Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 9, 16 December 1892, Page 1

Current Topics

4X JT^if^ 4iV2> ABROAD.

A DIFFICULT QUESTION.

Possibly the somewhat lengthy cablegrams relative to the silver question and the monetary conference that have been of late published have aroused, but not satisfied, the cariosity of oar readers. The question has arisen principally from the condition of things in the United States where, by an Act in force for some yean, the Treasury are bound to buy every month four and a half million ounces of silver. In payment notea are issued— and of these there are now outstanding a quantity representing a very large snm, and which increases monthly. But adding this to a mass of paper otherwise issued, a vast sntn is arrived at. The availab'e gold, meantime, held by the Treasury amounts to, comparatively, a very inconsiderable sum. What, therefore, a ran upon the Treasury mnsf involve is plain. As a rtmody, ilfia proposed that the Treasury should cease its monthly porchMe of silver — in which case the credit of the country would be sufficient for the rest. Meantime India is also strongly affected. Then a fall in the value of the rupee has been the cause of no little disturbanoe in trade. The exchange value of the rupee has fallen from 2s to Is 3d, and, as a consequence, civil servants and others whose salaries are paid in the country have virtually lost about one third of their income. The question is how to retain the value of the rupee. Bat the effect of a further fall in. the value of silver, such as joust e.asqe on a stoppage of the monthly purchase nude in the United States is clear. If, however, the Indian currency were changed for that established in the United Kingdom— that is, if gold instead of silver wsre made the standard— wages and prices must fall all over the country and the hoards of silver in the possession of wealthy natives, would lose heavily in value. The consequence would be serious irritation — nay. possibly rebellion against English rale. A proposal, we perceive has been made at the Conference for a bimetallic or gold and silver standard, but this, which, especially owing to the difficulty of maintaining a fixed ratio between the metals, is a knetty question! could only be carried out by means of an international agreemept— and, indeed the proposal alluded to is for an International Bimetallic League." What are the probabilities, wej'may ask in conclusion, that certain of the great powers would agree to this, with the end chiefly in view of maintaining the popularity of the British Government in India ?

A MODEST DEMAND.

The report of the visit paid on Thursday from Dunedia by the Native Minister to Otakou — more generally kaown as the Maori Kaik — has made as acquainted with a quite unsuspected state of things. It .seems there is the remnant of a Maori tribe living in oar neighbourhood who as they state, are in trouble and wailing and pain for the last 48 or 5G years. Their reception of Mr Cad man was most pathetic. They blessed him, and thanked him, ani prayed for him ( as the first Native Minister they had ever seen. Their grief becomes much more pathetic and much more interesting to us when we learn its object. All, it would appear, rests on a claim male by this remnant of a tribe to a earn of tenths of the Otago Block amounting to £9.37,945, and a farther sum of £78,000, the value of the Dunedia boat reserve — and very solid grounds, too, we should say, for a display of feeling. We do not, however, know whether onr Maori friends blessed and prayed so much over the departure of the Minis* ter as they di 4 over his arrival. The Minister, in some way or other, explaintd to them that they had already been paid every penny that they bad a right to. There was no disguising, he said, that be did not imagine (bat Parliament would for a moment think of entertain* ing each a claim. And then he fell back on the unearned increment. " Opt land," he said, " had no value till the Europeans came and gave a value to it." The Minister, nevertheless, promised that Government would do their best to provide the landless Natives with suitable blocks, warning them to take advantage of the offer before it was too late. The Hon H> K. Taiaroa, meantime, though hardly in the scientific spirit to which we are accustomed, displayed a faith in the better

disposition of the men of tbe future. He requested that the QoVettt* ment would set down in writing their proposal as to the blooW of land in qaes' ion, lest it might be said in after years by other Govern* menta that the Maoris bad thn» cancelled their claim. And possibly there may "be some satisfaction to the individual Who entertains it in the delusion that he is rightful heir to a Tast inheritance. Weshdntti bs sorry to think that the payment of the snm of money in question was really necessary for the relief of the wailing and trouble of our Maori neighbours. There is a vulgar old saying, in short, that seems applicable — Don't they wish they may get it 1

OBSTINATELY DETERMINED.

