PASSING NOTES (From Saturday's Daily Times.)

Otago Witness, Issue 2817, 4 March 1908, Page 5

PASSING NOTES (From Saturday's Daily Times.)

There is nothing like personal experience for bringing a thing home to one, and I daresay that the Prime Minister's exciting experience with a veritable " burning bush" on his Auckland trip had its uses. Sir Joseph is at his best in promptly considering the practical needs of his little Dominion when an emergency arises 1 . It is possible to pardon even the hopeless banality of his utterances on the status of military affairs in China, by turning to the practical generosity with which he fills the role of Protector of his People. Last year was marked by such fatherly benefactions as explosives and experts, technical and spiritual, for the Oamaru rainmakers' experiments, to say nothing of the carriage of 'fodder and the xailage of starving stock. The farmer, I take it, was grateful ; though no one heard him say so, even when envious sections of the publio who had neither crops to ruin nor stock to starve, hinted that he was " working that drought for all it was woTth" — and more. Bat if the Prime Minister's offer of prompt and practical assistance does not endear him to every "burnt-out" farmer and grazier in the Dominion — well, then, " --irtue is indeed its own (and only) reward." To the layman, unacquainted with the mysteries that encompass the pastoral ist as with an aura, the Prime Minister's plans of State aid, generous, yet fenced about with wise precautions, sound admirable. But what about the burnt forests? Probably no such fires have pwept these islands for hundreds of years. Maori traditions, I know, tell of great fires which swept immense areas in Southland, and resulted in the destruction of large flocks of moas, just as in other parts of New ; Jigaland the older Maoris toll of lakelets/ streams, and great swamps which, familiar to their childhood, have gradually dried up as the forests have been cleared or burnt, and of v^hich the wry existence is now forgotten. If the problem of restoring the forests is not of such immediate interest as the resowing of grass lands, the very slowness of reforesting operations in even the most favourable circumstances makes the question, nationally, of very great importance.

Even though later and calmer reports point to the damage both by bush and grass fires not being so overwhelming as was at first feared, the loss in the timber reserves of the Dominion must still be appalling. America long ago took up in earnest the problem of the reforestation of her denuded forest lands, as well as the planting of her arid and treeless lands. France also could tell us the romance no less than the statistics of reforestation, but American experience is more handy ; and also there is in all American conclusions that characteristic view-point of the almighty dollar, ready to discount all considerations of beauty or sentiment unless they are compatible with profit. The American " Forest Service" does not limit its efforts to planting trees in the national forest areas : it encourages and aids private individuals, companies, and communities. Meanwhile, in the stress of the enormous expenditure thus involved, gaining solace from the conviction that " the significance of all this is large in dollars and cents," the mere figures of the reforestation scheme in the vast area to which we conversationally allude as "America," are productive of mental vertigo. One is apt to stumble mentally in contemplating thousands of acres planted in long lines of perspective by millions and billions of infant trees, growing plantations, potential forests. Overwhelmed by the tramp of iron-shod statistics, one scarcely realises I that this vast enterprise is distributed in detached portions over so enormous an area that each portion is dishearteningly small. But it is a magnificent scheme in the ethical beauty of the drafts it draws on the future, no less than in its present fkorough utilitarianism. Pittsburg suffered gigantic losses last spring from floods, attributed to the deforestation of the

Alleghany and Monongahela watersheds, and proposes to undertake the reforestation of these areas with an estimated number of two billion trees. Arbor Day is pressed into the service by emphasising I the practical rather than the purely sentimental side of its observance, planting more trees, and having less recitation and song. The morality "of tree-planting is entering into the American conscience, j civic and individual, and the Legislature I — that marvellous American Legislature -which is stronger in the " unwritten" than the written — steps in to cheer and encourage the individual. It may interest the owners of burnt-out bush areas in the Dominion to inquire into some enactments of the Pennsylvania Legislature on this subject of depreciated woodlands.

