THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1881. A CIVIL SERVICE LITERARY PRIZE.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2202, 17 March 1881, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, MARCH 17, 1881. A CIVIL SERVICE LITERARY PRIZE.

One of the latest Government Gazettes gives notice of a literary prize of the value of £lO, which will Ido given for the best essay on “ The Constitutional Influence of the House of Commons in England on questions of Peace and War.” The competition will ho open to all persons under the age of twenty-five years, who have passed either the Junior or Senior Civil Service examination, and who are in the Service at the time of competition. The essays are to ho delivered to the Secretary of tho Civil Service Examination Board, Wellington, hy tho 31st of December, and no prize will be awarded unless there is an essay which, in tho judgment of the examiners, is of sufficient merit to entitle the author to receive it. No doubt, it is very desirable that the junior members of the Civil Service should be stimulated to work up constitutional questions, because it helps to keep them out of mischief, strengthens their reasoning powers, aids them in the habit of throwing their thoughts into elegant prose, and possibly prepares them for the upper grades of political life, which presumably all aspiring young Civil servants have dangled before their eyes when they first determine to serve that most ungrateful of masters —tho public. But it is not from this point of view that one is tempted to look at tho transaction. What strikes tho outsider is tho deep cunning of the Government in endeavoring to divert tho thoughts of the Civil servant into a foreign groove,and by this process burking hia immediate grievances. It is f.n old trick and often succeeds. The Russian Government is generally supposed to have hurried on the war against tho Turks with the view of stifling tho growing spirit of socialism that was becoming rampant. At the present time it is an open question whether tho same Government will not shortly try on tho same manoeuvre, as a counter-irritant to domestic- grievances. In tho old days when tho feudal barons became at a I turbulent a little blood letting was

generally considered advisable by the kings, a foreign war was undertaken, and the cure was very often successful. The more immediate necessities of the patient wore swallowed up in the larger excitement of the wider field. So with this same pri/.o to which wo have alluded. It is an astute idea, the diverting the thoughts of the more youthful and turbulent civil servants into the extremely wide question of the “ constitutional influence of the House of Commons in England on questions of peace and war.” What civil servant wo ask could possibly wish to carefully examine his own state and the constitution of his own service when dipping into the polity that has assisted in guiding the affairs of the world ? For the small sum of £lo—the value of the prize to bo given—the Government proposes to effect a complete diversion of feelings that might otherwise become dangerous. The older members of the Civil Service do not require a panacea, for a lengthened acquaintance with the mysterious ways of Providence, as evidenced in their service, has taught them that they are not as other men; that the rules of their service are totally abnormal, and that their sole duty in life is to accept everything, and never to be astonished. But the younger members of the service have not yet been tempered by the sweet uses of adversity. They are much as other men. When you prick them they bleed, when you tickle them they laugh ; if you were to poison them they would, in all probability, if not contrary to regulations, die. Consequently something must bo done. The Government are evidently conscious that a masterly guiding of their thoughts into broader channels would be eminently desirable. Not to mention the 10 per cent, reduction—a measure unavoidably brought on by the necessities of the time—there is the wider question of the status of the whole service, which, to say the least of it, has never been properly defined, and about which the oldest civil servant is as hazy as the Nelson cadet who has just passed his examination. Buried in the “ Constitutional Influence of the House of Commons,” the disaffected will lose all sense of their position and bo happy. The gradual transfer of the power of declaring peace and war from the English King to the Commons will bo a subject which will engross all their thoughts, and they will resume their duties, after their struggle with constitutional history, invigorated and perfectly satisfied that their own petty grievances are, after all, too minute to be worth any consideration. And all this will bo gained by the expenditure of the absurdly small sum of £lO sterling !

THE PLANTING OF FRUIT TREES.

We have on several occasions advocated the planting of fruit trees as a source of national wealth, and have endeavored to point out the profitable nature of the undertaking. It is extraordinary that so much fruit of all descriptions should be imported into this country, and the money that finds its way out of the country to pay for it, is money evidently lost without any reason whatever. On the Continent of Europe, as is well known, fruit trees are planted on the road sides, and every cottage has its orchard. Many fruit trees are, moreover, valuable by means of their timber to an equal extent with ordinary trees. Take, for instance, the walnut and the edible chesnnt. In driving through the suburbs of Christchurch one sees hut’ few of the former, and next to none of the second. And yet our climate is eminently suitable for the growth of both, and the fruit of both are most valuable. A Mr W. H. Gordon, of Murrnrundi, in New South Wales, has taken up this question of stocking the country with fruit trees with great ardor. That his efforts have been crowned with considerable success is evident, and although not endorsing his method as applicable to this country, we would wish to draw onr readers’ attention to his views in the “ Sydney Herald ” on the subject, which appeared as an extract in our issue of yesterday. They will serve as a contribution towards the general question of planting fruit trees in wilder parts of the country. As will ha seen, ho says, amongst his other remarks : —“ I have for the past twenty years been in the habit of planting fruit stones wherever I go ; wo have, therefore, all over this district especially, largo quantities of stone fruit of all kinds, not only near dwellings, hut all over the hush ; when I first commenced planting there was no fruit to bo had here except that which was occasionally brought up by dealers from long distances, and the price charged was something enormous ; this induced me to commence planting stones, and in a few years’ time, I had plenty of fruit. I have never grafted a tree, and yet the fruit has as fine a flavour on trees of seventeen years old as on those of five years.” Mr Gordon is, at least, determined to do things on an extensive scale, and is not afraid of his neighbours getting the benefit of his exertions. He wishes to help the public at largo. The soil and climate are there ready to hand, and he only wishes that the most should be made of them. A little more of this sort of spirit would do much good. Fruit in many parts of the remoter districts is exceedingly scarce, hut simply because no one will take the slightest trouble in the matter. The whole question of fruit growing as a source of national wealth deserves infinitely more attention than it at piasent receives.