Lobd Salisbury, ia an article in the National Review for November, sets at derision Mr Glad* stone's project of Home Bale, and, more especially his idea q{ compelling the House of Lords to pan the measure. He ridicules the notion of passiog a Home Bole Bill in a House of Commons where they have a " motley majority of thirtyeight." As to the House 6f Lords, he says Mr Gladstone's threats carry with them all the terrors of the unknown.- Lord Salisbury however, proceeds to deal with Mr Frederick Harrison, who, he admits, is more definite. Mr Harrison proposes the disappearance ot the House of Lords. Bat this proposal, writes Lord Salisbury, is not original. "It is very much what the House of Commons did in 1649.'* For its success, however, the command of a military force was needed — a desideratum not as yet possessed by Mr Gladstone — and, adds the writer, the House of Commons that had acted in the manner alluded to, did not live long to enjoy its solitary grandeur. As an alternative, Mr Harrison proposes a creation of Peers by the Grown—" five hundred sweeps," if desirable— the penalty being, ia case of the Crown's refusal, a refusal of supplies by the House. Lord Salisbury, however, questions the power of the Crown to do what Mr Harrison desires it should be punished for not doing. The question he says has never been decided. Ha quotes precedent, moreover, to prove that the Hous« of Lords can refuse to allow Peers so created to Bit and vote. This, he says, was done in 1711, in the case of Scottish Peers created Peers of Great Britain, and again in 1856, when Lord Wensleydale was created a life Peer by Prerogative, the reason assigned being that the indepen* dence of the House as a legislative body was being threatened. Lord Salisbury, nevertheless, agrees with Mr Harrison, that the Lords would give way if Mr Gladstone and the nation were thundeiing at their doors." "Yes," he says, "even if the nation were thundering alone." What he denies is that the nation will so thunder— indeed he declares that the thunder will roll in an opposite direction. In an electorate of four million eight hundred thousand, he asserts the total majority amounted only to seven hundred and sixty-five votes. Then his Lordship falls back once more on the no- Popery cry and asks whether the Orangemen of Ulster would accept such a vote, scattered over England and Scotland, " as a sufficient warrant for surrendering them for ever to the good pleasure of Archbishop Walsh and his Party." We mast not, therefore, be over-sanguine as to the immediate prospects of Home Bale. A violent, protracted, and repeated straggle, and many other devices, still lie between Mr Gladstone's proposals and their accomplishment. Another appeal, or more, perhapp, to the country, a question as to the power of the Crown, a question as to tbe prerogatives of the House of Lsrda, a passionate summoning up of the spirit of anti-Catholic bigotry, that possibly has not been killed, but scotched, among the ranks of the people of Great Britain. We mußt not delude ourselves by any vain hopes of a walk-over. Lord Salisbury and his party are able and wily enemies, and in their hands are many powerful weapons.

A CANDID LAD!

Now that is the way to talk. There is no beating , abont the bash there, bat an outspoken expression of opinion that all of as may understand. And, by the way, there is an opening pointed oat right off for the amazona of Dahomey. Now that the French have deposed their king and eponse, there can be no netd fot their services at home. We allude to the candid expression of opinion made the otber day, at a conference of the Women's Emancipation Union in Birmingham, by one Miss Ooienn, a delegate from London. There was a lot of speeches and papers delivered or read, but all waa namby-pamby in

