Current Topics

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXI, Issue 20, 15 September 1893, Page 1

Current Topics

AT HOME AND ABROAD.

Thbbb ii jait another chance left. Those misguided two in the Coancil, we may explain, have bad their way, and the female franchise iB almost an accomplished fact. The only chance is now that tbt Bill may be reserved for the Boyal assent. The more sensible, or tbs bolder, minority in the Coancil, for it would stem that some members of the majority had sense enough if they dared to act on it, may enter a protest with the Governor. Then the Bill would be submitted to the Secretary for the Colonies, and the probabilities are that it would be quashed. We are told that what is said in jest is often meant in earnest, and, in the present instance, we see a proof that such is the case. Jests aa to the state of subjection in which men are held by their womankind are almost too common to have any wit left in them. Bat here we have an unwilling Govern man t, a half-hearted House, and an adverse Council, compelled to yield, and that, not by the great body of the quiet and well-disposed women of the country, but by a lot of busybodies and meddlers. Sheer terror of their tongues has done the job. Meantime, the members of the Women's Franchise League at Auckland have given us a specimen of bow we may expect the fair electors to conduct that share of the affairs of State with which it will devolve upon them to meddle. We refer to the resolution passed by them the other day as to how they were to receive the local Members on their return from Wellington :—": — " That members of the Franchise League meet the Auckland Members on their arrival ; that to all Members who had supported the movement a small bouquet of flowers should be presented, and to those Members who had voted against them that the League should show their disapproval by completeiy ignoring them."— And that is the resolution of a body who boast themselves capable of working a moral reform of the Colony. The interval, of course, will be passed by them before the lookingglass in practising how to turn up their noses in the most becomingly offensive manner possible; Any man worthy of the name, we Bhould say, would be more ashamed of the posy than of the snub. But there is the new and improved element in colonial politics— bunches of flowers and turned-up noses. That was decidedly a good point made by Mr Pharazyn in the debate on the Liquor Bill in the Council. "He believed in giving retrenched hotelkeepers compensation, for to deprive them of this would be a monstrous piece of injustice, as it would have been on the part of the British nation to have refused the slaveholders compensation when slavery was abolished." But the abolitionists of Blavery were men of true benevolence. There was nothing in them of a bullying self-assertion, and paltry vindictiveness. Of the spirit that prevails among the prohibitionist?, with whose presence we are at present blessed, we find a striking illustration in a question which, on Thursday last, Mr Fish asked of the Minister for Defenoe. The question waa aa to whether the attention of the Minister had been called to a statement made at a public meeting recently held in Dunedin by the Rev J. T. Hinton to the effect that a constable who had been stationed in the borough of RosJyn had recently become bankrupt because in consequence of all the publichouses in the district having been closed he no longer received üßual tips from the publicans. No man, in the eyes of these people, Beems to have a right to his character. The causa, nevertheless, that needs the support of slander and falsehood may well be suspected. Or, even if the cause be in itself just and praiseworthy, as that of temperance certainly is, the advocates who pretend to plead it by such means are more than doubtful. The nature of their regard for the welfare of their neighbours may well be called in question. The announcement by the Premier that Mr Caiman had bean appointed Minister for Justice and Minep, he having refused the portfolio of the Native Minister, which bad again been offered to him, led to a bitter speech from Mr Bolleston. The hon Member denounced Mr Cadman's refusal to resume his late position as an evidence that hi thought that some stigma was attached to him in the matter. He

POLITICAL JOTTINGS.

also accused him of having made light of a verdict rf the Suprem* Court by the appeal he had made to the Auckland constituent There was not, however, much substance in the speech, whioh teem** rather that of a man anxious to find some point on which to Msatl the Government than of one who bad anything of much consequence to say. Mr Seddon also announced that he himself had undertaken the port-folio of Native Minister, The half-holiday clause in the Shops Bill is evidently a ticklish matter. There is not much to surprise us in its baring been tb« occasion, on Thursday night, of an obstinate stonewall. That tbe half-holiday is a welcome boon and a necessity to employees is plain but that it threatens to injure certain classes of employers ia their business seems no less so. A spirit of mutual accommodation, how* ever, with some little experience, may bring about a settlement. In laying down the law on the women's franchise in tha Council, the Hon Mr Oliver was very plainly given to understand by Sir Patrick Buckley that be was on delicate ground. Th« hon gentleman essayed to defend tbe Catholic Church from the charge that be said was bronght against her of exercising a seoret inflnrace in the confessional. He, however, completely juitified Sir Patrick's protest and appeal to the Speaker to put a stop to an improper style of language by tbe reason he gave for denying the interference pf the priesthood in the matter. He said he knew that they wejre opposed to granting the right of voting to women. Sir Patrick Buckley acted the part of a brave man, who has all the courage of his convictions, As for Mr Oliver, we do not know how he had become the confident of the Catholic priesthood, and we greatly doubt that he knew anything particular about their opinions. Of what Beet of clergy, in fact, the hon gentleman is authorised to represent we are ignorant. But, if we may judge by personal appearance, we should say they were strictly Non-oonformUt, Our own impression, as now and then the Hon Mr Oliver, on bone-back especially, has passed us in tbe street, was that we had been favoured wibt the vision of a half-secularised Quaker, and one, too, newly and highly elevated. Vißioni, however, we admit, are sometimes deceptive. Perhaps the hon gentleman has never said thee or than. At any rate he will possibly think twice before he again esstys a doubtful defence of ibe Catholic priesthood, at least when Sir Patrick Buckley is present.

