The Week in Review.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLV, Issue 22, 30 November 1910, Page 1

The Week in Review.

NOTICE. *The Editor mil be pleased to r»eeive for consideration Short Stories and Descriptive Articles, illustrated frith photos, or suggestions from coatributors. Bright, terse contributions are wanted dealing with Dominion life and questions. Unless stamps are sent, the Editor cannot guarantee the return of unsuit, able MSS. The Second Chamber. /TT\ ANY New Zealanders find it ■ IB hard to follow the trend of A I 7 British politics. They cannot / understand the immense interest that centres round the question of the abolition of the House of Lords on which to a large extent hinges the realisation of social reform. When our own Lpper House made amendments to the Gaming Bill the Premier simply moved the rejection of the amendments en masse, and his motion was unanimously agreed to. Our Council is ornamental, and, has perfect freedom of discussion, but it is not allowed to obstruct necessary reforms. Mr. Asquith seeks to put the Lords in a similar position. They ma.y meet, and dress up, and talk to their hearts* content; but the Liberals, and with them a large, if not overwhelming, section of the British electors, feel that they ought not to be allowed to stand in the way of the declared will of the people. It is only to be expected that a number of people resent Mr. Asquith’s essentially democratic position, and are going frantic over the threatened curb being placed on men who owe their power to birth rather than to talent or effort. The position is so curious that it requires some explanation. J* The Shortcomings of the Lords. The reason for this typically conservative attitude of mind which resents change, and, most of all, progressive change, is that Englishmen are by nature sentimental. They loathe to part with anything that has been part of the national life. The alleged freedom the English are said to enjoy to-day is largely the freedom of the upper and the middle class. The great hungry mass of the people have no freedom, politically speaking. Many of them have no votes. Less than l-sth of Britain’s 43 millions are enfranchised. It is not yet a century ago that any sort of political freedom was forced by the middle class from the hands of those in power, and that was only gained after obstruction by the Beers was fought and defeated. The present election in England is not only a fight to compel the wealthy, privileged and land-owning classes to contribute towards the heavy burden of taxation and the navy, but it also foreshadows a more democratic ago when the mass of the people will have something like an adequate voice in the affairs of the country. At present the burden of taxation on accessaries of life falls hardest on those Who are least represented in the counsels of the people. The Lords, by reason of their hereditary right and omniscient powers, have too long l>eld in check reforms and protected their and others’ Vested interests which for years have been

making fortunes out of a depraved liquor traffic, rotten insanitary housing, extortionate rents and charges, and other such traditional usages. Some people feel that the Lords are picturesque and romantic, and sentiment of this sort still looms large in life. But all the sentiment in the planet cannot stem the rising tide of conviction that the constitution of the Lords to-day is simply a not over-scrupulous menace to the rights of the people. The time has arrived when sentiment must give way to practical considerations. The will of the majority must prevail in the long run, particularly when it is in deadly earnest to crush the conservative prejudices of the Lords. The battle to be fought in Britain before Christmas is not only a fight of the people versus the Peers, but also a struggle against the self-interest of landowners, wealthy monopolists, and the brewers. J* An Old Difference Settled. In countries which are free from the archiac and hampering conditions imposed by traditional reverence for the past, the love of impressive spectacles still remains. It chiefly takes the form of vulgar display by wealthy plutocrats. In olden times bishops travelled with immense retinues, and lived in princely splendour. The modern bishop is too busy to travel in state, and his income forbids any but a most modest household. Tliis is especially true of America, where bishops are prone to sacrifice dignity to efficiency. But the impressive spectacle is still provided for the people, and the ■millionaire has kindly taken on his own shoulders the cost and burden of providing it. When Mr. Pierpont Morgan, the modern Christian wealth monopolist, is engaged on his religious duties, he travels with a costly magnificence that might have excited the envy of a Wolsey. He recently attended the Episcopal Convention at Cincinnati as representative of St. George’s Church, New York, and St. George 'himself eould not have been treated better. For his convenience the ‘■’most expensive bedroom in the country” was specially reserved. It is situated in the £250,000 house erected by the late Mr. Alexander McDonald. Over £25,000 was spent, on the decoration of Mr. Morgan's bedroom, which is furnished in Louis XVI. style, and hung with rose-pink damask tapestry, and contains three gold cabinets filled with antique jewellery and rare bric-a-brac. Everything else conwected with his visit was on an equally sumptuous scale. Mr. Morgan is described as a deeply religious man, so it would look as if the Camel and the Eye of the Needle had settled their ancient differences. At the same time, the hypocrisy of the whole thing is disgusting. 4* 4» Catch Phrases. At elections few things are of more importance than good battle cries. In this respect, Mr. Asquith’s party has a distinct advantage. "Down with the Lords” is much better than "Tariff Reform" as an election cry. When the ■Licensing Bill was before our own House, Mr. Poole pointed out that thousands of pounds had been spent on popularising the phrase, "Strike Out the Top Line,” and he was able to prove that great dam. age would be done to the cause of temperance if the position of the lines on the voting papers were to be altered. "Votes for Women” and "Three Acres and a ■Cow” are instances of the value of catch phrases. We cannot but recognise that the Conservatives are not good at manu-

