NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1881, 15 October 1913, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

During one of those little differences in the ranks of the Opposition which have become increasingly frequent of late, the member for Nelson last evening rather covered himself with glory at tile expense of his colleague the member for Christchurch North. Mr. Atmore had been talking very sensibly oil the very erroneous views which some of his leasehold friends' appeared to hold concerning the effect of granting the freehold to lessees of Crown lands. He pointed out that whatever the tenure under which the land was disposed of it remained within the Dominion. If it were disposed of under the leasehold tenure the Crown collected its interest in the land by way of rent. If it was sold outright the Crown collected what was necessary for the public services of the country by way of Land Tax. In either case the State had the power £o collect from the land what it required to carry on the government of the country and supply those public services which were necessary in the interests of the people. In these circumstances, he quite properly argued, the State was acting wisely in conceding to its citizens the right to satisfy that strong and deeply ingrained sentiment which found expression in the desire of every man to own the land he worked, and on which he had built his homel Mr. Isitt, who is more given to sweeping assertion than to logical argument, endeavoured to' brush aside Mn. Atmore's contention by contemptuously describing it as a "glib fallacy." In the course of his following remarks he said the freehold was only granted because there was a sufficient number of leaseholders to make it worth while; giving them the freehold they were greedily clamouring for; and that when they became _ freeholders they would not permit themselves to be taxed, because there would be too nmny of them.- This is the sort of stuff that some of our leasehold friends delight in. Every point made by the member for Christchurch North against the freehold, as was clearly pointed out by the member for Nelson, applied equally to the leasehold. On his own showing Mr. Isitt wants every one to be leaseholders; yet he says in the same breath the more leaseholders that are made the more certain is it that they will get the freehold, because of their influence in politics. Therefore, apparently, in order to stop the leaseholders from getting the freehold it is undesirable that more than a limited number of leaseholds should be permitted to exist. Then again if the freeholders, as stated by Mr. Isitt, will refuse to permit themselves to be taxed when they become sufficiently numerous, surely the same thing would apply to the leaseholders who would in similar circumstances demand reduced rents? Mr. Atmore was not very long in getting the member for Christchurch North so deeply out of his depth that he was forced to abandon any further pretence of argument, and fall back on those fine sounding but empty generalisations which form so large, a part of his political stock in trade..

In view of the recent references by Dean Darby and others to the question of surgical operations the stbry of Lord Lister's experiment on Queen Victoria is of interest. The incident took place soon after he had been appointed to the Chair of Surgery in Edinburgh, and tho account of it appears in Dr. ,G. T. Wrench's Life of Lord Lister, which has just been issued by Mr. Unwin. " The operation was successful. Lister put in a strip of carbolic lint to lcecp the wound open for drainage. But, unfortunately, the matter of the abscess did not come away properly; and the Queen was still feverish and in pain. Lister, disturbed by this unfavourable course, walked alone in the grounds of Balmoral, a lonely walk being his custom when he had a difficult problem to solve. During his cogitations it occurred to him that a piece of india-rubber tubing might form an excellent path of exit to the discharge of a wound. It is illustrative of Lister's bold faith in himself that, though his patient was the highest lady in the land, he did not hesitate to make her the first subject of his experiment." He returned from his walk, cut a piece of tubing from the spray apparatus, and soaked it all night in carbolic. In the morning he made use of it. ' The Queen made a rapid and complete recovery. Confirmed by his Royal experiment, he adopted rubber drainage tubes as a part of his practice. Lister was one of the most painstaking and conscientious of surgeons. He put hip best work into every case, no matter whether the patient was rich or poor. It is often stated that doctors are inclined to try their new ideas on poor people, but here we find one of the world's greatest surgeons experimenting with an untried notion on the Queen of England. The incident was characteristic of the man.

That the present arrangement between Britain and France for the joint control of the New Hebrides is far from satisfactory is now admitted on all hands. The drawbacks are manifest, but it is by no means easy to bring aoout a change for the better. Sympathy will be felt with the resolution passed by the Wellington Presbytery yesterday on the motion of Dr. Gibb suggesting that the New Zealand 'Government should unite with the Australian authorities in drawing the attention of tho Imperial Government to the evils arising out of the present system of dual control. The complaints against the. existing state of affairs are not confined to the missionaries. 'The British residents are also dissatisfied, and at least some of the French admit that the Condominium has proved a failure. In an article on La France d'Ontre 21. er, M. Pierre Bernus states: "We must roeogni?e that tlio joint rule of England anil Franco is not working satisfactorily. Faults have certainly been committed on both sides, nnd wo must regret that tho representatives of tho two countries do not succeed iu coming to ail understanding in a way moro conformable to the relations existing between the two Governments and tho sentiments of friendship which animato them. ... I liave reached tho conviction that the responsibility for this state of things rests with certain of our settlers, and that, to speak quito frankly, these men are in a way to ruin, little by little, our moral situation in the archipelago, with tlie tacit complicity of our authorities." M. Bernus does not place much reliance in the assertion of some of the French settlers that "the whole evil is due to the terrible English missionaries," and he admits that the missionaries have good cause fot their protests against the harsh treatment from which the natives too often suffer. He states that if

the English missionaries have acquired a preponderating influence with the islanders it is because they have proved themselves to be the friends and courageous defenders of the natives. Such testimony from such a source taken in conjunction with complaints from British residents shows that a change of some sort is urgently needed. It is very desirable that the islands should be entirely under British rule, and it is to be hoped that sonic means may be found of bringing this about. The Prime Minister will no doubt give very favourable consideration to the Wellington Presbytery's resolution when it comes before him.