comparison. Lady Florence Dixie, for example, sent a paper advocating that every girl should be trained to be a nan. Girls and boys , she said, should be brought up together, and mentally and physically trained alike. That was the way, she said in effect, to turn out women worth their salt, wives and motbsrs fit for the period, and as little different from husbands and fathers as possible. Lady Florence would not even have any difference made in their dress. But all this was milk-and-water beside the brave words of Miss Cozens. Talk was all bosh, she said. The time had come for action. Men were supposed to be possessed of physical force, but women bad the nse of dynamite the same as they had. Something desperate, Bhe declared, would have to be done before women got their freedom. They talked of a bloodless revolution, but she had never heard of one. If women could shoot straight, she said, men would not trifle with them as they now did. And there is wheie the opening for the amaaons comes in. "If they bad a regiment of women who could ■boot," she added, " they would have the franchise in a week." That we ny again, is speaking to the purpose. We congratulate the ladies of London who are represented by Miss Cozens, on their candour. As to how far we are to congratulate the members of the opposite sex who have the happiness to find themselves in these ladies' immediate neighbourhood, time only can disclose. Is it too much, meanwhile, to look forward to an epoch at which the measures for the repression of their dominant women taken periodically by the barbarians whom Mr Eider Haggard describes in " Bhe," may be adopted with advantage in quarters so far more civilised ? Hardly, if, at least, we may take Mies Cozens, of London, as an exponent of the more advanced, and sternly advancing, female mind.

ODDS AND XNDS.

Thx editor of the Month has evidently bit tb, spirit ualists and theosophists hard. Mr Stea^ replies to him in the Review of JRevietvs, arguing ratber weakly from the accusation of an alliance With Beelzebub brought by the Jewish elders against our Blessed Lord. He also cites tbe case of Joan of Aic. Bat Mr Stead mistakes the case. " And yet," be says, " the Pope demanded that she should be handed over to the Inquisition, and she was tried and burned as a heretic and a witch, who was declared to be 'a disciple a limb of the fiend.' " Joan, nevertheless, had consented to submit herself to tbe Pope, and the Bishop of Beauvais objected— as should be remembered now in these days of railways and telegraphs, •' The Pope is too far off." At the last Bhe said " ' Bishop I die through you,' . . . and again ' Had you put me in the prisons of the Ohnrch and given me ghostly keepers this would not have happened.' " Tbe editor of the Month says Mr Stead " is ia the true line of succession from the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem and the Bishop of Beauvaie." But it is suggested by Michelet that tbe Bisbop cf Beauvaiß was an infidel, and we dow know that he waa a schismatic and a supporter of the anti-Pope. Mrs Besant has aleo answered Father Clarice, bat we have Dot as yet seen any report of her lecture. If her reply be as poor as Mr Stead's it speaks ill for the causa she seeks to defend.— Toryism continues true to its principles. Everywhere its sympathies are with the strong hand. What grade of aristocracy is it, by the way, whose symbol in heraldry U the blood-red hand 7 Such a symbol would well become tbe Tory party, and there might be added to the hand, if not a dagger, at least a cat-o'-cine-tails, . The St James's Oaaette, we are told, rejoices over the •' grit ' of Mr O'Connor, tbe Minister of Justice for New South Wales, in refusing to hear the plea for mercy towards the Broken Hill prisoners. How far the Minister may congratulate himself on deserving the applause of an organ of the party of retrogressijn in the old country we leave to tbe judgment of our readers. — Has any Cabinet ever before assumed office under such circumstances 1 M. Ribot, the new French Premier, we are told, has no particular programme. All his desire il to fulfil the duty of a detective and expose the cheating of the Panama Canal Company. He has authorised the autopsy of the body of Baron Beinacb. Here, then, we are, a hundred years after the gloriouß Revolution, and celebrating with enthusiasm all its centenaries. Here is its first flower, the glorious French Republic, with its autopsical Cabinet — deriving its auguries from tbe entrails of a dead knave. Ohe ! jam satis.

