NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1404, 2 April 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The account of the recent murder trial iu Rarotonga which we. print in another column to-day merely emphasises the scandalous fai.ure of the Government to check.the misgovernment of the Cook group. Very few people regard Sir Robert Stout's report on the administration based upon a secret hearing of the defence only, and vitiated both by unfair comments and at least one flagrant misstatement of fact—as either a creditable document for a Judge to issue or a disposal of the very serious charges made against "Captain" Smith's management of the Islands. This matter must bo threshed out iu Parliament in the coming session. We shall on the proper occasion retell the whole story of "Captain" Smith's administration and of the Government's defiance of the public interest in the interest of its appointee. In the meantime "Captain" Smith's position requires explanation. It appears that the Ward Ministry resolved—or, should we say ? took the precaution— before .it ceased to exist, to recall "Captain" Smith (who returned to Now Zealand on Saturday), and appoint him, or arrange for his appointment, to the charge of what has been called the "Cook Islands Department." Wo do not understand this. It would seem that a new unnecessary Department, or a new unnecessary post, has been created for the benefit of a favoured prolqja of the Wardist people. Perhaps the late Administration, in its "clean-ing-up" improprieties, concluded that only one thing could result from a really honest investigation of the Islands administration, such as the new Parliament is extremely likely to prescribe. Nobody need suppose, however, that the public will be satisfied with the extraordinary \yay in which the Ward Administration remembered to end—for the time being —the discreditable chanter of Islands administration that opened with the improper appointment of "Captain" Smith. It is a heavy and deadly legacy that Mr. Mackenzie has inherited.

We hope it is not often that the provisions for tho ■ employment of ''under-rate workers" arc made of no effect in tho manner related in a news item which we published yestcr : day. The employee in this case was an* ironmoulder, who, by reason of advanced age, was unable to get through as much work in the day as the average journeyman. A permit was accordingly obtained iir the ordinary way for him to work at less than the minimum wage of the award, and the arrangement appeared to be satisfactory, both to the old man and his employer. At length, however, the secretary of the union objected, and the outcome was that the employer had to pay the old man the award wages or dismiss him. As engineering businesses are not run on philanthropic lines, the old man lost his job and could not get another. He is now, according to his late employer, who told the story at the Ironmasters' Conference at Christchurch, an inmate of a Benevolent Home. Thus a man who might have been earning his own living on perfectly honourable terms is forced to accept charity. The country is the poorer by the loss of his labour and by the cost of keeping him in idleness. The union that brought this about may have had some reason for what, on the face of it, was an arbitrary and cruel action, but whatever may lie said from the union's point of view, it is clear that a minimum wage clause may work out in bitter injustice. Such injustice may be mitigated by the system of under-rate permits, but there is only too much reason to know that the men in control of the unions look with disfavour on these exceptions to the cast-iron rule. In this they show themselves the advocates, not of a class, as they admit, but of a portion of a class, the tyrannous portion. In a case like that under notice it is the union that pushes the weakest to the wall.

Missions are just now in the air. In Duncdin, the Chapman-Alexander services are being attended by between ;SOOO and -1000 people every night; the mission at the Basilica, in Hill Street, during the last week or so has attracted crowded congregations, to whom the missioners have expounded the fundamental doctrines of the Roman Catholic faith; and now we have Anglican midday services in the city with the idea of bringing the Church into closer touch with the life of the people. The weak point about these efforts is the great difficulty in reaching the outsider, and the chief obstacle appears to be indifference rather than actual hostility. If the people will not come to the Church, the Church must go the people (but only as a Church), .and, as a practical illustration of this principle, an Anglican clergyman was to be seen at the luncheon hour yesterday standing in an express in Post Office Square addressing a large and quite respectful and orderly crowd of working men—the genuine article. One of the great merits of these missions is that they make men rethink their religious or anti-religious beliefs. They make the churchman ask himself whether, after all, there may not lie some justification for the objections of opponents, and should cause him to review his position and reconsider the grounds of his faith in the light of criticism. They should also lead the hostile and the indifferent to re-think their position, and to ask themselves whether there may not be something more than tliev have been inclined to admit- in this great factor in human history which men call religion—a power which seems to have come into existence almost simultaneously with the human race, and lias in some form or other persisted ever since. From whatever point of view we may look at it, rcliirion, lo quote Ihe words of Hekiiekt Spenceu, must b" regarded as u permanent element in human nature, and one of the objects of mission addresses is lo bring this fact, and all if implies, home to Ihe average man.