The Week in Review.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLVII, Issue 13, 27 March 1912, Page 1

The Week in Review.

The Cost of Law. T K the case of Mr. Stagpoole, who appealed.'against the decision of the 1 Wanganui Education Board in dismissing him from his position as teacher under the Board, the costs to £5OO. But, large aS this may appear, it is nothing compared to ■the costs incurred in actions of a far more trivial nature. Perhaps the most (extraordinary case of a big legal battle brer a small amount was one which happened more than sixty years ago. In those days an import duty was levied on all goods taken into Scotland, and the plaintiff, a Border farmer, was taxed a penny for the straw litter which covered the bottom of his cart as he drove across the border into Scotland. He ait «t>nce brought an action against the Customs authorities, declaring that they had no light to tax material which was evidently not for sale. The case went to Edinburgh, and was argued for two whole days. In the end the farmer got his penny, and nearly £-390 coats.

A Half-penny Fare.

The smalles-t amount ever sued for in a court of law was the sum of one halfpenny. Only the other day a Scottish artisan sued a big tramway company for the return of a half-penny fare. It a.p pears that some rowdy youths were in the same ear in which he was a passenger, and that the company ran the car off the usual route in order to lodge a (■omplaint with the police. The plaintiff found that he had to walk home, and so demanded the return of his fare. This was refused, whereupon he sued, and not only recovered the half-penny, but also seven shillings-andm-penny expenses. About two years ago a lady, travelling a Short distance with a third-class ticket, found that there was no room in the third-class, and In consequence a porter juit her in a second-claes compartment. The ticket-collector made her pay the extra fare—about three shillings. She sued the company, and, after a long battle, recovered her money, while the company had to pay costs that came to over a thousand times as much as the amount sued for.

The Minimum Wage. In speaking of the minimum wage, it is well that we should endeavour to realise the position of the workers in Great Britain in regard to the matter of earnings. Those in receipt of under fifteen shillings exceed in number the whole of the wage earners of the Dominion. Those in receipt of under a pound a week equal the whole population of the Dominion. Those in receipt of under twenty-five shillings a week equal half the population of Australia. while those in receipt of under thirty shillings equal the whole population of the Commonwealth. Of all the wage earners in the Vailed Kingdom over fifty-three per cent, are in receipt of under thirty shillings a week. Only six per cent, of the whole of the wage earners in Great Britain are in receipt of the minimum wage as established in this country. Twelve ]>er cent, live on the very verge of starvation.

Scanty Living.

It has been calculated that SXs Rd u the absolute minimum mi which a family of five (two adults and three children), paying five shilling* for rent, can lie maintained in a stale of pfiyaicai efficiency,

and yet this is an unattainable ideal to the vast majority of those unskilled ■workers who have three children dependent upon them. Mr. Rountree has calculated that with a wage of twenty-five shillings it would be possible for a family of five to live, but only by having a dietary worse than that adopted in the workhouse or the prison. It would exclude tea, butter, and butcher’s-meat. it would only allow of bacon three times a week, bread and margarine, and porridge and skim milk. It would allow only £ 1 per head per annum for the clothing of each person, and would leave a fifth of a penny per week per head for pocketmoney. There is not a penny for amusements, tobacco, sickness, or provision for the f uture. Yet there is a body of wage earners equal in number to every man, woman, and child in New Zealand in receipt of a wage that fails short of this sum by several shillings. A plasterer in the Dominion will often earn more in a single day than a labourer in Great Britain will earn in a week. If we multiplied the total number of hands employed in all the factories of the Dominion by four we would be short by some thousands of the number of wage earners in the United Kingdom who are receiving under fifteen shillings a week, or ten shillings a week less than the minimum necessary to maintain physical efli ciency.

Not Poverty, But Starvation. When we consider these facts it is hardly to be wondered at that the workers maintain that they are fighting for a wage 'io keep them from starvation. “We are not out against poverty, but against starvation,” said one of the Scotch unions last year, and this is true of many of the workers on strike in England to-day. Mr. Rowntree’s estimate allows fourpence-halfpenny a day for food, and five* shillings a quarter for clothes. Yet even this has to be cut down in many cases. Strikes such as those that have taken place in Great Britain bring untold suffering in their train, but they seem inevitable in the present, state of affairs. In the words of the Archbishop of Brisbane. “We must school ourselves to expect more indus- ■ trial unrest in the immediate future. And if it is to mean more sorrow and suffering, we must console ourselves with the thought that these things are just the

birth throes of a happier time

The Value of Evidence. We commented in a recent issue on the curious manner in which witnesses were apt to disagree on plain matters of fact. A very remarkable instance of this was manifested at an inquest held at a London Hospital on the body of a man who had been fatally injured in a street accident. One witness said a carman hugged the kerb too closely and caused

the tailboard of his van to strike the deceased and knock him in front of a tramcar. Another witness said the tramcar hit the deceased first, and further said the deceased slipped and one of 'the wheels of the van went over him. The driver denied this, and also that the vun struck the kerb. One of the witnesses said the deceased was crossing from north to south; another said he was doing the reverse. In the face of this conflict of evidence, the jury were unable to rightly apportion the blame, ami wisely. returned a verdict of accident il death. In the case of another death, the doctors were so divided in their diagno-

sis that they opened the man up to find what he really had died of. Some said it was jaundice, others thought it was some form of affection of the brain. They found when they had cut him up that it was neither. It was “acute yellow atrophy of the liver.” The doctors explained that as there were only 500 cases of this disease on record it was very difficult to diagnose it.

