country lines would follow in due course, but the initial move must be the putting down of lines over the remaining 260 odd miles of Tailless country. This would mean that troops could be mobilised from the North Cape to Invercangill by rail, the only occasion for the use of steamers being, of course, Cook Strait. It is necessary, also, that the speed of’ our trains should be considerably accelerated. In the train arrangements for the Wellington camp, the Wanganui volunteers were scheduled to take 11 hours to go from Wanganui to Johnsonville. This works out to under 14 miles an hour, and the speed on many other lines is even less than this. Rapidity of mobilisation is of the essence of successful defence, and every facility should be provided for the rapid mobilisation of troops. There is no doubt that, as Dord Kitchener says, we possess a splendid young manhood, and we have every confidence that the authorities will not only adopt such measures as will enable our youth to render themselves thoroughly efficient for the defence of their country, but will also see that we are not behind the Australian States in our recognition of the im-

mense strategic importance of wellequipped and well-organized railways. Nelson Scenery. Lord Plunket’s remarks on the need of advertising and making more widely known the many beauty spots in the Nelson province were well timed, and we hope some practical effect will be given to his suggestion that the many charms of this beautiful province should l e brought before the travelling public. Nelson may be said to rival the famous Huon district, in Tasmania, in the claim to. the title of the “Orchard of the South.” Those who have visited it are always loud in its praises. But, as Lord Plunket remarked, while everyone has heard of Rotorua, the Buller Gorge ’and the Wanganui river, comparatively few have heard of the Takaka Hills. • In

these days, beauty that blushes unseen generally does so from lack of advertisement, and, compared with other countlies, New Zealand, as a whole, is singularly backward in the art of efficient advertising. It is all very well for critics like Mr Wilson, of the “Investor’s Review,” to sneer at the Queensland advertisements, and to nick-name that State “Braggart Queensland,” and compare it to a man beating a big drum outside a circus tent; but the fact remains that Queensland owes much of its present prosperity to this very beating of the big drum, and a little more of the big drum iu the Nelson province would attract scores of people to its many and unrivalled scenic attractions. An Ideal Home. But it is not only as a tourist resort that Nelson offers so many advantages. There are few parts of New Zealand better suited to that large ciass of people who, possessed of moderate means, desire a healthy and pretty country in which to make a home. There are in England alone thousands of men who, while still in the prime of life, have retired from a business or professional career with a small pension or a modest competence. Many of these are wont to take themselves and their families to some secondrate English watering-place, or such Continental resorts as St. Malo, St. Servan, Dinard or Dinan. There they lead an aimless existence in semi-detached villas’ or cheap “pensions.” How much better would it be were they to migrate to our Britain of the South, where they

could secure cheap and good sections and build up a home of their own. The cost of living would be considerably less, the range of interests considerably greater. For the cost of living is not merely the cost of tea and meat and Hour and sugar: the cost of living is the cost of keeping up the standard adopted by the sot amongst which you move. Many retired officers find £3OO or £4OO a year in

England spells only respectable poverty, while the same sum here would ensure most of the comforts of life. Even the highest education is practically free, social life makes comparatively small de-

rounds on our purses, and limited means offer no bar to the enjoyment of good and cultured society. Air

