Topics of the Day.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 6, 10 August 1910, Page 47

Topics of the Day.

By Our London Correspondent.

“HONEST JOHN’S” PROMOTION.

LONDON, June 24. IN his younger days Mr. John Burns declared with emphasis and heat that no man’s work was worth more than £5OO per annum. To-day, as President of the Local Government Board, his salary is just ten times that amount, and few people in or out of Parliament begrudge “Honest John” the handsome income now attached to his office. The views of Parliamentarians may be gauged from the fast that when the House of Commons discussed the ques-

tion of increasing the emoluments of Mr. Burns’ office from £2OOO to £5OOO a year.-only thirteen members opposed the increase. These were, save one, Radicals or Socialists, who accused the Government of extravagance, and did not hesitate to declare that the House was asked to give money to Mr. Burns in order to enable him “to fraternise with plutocrats and society, spelt with a big One member pleaded with Air. Burns to get up and prove his sincerity by declining the increase, but the member for Battersea preferred to take the verdict of the House without joining in the discussion. And that verdict was overwhelmingly in favour of the increase Ito £5OOO. The only thing that need be said on the personal side of the question is that if any President of the Board deserves £5OOO a year, Mr. Burns certainly does. There is no Cabinet Minister who works harder than he does in the service of the State. The question is not, however, a personal one. The Local Government Board, which at one time rightly ranked as a minor and subordinate office, has become one of the most arduous and important public departments. The tendency of legislation in recent years has been to cast more and tiore duties upon it, and this tendency ' not likely to be arrested. That being the case, it is only right and fair that |he remuneration of the head of the

Department should be raised in proportion to its vastly increased importance. So long as the difference in salary existed, the statue of the lower-paid office was necessarily inferior, and less honourable than a Secretaryship of State; but henceforward the Presidency of the Local Government Board will rank in every way with the Secretaryships of State. And very rightly so, for the “L.G.8.” is practically the nation's only check on the poor law and general expenditure and borrowings of the thousands of local authorities all over the country. It is, indeed, the watchdog upon whom the ratepayers rely to see that their elected councillors ami guardians do not “play ducks and drakes” with the millions raised every year for local and poor law purposes.

How in it that so many of the dwellers in II is Majesty's prisons put themselves down as belonging to the Church of England? I he question aro<se this week in the House in a debate on the census, and Mr. John Burns, in answering, amiiised the House by giving some prison reminiscences of his own. He remembered, he said, that when he went to prison with Mr. Cunninghame C.iaham the House would remember tlie incident—they were about to be asked what was their religious belief. Before they could reply, a man who had been tdiere before, said ••('hureh of England. John." (Laughter.) He look ed at the man, but before he could ask, “Why ('hureh of England’” the man said “Three services on Sunday ami excellent hymns.” (Laughter.) The simple fact of three services on Sunday amt excellent hymns practically determined for those who had been to prison .several times what their religious faith would be. Why was the singing in prison so sincere, why so well done, why so loud? asked Mr. Burns. Because those who knew how to do it. used the singing as an opportunity for conveying messages to each other —(laughter)—which they Could not do if there were fifteen Methodists, twenty-two Roman Catholics, or only three Presbyterians, and a warder watching every movement, (Laughter.) If “Lead, Kindly Light,”

was being sung in Pentonville prison, many a four-ounce loaf of bread would be passed from one prisoner to another, whom he thought wanted it more than himself. That was why ninety per cent of these people said they belonged to the Church of England. Ihis practice of conveying messages through the medium of a hymn, described so racily by Mr. Burns, is a favourite one among English street-singers as well as prisoners. 1 remember hearing a "tattered couple in a London suburban street singing a hymn, of which the burden was ‘‘Come to Jesus.” Someone at a window threw a coin, which the woman picked up. The hymn continued. It. was sung with great earnestness, but 1 noticed tnat while one of the pair w;tf singing the words of the hymn, the other would lx* singing a question or an answer to a question. Thus: Man: What did he give you? Woman: Only a ha'penny. Man: Old blighter. (Jive it 'iin back! Both: Come to Jesus, etc. Some of the words which the man was singing to the hymn tune are unprintable, but anyone who was not standing close by would hive imagined that this ••pious” couple were intoning a sacred song with true pathos and religious fervour.

ELECTIONEERING IN EAST KERRY.

The “good old times’’ have not entirely departed in Ireland, if one may judge from the evidence given in connection with the election petition whereby Mr. John Murphy seeks to unseat the sitting member for East Kerry, Mr. Eu gene O’Sullivan. Intimidaition, persuasion, violence of all kinds, infringement of the secrecy of the ballot, and a host of minor olfences are alleged against Mr. O'Sullivan and his minions at the election. If one half of the allegations are true. East Kerry on election day must have been one of the liveliest spots on earth—a mixture of Donnybrook Fair and Ballyhooly, with the “ blue ribbon army ” out for its beanfeast. Ft is alleged that on the day of the poll there was a reign of terror, that voters were kicked and assaulted at th? polling booths, that personating was rife, and that while the returning ofTicer’s attention was directed away from the ballot-box voting papers were placed in by O’Sullivan. One of the personation agents for Mr. Murphy declared that when he and his colleagues reached the booth O’Sullivan’s supporters threatened to “make dust of

their bones” if it were not for breaking up the booth, ami that he saw auoiher of Mr. Murphy', agents knocked down and kicked. Another witness who gave similar evidence said he made no complaint because he was in dread, and remarked, amid laughter. “ 1 would have voted for O'Sullivan two or three times uv< r if I could only have got out of the pla-e safely.” Another witness alleged that he waa kicked by O’Sullivan himself when to the polling booth, prior to which he had had his front teeth knocked out by O’Sullivan's mob outside the booth. A number of witnesses alleged lh.it they were driving to the polling st it ion when they were stopped by O’Salliv.in’s men and were only allowed to go forward on the promise th it they would Vote for O'Sullivan. One of them gave a laugj.ible a count of the incident. “ O’Siillivaa’s nu n," he said, “overtook us in a motor car, and 1 was taken in the car. Il was tin* first time I had ever been in -uh a vehicle, and the ditches were running one way, and we were running tin* other.” Another witness .-ail that at the gite outside the booth he was mt by O'Sullivan, who asked, " Have you come to vote against me?” ’* I have n d,” he re plied, whereupon O'Sullivan ex.’.aimed. “ You hound.” and gave han a kirk. A farmer said that when he and others were driving Io the poll the crowd raised their sticks and d trial them to go and vote for Murphy. Things looked so bl.irk that they returned home Other witne-srs swore that on the day of the (‘lection tiers of desks were bud up at a polling booth, ami that some of O’Sullivan’s personal ion agents st «> I on the tiers and overlooked the voters as they recorded their votes; that men armed with sticks, .-supplemented by boys were outside the booth, and at on d and heat those who expressed their intention of exercising the franchise in the interests of Mr. Murphy; that a hoy on being told to do so by Mr. O’Sullivan, voted for his dead father, and that one of O’Sullivan’s agents broke another man’s nose, and others got black eyes. In the polling booth itself, p. is alleged, there was utter confusion. Some of the papers were lost, and it was discovered later that there were wads of ballot papers folded together and put into the boxes. Several people were. It appears, injured by stones thrown through they window of the polling station; and, taking it altogether, everybody seem? to have a high old time on (lection (lay in East Kerry.

The only camel that ever got through the eye of a medic.

WHY CHURCH OF ENGLAND ?