My- peace of mind has been somewhat rudely disturbed by the' suggestion that I am in a measure responsible for the fresh outbreak in the North-East Valley Council — that veritable Vesuvius among local bodies. I certainly did throw the limelight bn its choleric chief magistrate as a type fast dying out. And I still think the increasing conventionality, ( and consequent dullness, of our local bodies — from the humorist's point of view — a matter of regret. However, my <»nscience i«i pleasantly void of the offence of inciting the Mayor and councillors of "our sunniest suburb" to "renewed combat in this" instance. Evidently there - were v larger issues than the chance for immortality offeredi by "Passing Notes," to explain what one paper calls "The Broken Tryst, ov a Squall at North-Ea«t Valley," and the other classifies merely as " Witless Wrangles." It will be remembered that his Worship's last grievance was that the Tow7n Clerk had refused to shake hands with him. That was bad N enough for a truly sensitive soul, but a worse thing has befallen him. By one of those unfortunate misunderstandings which may, and do, occur in the best-regulated local bodies, certain councillors failed to keep their appointment with his Worship, who, '" after waiting two hours, went home in disgust." The air on Saturday was, if I remember rightly, keen. Humanitarian impulses prompt me to hope that his Worship also went home in an overcoat. What the weather was on the preceding Wednesday, when the mistaken councillors cooled their heels for one hour while they waited for a missing mayor, I cannot recall. Nor does the state of the weather affect in any way the undoubted disrespect implied in the fact that the Mayor waited two hours for the councillors, and they merely danced attendance on their chief for one hour. And here a nice quesj tion suggests itself, which is most valuable — the time of a Mayor or the time of a councillor? Personally, I should say , that all these gentlemen must be possessed of a pleasant margin of leisure when they can allow such a handsome margin of time to municipal appointments. I really am sorry that after characterising a certain statement as "a diabolical falsehood," the Mayor's flow of vigorous English was j interrupted before he could explain the subtle connection between " the cadet in | the office" (to whom, by the way, the council's proceedings must be in the ; nature of a liberal education) and his own failure to obtain a seat on the Harbour Board. It was a pity, that same failure! Had I been an elector my vote would have gone ,with cheerful alacrity in favour of Mr Isaac Green — but it would have been for the pleasure of throwing him in contact with the redoubtable Mr Belcher, and awaiting the resultant fireworks.

Mr Mackenzie, at Waikouaiti, rivals J Sir Joseph Ward at Auckland. "It is | true," says Mr Mackenzie, "that I have r been misunderstood, but, as Emerson 1 says, to be great is to be misunderstood." ■ No doubt; but the converse hardly holds I good : to be misunderstood is not necesj sarily to be great. Whether the reporter is to blame or the sense of humour is not keenly developed in Waikouaiti does | not appear, but I find no "laughter" i bracketed after this. Mr Mackenzie labours under two very serious difficulties, either of which would be sufficient to imperil the eloquence of a wiser .politician and a more practised man-of-the-world than even he is. In the 'first place, he is deficient in the sense of proportion, and Mr Thomas Macj kenzie in the foreground blots oat the j whole map of the Dominion in thfe back- | ground ; while the same patriotic figure , in the background (if such a catastrophe can be conceived) would mean the overi throw of all that makes political life ! worth living — the immediate foreground i would be a blank. In the second place, ' clearly he has no very vivid perception of humour. Without the quiver of an eyelid he places himself on the same plane as " Socrates and Galileo and every wise spirit that ever took flesh." Complacently he quotes Burkes definition of j a statesman, and scarcely veils, in the I humble hope that he may approach that standard, a pretty firm conviction that, ', in point of fact, Mr Mackenzie more than j "fills the bill." The pose of injured I patriot is part of the professional poli1 tician's stock-in-trade — it is like the i "pleasing manners and address" of other I walks in life, but in this instance the ' part was overdone to the point of i comedy. Four columns occupied with j concocting more or less imaginary charges I against himself in order to refute them I with righteous wrath is an amazing j exhibition of obsolete methods. If I ' may permit myself the rare luxury of a ! French phrase. I should remind my j ingenuous political friend that " gui I s'excuse, s'accuse," and that the volume \ of smoke which he succeeded in raising 1 may be regarded by censorious people as i suggesting the existence of a very real I fire in the background.

The humour of Mr Mackenzie's breathless eloquence reaches its height when, after justifying throughout eight columns his marriage, late in life, to the Liberal party, he is floored by one simple ques-

tion from a simple farmer. Without any, hesitation our politician seeks to turn the genuine marriage into a mere marriage lease, or a specie* of liaison to which he will remain faithful as long as it suit* him. In connection with such broad comedy as this it seems almost like breaking a butterfly on a wheel to remind the speaker or his hearers that the whole essence and merit of party government are supposed to lie in the principle that the individual -forgoes to some extent his individuality for the sake of united action. At present Mr Mackenzie, floating, like Mahomet's coffin, between heaven and earth, finds the position requires so much explanation that, upon my word, it seems scarcely worth it all. Let me commend the comfort to be derived under such circumstances from that shrewd, old German citizen Hans Breitmann : Dis shtory goes to show Dat in poledika, ash lagerr, vktua in medio. De drecks is ad de pottom — de skoom floods z high inteed: . Boot sas bier in de mittle, says & good old Sherman, lied. Between the "dregs that are at the bottom", and " the scum that floats high indeed" I think, despite his vaporings, Mr Mackenzie is enough of a canny Scot to make sure of the "beer in the middle." Meantime here is a little election story, "good old Sherman" like Breitmann himself : \ In airmail district of Eastern Prussia the burgomaster called a meeting of the few dozen electors, nearly all small farmers on his estate, and promised to give them a splendid dinner if the Government candidate were elected without a single vote being cast for the Socialist. Tempted by the succulent prospect, they duly elected the Government candidate; but the dinner did not come off, for the Socialist received one vote — the burgomaster's.

