News of the Dominion.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 18, 2 November 1910, Page 4

News of the Dominion.

OUR WELLINGTON LETTER.

WELLINGTON, Get. 29. The Polar Explorers. CAPTAIN ROBERT SCOTT, R.N., spent thirty-six hours or so in Wellington on his way from Sydney to Lyttelton, and he worked pretty hard while he was here. Newspaper interviews took up a good deal of his time. He was formally welcomed to New Zealand at a late afternoon gathering in the Town Hall, and in the evening lectured in the same place on Antarctic Exploration. 'The afternoon’s welcome meeting seemed to me to consist chiefly of a speech by Mr. T. Wilford (the Mayor!. Mr. Wilford seemed to imagine that nobody present knew the previous history of Antarctic discovery, or, in fact, anything at all about it, so he laboriously told us, and the Captain said a lot about Sir Ernest Shackelton and what he did in the icy South. We were getting very tired of Mayor Tommy’s impressively-delivered platitudes, when, fortunately, he sat down, and Sir Joseph Ward got up. Sir Joseph Ward was a little more interesting in his remarks; at any rate, somewhat more original than the Mayor. He coined one wonderful phrase when he spoke of the South Pole as '“this greatly-desired-to-be-attained spot.” It was quite German in its much hyphenated compound - adjeetived construction. Sir Joseph can do these things quite easily, but it worries his reporters considerably. Captain Scott is no orator. Many of us would have been greatly disappointed, in fact, had he proved to be a glib Bpeaker. The sonorous voice and silvery tongue of the voluble talker-in-public are not associated with such great deeds as Scott has done, and is going to do. He is a man of action, not a speech-maker. He is a typical Royal Navy officer—a clean-shaven, not very tall man, who looks younger than his years; a cultured gentleman, with even a little air of “dandyism,” quiet-voiced, and not very quick with his- words in publie. When ho began his speech in reply' to the welcome orations, he spoke slowly' and hesitatingly, as if seeking for the right word. Later on, when he got warmed up, he was more fluent.

Captain Scott, amongst other items of information about his Antarctic Expedition, said that it was not at all likely that his head-quarters on the Antarctic Continent could be communicated with from New Zealand by wireless telegraphy'. The distance was too great. The” explorers’ lecture in the Town Hall drew a great audience. There must have been nearly three thousand people present. Some very line lantern slides of scenes in the great South Pole Land were shown, and Captain Scott was happy in describing these and other scenes in the wild land to which he is returning. He described his plans for the heroic dash up the huge glacier and across the vast, plateau to the pole. His final w’ords are worth quoting: ’‘The honour of the country is so bound up in this,” he said, “that I don't want it to depend on one man's effort. Whenever four men have to be dropped la-hind, they will be the least fit of the party, without fear or favour. With those sixteen men picked from all parts of the Empire, if we don’t get the best four men at the end, we shall at least have done our best to get them, and if you knew’ the spirit of the men who are on the Terra Nova, you ■would agree that I have some ground for hoping that we shall plant the flag that we all love somewhere near that geographical spot which is called the .South Pole.” The Session. “Dropping one Bill and picking up ten” was Mr. Lang's way of describing the Premier’s announcement, in the House on Thursday regarding the work which Parliament is to be asked to do at the tail end of the session. Everyone wanted to know’ when the session was going to end, so Sir Joseph enlightened them on the point. After saying that two or three weeks ought to bo sufficient to wind up the session, he flattened them out, so to speak, by reading a formidable list of Bills which he wishes to pass before Parliament adjourns. He named twenty-four of the Bills on the Order Paper as to be proceeded with, and said that there were a number of new ones

to be introduced. It is a humorous way of “slaughtering the innocents, thia dropping of two bills and picking up ten, or thereabouts, and members didn't seem to appreciate it particularly. Most of them seemed to think that they had talked quite enough this session to warrant their being allowed to go home. Certainly the man in the street thinks it would be a good thing to ship them home right now’. What have they done in the whole session thus far? Nothing of the slightest consequence but the passing of the new Defence Bill and the Estimates. And the utter futility of asking them to deal with thirty or forty more measures in the three weeks that remain makes everyone laugh a weary laugh. The Prime Minister must know as well as anyone that his legislative programme is absurd. The Land Bill, the Gaming Bill, the Licensing Bill, and a Native Affairs Bill are quite enough to occupy members’ attention for the rest of the session. The Land Bill alone deserves at least a week. This thoroughly silly fashion of trying to jam a session's work into three weeks or so is repeated year after year, and apparently always Will be. Those Coloured Crews. Sir Joseph Ward made an announcement in' the House on Thursday in regard to the proposed legislation regarding shipping companies employing Lascar crews. This was in reply to a question put by Mr. C. H. Poole. Sir Joseph said that the House would be asked to pass a bill extending the shipping laws applying to the coastal trade, and making them apply to the Australian coast and the Pacific Islands. That would enable New Zealand to control the wages of the crews of ships coming here from abroad in exactly the same way as it controlled those of ships trading on these eoasts. Mr. Massey wanted to know how’ this legislation would affect the P. and O. Company.