Stewart, the well-known actor, said, in speaking of Nelson, that when he retired he would sooner go to live there than any other place he knew of. Many others have said the same. Indeed, we can con ceive of no place more adapted to the requirements of those who are seeking a home. Genial climate, good soil, magnificent and varied scenery, all combine to make it an ideal spot. It only requires to be better known to make it the most favoured resort in the two islands. .* A Warning from the Bench. It is seldom that a sitting of the Supreme Court goes by without some reference by one or other of our judges to defects iu our methods of administering justice. Mr Justice Edwards spoke recently in Auckland on the culpable practice of arresting a person when a summons should have been issued instead. He laid it down as an axiom that no person should be arrested who might reasonably be expected to attend on summons. This is by no means the first time that this practice has been condemned by judges and magistrates, yet time and again men are subjected to the indignity of arrest when a summons would have answered every purpose. More serious still was the severe comment of the same judge on the absolute inhumanity of badgering a dying woman in her last hours for the purpose of getting a statement from her likely to aid a pro secution. There seems to be a growing idea that, once a person is accused, a conviction must be obtained at all costs. The notorious Beck and I'.dalji cases in England should have taught us that serious miscarriages of justice are apt to result from methods that savour more of persecution than prosecution. If the Crown provides every facility to the prosecution to prove its case, it is only fair aim reasonable that equal facilities should be provided for a prisoner to prove his innocence. For no tragedy can l>e greater than the condemnation ol an innocent man. ,■* J* A Plea for Art in New Zealand. “Art! you know nothing of art. You are still uncultivated —savages, intellectually speaking—you are not educated — you refuse to be educated. Y’ou enjoy coarse pleasures, and pay well for them, but —Art! pictures! —you simply don’t understand.” This, and much more, was recently fired at closest range at the heads of the representatives of one of the oldest and most influential art societies by a visiting artist, who had—according to paragraphs and introductory letters—“a big reputation in the Old World.” Obviously, there had been some" loss of serenity on the part of the sjieaker. As

a matter of fact, he was excessively annoyed. He had held an exhibition of his paintings, and neither the attendance of the public nor the extent of the purchases could have satisfied even the most

modest least sanguine of expectations, or were, in fact, in the least degree commensurate with the merits of the exhibition. Volcanic, vituperative eloquence of this type is so familiar with most of us who are acquainted with those who possess what is euphemistically known as “the artistic temperament,” and which is even more developed in the sister arts of acting and singing (and not entirely unknown in literature), that it would scarcely call for comment here, save for the fact that, while we may smile at its extravagance, we are not unconscious that there is in it a substratum—what scientists call in analysis a trace—of truth. That we are not highly educated in Art, we admit; we have not the opportunities, and our withers are unwrung by any taunt in this direction; but when we are accused of refusing to be educated, of rejecting such chances as we have offered us, we feel' inclined to be nettled. Is it, perhaps, from the consciousness that we are not guiltless? We agree vaguely that Art is good, and to be encouraged, but if ever tackled in the direction of practical endeavour, is it not usual to answer that the country is too young, and is there any real endeavour to encourage such art as we do understand, or to educate ourselves to that which is at present beyond us, but which we may grudgingly admit “seems to have something in it.” Our art exhibitions are fairly well patronised by a certain section of the community, but, as a whole, they do not receive the attention they should, nor is any attempt made to educate the taste of the rising generation in this respect. The instinct of childhood is naturally to the beautiful and not to the ugly, but little or no endeavour is made to fertilise the growth of taste for the beautiful. Rather is the influence the other way,- namely, that it does not matter how ugly a thing, especially a building, may be, so long as it is useful. Youthful inquiries as to why utility and ugliness should go hand in hand are usually effectively squelched by the weapon childhood hates and dreads most—ridicule. It is now a common sight in any of the notable galleries ’(and likewise museums) of the Old Country to see groups of children (of all grades and classes of society) in charge of their escort going round the exhibits, and the keen interest they display, and the astonishing acumen of their criticism and the astuteness and pertinence of their questions, at once justify the expenditure of time, trouble, and the trifle of money which these expeditions cost. It may have been true in the past that the country was “too young for Art,” but that time has passed. It is the duty of us all to see that we ourselves 'encourage it by our presence at exhibitions, by supporting Parliamentary and other votes for the establishment of municipal and national collections, and’ by affording, so far as it lies in cur power, opportunities to the young to study, to know, and to patronise what is beautiful, and to condemn and reject that which is ugly. J* Must We Come to Lynching? Shall we in this Dominion ever, or (Even shortly, have to record an instance of savage lynch law? And is it, moreover, possible, that instead of reprobating the occurrence with that high-minded horror usually expressed when such events happen amongst our American cousins, We .--hall look on with grim, stern-lipped approval, and admit the necessity of returning to primeval methods. A pause is desirable before giving the indignant and unqualified denial which would be the average reply to such a proposition. Another unspeakable outrage has been committed upon a child of tender years, and the victim of brutal lust—a delicate schoolgirl of thirteen lies in a public hospital as the result of the nameless and criminal outrage to which she Iras been subjected. Care and nursing will be hers for her bodily injuries, and from them all will hope a recovery may speedily be made. But the terror, the shock, the unfathomable, unforgettable horror, are permanent, unobliterable. An injury naught can set, right has been done, and the. man who has inflicted this damnable and inconceivably wicked crime lives, and will, if caught •nd convicted, after a certain term of imprisonmen t be let loose once more upon society again to gratify his worse than bestial appetite, once more to revert tn • crime for which we seem to have no present remedy.

