NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1709, 28 March 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

A couple of days' ago We referred in this col urfin to the amendments made by the House of Lords in .the (Siotlari'd)' Bill,-'th'e chief of, which Was. the proposal that iri addition, to'the options, whiclr we're provided for'in the Government's Kill; ;is , it: left, the , Ho^se—"rio change,''' "itS aid. "reduction"—the voters should' WMe' the option pf declaring, for'.,'"disinterested management." . '-.Thorp were officii arifrcri'dmeri'ts inside,-• the Government's' refusal of. v/Kicli led to the ,sneMtig of The 1 . New Ze'alaind public will be irifefestecl, in the 6omfnents Of the,. Manchester Gitardian; the leading Radical newsp'er in the' Kiri'gdo'fri 1 ,-, airid the stb'u'test .arid truest friend of, t<ilrip , e'fari(^ft , i arid licensing reform. Tim Guardian tM&TmS,' iri its issue of. February' IST, which is just arrived by the mail, that it doss "riot often sympathise with, the Lords .in their diapiites -#itH tlie Commons," but'that; excepting on om poiri'ty it is with' the Lords in their amendments, to' the Goverri- [ clumsy Bill. The Lords' ariicndrperit t6 -the' option clarise allotted ,tKc elector to indicate iho ord& 6'f his prefci'ence for ;the four, ' ogtio'n's'—"fiW cha'rige," "reduction'," "floJic&ifse," , and /• "disinterested m'^ria^ement"—riiirfibe'ririg tli'eiri', the counting of the votes so cast to be dorie' as iri rfn electr6ri under, proportional rep'fcseritritiori. The Giidrdmi of fhis, : airid condemned' the Goyernmerit's <?'wn plain,' "under which all th's votes',ca!st for no-license are _t0 bo counted for reduction if no-license is riot carried,", as being "open to the far rn'oxe serious objection that it gives' one temperance party 'two choices and the others 6nly one." What is to be noted, in this commcri't is the jndicfitiori' that ii> the eye's_ of file Manchester (ZjidrdMti, : rMfiicK is'th'e last paper'in the world wh'icfi terriperance reforming anywhere woiild dream of grunt-', blirig fit. fheik are' other true temperanc'i 1 parties' than , the 1 tfitiiy Of a!b6litiori arid proßibitiori'. ■ ..

Lord Eo'blrt CAdii, we ftaVe'.Mn informed,' is' tlie" litest, advocate' of the' p'ro'posai tfiai the women Sufsiii burn'ing houses, . pffip'fe'fty, , cutting. .talegra{3h_ wires, and exploiting all the i possibilities' of bombs; acids', pepper, ' arid phospho'rus, should-be deported to* sorric M'el'y islaricl.. Uhforfutiate- : ly, one canriot deport folly by', de- . a few lawless Women., What .'the' Govei'rim'ent is' suffering from is its' inability to', linderstand .fully th 6' luriacy of these p'e6plc. Th 6 militant Suffragists /no. longer belong, to' our everyday World : their, folly has mad 6' of them a fieW and p'uzzling arid v£r'y unpteassant species. An c'x- . c'ellerifc exairnple of the stark madness of the Suffragists is afforded by the ' principal article in Votes ftir Women, of last, expl-tinifig "why Turkey' is-bealte'fi." Turkey ig beafen, the writer argues',' because the Turkish womSn are kept down! We afe assisted that it was-'to' the embryo w , indos-smash'ers and hoiise-buMers'-o'f Turkey's harems that the Revolution was due. "Women were .the' Son? jof the movem'eh't. Their spirit in'forrfied it aiid inspired it." They brought, the theories of doctrinairesand the visions of poets into , relation with' the human life around them," arid .so on. If this be true, arid if the Young Turks Party was the result of.feminism, then so' much I the worse.fof the feminist case. For! everyone knows, that the downfall of Turkey is directly due to the Revolution. Abdul Hasiid, who was not a Suffragist supporter, may hot have been a pleasant person, but ho did keep Turkey' secure. The ladies who are committing so many atrocious crimes in their desire, for the Suffrage could hardly do their cause a worse service than by quoting-Tur-key. If;the women created the Revolution, they arc .responsible for the wreck of the Turkish Empire.

Tire recent. death tii Louis Becke, the novelist of the South Seas, appears to have attracted more notice at' Home than in Australasia. It silrprisetfiis a little to hedr a very good.critic saying that /'if you ccimrnend R. L, Stevenson's South Sea yarns to. anyone vho has lived out thefe he will probably smile;, and say, 'YfeS, kit have yoii read- Lo(;is BECitE'l' " the' fact Is, ; of eoursc, hot that Becke's "local colour" was truer and more vitally lit id tin than Stevenson's, _but that there will ahviiyiS be a biggiir audience for the BECkes thrin fc;r. the Stevkxsoxs of this world. Silm-sos kiie'w lfcss

about the South Seas thai! BeclyEj just as lie knew less about tile busiliete's Of walking than did that big Vnan in knickerbockers (we forget his name) who took in Wellington bn his round-the-world.walli Mir br five years ago.. C'MiiiAi) krtew lftorC of the se4 .than. IteoßE or Stev'EnsSn, or ainyphe ill the wbrlct, but Conrad's work is of the Stevenson class, because Oonjjad' is a genius. The difficulty' about poor Becke—a gCod novelist —was that his knowledge had no feathers of geriiiis to wine it. It' would not surprise us to .near that more people know SeCRB than Stevenson of the South Sed&j irid tha!t accordingly .mow people would vote' for Becke than for Stevenson;. To the critic we have been quarrelling with, Becke's Case' presents itself as "a proof that, talent will out," The fact that Louis Becke is so much more highly regarded in Britain' (iri some quarters) thaln he' is hei'e May be taken by prospective New Zealand "colour novelists As an encortragemerit to' seiiie their pens.