NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1448, 24 May 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Not the least ( of the terrors of the Home Rule controversy is its stimulation of the party poets. On the day before the introduction of the Home Rule Bill Mr. Kipling felt it necessary to shock his admirers anew by breaking into violent song in the Mornimj rost. It was poor i stuff, for all its violence, as the two following stanzas will show: The dark eleventh hour Draws on and sees us sold To every evil power We fought against of old. Rebellion, rapine, hate. Oppression, wrong, and greed, Are loosed to rule our fate By England's act aud deed. The blood our fathers spilt, Our love, our toil, our pains, Are counted us for guilt, And only hind our chains. Before an Empire's eyes Tho traitor claims his price, "What need of.further lies? "Wc are the sacrifice. But the worst of this dreadful misuse of the function of verse (we express no_ opinion, of course, upon tho politics of the poem) was that it provoked Pkofessor T. M. Kettle, the prominent Nationalist and exM.P., to i retort with an even more feeble thing—a mixture of violence and stage tears. To keep the balance we quote two of Professor Kettle's verses: The red redeeming dawn, Kindled in Easter skies, Palls Jiko God's judgment on Lawyers and lords and lies. "What care these evil things, Though menaced ami perplext, While Kipling's banjo strings Blaspheme a sacred test Never diil freemen stand, Never were captains met From Uargai to the Rami ■'From rarnell lo De Wet, Never oil native sod Weak justice fared the worst, , But Kipling's Cockney "Gawd" Most impotently cursed. There are obviously worse sorts of conflict —or one worse sort, at any rate—than the conflict of politicians in the House or even a conflict between Unionists and Nationalists in the streets of Belfast.

The other day nearly every New Zealand newspaper printed a cable message to the effect that in order to meet its naval obligations the German Government was considering "the taxation of cats." There is reason to believe that the fact was that the Government was considering "tho taxation acts." What should have been "considering taxation acts" had become in the hands of the cable people "considering taxation cats." Cable errors of this kind cannot be entirely avoided, but there was no excuse "for the statement in a Queensland paper not long ago that "the managers of sixteen Australian and New Zealand banks banqueited Mr. Lloyd-Georce, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in celebration of the jubilee of his birth." The fact war, that the George who had been honoured was Mr,. David George, the London manager of the Bank of New South Wales. The Queensland journal did not. stop to reflect• _upou the impossibility uf a bankers' banquet t.i the hero of Limehousc, and indulged itself iu some sharp remarks about the Chancellor. The most famous of these mare's nests was found by two ; New Zealand uewspapers ia 153(5. A

cable message arrived in the following terms: "Dynamite found in gladstone bag, Ludgatc Hill Station.' This ',vas printed (it was during the dynamite scare in London): "A quantity of dynamite was found in iin. Gladstone's bag,'' etc. So astounding a piece'of news naturally called for comment. One editor wrote, so it is alleged: "While we, have, as our readers' know, no kind of sympathy with Mr. Gladstone's polities, we cannot too strongly condemn the authors of this dastardly outrage upon <i deservedly inspected public servant." But another editor saw something different, and he let himself go with a will. "The complicity," he wrote, "of Mb. Gladstone with the Irish dynamiters, of which we were always convinced, has now been placed beyond all doubt. We await with an impatience which we are sure all of our readers share further information of the affair from London. Thank God, wo say, that the efforts of this unscrupulous statesman to dismember the British Empire have brought him to a felon's cell." These tilings, alas, do not. happen now. This is a tamer, if move accurate, age.

The other' day Mr J. A. Hanan, as Minister for justice, was extolling the mysterious "prison reform scheme that Slit. J. G. Findlay is understood to have established. Mr. lla.van was vague enough in announcing what he considered the proper policy—it was to be neither extremely harsh nor extremely good-natured; but we gather that he could not be relied upon, if he were to continue in his present position, to do much to check the drift towards a flabby sentimcntalism. It always timely to protest against the new doctrine that crime is a sort of disease. One aspect of the matter that is generally overlooked is admirably dealt with by the London Guardian in a recent issue.,

This hind of mischievous cant (it says) is extremely common. It does not need to be repented at this time of day Hint Oilviroimieiit is one of the "actors in the development of character, ami thai; a humane Legislature will not spare efforts to improve the conditions of life for the masses of poor people, among whom criminals generally arc bred. But it does need to be repeated that, when all allowance is made for heredity, for education, for circumstance, there remains the inscrutable personality of a man, which is responsible for his acts, which deserves praise or blame, reward or punishment. This is what, gives man his dignity; it cannot be. reduced to material elements, and this it is v.-iiich makes sin possible, ami justifies punishment or the infliction of pair, on the Wrongdoers. The cheap sentimentalism which would pretermit punishment for the grossest crimes because it cannot bear to contemplate the sufferings of the unfortunate criminal is closely allied—though nil unconsciously —to a vulgar materialism which, by viewing luiniau conduct as determined necessarily by physical forces, deprives it of all its dignify.

Obviously, if thereis, no great personal failure in crime, there can be nothing to praise in abstention from crime, or, indeed, in anything good at all.

A correspondent writes directing our attention to the methods of the local Ofi'icial Assignee's office in handling the business of creditors.

"Tenders have been invited," ho states, "by the Official Assignee by advertisement for four properties in the estate of J. J. Powell, viz., (a) dwellinghouso in Thompson Street, (b) two dwelling-houses in Macdonald Crescent, (c) allotments at Island Bay, M) a steam motor wagon. The extraordinary provision is attached, however, that all must be tendered for in one lot. This condition must inevitably debar many from tendering at all, who might wish to tender for one or more of tho lots that would suit their requirements and means; and I think must prove prejudicial to the best results being attained for the creditors, by lending to reduce competition to a minimum. Those who might tender for one or other of tho houses, under ordinary circumstances, ivro not. likely to tender at nil— if, in order to do so, they must include (lie other two houses, the .allotments, and also a steam motor wagon as well. On tho other hand, the man who might desire to become possessed of the steam motor wagon is not likely to tender for it at all, if so doing necessitates his also purchasing city property ho has no desiro to bccomc possessed of. The conditions, in fact, appear so extraordinary that for the information of myself and others I would ask if you are aware of any special reason for such."

We are not in a position to enlighten our correspondent, but if this case is typical of the methods of the Official Assignee's department it is not surprising that creditors nowadays prcler to liquidate assigned estates through private channels. Probably the creditors in the estate under veviev.' will want to ask questions when tenders come to be considered.