The Premier replied that he was not going to discuss particular companies, but even if it were to stop than altogether, he would not object, if the Lasear crews were going to compete against our own white seamen. Companies like the P. and O. ought to respect the laws passed in the interests of white seamen. The position was too serious to allow sentimental considerations to stand in the way of the reform. Proposals would be submitted, dealing with the Asiatic crews that were coming here on some of the ocean steamers, and competing unfairly with white crews. The Government suggested provision for a stamp duty with bills of lading for cargo and passengers, so as to impose some disability on this class of vessel. “It's a Damned Lie 1 ” That's what the Premier heard some onesay in the House last night. He was referring to the heavy charges sometimes imposed upon Ministers when travelling throughout the country, and lie remarked! that he supposed this was done to enable the Government to complain of extravagant expenditure, when he heard the interjection as above. “I move that the remark be taken down,” he said hotly and angrily. “I believe it was intended for me. I distinctly heard someone say, ‘lt’s a damned! lie!’” The House was shocked. It tried to look as if it had never heard such awful language before. And every member looked at the other “with a wild surmise,” and they all began with one accord to make denial. Sir Joseph asked! Mr. R. Heaton Rhodes, the tall and aristocratic M.P. from Canterbury, if he he had said the naughty words. Mr Rhodes said he didn't, whereupon the Premier turned to the next suspect, Mr. Pearce, member for Pa tea. But Mr. Pearce said, “Please, sir, it wasn't me,” or words of similar import. Mr. Buick and Mr. Tommy Taylor both denied having used the expression. “Did you hear anyone else use it, then ?” asked Sir Joseph. Mr. Taylor equivocated. “That’s another matter entirely,” ho said, and the House laughed. Mr. Taylor hastened! to protest that if words of the kind had been used by anyone, they had not the slightest reference to what the Prime Minister was saying.

Sir Joseph looked very incredulous;

but he quickly put the best face on it. lie said he would accept the denials, for though he heard the words distinctly, he recognised that they were not intended to apply to him. And so, as the dailies say, “the incident dosed.” But what everyone is asking now is, “Who said the ‘damned lie I’ ” Moral Lessons for the Young. There are always some philanthropic ladies and gentlemen in the community dying for a chance to improve the secular education system. They have special panaceas for all moral and social ills, and they want to catch the New Zealander young. Some of their well-meant ideas would do more harm than good if carried out, and it is well that the cloven hoof of the sectary is kept out of our Board schools. There wasn’t much harm, however, in the cotie of “Moral Lessons” which Mr. Coleman Phillips, one of these benevolent people, submitted to the Wellington Education Board this week “on appro.” Mr. Phillips, who is a Carterton lawyer, wanted the Board to permit him to hang wall eharts of these Moral Lessons up in the classrooms of all the primary schools under the jurisdiction of the Board. But the Board deelined the application, apparently looking on it as a possible dangerous precedent. These are some samples of Mr. Phillips’ moral code for the young:—

It is easy to be good if you only try. An enraged eye deforms the face. Industry is a golden precept; own a little garden plot. Hatred is conquered by Jove: try it. An obstinate boy does not hold opinions; they hold him. You cannot deceive time by altering the clock. Have no fear, for God is here. Strong drink helpeth no one. Never run into debt. Be yourself; ape no greatness. A good farthing is better than a bad sovereign. Conquer the stingy with a gift, the liar with truth ; only cowards lie. Respect your teachers, who are your best friends. Do not touch wine; you ate better without it. The world globes itself in a drop of dew. Virtue is real; morality certain. Virtue Is not distant. Wish to be virtuous, and lo! it is at hand. When you are sick, have no fear; say, “I will soon be well again and you will get well. Be cheerful and happy, The world grows better year by year. These maxims don’t contain anything very original; they all seem familiar friends, of the copybook order. They wouldn’t do any youngster much harm, although one or two, such as that referring to wine, would no doubt give rise to controversy. Nevertheless the Board has probably done the most sensible thing in throwing out the suggestion. It wouldn’t do to open the school doors to all sorts of codes of advice and dogmas and what not from irresponsible individuals, however well-meaning they may be. It would be the thin edge of the sectarian wedge again.