NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1646, 13 January 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

0 r The letter from Mn. M. Myers, which wo publish . this morning, points out very clearly a possiblo danger in tho too freo use of warrants for tho arrest of offenders against the law who normally would bo proceeded against by summons. Mn. Myers appeared for tho bookmaker whose arrest by tho police gave rise to the remarks made in Court on this point, and the published comments thereon, but in tho viows which ho expresses on the principlo involved he makes it quite clear that he is not writing as counsel for the defence, and as a lawyer of high standing at the Bar _ his opinions must be given due weight. Most people, wo think, will agree with him that warrants should not be issued where tho ends of the law will bo equally well served by proceeding on summons; and many will go still further and hold that warrants should not bo issued at all unless the ends of justice are likely to be defeated by failure to' take ■ that drastic course. But in all such cases tho actions of the polioo must bo governed by the Bpccial circumstances of each separate offence, and if the law permits the issuing of warrants for offences committed by bookmakers, as it apparently does, then the police must exercise their discretion in applying for such warrants. Tho public, we imagine, knowing 'something of tho methods of the Dookmaking fraternity and of the 1 difficulty of bringing them to account, will, sympathise with the police, when they take advantage of every means which ,the law allows them to sheet homo the guilt of;this class of offender against tho law. At. the same time the point made by Mr. Myers that. if . the bookmaker is to be specially .singled out for this class _of treatment, the law should specifically say bo, is • ono deserving of attention. To the layman it seems quite clear that if a law is to be of any value at all the police should be given every reasonable facility for enforcing it;- and the power to arresfc a bookmaker detected in betting and with the proofs of hiß guilt on, him—proofs which he_ may dispose of unless he is taken into custody—does not appear unreasonable. The Minister for Justice might give the matter, his consideration. In a letter discussing another phase of the sa'mo caso. Mr. T. Neave makes a number of points in favour of the police; which will meet with very general approval. - \ Those good people who have been attempting to Bhow that the' steamboat fireman is a muoh maligned person, and that really ,ho is at bottom a reliable and thoroughly trustworthy person, quite ' amenable to discipline and fully, conscious of tho obligations resting on him, will perhaps be interested to note further reoent happenings amongst the local fleet. The steamer Regulus, it will bo observed, has been laid, up and is still in'thati unfortunate plight., The. reason in this case; iststhaifci certain of the firemen! demand further assistance in - the way of . trimmers. The law provides, or is supposed to provide, for a sufficient number, of men below and above decks to man and work the vessel, and already tho Regulus is carrying more than is required by tho law to attend to the work of the Btokehold and engines. There. is trouble looming. also, wo aro told, on tho'steamer Mapourika. There also some of tho firemen are. said to have demanded more than the law provides for. On the Mokoia, also, thero have been exciting happenings, which'can hardly be said to bo likely'to win confidence and respect from an unsympathetic public. We know, of course, that there aro, many Vory admirable citizens following tho occupation of. firemen, and the proportion of roughs and rowdies engaged _ may not bo large. But' it is this disturbing element which usually makes itself prominent and which most often comes under public notice, and brings discredit on tho calling. Stricter attention to tho duty of issuing discharges on the merits would rid the steamers of many of the troublesomo men, and would bo in tho interest of the remainder as well as to tho advantage of the steamship-ownorß and the ■ public generally. In New Zealand we have Been examples enough of the strange lengths to which trade unionists have been prepared to press tho "principles" of their "cause." But in the way of sheer absurdity, our local unionists —even tho remarkable firemen of tho Maori—havo a great deal to learn from America. At the conferonoe of the American Federation of Labour, held in Chicago in November, tho Band Instrument Makers' Union made a complaint of a most serious character against the Musicians' Union. The former union had discovered, or realised, that many members of the other union were actually using Stradivarius and Oremona violins, and it was pointed out by tho complainants that tho faen who made these old violins were not trado-unionists. Only a "scab," therefore, would use a Strad, for every ; old violin in use meant so much bread taken out of tho mouths of good American unionists. One member of tho Instrument Makers' Union—a man who, it appears, was a cornet-polisher—told the conference that if? was "nonsense to say that Stradivarios made better violins than tho members of his union," Another member said that talk about "aa-t in music" made him tired anyway. "Music from a tin pan," ho said, "would sound sweet to a true union man if the union label wero on it." And he meant it, just as truly as some of our own labour extremists really mean the absurd things they say. An Australian- paper s eye has been caught by tho incident, and it makes merry over'it. _ Its humour fails, however, when it says: "In literature, too, we may oxpect remarkable results; it will not be long before we hear tho of the Vcrsemakcrß' Union insisting that 'it is nonsense to say that H6mer or Shakespeare produced a better articlo than members of the union do.'" And this fails to be humorous because it is almost a statement of plain fact. In any of tho Australasian newspapers in which Radical ignoranqo disports itself, it is constantly being suggested that tho "beer-poets" and "horsepoets" are, in theiu patriotic moods, finer poets than can ho found in the world outsido. And have not attempts been miido to keep "foreign" pictures and books out of Australia ? But the Baud Instrument Makers' Union boa established a now l'ocord, as tho aborting writers say,