The Week in Review.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 12, 21 September 1910, Page 1

The Week in Review.

NOTICE. The Editor vHI be pleased to receive for consideration Short Stories and Descriptive .Articles, illustrated With photos, or suggestions from contributors. Bright, terse contributions are wanted dealing with Dominion life and questions. Dnless stamps are sent, the Editor cannot guarantee the return of unsuitable MSS. '1 lie Osborne Judgment. IT is pretty generally conceded that the judgments of the Eng L-h law courts are foanoded on broad general principles, that are sound in the main, though they may press hardly in individual ease. Such is the famous Osborne judgment which decreed that trade union funds cannot be used for political purposes. The Parliamentary Committee of the Trade Union Congress reported that the Osborne judgment was cue of those periodical attacks which labour was accustomed to receive from those Those duty it was to hold the scales f justice evenly. Th "■ . n’ on the : id imits that the ■ inc -j- - ~ -- — *is mg .sie ij gut — . i — ~ * ml. sin e no man should be contribute to any object of which he may disapprove. The unions exist to the int st of th s nd ♦.o soddify the ranks of Labour. It is also pretty safe to say that the inajoritv cd the workers favour the return of Labour members to Parliament. But then Se a considerable minority in favour Liberal and even Conservative n-.-m- - :t would not be in a tcordance with strict justice that these voters should be made to contribute towards the payment of members to whose policy they are opposed. J» J* The Best Club in the World. Ma have seen in America how the funua of large Trust and Insurance com-

pan.es hire been used for furthering the interests of political candidates, and we have noted the grave abuses to which this has lei On the other hand, few Labour candidates can afford to pav the whole cost of Parliamentary life out f their own pockets, and to restrict the selection of candidates to those who are men of means is conlrary to the whole spirit of democracy. In theory, it may be a fine thing that men should serve their country without hope of financial reward, but in practice it means that the country loses the services of son'.a of her best men because they work for nought. The only solution i the difficulty created by the Osborne judgment seems to lie in the payment of members. England is proverbially conservative, and many are opposed to the pay 111 emt of members on toe.groan 1 that the personnel of the House would stiffer. 5Ve believe, on the contrary, that the House would gain rather than lose in the character and intelligence of its members. The House of Comment would no longer be Looked on as the best dub in the world, the man f wealth would no longer regard it as a comfortable lounge, but it would become a body of serious workers, of men w , knew the social conditions of English life, and who were inspired by high and noble resolve to better the lot of the n.:...:r,s who are being groan 1 tinder the w' Is industrial - terns. J 8 J* Labour Members. For one f the saddest features of life is to be found tn the fett that for more f of m 1. nd • - • ' ' sti igg] S ting in ita rst form- is making its appearance even in these new lands, and the worker in good employment is always faced with the dread of 1 >sing his work through sickness or a.- ident. Hardly a day passes but we rea d of some accident to workers. The miner is entombed and buried alive, the wharf labourer Is injured by defective tackle, the builder falls f.om the •caffold. the railwayman is crushed between the trucks, the factory hand is caught in the machinery and crushed to death. In London more than ten thousand people are homeless without food

or s.ielter, and half of t’..e large p >p nation eke out a bare esxThese are problems awaiting solution, and the problems raised are quite as important as those of national defence. The 1 :--t men and the Lest women are th: ■ themselves heart and s.-ul into the movement for social reform, and the best hope of reform lies tn the return to Parliament of men qualified to speak :t these ts fi tual If w< m get better men by j lyh . t by all n.-ans let members be pai l. L•: them, h t ,be paid by the State, and not bt prirat . nisations, for the State 1 ps the benefit f their e vices, an 1 the State sb oul 1 pay for 1 cnefits received. ■_« J* The Probationers Pipe. Probation has proved productive of much good in so far a- it has been the > - f saving first Senders fi i the - ■ . - - — . . ... given tl.-m a chan-re to ref rm., wai.-h has often been availed of to g -. i purpose. It is also only right that the terms o: probation should carry such ’- Utions as t e presi iing judge may deem best in the interests of the fender and ; f society ;l - large. But is :t not going a little far when a man is pr h ite 1 fj m sm king for two years and is ■ nfined to his wn h mse after eight ’ < k in the eveningt Mr. Vigor Brown may have been out .:’ order in -l-<u--mg :n rise House the action si th, ■ lief Just in imitiing a man t probation n these t, rn ’■ t he did good servi in ii g atteir. :-n to the mati-r. Mr. Brown nt . t i the Chief Jusposition i n if J ... ’ : - 1 • allowed to s - low . man t ’ - . . - - 9 pointed out that if . man ha i to be r night -. interfere with his j-n -w k and with going to church. J* Tobacco and Crime. It Is qul-.e c ne Iva’ t .at eases might -is nit s desii > to curtail a man’s liberty, and we -in understand a pr or drugs. But the effect of i 'ao on crime is not so easy to determine with y. < tnt- Tolstoi lares i smoking :* respond ie S-r every crim-? in the calendar from petty larceny to murder. He -ays that the v -tim of th morphine habit, the drunkard, and :.>•> smoker are no longer normal men. On the other hand, many bi- ~-p- and d.. n--have ' -•>■ ■ -.- . _ .; fond f a good cigar, and Tennyson and Carlyle were confirmed devotees of the weed. T Istoi considered that eating meat was also a fruitful source of erime, and we may some day see the spectacle of a Chief Justice making vegetarianfcm a condition of probation. Judges are only human. and they hare their fads like the re-t of mankind, but we muet see to it that these fads are not unreasonably imposed on probationers. Otherwise we may see tea and coffee prohibited, and health foods and drinks prescribed, as well as deepbreat. c - - - I: is q lite possible that if we carry re-