REJECTED BY THE LOBDB.

The Home Rule Bill, as wai expsoted, predicted, and determined, has received short thrift ia the House of Lords. The majority against it was tit to 41. The Peers wbo particularly distinguished themselves by speaking against the Bill were the Duke of Argyle and Lord Salisbury. The most remarkable speeoh made in support of it appears to hare been that of Lord Rosabery, who is reported ai having spoken in a light and facetious strain but little in keeping with the gravity of his subject. The Duke of Argyle atemi to have been particularly inspired for the occ&tion. We are told that be made a brilliant speech, in the coursa of which he Octn pared Mr Gladstone to the Mahdi, stigmatised him as a fanatic, and justified the threatened insurrection of the Orangemen, a matter concerning which Lord Londonderry also expressed himself with enthusiasm. Lord Salisbury evidently abode in his accustomed lines of truculene* and violence. With a calumny which we understand, he branded the Irish Members as criminals, asserting also, less comprehensibly, that they were marketable. His Lordship, nevertheless, during his late term of office, did not find them so, although, do doubt, they might have made for themselves very advantageous terms with him had they so desired. To call them criminals is traditional, and cheap for men who, like Lord Salisbury, have no regard for truth. Lord Salisbury evidently still insists on his plan of perpetual coercion— a congenial system for one who boasts his inheritance of the senti. ments towards Ireland of his forefathers. Lord Salisbury also, we are told, brands the Welsh Members as foreigners. Nor should it be difficult, we admit, for one who steps lightly back to the days of Elizabeth and James 1., rejoicing ia and desiring to renew the slaughters and brutalities of those times, to retnrn further to the days of King Edward I. and claim a share ia the cruelties that thsa dyed red the mountains and valleys of Wales. But have we here an enlightened statesman of the nineteenth century or a monster strayed

down from ruder and lesa merciful ages ? What we have in truth is the leader of a claw, who has before his eyes the inevitable march of the democracy, and is driven frantic by a vain effort to bar their pktn. We have heard of men eeliiog their soulu to the devil to gain tome worldly end. What are we think of the man who looks back with approval to the days when, for example, a miserable remnant of the slaughtered people of Ireland dragged themselves as to a feast to any pool where a patch of water crtsses was to be found growing, that, with such fare as that, they might try to appease the pangs of their hunger 7 And have we not, with our own eyes, seen the starving people gather nettles for their meal by the sides of the roads over which waggons laden with corn were being driven to the seaports of the country 7 Later still, have not the famished people tried to sustain their lives on a diet of seaweed ? Those 419 Peers who have voted for the rejection of the Home Rale Bill represent the misrule that had brought about this Btate of things in Ireland, and their vote has now been given for its renewal and perpetuation. The famine of the later " forties" was caueed by the resistance to the repeal of the corn laws, to which the Tories were opposed, and the same party are still anxious to sustain their power and privileges at the cost of the starvation even of an entire people. And to this Lord Salisbury would, without Bcruple, add the horrors of a civil war , of a war of religion. The excuse is not that the safety of the Empire is in danger as they pretend, but that they fear for the privileges of their own class. And what, in fact, has led to this vast majority of the Honße of Lords ? The necessity of throwing out a Bill to which the majority of the country was opposed 7 That would be an easy thing to do, and need trouble the leisure or convenience of but few aristocratic households. The need wap, if possible, to bring pressure tc bear on the Government, and to force them to ask for a dissolution of Parliament. The need was to baffle, by any meanp, the English legislation, of which the Tories stand so much in dread, and which is certainly destined to strengthen the hands of the Liberal party against them. But Ireland who has waited so long for justict may well wail another year or two. Mahdi and fanatic though Mr Gladstone may be in the eyes of the Dnke of Argyle and of the Peers who sympathise with his Grace, he is, in the eyeß of the people, a great leader who understands their want?, and is able to make provision for them. They trust him already, and their trnst in him will be increased by-and-by. They will make use of the enlarged powers he proposes to confer npon them to support him in the gre&t work of justice he has undertaken, and the House of Lords will be compelled to carry out his will. We have no fear whatever for the ultimate fate of Home Bule, We hardly make more account of its rejection by the House of Lords than we make of the bluster of an Orange mob. The very truculence and violence of Lord Salisbury reassure us. It is impossible that be can be sincere in his appeal to the infamoua traditions of the past, or in bis recommendation of perpetual coercion. These are mere desperate expedients to which he is forced to have recourse. Nay, even the lightness of Lord Roseberj'a speech, if it be true, as reported, may also reassure us. What could it prove except that the ■peaker recognised the ioevicable and tried to meet it with as good a grace aa possible ? Many a wise man makes the best of a bitter dose by swallowing it with a smiling face. The short shrift that the House of Lords has given to the Home Rule Bill, in fact, only proves its importance and their fear of it. The hour will come when they must treat it differently, and until then the Irish people may well possess their souls in patience. A year or two cannot make much difference to a people who have waited and persevered for centuries.