Place yourself—more especially those of you who think it horrible such matters should be discussed in papers, where girls may see them —in the position of this girl’s father before you say smugly, “The less written about such matters the better.” Photograph on your mind the indelible picture of your own daughter lying on a hospital bed in bodily pain and mental anguish inconceivable; remember that it might in very truth have been your daughter; that this is the fourth case in one district in a brief period, and that from one end of the Dominion to the other these hateful crimes are of increasing frequence. We have no desire to grow hysterical, though much thinking on these things might well be excused in making for madness. Some step must, however, be taken, and taken at onee, if we are not to come to the conclusion that there are worse things than even lynch law. Flogging lias been tried, and as a deterrent to others seems —since there is no decrease in the number of offences —'to have failed. Public sentiment and public feeling will (and perhaps rightly) never allow the carrying out of a capital sentence in New Zealand for ’anything save murder; but some protection for our children, some cure for the present state of 'affairs, must come, and at onee. To do this, a new law will have to be passed, but it is one which our legislators can no longer refuse to place on the “Statute Book” without delay. Flogging must still be persevered with, but lengthened terms of imprisonment are an unnecessary cost. We cannot hang these inhuman beasts, but we can and must flog them within an inch of their depraved existences, and we can, and we must, rentier them at onee and for ever incapable of repeating their crimes or perpetuating their foul species. jt Is It Going to Rain? A prophet — a weather prophet — has arisen who declares that our weather is not uncertain. Far from it, says he—for, says he, whatever the state of the weather, it embodies the result of what took place a few hours before. The weather of this moment may be breeding the weather of twelve hours hencb;.-. i

And this prophet, who has arisen in England, in the person of Mr. Francis S. Granger, would teach us all how to forecast weather by simple observation, based, first, on the barometer, and, second and chiefly, on the changes in the sky and clouds. Demolishing the idea of weather uncertainty, he sets up in its place the theory of cloud certainty—■ that is, that each type of clouds has its own particular weather and rainfall procedure. Know the type, and you can foretell the weather.

The types of clouds are classified under three main orders. There are the upper clouds, which are the cirrus—clouds in feathery curves or spirals. -They form at greater heights than any others, even at the limit of vapour in a visible state, say, at eleven miles high. There are the lower clouds, which are the cumulus and the stratus. Cumulus is the thickest cloud, often conical or domeshaped; no other can compare to it in boldness or majesty. Cumuli give us cloud scenery hardly expelled by the Alps; their summits may be sixteen thousand feet above the earth, and they may contain a hundred cubic miles of clouds. Stratus is made up of thin stripes of cloud, varying in size.

The colours of the sky tell many stories to the weather-wise. When a change to wet weather is at hand, they are always brighter than at other times. Deep, lurid,reds at sunrise or sunset, when everything is damp, are quickly followed by rain. In very unsettled weather, clouds vary in shade from deep red to bright, deep crimson. But a tinge of brownish yellow on the edges of clouds round the sun is a hopeful sign.

An interesting section of Mr. Granger’s book deals with general weather-signs. He notes that the wind veering with the sun is always a sign of improvement, and that a wind backing from the west towards the south is a sign of unsettled weather. Often it will be finer, he says, with westerly breezes and a low barometer than with north-easterly winds and a higher barometer. He believes in the old saying, “Rain before seven, fine before eleven.” noting that eleven o’clock is the finest hour of our days. His book will send many to learn the Mature and the name* of the clouds.