facturing these things, for the reason these catch phrases often epitomise a popular conviction. People like something definite to vote for. Nebulous reform of the Lords and equally nebulous schemes of fiscal changes do not appeal to the popular imagination. For this reason, Mr. Balfour has not nearly so much hold on his audiences as Mr. Lloyd George. Mr. Lloyd George is a master of catch phrases, and they score because he is a great reformer. JC •* The Colonist Car. Mr. John Henderson, in his "Life as an Emigrant,” describes some of his experiences on the C.P.R. When, one reads them one is forced' to the conclusion that our own Main Trunk is a palace of comfort by comparison. In describing the colonist carriages on the Canadian Pacific, he says that the ears are cheerless in the extreme. One car holds fifty or sixty people. Little wooden tables are arranged between each two seats, and round each of these boards four people can eat. At night the table is lowered to the level of the two seats, and you have a bed —a bed for two. A flap of wood is lowered from the ceiling, and there is another bed for two. Two and two in tiers the colonists sleep on their hard wood couches. An overcoat serves for covering and a valise or boot for pillow. The jolting, rocking, dusil-filled train wobbles along, shaking tlie weary immigrant through the long, cold nights. Sleep is impossible. 'Men and women and children are all together in the great car. You can imagine the shrill cries of the tired, uncomfortable, terrified children; the scoldings of sorely-tried mothers, the grumblings of bachelors, and the entreaties and apologies of the fathers. The bachelors, as a rule, are either frankly blasphemous or loudly sympathetic. Pity for the women and children is the prevailing note, and a shouted complaint of more than average 'brutality usually brings upon the head of the complainant a shower of admonitory language. The words used are, of course, usually awful. The atmosphere of the place is hellish. Tire writer goes on to say: "I don’t want to exaggerate the discomforts of the poor emigrants; still less do I desire to be unfair to the Canadian railways. I have ‘roughed’’ it in many countries; T have felt desperate and lonely before; I have been insight corners, and 'thought that the end was near; I have been'hungry and thirsty in wild jungle countries, and lived alone with black people; but never did I feel so degraded, so utterly an outcast as I did on 'the colonist car.”

