NOTES OF THE DAY,

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1219, 30 August 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY,

The High Commissionership . has been hung up until the end of December next. This should prove a most convenient arrangement for Ministers with shaky seats. Sir William Hall-Joxes will continue to fill the oflice until the date mentioned and should tho Hon. T. Mackenzie or Bin John Findlay or Mr. Millar, or anyone else, be unfortunate enough to woo the electors in vain the vacant High Commissionership will afford the Government an admirable chance of rearranging things comfortably for someone. That is, of course, assuming that the Government come back with a majority. Should they not come back with a majority they will still have this plum available for the most deserving of their number; for until Parliament meets they will still exercise all the, powers of a Government. It is a very nice arrangement for Ministers —they generally do arrange things to suit themselves —and after all the public interest is a small thing beside the interests of the Ward Administration,

A very interesting and important motu ]>roi>rio diminishing the number of Feast days of precept was issued by the Pope on July 2 last. Henceforth there will be no weekday holidays of obligation throughout the Church except those of the Nativity, the Circumcision, Epiphany, Ascension, Immaculate Conception, Assumption, S.S. Peter and Paul, and All Saints. Moreover, should any of these Feasts fall on a Friday, the ordinary obligation of abstinence is to be dispensed with on that day. Of practical interest to all Catholics, this motu propria is of general interest for the reasons given by the Pope for his new law. Tie is moved by considerations of "the changed condition of the times and of civil society" and "the special circumstances of the age." "For men to-day traverse with marvellous rapidity the greatest distances by land and sea, and through wider facilities for travelling find readier access to those nations where the number of Feast days of precept is less. Also increased commerce and the additional demands of business seem to suffer loss from the delays caused by frequent Feast days. Finally the daily increasing cost of the necessaries of life makes it additionally desirable that the servile work of those who gain their living by labour may not be too often interrupted." The change is obviously wise and judicious, but it is significant of the stress of modern life that the change should be deemed necessary. The motu proprio sheds some light upon the losses, in leisure and piety, that civilisation must sustain in growing more complex.

The gag was applied in the House of Representatives yesterday to the discussion of railway employees' grievances. .'Both 51H. Hekdmax and Mr. Massky desired to ventilate certain alleged of railway servants, but the Minister for lia'ilways, wlio usually is an ad.vcicatc of free speech, protested to Mi!. Si'EAKEii. Mi:. MiLLAii submittcd that as there was a petition from railway servants covering a very complete, list of grievances now before a Parliamcnary Committee, it was not possible under the Standing Orders to discuss any matters heaving on railway servants' grievances in the House until the pe-

tition came back from the Committee. Jlr. Herdm.i.v pointed out that hi! was referring to general, and not to particular, grievances, but the rilling oE the Speaker, which was a little vague, seemed to bear out the Minister's contention. The position thus created is too absurd for words. It simply means that if Ministers desire to block discussion on any matter all they have to do is to get someone to sond in a bogus petition relating to the subject in question; have the petition referred to a Committee and so hang the matter up as long as they please.

Although Japan lias much to do, many things to karn and many other things to unlearn, before it is a coherent civilisation, yet in some great particulars, as, for example, its defence policy and its public debt extinction scheme (of which we lately gave some details that illuminated the bogus nature of the scheme fathered by Sir Joseph Ward), it acts with wonderful simplicity and wisdom. Prince Katsviu is just now organising a Charity Association, tho SeiseiTcai, with the object of mitigating the extreme distresses of the sick and poor of the Empire. "One of the most remarkable undertakings of modern times" is the description that one writer gives to Prince Katsura's scheme. It is proposed to collect a' fund of twenty-five million yen (£2,500,000) by voluntary subscription—a huge sum when the intrinsic poverty of the Empire is taken into account— the interest of which is to be devoted entirely to the relief of extreme poverty or of sickness among the poor. The Ji'mperor has headed the fund with a million yen (£100,000) from his private purse, and subscriptions are pouring in. A curious feature of the movement is the behaviour of the nobles. In most other countries the nobility and the wealthy people are generally the backbone of all voluntary charity undertakings. In Britain and in British communities especially the rich arc the first to realise their obligations towards the very poor. In Japan, however, the nobles seem to be made of different stuff. It appears that they are giving hardly any support to the Seiscikai, despite their enormous wealth. But the scheme is certain to succeed, and Japan may be relied upon to work it well when the fund is completed.