s '.r; t:on t o far, the unfortunate - bationer will prefer gaol as off-, r.ng »nd fi I ... .< v < The Importunate Widow. • 1 has got its ws in mat ter f G rnment 11 use, and II thi • 1 irties are m re or less satisfied. Thsit’ i . get thi and quarter acres, which, . - . ... than they wanted, ba: which should be . - ■ * “is S h j rtion ft! Metr tan Ground as n-.-t required f r Un;versiv j poses will 1 _ - - - - - ft, 1 ik ar S hool, and s-.-v.n. a:.J a ')uarter -' . . t.ie v ?-r-gai residence. The Univer-»-i‘y thus his ius old s ' *, Choral Hall .-be, ar.i the new Metro; litan Gr in'-, and so will have s :—nt ' ; ' 11 reasonable requii for som -Ir ' . . . At t - tune, ninny consider that it would have r had ’.. Uni ■ .- ty . ; further afi 1, and secured the i . cent cite available in the vl-.-j.ti-.v o: - - .' - ■ rifle range. All Auckland ers will pleased at the relent;.-n of Gos - ■ t a tent ■ historical associat ns but -■■ th. ity g ;.. ;1,;. m the r - in its n Ist f men like Lord 1-1 ngt n. .< A Mineral Containing Decimals. An English : - b rli . a violent g nst hat she calls t “Mud ram” method f < iuct*ti. n a - Hume. €:ilidr< n, she deciares, ■'i< t often belli; ;, r-. ’ ■ i:l. s vetiteci: >.. and not t ..- ... iv grounded •f them. . g f tea i irers’ children ■ - . . pencils ... . .. re ......-t of twenty r: .■ rs in Hi:, l istanj In Lou lon she - . ; . ' ....... a the < sen which . • - . 1 itral Ing nd;” nd in rst girls ■ .-..._ ' . . . ; rea :,i»g 1 ;.-n i aloud ?n sub a :. tuner ■ - ’ ' . ■■■ ... She has seen girls of i ;ing class s I ing weeks »ver t •' - - fa n egg to several places of decimals, wh; h no one tmdersf One item was “n ral girls to tell .■ ■■ th n egg ■ . - a niin- ■ ra! mtaining i imals. - has also seen ; r girls put to .m which nr - are never lighted, and ki that "At : ing co k< ry entre I f ind t tree tea« r-in-tr icting : vo girls in ti e miking of Ii -■ v. I- ras fine, exe<Bent, ■; - ind then wen -' ■< - - of it. I asked what became of it, and was told that it went Into the sivil; tub, ' ■ -•-.. the girls wen •: * red to eai it an i the people of the neighbourhood would not take it as a ”ift. The statement was so inw-nceiraWe that I uas resolved to have a wi'.nesa. I -ent the motor .ir for my husband. He came down and a '. ialiy saw the six d:she> thrown into the swill-tub.” d* .< A Radical Reformer. Business men sevin equally >i ~ that some..>ing is .irong sum vhere. Inquiries load by the ‘Daily Ma... among