A cablegram under date December 9 runs as follows :— " Mr John Morley, speaking at New-

IBISH GLEANINGS.

castle, said the Government would submit a scheme

of Home Rule which Ireland ought to accept and EDgland not to refuse. The outcry about the domination of Irish clericalism was all cant." But it is time-honoured cant— cant that has done good service in its day to those who had need of it. Its potency has been by do means over-estimated by those making use of it. The most hopeful thing for all tbe future will be its failure— if it fails them cow at last. — '• Mr James Gordon M'Cullagh, who unsuccessfully contested South Aberdeen in July last in the Unionist interest against Mr Bryce," says the London Standard of October 27, "died on the24tb inßt, at bis residence, 214 Devonshire road, Forest Hill, at the age of 42. Mr M'Oullagb, who was Private Secretary to the late

Attorney-General of Ireland, now Mr Justice Madden, married in 1885, Catherine Sydney, daughter of Mr Alexander Orr." Mr James Gordon M'Oallagh, we may add, was a half-brother of Mr Torrens McOnllagh, who was, to some extent at least, associated with the^ Young Ireland party. The Mr Orr alluded to is the late Mr Alexander Smith Orr, of Dublin, a gentleman who, after a distinguished course in Trinity College, was admitted a member of the Irish Barnever, however, taking up the practice of his profession. This gentleman married a daughter of the late Rev Mark Perrin, Rector of Athenry and Prebendary of Teacsaxon, in the Anglican diocese of Taam. — Mr Morley has given Mr Arnold Forster a lesson as to an over-hasty use of his tongue. Mr Foreter, speaking at Oirencester, bad accused Mr Morley of withdrawing police protection from a gentleman in the South of Ireland. " Thiß meant that he must leave tbe country or run the risk of being murdered with bis wife or children." Mr Morley immediately wrote to demand from Mr Forster the name of the gentleman so treated. But this Mr Forster refused to give. Mr Morley, in reply, commented sharply on the strange behaviour of Mr Forster in refusing to place him in a position to protect his friend* He then went on to state that as a matter of fact, there was a gentle* man in tbe South of Ireland whose protection had been reduced from three constables to one, but the reduction had bten made by tbe late Government. The exposure made of Unionist falsehood was com* plete. The conclusion of the national Press, however, seems to be that if Mr Morley undertakes to nail every lie that is thus told of him, his time will be busily occupied. Misrepresentation is one of the chief weapon 9of the Unionist party, and the more impudent and brazen-faced it is the more they seem to rely on it.— The estimate of Sir James Mathew aa chairman of the Evicted Tenants' Commission, given by the newspapers favourable to Home Bale, is very different from that which we have received by the cable. The Judge is spoken of in tbe highest terms and hailed aB eminently qualified for tbe duties reqnired of him, of which the chief, we may add, is that of inquiring as to the means of bringing about settlements and the reinstatement of the evicted. Judge Mathew is described as a judge of tbe Queen's Bench Division of tbe High Court of Justice in England. The other members of the commission are — Christopher T. BtdingtoD, Etq, D.L , son and successor, we conclude, of the late Sir Thomas Bedington of Kilcornan, County Galway, and connected through hie mother with the great English Catholic bouse of Talbot ; John Roche, Esq, a well-known Queen's Counsel ; Edmund Murphy, Eeq ; and Murrough O'Brien, Esq, probably tbe gentleman of that name who was a nephew of the late William Smith O'Brien. If so, and the boy was fether of the man, Mr O'Brien should be as fine a fellow as ever stood in shoe leather. The Times was hostile from the first to the appointment of Judge Mathew, stigmatising him as a Home Ruler, but acknowledging his ability as a- judge.— " In an address to the members of the Synod of Cork, Cloyne, and Ross yesterday*' fays the London Standard of October 27, "Bishop Gregg pointed out that the state of uncertainty with regard to the political future of Ireland was injuriously affecting the best energies of their countrymen in every direction. Some feared a continuous angry battle. Some looked forward to a terrible and destructive cyclone ; while others believed there would be an equinoctial calm. If they, as Protestants, were to address the people who dwelt around them, and who differed from them as regards politics and religion, all they would ask of them was, ' Allow us to live in peace and deal with us as honest men.' " — And snrely so much they have a perfect right to ask. But, eui bono 1 No one on earth has any micd to deal otherwise with them. — By tbe death of Father Davis, P.P., of Baltimore which took place towards tha middle of October, Ireland has lost a son whose memory deserves a lasting place in her annals. The work accomplished by Father Davia in the development of the fisheries and in tbe inspiriting of the fishermen of Baltimore, must form his ever* enduring monument. Nor should we forget the aid he received in carrying out bis project from the benevolence of the Lady Burdett* Ccutts. Not the least remarkable institution connected with Father Davi&'a undertaking ib the Fishing School, where lads are trained not only in the arts of catching and curing fish, but also in the science of navigation — in which last year a number of them very creditably passed an examination at South Kensington. A drawback to the school, nevertheless, exiss in the stigma attached to it as aa industrial school, and made necessary by tbe conditions of the Government subsidy. Tbe lads are also discharged at an age earlier than that required for their complete training. But Father Davis bad proved what Irishmen of the working classes were capable of if they met with properencoursgement, and his memory deserves an honour wider than that due for the particular task performed by him. His funeral' was made an occasion of testifying to the general regard in which be' bad been held. .

