AN ANCIENT PROPHECY.

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2427, 5 April 1915, Page 7

AN ANCIENT PROPHECY.

Sir,—Might I draw your attention to the following lines from James Hogg's "KiTmeny"? Of "prophecies" sinco the commencement of the war there have been not a few, but this one is so far beyond criticism that it deserves at least quotation:— "She saw before her fair unfurl'd One-half of all the glowing world, Where ooeans roll'd, and rivers ran, To bound the aims of sinful man. She saw a people, fierce and fell, Burst fras their bonds , like fields of hell There lilies grew, and the eagle flew, And she harked on her ravening crew Till the cities and towers were wrapp'd in a blaze, And the thunder it roar'd o'er the lands and the seas; The widows they wail'd, and the red blood ran, And she threaten'd au end to the race of man; She never leued, nor stood in awe Till caught by tho lion's deadly paw.O, then, the eagle swinked for lire, And brainzelled up a mortal strife: But ilew the north, or flew the soutn, With a mooted wing and waefu' maen, The eagle sought her eiry • again; But lang may she cower in her bloody nest, She met wi' the gowl o' the lion's month. And lang lang sleek her wounded breast, Before she sey another flight, To play wi' the norland lion's might." It is only necessary to add that the poem was published about the year 1800.—I am, etc., ! J.H.S. GERMANY AND JUSTICE. Sir,—Let me thank you for the leader in !Eke Dominion this morning. It was a sane statement and very comforting to the normal mind. Hie illbalanced people,, who are raising the cry of "Don't humiliate Germany," apparently forget that Germany has humiliated herself, is degraded in the eyes of all decent people, and her vaunted culture a shred beneath contempt. When we hear such utterances as those of Dr. Lyttelton ; we ask: Is it possible that in our. universities and supposedly intellectual circles there are "the amiable white-washers" scorned by one of our great writers, people who will pat the criminal on the back Cven as he stands redhanded beside his writhing victim? If so, then let us thank heaven that there- are, to-day at the head of affairs, men of strong minds whose calm sense of right and wrong keeps them from thus insulting our suffering Allies in Belgium and France, and who_ will see that Germany pays a price for her crimes, though still we shall know that 'if she pavs to her uttermost ability' a debit balance will ever remain. All those tortured Belgian girls wore my daughters, all the _ mutilated Belgian babies were my babies, all the true men and boys at the front, who are shedding their blood to drive tho horde of ruffians from the oountries they have blackened, are mine: judge,,therefore, with what degree of equanimitv one can hear, the intolerable injustice of those amiable sentimentalists whose aim appears to be to soothe the feelings of the "mad dog of Europe."—l am, eto., A MOTHER. I THE PRICE OF''WHEAT. Sir,—lf any one nowadays feels a pinch,_ or is any way dissatisfied with anything under the sun which affects I bis personal comfort he immediately demands that the Government should Telieve him by some exceptional legislation. Economic laws are looked upon asnon-existant. Quack remedies, even if previous experience has proved them to aggravate the evil, or new patent nostrums warranted to produce plenty out of scarcity are equally swallowed without any idea, of the economic problem involved. The popular ditty of the day should run thus—

Then drive away sorrow -A]id banish all caro, For what if our Government for But to feed and to clothe us. ' No matter the cost And, be hanged to the selfish producer.

Tints at present there is rntich complaint of thp high cost of livintr, particularly with recard to wheat and its products, flour and bread. Tho Petono Amalgamated Engineers are indhrnant that economic laws based on the shortairo of wheat should for one iroment affect their personal comfort. Thoy have consequently mot and passed a most drastic set of resolutions to forward to the Government. The disastrous effect on production of the action they propose does not seem to have' occurred to them. The fact is the war 'has been very unfairly credited for the high price of wheat. Had there been no war wheat must have been high as a natural consequence of the general shortage through bad harvests in so many parts of the world. Scarcity must produce high prices, whatever tho quack economist mav say. As far as I know thero has been no unscru-l unions exploitation of the wheat mar-' ket in New Zealand and the prices asked here are simply governed by tho free market price in the world. Tho fact of high prices will no doubt produce Ihe natural result-; that, is, fanners wilt rush to put in a large area of wheat- so that, in all probability (lie simply will be so increased that nrices will return to the normal. Should that patent nostrum of enforcing a maximum price lie bronchi, into force the' offer* certainly would be'to riirtail fjin Mutual of wheal the fwiuer wmiW,