A Noble Profession.

At the ceremony of opening the new building as an extension of the nurses’ home at the Auckland District Hospital, Lady Islington, in the course of her speech declaring the building open, dwelt on the noble work done by the nursing profession. ■ She said that she felt the need of superhuman eloquence to express even dimly the great admiration she felt for the nurses in hospitals. To voluntarily face the sad and distressing in life, and. to try and mitigate it was surely the most Christian and angelic instinct of human kind. In the case of many diseases a good nurse is of just as' great importance as a good doctor. Nursing is one of the -hardest professions a woman can undertake, and it is often made harder by the uiireasonableiieSs of both the patients themselves and the patients’ relatives. There are few indeed who are not under a debt of gratitude to those who follow this noble and arduous profession.

Nursing in the Backblocks,

There was one matter touched upon by Lady Islington, which seems to need the serious consideration of the authorities, and that is the devising of a scheme for nursing the sick in the back-blocks. One of the greatest hindrances to closer settlement of our lands is the difficulty experienced in obtaining good nursing and medical attendance in our more remote country places. Men hesitate to take their wives where they cannot get skilled assistance in case of any emergency. Many valuable livts are lost every year through the want of good nurses in our backblocks. This seems essentially a case where the Government might, with advantage, offer a subsidy towards the maintenance of medical and nursing assistance in sparsely populated settlements. We have already done much in the direction of providing educational facilities. We might surely do something in the equally important direction of providing facilities for the proper care and treatment of those wh-o are sick or ailing in our backblocks.

The Doctors and National Insurance. \\ bile on the subject of nursing and medical attendance, a word seems due about the announcement made by Mr. €. F. G. Masterman, the Under-Secretary to the Home Office, that it may 'be found necessary to work the national insurance system in England as in lieland without the. proposed scheme for medical benefits. This proposed alteration is due to the uncompromising attitude taken up by the British Medical Association and the large majority of medical men. They saw in the bill as it stood a threatened serious pecuniary and social loss to their profession, and so they stood out for six alterations in the measure, which the Government cannot at present see its way to grant. The provisions for medical attendance were one of the most important parts of the 'bill, and at the same time one of the most hotly eon tested. This was especially so In the case of domestic servants.

The Workers' Objections. It is the custom in England for the employer to provide at her own expense for the medical attendance for her servants in case of illness. Under the bill the mistress would have to turn her servants out to be nursed and tended as best she could. In a majority of cases this would mean tlrat the servant would have to go to one or other of the different institutions which care for the sick. To this the servants themselves offered strong objections. Another objection brought by many workers was that they would have no choice in the matter of selecting their medical at fondant. The double opposition of the workers and the medical men has made it necessary for the Government to con aider seriously the question of drop ping altogether the matter of free modi ■cal attendance. It is much to be hoped that thev may yet find some compromise which will be acceptable to all parties, for there can he no doubt as to the urgent need that exists in many quarter* for some such provision as that outlined in tire bill ns it originally stood.

The Australian Provincial Press Association. The visit of the members of the Australian Provincial Press Association ought to be beneficial in many ways to •the Dominion. In the first place, it will enable the members to gain a better

idea of our resources than they could do by merely reading the scanty items of New Zealand news that are cabled across the water from time to time. It also gives them an opportunity of discussing with our newspaper proprietors and editors plans for the better management of our cable service. It seems somewhat of an anomaly that we should be debarred from making use of any cables other than those forwarded by the Press Association. We may also expect as a result of the visit that New Zealand will receive a good advertisement in the various papers under the control of the Australian Provincial Press. A personal visit to our shores is the best way of realising the many ail vantages we have in the matter of climate, sport, ami srciu ry.