POfeTSCRIPTS,

Who is accountable for that advertisement ? We* allude to "Wanted for the Sunnyside Asylum, Christcburcb, a mabried couple without encum*brance, etc," which we see ia the columns of the Otago Daily limes, and which is doubtless to be found as well ia other papers. Such an advertiaemeot is odious at any time. It becomes moie glaringly 10

at'a'tfine like the present, when the colonies have been horrified by the revelations made at Sydney in connection with a case of babyfarming. Bat into a minnte examination of the mbject it is impossible for us to enter. Anyone who has even a little experience of life will understand it well enough. Who, then, we ask, is accountable for the advertisement f Not, we tract, the " mbdioal bupebintbnDKNT," to whom applioationi with testimonials are to be addressed. A gentleman of his profession, on the contrary, should especially set his face against anything of the kind. Whoever is accountable for the advertiament it is a disgrance to him, and to the institution ia connection with which it is issued— if not to the Government under whose control that institution sxists.— -It is much to be feared that Lord Salisbury only too truly describes Mr Gladstone's majority in, the House of Commons as " motley." Sir Edward Beed, for example is one of that majority, aod is included by the Time* among the Members whom it stigmatises as " separatists." Yet here is a cable* gram under date London, December 10 :— " In the coarse of a speech to-day, Sir Bdward Beed, Liberal Member for Cardiff, said he would be wilHns; to enlarge -the system of local government for Ireland without disturbing the fundamental relations of the two countries. Be warns Mr Gladstone against Home Bale and the pretensions of the Parhell'section. He also warna him against the release of those in custody for dynamite outrages and the restoration of evicted tenants. He states that he represents the sentiments of many members of the House of Commons." Faction in Ireland is evidently doing its fatal part.— One of the points made by Lord Salisbury iv the article alluded to above, is that possibly some of Mr Harrison's 500 BWeeps, created Peers, might go wrong. We have already seen from the example of Sir Edward Beed that there are but too good grounds for such a conclusion. We now find what w« fear may be a farther indication of the same kind in the resignation of another " separatist," that ii Mr J. 8. Balfour, M.P. for Barnly. On the whole .there seems to be Serious cause for uneasiness as to Irish prospects. — Soms little comfort, however, and especially as against the fate of Mr Fallam, in Sooth Meatb, we may derive from the success of the petition, on the ground of corrupt practices, against the election of Alderman

Davies for Rochester. Alderman Davies is a Unionist. Let us hope he may make room for a man of better principles. — Meanwhile, Irish affairs afford grounds for mingled feelings. Crime, according to Mr John Morley, speaking at Newcastle, is largely decreasing ; the reduction in the number of cases for the past 12 months being 500. On tbe other hand, the farmers, as might be foreseen from the low prices at Ballinasloe, and at other principal fairs, are feeling the pinch of distress. They are crying out against taxation, in addition to the repetition of their time-honoured cry against tbe exactions of the landlords.