Canada and Deportation But the worst feature of Canadian immigration would seem to be the dteportation system. Glowing pamphlets are distributed all over England and Europe describing the glories of Canada. A family in some British or Roumanian or German hamlet sells everything—farm, furniture, all worldly goods. They take, tickets and reach Quebec. There one member of the family—an old man, or woman, or young child!—is found physically or mentally unlit. The medical officers are above sentiment; they order that that person must go back. No matter whether it is father or mother, or infant in arms. Back they must go. The cost of the long journey has swallowed up the proceeds of the sale. Imagine the position! There is no appeal from the decision of the Department, nor can one always see reason in its actions. A man, a pensioner from the Chatham naval dockyard, with a long service character, and seventy or eighty pounds in his pocket, wont to Canada to get work in connection with the new Dominion naval scheme. He paid bis own passage, and! was apparently in excellent health. One would imagine an excellent settler in every way. But what follows* What Deportation Means. As far as can l*e ascertained, for official secrets are closely guarded, he celebrated his arrival by drinking to the health of his adopted country. There is no evidence that he got drunk in any sense of the word. Yet the next day he was deported. The morning after the boat left Quebec this man did not appear at the breakfast table. The stewards broke, open his cabin door, and found him dead in a pool of blood.. He had cut his throat. As soon as possible the body was dumped down the ash-shoot Hung into the sea at midnight—and only the ship’s officers and stewards knew anything about the matter. 1 hey did not want any scandal. Another deported Englishman jumped overboard and was drowned. A Canadian, writing to an English paper, says: “If the Canadian authorities deported the religious maniacs that have been having such a time in Canada, they would be doing a service to humanity. What an awful, cruel country Canada is! We hear a great deal of English slums, but nothing of the evils of the shipping and immigrant business, and the terrible conditions in Canada of crime and murder.” We hoar nothing because the moan of the mother, the wail of the infant, and the despairing cry of the auicide are drowned by tho fanfare of the Imperialistic trumpet and the loud 1 >eaLing of the British drum.

Tke Auckland Competitions. \Tlte Auckland competition* have shown that the Northern city possesses in its midst local talent of a very high order. They have also drawn attention to a few weaknesses. They have excited a large amount of interest, and cannot fail to improve literary and artistic standards. All competitions have this great advantage. that they show competitors how they really stand in any subject. The amateur to-day finds it very difficult to get fair and impartial criticism amongst his own circle of friends and acquaintances. He is often unduly encouraged by well-meant but unconsidered praise, or else he is unduly discouraged by neglect and being passed over in favour of some more popular local celebrity. These competitions give an assured status to the competent performer, and enable the less competent to recognise faults and correct them. But it must lie remembered that many fail to do themselves justice from sheer nervousness, and no adjudications based on a single performance can be absolutely correct. Those, therefore, who have failed need not be discouraged, but should remember that failure to-day does not necessarily mean failure to-morrow. The Octopus. The Standard Oil Company is seeking to extend its operations over Europe, and if it encounters nowhere else in Europe any more serious opposition than Germany can offer it. the American “octopus” can proceed gaily to the execution of its plan for crushing its competitors out of existence. Some ten or twelve years ago the “Standard*’ entered into negotiations with the German Imperial authorities, by which the latter thought they were driving an exceedingly clever bargain. Mr Rockefeller’s benevolent organisation promised to found a “German branch or branches, and his oil was to be sold to German consumers by Germans under a German name. That Bounded conciliatory, innocuous and patriotic to the Government. Since then the trust has brought no less than eight "German” companies into existence, which dominate absolutely every branch of petroleum and benzine supply in that country. All of them are dulv incorporated under German law. are conducted by German managers, and are even owned —up to the same limit prescribed by Mr Rockefeller—by German shareholders. The “Standard’s” monopolistic grip on the German trade may be gleaned from last year s import statistics. Germany burnt £3,500,000 worth of foreign petroleum in 1909. Some £2.750,000 was furnished, by the “Standard’s” various “German” companies. General Diaz. General Diaz, now eighty years of age. is the Grand Old Man of Mexico. His life has been one long romance. An early struggle for existence, war and strife, wounds so severe that many times deith seemed imminent, imprisonments, dangerous escapes, military success, and then the Presidentship—all these events followed in quick succession in the career of this extraordinary man. He has shown himself to be a man of strong character ami iron will, ami has proved himself to be one of the greatest rulers in history. He has reigned with all the power of a king, a pope, and a Czar. He is tesentially an autocrat. a monarchical yet democratic ’•tiler. He is a modern of the moderns; and a* soon as he hears of any new invention, manufacture, or scientific discovery, he at once sends able representatives to inquire into the matter and report fully to him. That is why Mexico is so up-to-date. More than that, his position is so unique that whatever he decides is for the good of the country can practically be done at once, for he is not hampered by endless Royal Commissions, and can carry a thing through from first to hint, while another land is merely thinking alwnit it. Under his rule Mexico has improved in every way. Railways have opened up the country, the finances have been placed on a sound footing, trade has increased. Ami now that the President is getting old, the country bills fair to revert to its former condition of anarchy and rebellion. The Mexican can only be fuled by the iron I hand.