Public Opinion* For ourselves, it is always pleasant and instructive to meet journalists from other parts. They open up new topics for discussion, and by their vivid descriptions of scenes and incidents make things more real. One of the topics touched upon by the visiting pressmen was as to whether the Press led or followed public opinion. Before one can oiler any opinion on the matter it seems necessary to define clearly what exactly m'?an by public opinion. It changes so constantly ami so quickly tha*t it is PFver easy to gauge in what direction it is really tending. No one can deny that it is inllnrm -d to a very large extent by the Pi'ess, but it is to be feared th it many people only read papers that nlleel their own opinions, and so they ar: influenced only in the direction that .they have already taken on their own •initiative. There are, however, many questions on which the whole Press is practically united, and no one can deny •that it exercises an almost unrivalled inlluenve in the matter of promoting a sane and healthy public .opinion in all matters affecting both public ami private moralitv. The New Leader. At the adjourned caucus meeting held in Wellington. Mr. T. Mackenzie, the meml.er for Egmont, was elected the. jmw Leader of the party in succession to Sir Joseph Ward. The new Leader is not so well known as some other members of the present Government, as he has always represented country constituencies. and has- devoted himself to agricultural matters. Physically he is a man of more than average height, broad shoulders, and sturdy. He has deep set eyes under heavy brows, a forehead of ample breadth, dark hair, thick and crisp, with a. beard trimmed to a point. Altogether he is one of the most imposing figures on the Treasury benches. He is a keen debater, and in this respect has often proved himself a tower of strength to the Government. But it is an administrator that he has proved himself most capable. J* A Canny Scot. As the head of the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce ami Tourists he has long been recognised as one of the most capable administrators vve possess. These have been the least discussed of all departments. His reform of the Agricultural Department, at the time of the general reorganisation of the civil service, was eo complete that it is now recognised as one of the best administered of all the State services. He has n remarkable ability to master detail**, ami few’ criticisms have ever been levelled at the departments over which he has presided. When he has introduced a Bill it has generally gone through with little or no trouble. Owing to his complete mantery of everything connected with his departments, his estimates have been passed more smoothly than any others. He is personally popular, and has much of the proverbial shrewdness of the Scot. He was born in Edinburgh in 1854, and first entered Parliament as member for Clutha in 1887. Ho haa followed commerce, surveying, and bush farming as occupations, and is a Governor of the Royal Colonial institute, and a Fellow of the Royal Geographical So <-i<*tv.

Motor* and Elections. At the luncheon tendered to him by his supporter”, Sir Joseph Ward spoke On the subject of motor ears at election time. He thought that the abuse of the motor car system at elections was a matter that ought to be reckoned

with. He suggested that the use of vehicles on polling day should be prohibited, but that in country electorate* the State should employ motor cars for carrying the returning officer and scrutineers to go round among people and ensure the recording of votes. Ho thought that if, in addition to this, they prohibited canvassing, they would have a system as nearly perfect as possible. He was of opinion that this was necessary in order to ensure the return of the best men to Parliament. At present the party with the most motor ears at its disposal has a very decided advantage over the less affluent party.

The Limitation of Armaments. Mr. Churchill’s speech in introducing the Naval Estimates has been made the subject of some severe criticism on the part of the Anglophobe. German Press, although the more reasonable section of the Press in both countries has hailed the speech as being in the main of a pacific nature. In effect, the speech means that if Germany will call a halt in her shipbuilding programme England will do the same, but if Germany persists in her present rate of building, then England is prepared to meet her by maintaining a sixty per cent superiority in battleships and Dreadnought cruisers. There is nothing militant in the speech of the First Lord of the Admiralty, only a firm determination to maintain unimpaired England’s superiority on the sea. Our very life as a nation depends on our. navy, just as Germany depends on, her army, and probably the firm attitude taken by Mr. ChurchiH will have; the effect- of making Germany pause in her mad-race for naval- superiority. • Many German pipers express-the hope that it will be possible for both countries to come to some under.sfa-jiding ..on the . important question of the; limitation of armaments.

Frizb Husbands.

We, have read in fiction of tlie model husband just as we.have read of the model wife, biit now we are to have a prize husband in the flesh. - A London paper of an enterprising nature is offering a husband as a prize-in a’competition. All that is necessary to secure this prize is to obtain as’many coupons of tile paper as you can; In addition to the husband ihe paper offers to supply a complete set of furniture as a wedding present. . The husband in question has already been selected, and has agreed to marry the winner of the aforesaid competition.' Every . unmarried woman is eligible to enter the competition irresspective of age or look. Besides the prize husband there are to be second and third prize husbands, as well as a consolation husband. The old saying that marriage is a lottery would seem to be coming true in sober earnest.

A Cat Without a Voice. The guinea pig which was dug out alive after being buried for three weeks in the ruins of the Equitable fire in New York has found a rival in a cat which in a marvellous manner survived a fire in Clacton restaurant. According to a newspaper account it appears that whilst the fire was in progress it was remembered that a eat belonging to the place was still on the premises. Efforts were made to rescue it, but it evaded Its would-be helpers and ran into the basement, which for about an hour and a half presented the scene of a well of seething fire. Hopes of pussy being found alive were given up, but, to the surprise of the searchers, pussy was found two days afterwards, very much alive and sitting on its favourite shelf in the basement. It was called, and it tried to swim through the water which filled the place and - was then rescued. Not a hair was singed, but its voice was gone, this being probablv due to frisrht or smoke. It greedily drank some milk and seemed little the forse for its experience.