THISTLEDOWN.

Te Aroha News, Volume XI, Issue 1747, 15 June 1895, Page 2

THISTLEDOWN.

“ A man may jest and tell the truth.” —Horace.

So the Premier has declined knighthood, and wisely too; as plain Dick Seddon he is a power in the. land, as Sir Richard he ■would be nobody. A great deal of nonsense is, however, talked of titles. The Queen is the fountain of honour ip the British Empire, or rather a fountain for the public are another source. In the colonies as a rale, and in these latter days at Home to a great extent, Her honours are but the crow to the public favour, and the titles conferred on a Tennyson, or an Irvi g, an Atkinson, or a Gavan Duffy, are but the Royal Seal to the popular vote. The acceptance,, however, or refusal of a title is distinctly a matter for each man’s individual choice, and when I assume to say that Mr Seddon acted wisely ih refusing a K.C. M.G., I am speaking of his action as likely to. affect his usefulness as the Liberal leader, in which in common with the rest of my fellow-colonials I have an interest. As to his personal feelingsin the matter I have no wish or title to pry into them, though I am free to say that" his acceptance would not have been Birch a gross act of inconsistency as Sir Robert Stout’s. 'While on the subject of the Premier I may add that a careful perusal of Hansard will convince any fair minded man that he is distinctly ripening as a v politician. The big boots are' not nearly so much in evidence as they used to be, or to stick to the original metaphor, the pear whose long sojourn in the cold shade of opposition had left it distinctly acid, is sweetening in the sunlight of office and popularity. . '

There is a new writer in the Herald whose communications always afford food for thought, I allude to the gentleman who writes under the non-ae-plume Colonns. He has a well-rooted dislike to that blessed word * Mesopotania,’ and plays a very useful "andj manly, part in exposing such verbal idols. I can recommend his artioles on ‘The appreciation of Gold,’ and on ‘ Selfishness,’ to everyene and shall not risk spoiling their attractions by quotation or further comment. In dealing with the question nf over-production, however, he seems to me unduly alarmist., Jtt is quite true that the. enormous fall in the money value of aU agricultural and pastoral produce and all manufactured goods is due to increased production on the one hand and diminished coat of transport' on the other, it 18 equally true, that the cheap labour of of India and Japan have already cut down the profits of wheat, and cotton goods to the vanishing point, while the prospect of sfcill cheaper labour in. Africa makes the outlook for the immediate future none too rosy, but still there a'few considerations which make me hesitate: to believe that producers are in any danger of being restricted to home consumption within any. measurable period of time. When he looks forward- to thb time when the stomachs and backs of a man’s family, will be his only market, T think he overlooks one or two trifling considerations. -There are at present four millions in England alone who never' have enough bread ahd ; ra r see meat. If each of these had a square meal every day it would pay to grow wheat in the Waikato, and I, have enough faith in the progress of humanity to believe that a fairer division of.;this world’s ■goods will come before the limit of profitable production is much overstepped. -. ; ' .

That we should all be happier if we each and all ministered directly to the Wants of our own stomachs and backs, is,a position which might bo taken up with a fair chance of successful argument, but I fancy I see a further countervailing influence which may indefinately postpone that happy period. Captain Younghusband told us the other day that when he first went to Chitral the natives ridiculed the idea of carrying heavy loads for bright pieces of metal; he had to educute.them to the value of silver and now they are keen after the influx. The Indian ryot or coolie 'will not always besatisfied with a starvation profit or wage, nor yet will the Chinaman, Japanesee, or Negro. Before .anothercentury passes, probably in half that period, wages will have found their level, and as this, cannot be by levelling down it must be levelling up and every rise in wages belarges the market. - ■ • •

Golden times seem in store, at' anyrate for the producers of this district if they be worth their salt. With English and Foreign capital pouring in lika a flood to• every mine from. Coromandel to Waioi'qngomai, the Haurakif goldfields wjl provide a stomach for all the province, can grow;, unless, local producers insist on playing second fiddle to Canterbury. It must he a comical sight to an'outsider watching us eating Caterbury bacon, Oarnafu potatoes, Southland oatmeal, Californian onions, and Tasmanian apples. Shall we never be able in Auckland to stand on our ofra legs, but must,we always hobble along on borrowed crutohes ? • ;v ■■■

‘.Delays are dangerous Ms a. proverb not much in refute among the Devil’s own. No, the lawyer’s version is, ‘Delays are dear.’ In fact is seems as'if nowadays a . lawer’s only business was to ask for adjournment. Judges now and then growl, not at the inconvenience to the suitors or the public, but at themselves and their courts being made a convenience of. The Blight to themselves is all they think about, not the loss and annoyance to those who directly or indirectly pay the piper for the lawyers, jigs. ■ The gentleman who eeek to monopolize such a large area of the Waiorongomai goldfield will no doubt in time do a good torn -tq the plaee as-well as to themselves, but it is hardly the thing for all other enterprises there to be waiting to see how large a slice of the cake they will be allowed to have,, When people peg out ground they should be compelled to have their plans ready in a reasonable time.

. A Chicago doctor claims to have discovered the microbe of death. All he wants now to abolish heath is to discover the pavafqte .that is death on it as the Yedalia is on the mussel scale. Life will .havb an additional terror then when you won’t be able to get rid of . it, Like Tifhqmus we shall weary of immortality unless he discovers and kill the microbe of old ago also. Doctors’ failures will not cumber? our cemetary to suoh an extent in the future, that, is the-one redeeming feature of his discovery,- and the living will., not he, crowded out by the dead as looked very probable before he came to their fescue.. If he cannot thorough abolish disease as well as death what a miserable lot we shall all be. Dr Conan Doyle seems to think that man is becoming a bald, short sighted, toothless animal. If the worry of an avererage existence of some forty or fifty years leave us ‘ sans hair, sans teeth, sans ;eyes,’ and extension of the average for j even twenty years Would leave us * sans every-

thig, We shall soon have to pass an Act to suppress doctors. You can’t take np a paper without seeing some new terror added to life by medieoes in quest of notority. Whisky plays the duce with your stomach, beer with your liver, tea with your heart and nerves, beef with your temper, pastry with your complexion and your digestion. If you are seeing your girl home from a dance you are forbidded to speak to her on the way except through your nose for fear of la grippe, and if you take la grippe you are told that rum overproof is poison. If you eat pork you will die of trichinosis, consumption of beef will give your consummation by consumption, while the least you have to fear from mutton tapeworm. Even in bed the wretches pester you. One will tell you to sleep on your back, a sure way of breaking it, as well as giving you nightmare, a second, on your stomach with ths TOrtAinty of feeling deslocatedin that a third, on your righ side as if your food J&scented by gravitation. Dr BakeweU says ever had a grandfather; to make up for “it they are all turning grandmothers. lapyx.