Tke Selenites. M. Camille Flammarion, the famous astronomer, has been discussing the aspect of our globe to an imaginary spectator in the moon. “The geographical configuration of our planet could not be distinguished,” says M. Flammarion, “bes cause, unlike Mars, or even the moon, it does not always have a clear sky.” M. Flammarion shows that, seen as it is, the terrestrial globe suspended in the ever dark lunar sky, studded with stars by day as by night, may to the possible inhabitants of the moon be as a celestial dock placed there by nature to enable them to have a perpetual timekeeper and to regulate their calendar. “Seen from the centre of the lunar hemisphere which is known to us,” he says, “the terrestrial planet hangs like a ball ready to fall from the heavens. The diameter of this ball is nearly four times greater than that of the full moon as we see it, ami with a- surface fourteen times more extensive and more luminous. This e.normous fiery ball, which remains motionless in the sky except for turning on its axis, undergoes phases analogous to those which the moon offers us. Thus when we have a full moon . the ..Selenites have a ‘full earth’ and conversely. The ‘new earth’ generally occurs in .the middle of the lunar day, which is fifteen times longer than our day; the ‘first terrestrial quarter’ occurs at sunset, the ‘full earth’ at midnight, and the ‘last quarter’ at sunrise.” J» The Anti-slang Clnb. New York has started an Anti-Slang Club. The object of the elub is to provide prizes for those-who can discover good equivalents for slang expressions. I he prospectus reads well, and is touched in the purest of English. THE ANTI-SLANG CLUB. New Organisation Hits Safe the First Time at Bat, and Looks Like a Winner. Well, Fellow Citizens, as we said last, week in pushing forward our new stunt, somebody has got to put the kybosh on the habit of slinging slang. That was the why of the Anti-Slang Club, to tie a bell to old slang phrases and substitute plain English. Every week some slang phrase will be offered the members of the Anti-Slang Club; and it will be up to them to put it into plain English, or United States, or whatever it is we ought to talk here. For the best and most expressive real language substitute for each slang phrase a prize will be given. Here’s another test phrase: "Get to it, Bo; get to it.” The previous competition was for the best substitute for the phrase, “ Not on your life,” and a prize of £ I was awarded to the sender of the suggestion, “Never! Let George do it.” The, club ought to be able to add variety to American phraseology, even if it doesn’t exactly make it a well of English undefiled. JU Ji Conciliation Throngh Commerce. Mr. Pepper has forwarded us a very interesting and instructive pamphlet on “Conciliation Through Commerce and Industry in South America.” In the course of his review at the political and diplomatic relations of the various republics of South America, he shows that commerce has been a great factor in maintaining peace. He instances the friendly settlement of the boundary dispute between Chili and the Argentine, and a similar settlement between Brazil and Peru, as well as the recent treaty between Brazil and Uruguay. Mr. Pepper (mints out that we hear too little about these things because they are not sensational. Now that Crippen has been hanged it may be possible for people to devote some attention to South America. He especially deprecates the publication of accounts of disputes whilst, the progress of commerce is ignored. He says that rumours of wars in Latin American countries get sensational headlines in the newspapers; no thought is given to the failure of tha rumours to be verified. The facts of industrial progress and commercial advancement are not sensational; no excitement is caused by them, and. they pass unnoticed, yet all the time they are doing their beneficent work iu promoting peace.