NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1500, 24 July 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

One of our contemporaries has been struck by a queer fact in connection with the old age pension system, and moralises upon it at some length. The fact is this: that on March 31 last there were 16,6-19 old age pensioners in New Zealand, and of these 9119 were in the South Island and 75130 in the North Island. Since the population in this island is nearly 50 per cent, greater, it is obvious that the proportion of old age pensioners to population is far larger in the South Island than on this side of Cook Strait—indeed, just under twice as large. What is the reason for these figures! it is asked. Frankly, we do not know. The writer who was arrested by the statistics gives several possible explanations. It may be that age averages are the same in both lslanls, but that the average of prosperity 13 higher in this island. Perhaps 't is that the percentage of people ovsi the age of eligibility for a pension is less in the North Island through the preponderance of young people. The birth-rate, again, may be higher iu this island. There may be a possibility that the conditions up here, are unfavourable to longevity. A drift of the,younger people from the Southern cities to the Northern cities is a possible explanation. We know of course, that the two chief cities in the South have suffered a drain of that kind. Whatever the explanation, the fact is a striking one: tha the ratio of old age pensioners to population is about twice as great in the South as in the North. That there are 110 statistics to enable a sound theory to be established is a reflection upon the State's statisticxl department.

Tkere aro some very obvious conclusions to bo drawn from the Hon. F. M. B. Fisiieu's interesting statement upon the advertising boyc.itt, which we print in another part of this issue. Mr. Fisher effectively disposes of the very foolish attempt of Mr. G. W. Russell, M.P., to bolster, up what was to begin with a cheerful and off-hand misstatement on the part of the Christchurch organ of the Oppositionist fnct'oiE. He shows quite clearly, also, that tho member for Avon was hopelessly astray in his facts, and that the boycott of The Dominion', established iv the member for Awarua, of interesting memory, was carried on by the Mackenzie Government; and he of fers to lay the complete file relating to the boycott before Parliament in order that Mr. Russell may lack no means of showing the amount of v - liableness there may be in his bold imputation of untruthfulness to the head of the Advertising Department. The Christchurch newspaper and Mr. Russell must be feeling rathe: sorry for themselves, we should say. The first lesson of the little incident is that even now certain anti-Reform newspapers cannot break themselves of their deeply-ingrained habit of misrepresentation, invention, and indifference to facte. The rule has been, with some of these papers, to rely on half-truths or make up fac f s as they went along, and to keep theii readers ignorant of the exposures that followed. _ It will not surprise us if_ the Christchurch paper fails to print Mr. Fisher's statement in full; but even if it does not, we mav lie sure_ that it will begin to roll sit, that misrepresentation of facts has its disadvantages. There is some humour, too, in the spectacle of tin Christchurch paper describing as "slur" and an attempt tp "discredit'' the Mackenzie Government the perfectly truthful statement tliafc they did what Sin J. G. AVai;» and hi? party insisted upon doing lor years. Surely it should have said that Mn. Fisher was paying the Mackekzic Government a compliment. Amusing and instructive, also, is Mr. G. \V. Russell's desperate anxiety to claim the credit for onding the system which the W,\nn Government upheld and which Mr, Russell and his col ■

leagues upheld too by their votes in the House. Times have changed, indeed !

The shocking atrocities connected with the South American rubber industry, as reported in our cable news recently, rather shows that ,our civilisation is after all a thing of shreds and patches, laid on pretty thickly in some places, and shading off to the thinnest veneer in others. Beneath the surface human nature is much the same to-day as a thou sand years ago, though the restraint;-, of statute law, custom, and public opinion are now, no doubt, more pf fective. Kecent revelations regarding the shocking treatment of human beings in out-of-the-way places in Africa and South America, show that some men when they get beyond ths reach of the law and other restraining influences, are only too apt to let the "ape and tiger," which still lurk within them, reassert themselves— and yet these men would resent beine called uncivilised. A great deal is said nowadays' about' liberty, equality, and fraternity, and the brotherhood of man; but given the chance of being a law unto themselves,' with a certain type of men such ideas count for very little. In this respect things are not much bctte! than they were in the ninth century, when Jonas, Bishop of Orleans, writing "On the Education of the Layman" (as quoted by Dit. Caelyle in his recent book on The Influence of Uhn'slianil'y upon Social and Political Ideas), states: "Let powerful and rich men learn that their slaves and the poor are by nature their equals. If, therefore, the,slaves arc by nature the equals of their masters, let not those masters think that they cart with impunity indulge in fury and violence against their slaves, and beat them with cruel stripes, or in jure them by the amputation of their limbs, for they have one God in the heavens. Let the masters rather recognise that those who in this world are humble and lowly, and who arc in appearance and in wealth their inferiors, are by nature their equals." Apparently such exhortations are not vet out of date.