business people reveal a serious dis-eati-fadion with the results of the general system of education, a dissatisfaction curiously resembling that expressed by some Xe\v Zealand business men. They are struck by the inability of the average boy of fourteen or fifteen to '•peak plainly and write correctly. ’After seven years at school the average London ‘boy slouches into a Imsine-'. office or warehouse, mumbling or speaking through his i losed teeth, unable correctly to copy an address upon an envelope, or to carry a message intelligently from one department to an(>tlv*r. If such a boy can be encouraged to go to evening classes he may sometimes (says this business man) become a rival of the boy who has been to a higher grade school, but in all the essentials wnich he might have acquired easily enough in his elementary school he is strangely larking.*’ The head of a, college that prepares boys for business 'houses and tiie civil service says that !H) per cent, of the boys from London council schools are deficient in nearly every subject taught at the schools. A “Daily Mail” representative who examined the work of a number of candidates reports that in nearly every case the handwriting was poor, and in every case the spelling inaccurate, while the arithmetic papers were not, satisfactory. Air Jlarold Gorst. son of Sir John Gorst, and secretary to his father ’when his father was the head of the I'ducation .Department, seems to be tin l most radical reformer of all. lie thinks the sooner primary schools are palled down and an entirely new system instituted the better for the nation. Sabbath. Observance. Im* Scotch are proverbially strict in their Sabbat li observance, and regard any form of amusement as a profanation oi that day. li is, therefore, hardly’ surprising that the Wellington Presbytery should have produced a very formidable list of thing’s which they considered led to Sabbath de-ecrat ion. Laziness was condemned by one speaker. though most ‘people have ocen taught to regard Sunday’ a- a day of rest, ami one on which we should do no manner of work. Another suggested that a growing love of pleasure kept people from the kirk, and led them to go ya< hting instead of going io church. One "peaker had quite a long catalogue of sins including smli varieties of sin-fuhie-s as visiting one another, wanking in gardtii", and building houses. Surely the number of people who spend the whole of Sunday in building hou-es must Lt very small, ami can hardlv seriously affect church attendance. There is no do-uld Unit Sumlav i- often spent in visiting friends, but this seems a rather innocent form of amusement. Many people Lave no day 7 except Sunday on wlreh they can see their friends and relations. The Golf Tram. But golf st-emed to b ( < the mainspring O 1 Sabbath desecration. <)n golf v.a> lai.l ino>t of tin* blame for poor attendance at church. (hie presbyter declared that he had seen a tram ehock a-ldock with golfers. who were daJiing past his church, and he understood that this particular tram w r- known as the golf tram. Yachting, fishing, -hooting, and tennis wore condemned. and horror was expressed at the idea of a regatta being held on the Sabbath. Some of the thing, condemned by tin* Wellington Presbytery Mein innocent enough, but tlnr> can tv* little doubt that the modern tendency, is towards making Sunday a day of ph asure. The conditions of life in the pre-< lit day make our working day- so streiilloU" that we need some form of relaxation at the end of the week. But we nni"t not. forget that Sunday is a day of rc<(, and a day set apart f<»r the W'ordiip of God. Too -trict an observance of the lei<L t > reaction and often to disgust. \ i"i(ing friend" is a peilcrt ly harinle"" way of spending the day. Games, however, stand on a dillt r ent folding, and it is to be hoped th it. vve "hill md see anything approaching what is known as the Continental Sun hi v. If for no higher r< i- m. Sumlav observAlice is desirable bi oiu-e expriieiiee li.is proved that any disc ration of the day ♦ends in the end to make the day of rest a day of work, and to deprive our workers of their much needed cessation from toil for at lenat one day in seven.

Beggar My Neighbour. Mr Lloyd George pointed out to an interviewer that a large expenditure on Dreadnoughts was necessary, but declared, that the necessity was largely artificial. He showed how impossible it was for Britain to disarm in the midst of an armed camp, and declared that our invitation to disarmament had been ignored by the other Powers. He compared the present position to a game of “lieggar my neighbour,” and said that Britain had still the naval loan policy to fall back upon. Colonel Gadke, the wellknown writer on naval and other matters, declares that Germany is marching to economic ruin and war through refusing to consider the question of limitation of armaments. He asserted that Germany had 58 ships building, and was deceiving public opinion by ignoring the Navy Bill. Germany has stated with the utmost frankness that it is necessary for her to have a fleet of such strength that even for the mightiest naval Power a war with her would involve such risks as to jeopardise its own supremacy. The creating and maintaining of this fleet is the cause of the present financial difficulties in Germany. The Road to Ruin. The position can be clearly seen by glancing at a few figures. The German finance reforms of 1909 have proved a failure, and there is reported to be a shortage of £12,500,000. The finance reform of last year brought down Prince Bulow from the Chancellorship, and imposed new taxation to the amount of ' £25.000.000 on the German people. Twothirds of the new taxes were indirect, and the whole constituted a grievous addition to the already heavy fiscal burden. Even so, the problem was in no way solved. The National Debt, which had increased from £115,000,000 in 1900 to £2124)00.000 in 1908, was further swollen by deficits in the latter year, and last year, each exceeding ’ £12,000.000. After the great effort of the past .12 months the position is now apparently 1 worse than ever. The chief item responsible for these difficulties is. of course, the cost of armaments. & & German Credit But even so. we must remember that the German Empire has immense resources, and that Germany has not any very heavy taxation. The German is to-day less heavily taxed than the Englishman. the Frenchman. the American, or the Dalian. Per capita estimates prepared last year by the Kaiser’s Ministry of Finance are: (treat Britain 95.80 marks. France 82.70. the I'nited States 80. SO. Italy 48.40. Germany 48.17. Aus-tria-Hungary 41.70. The disparity between the tax burdens of Germany and Britain is especially notable. Local taxation in the latter is two and a-half times what it is in the former. Financial conditions in Germany to-day are unsatisfactory enough (writes F. A. Ogg, in the ••American Review of Reviews”), but manifestly in no wise perilous. The Empire has committed itself to gigantic enterprises, the cost of which was not so carefully weighed in the beginning as it might have been. A new and virile world-power has been driven by the circumstances in which it has found itself, as well as by the restless aggressiveness of its political and industrial leaders into path< of which the founders never dreamed. The consequence has been deficits. debts, embarras-meni. But never for a moment has the solvency of the Empire* been in question. The federated States stand constitutionally bound to maintain it. and the assets of the>e States are vastly in excess of their liabilities. Though it is the* professed desire of the Government to increase German credit abroad, that credit is already second to none. At tin* same time, the prevailing fiscal system is admittedly antiquated and awkward.