Ova esteemed contemporary tha Bay of Plenty ODDS AVT> ENDS. Tines completed, on the Ist inst., his 21st birthday. Our esteemed contemporary celebrates hie coming of age by an article descriptive of the progress made by the Tauranga district, in which his paper is published, and where, as we natnrally conclude, be gives a tone to politics and the general disposition of society. Our contemporary's issue appears in a delicate tint of rose. Colour and couleur de raw also is the sketch he gives of local matters. A land flowing wi<h milk and honey, with nniza and fat cattle, and flax and grapop, lies open before oar admiring gaze and makes oar months water. Settlement is rapidly advancing. There are cheese factoiies, and flour mills, and creameries, and gold mines— or there ie, at least, one of each. Shops, whose shutters were permanently closed last year, are now stirring places of business. There are two theatres, wherein resident actors provide entertainment for an intelligent and appreciative pcblic. There is a swamp in which a number of lettlers from Canterbury have made their home, and which, when the rivers that now overflow it have been drained away will form a moit fertile and desirable tract of land. Oar esteemed contemporary does not mention whether the Canterbury settlers have, meantime, taken up their dwelling in a kind of Noah's Ark ownei in common by them, or whether each family enjoys its own separate raft. In any case, we wish them all epeed in their work of reclamation. On the whole, however, it is cheering to read of the progress that is evidently going swiftly on, and of which all parts of the Colony must more or less feel the effects. As to our esteemed contemporary, the

publication of bis newspaper and the manner in which it is edited and generally turned out afford a marked proof that the prosperity and progress of which be speaks axe genuine. He has our best wishes for his continuance in the carter of which be has so happily completed an important stage. Old age, it would appear, is about to come to an end in Australia. Dr L. L. Smith, a physician of reputt in Sydney or Melbourne, we do not know which, has just returned from Paris, where he had made an exhaustive study of the system followed with wonderful results by Dr Brown-Sequard. Dr Browo-Skquard, it appears, is a gentleman 76 years of age, but with all the freshness and all the strength of youth, to which be has returned by virtue of experiments made upon himself. Dr Smith also cites the cases of two ladies, aged respectively 96 and 93, who threaten to eclipse the fame of the beautiful and everlasting Ninon de l'Enclos. At to the processthat perhaps can be best understood by medical men. It seems, however, generally to coniist of the subcutaneous injection, or, in plain English, the equirting-in under the skin, of liquids made from the glands of the lower acimals. The fastidious would possibly find it not quite to their taste that the serum of a dog is one of the most approved and efficacious. But are not onr friends the Chinese said to find puppy-dog pie a most toothsome morsel ? And when there is a chance of growing young again who can hesitate as to the means? Have we not before our eyes, and even in our tars, the example of Dr Paustus and the price be paid for the privilege ? Old age, then, is destined to pass away, and the octogenarian may die in his teens. There is the elixir of life— a squirt and a bottle of stuff— with possibly a lively imagination to give the experiment due effect. Dr L. L. Smith b peak a enthusiastically of the process. But what results we should like to know, has it produced on the death rate of the city where Dr Brown-Sequard himself Las now been at work for stveral years. Possibly as much as has been produced in various places by homoeopathy or hydropathy or other panaceas, of which as much in their time has been boasted. The Melbourne Argut announces the death of Captain Arthur Devlin, eldest son of Arthur Devlin, a rebel chief of '98, who was transported to Botany Bay. Arthur Devlin married and settled on the banks of the Paramatta River. Deceased was born in 1811, being, aa he claimed, the first Australian child of an Australian mother. At the age of 12 he went to sea, and, during a seafaring life of many years, he had many adventures and varying fortunes. He was distinguished as one of the first whaleboat's crew which claimed the championship of New South Wales. He was captain of the first vessel moved by steam in Australian waters. He was wrecked in the neighbourhood of the Fijis, and suffered great dangers and hardships. He afterwards traded between Australia and China and Australia and America, finally leaving the sea and settling down in Melbourne as partner in a gold-buying firm. The Argus, from whom we have taken all these particulars, describes Captain Devlin as a man over 6ft in height, splendidly built, and of determined will and great physical powers. He had a large family, of whom only three survive him.