CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LII, Issue 379, 3 May 1910, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

THE "NOBLE ART." People who affect to believe that ' Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton" might justly reason that Trafalgar was won in a twelve feet- prize ring. Owen Moran has killed Tommy McCarthy in a prize fight at San Francisco. We merely ask: What useful purpose the sixteen rounds fought between these men would have served, even if McCarthy had not been killed? The tragedy itself may certainly serve the useful purpose of rousing public opinion to a sense of the degradation inseparable from prize 'fighting. The " good old English pastime" is English, /hut it is not good. In the old days it was difficult to find two men who were siifl'i-| ciently brutal to pound each other with bare fists until one was beaten. The exhibition taught the English nothing that was worth knowing, and was merely by way of permitting respectable people to enjoy a, spectacle that had no recommendation except that one or both of the principals might be killed or maimed for life. The nobility flocked to see two brutes iiasli one another, but as the nobility did not learn the self-control fist fighting is supposed to teach, its alleged benefits were not wide. Also the gladiators had in view the "purse,' which would keep thom from doing any useful act for a very long time. Afterwards it was held that bare fist fighting was ibrutal—and light four-ounce gloves were used as a sop to .Mrs. Grundy. It has always been apparent that a man can meet his death as easily in a matted ring and using gloves as lie could in the Sayers-Heenan days. In New Zealand thf: glove fighters are controlled by an association of respectable men. Even governors and ministers (who do not themselves fight) crowd to see men ot small intellect engage in a bashing match for money. The Boxing Association flourishes its respectability, flmt it is not too respectable to make the "gate" the chief consideration. The Association is not run in the interest of sport in My sense of the word. It is a business proposition -pure and simple. "Ivnocksout" in New Zealand are common, and desired Iby the class of .people who fill the seats. Boxing is unpopular, and tue "knock-out" is the thing the people pay to see. A fatality on the stage of a metropolitan opera house would be a delicious item of news for months afterwards. If boxing is a "sport" there should He 110 "purse." If it is indulged in merely for exercise and the good ot the race, why do two men box and five thousand (who do not box) watch them? If one fight prpduces a death, why should further -fights be allowed? If a death happens in a San Francisco ring, why cannot a death happen in the respectable atmosphere of, say, the Wellington Opera House.. When there is the possibility of a man having his neck broken in Wellington, we sincerely hope that the Governor and his Ministers will refrain from being in at the death. It sets a bad example.

A NATIONAL PARTY. General Louis Botha, the Soutli African leader, we are told by cable, says that the Government has sueeeded in establishing mutual co-operation between and Boer. .Recent events in Soul.li Africa point to the fact that Louis Botha is sull "slim." The Dutch are not driving the British out of South Africa; they merely make it impossible for them to live there, because all the billets are given to the Dutch. From the Dutch standpoint this is an excellent arrangement, but as a sample of •'cooperation" between the two races, the method seems a little extraordinary, it seems that while General Botha' was telling the people at the opening of the Lydeiiburg-J'.elfast railwav line to be good brothers, he was forming a ".National" party. It is quite certain that British Afrikanders will not be of the party, and consequently it is likely that the National Party will bo the 'Dutch narty. The new railway line lias been [ built by white labor, and it is inter- - esting to learn that many of the British retrenched civil servants who had been dismissed to make room for Dutch Afrikanders have supplied the labor at 4.; a day. And even then the majority j of the laborers are Dutch and German, | with a sprinkling of Italians. The origi-| nal plan of a.ll the railway extensions! which are I>eiii£f made in Africa were i made by British engineers officers and j their civil successors from Britain. With I few exceptions, these engineers have ■been retrenched, but their plans have been proceeded with. The fact that a rrihvav line in Africa has been made by white'layovers is not a proud one, for thp colored man on the ground is as | much entitled to work as the Dutchman | o" Englishman is. lEverv railway mako» I a Kaffir's chance of living his own life less. It is, however, natural and inevitable that a. country for which the Dutch fought, bitterly before the British should (!><• dear to Dutch Africanders mid that everv endeavor should b- 1 made to restore it to its former owners. A "National Tarty" under Cienernl Botha, therefore, means a Dutch Part.v lii'der tl'c most prominent Dutchman in British S'outh Africa.

XEW ZEALAND'S TRADE. Nov Zealand is a marvellously productive country, considering its sparse population, tin 1 oomparntivolv small portion umler tillage and pasturage, and flu- haphazard system under which «? tlif farniiii" operations ai'o carrinil nn. The other week we noticed th« finnres dealin<r with the value or fxfor the inst vea.r and the wonder- ■-! v"cn-f>rv made durini;' thilt period. V idler d"Hik are now available. Thev are of considerable interest. Th''v ♦lint, the value of the exnorts ren«liH a;i i!!)]'ro.'cd'.iit:d B;:ir.c!y. i'J.'.-

401,809. Our year hitherto v.a« in I!JU(i-7, when they were €!!),.)31,."„vs- ,tii improvement of nearly two millions, or four and a half millions greater uia i in 11108. The ehief increase was in wool, the total value of which was nearly eight millions. Frozen meat came r.e.v, viz., nearly three and a half millions, and butter and h whirj vv a:.mere interested, was responsible f..y nearly three millions. As we pointed out before, the gain is as much in ..he' deerea.se of our imports as in the increase of our exports, for the bigger the difference between the two the healthier the condition of the country. In 190S-!) our imports were valued at £M (d<>. As they were almost equal to our exports, and as we have to show :i Margin of about three and a half millions to satisfy the money lenders ot ihr Old Country, it was surprising tint! ;lie screw was applied all round, and that a depression set in last year. , Vhat to we now linclV An excess of exports of £(!,(>!):),5(i(i —a sum sufficient to pn/ unr interest charges for this as well as the preceding year. a condition if ".hings with which we have every rosin 'o feel satisfied, denoting as 'it Io"s Ili.it the •"slum])" has disappeared— peMuaneiitlv, let us hone.