Correspondence this week possesses lh« charm of variety. The following note from a country correspondent, though a trifle belated, indicates that the writer considers that I scarcely did justice, to the sentence in question. Moreover, I like the light touch and the sporting tone, so, though late, my friend shalJ not find himself too late. Dear Civis. — Of course we have all admired the marvellous oratory and burning eloquence of Sir Joseph Ward wheq he said that this ccuntiy was the lani of the pakeha, the Maori, and the moa. I believe the moa has been extinct for some centuries, ami is undoubtedly * dead bird. I don't suppose Sir Joseph ia muoh of a sporting man, but I thought t"hat even he might know what a-" dead bird " is. I am therefore- surprised jjh-at he should talk of his little Dominion being the land pi » " dead bird." The next two letters are from corre* spondents who " venture " modestly, but firmly, to draw my attention to my sins. I have been waiting for. these (and any. other) letters on a slip so barefaced that I did not even correct its manifest " slippinees." "An Old Maid" contents herself with a brevity rare in her sex : she merely says in effect— "For once* you are wrong." My dear lady, I am content to have 'injured both Browning and Longfellow to gain the pleasing knowledge that these Passing Notes are of interest to the sex. Not, you observe, "the gentle sex" or "the militant sex," but just "the sex" as Joey B. defined it. Since "Reader" touches on the matter at more length, I give his letter in part :— • Dear Civis, — I wonder how many beside* myself will hasten to inform you that you have made a slip in attributing th* lines — "Whereon it is enough for me — not to be doing but to be," to Browning. They are to be found in a, short poem by a poet mere easily understood of the people than Browning— namely, Longfellow— "Gift of Gcd, O perfect day; / Whereon shall no man work but play; Whereon it is enough for me Not to be doing, but to be." By what authority, one wonders, did the amicable poet command universal respite from the primal dome of toil for daily bread, and how many have benefited by his dispensation? Would it have been more -prudent to —make the lin« • ru , n — "Whereon no mm should toil? And even then the statement might b« disputed. Some of the Socialists who are so fond of reordering the world tell us -that under a proper social dispensation" no one would need to work more than two hours a day (how alarmingly busy Satan would be!); but even they hava not yet claimed that every fine day shall be a" holiday. I think your readers owe you thanka for occasionally committing a literary blunde-r. I half suspect that it is not always unintentional. How pleasant it is to find a critic trinping. and to display one's superior information — no matter whether the error is of the slightest con* sequence to anyone or not. — I am. etc.. (*- Header. To "the poor man" who wants to havi his teeth seen to, gratis, at the Otago University Dental School, and yet objects to the declaration of inability, to pay, which alone • would make him eligible, I must reply next week ; as also to various other gratifying but somewhat embarrassing proofs of the confidence reposed in my opinions. • Sufficient to the day are the mistakes thereof, and I have allowed myself to be led away by political eloquence in obscure places. Civis.

News came to hand by mail last woelr to tho effect thai Mr Jc*eph M'Farlane, late general secretary of the Dunedin. V.M.C.A., has baen appointed to tho position of acting-secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association in Bombay, India. The association in that city possesses one of the largest and most up-to-date buildings in the would, and an immense work is going on amongst the thousands of young men in Bombay. Mr M'Farlane will probably spend some time in Bombay before continuing on his waj to Europe and America

Th© Lyttelton Harbour Board established % M record " daring 1907 in the number of tnefetings it held. There were 15 meetings tw the board a.nd 37 meetings of oofomittees. There ar© now c\er 250.000 words in ihc English language acknowledged by the bA«t authorities. Or about 70,000 more than in German, French, Spanish, and Italian combined.

A movement is on foot in Towai to form a co-operative flax company. More than £200 has been promised by ffaxßrowere, and there is every prospect of the company being floated. "Perpetual motion" means a power which supplies its own motive for repeating itself. Much time and money have been wasted in the endeavour to discover it, — : *Uruit BUCOtt&d.