CURRENT TOPICS

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 239, 14 February 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

THE BUSH FIRES. Not long ago we published a paragraph mentioning that owing to the dryness of the season settlers were enabled to, effect ''good burns." To-day the result of those "good burns" is seen in devastated grass lands, ruined buildings, blackened bush areas, and the obscured sun. The smell of burnt timber is in the air, and from every part of the bush districts of the coast comes grave news of damage. The present fires are more serious than experienced for many years, and it is as yet impossible to estimate the damage that has been done, or to prophesy the end of the disaster. If there are any gratifying features in a scries of fires which are practically uncontrollable, it is that in many cases homesteads have been saved. The town-dweller who is not directly affected —although he must ultimately share the results of such catastrophes—is sometimes unatilc to grasp the fi)ll gravity of the position, in which uncontrollable fire eats tip the work of years in a few hours. A fire which consumes farmsteads, grass, and stock is of more moment than almost any other catastrophe. There is some little consolation in the fact that the true farmer is much averse to "take it lying down." As a matter of fact, many farmers whose holdings have been swept with fire have already made what arrangements are possible for regrassing. The loss of grass and the continued dryness must of course have a depressing ellect on the milk supply, but happily Taranaki is capable of quick revival, and there is no doubt that help will be freely tendered to those farmers who have suffered most. One matter needs emphasis. It is evident that the use of fire for clearing country is frequently haphazard, and as no farmer would like to be accused of being the means of spreading desolation, it behoves every settler to exercise th* greatest care during the burning off period. We sincerely hope that the unhappy conditions at present prevailing may be soon dissipated by the courageous efforts of the farmers, helped by their own optimism and, if necessary, by the assistance of the Government. It is consoling that during the fires there has been no loss of human life—a feature of previous bush fires, and one that would have added vastly to the miseries of the visitation.

MUNICIPALITIES AND HEX. The recently-passed law which enacts that a mail cannot be elected to a seat on a municipal governing body if he is interested in any business matter between the body and himself or his firm narrows the field from which these servants of the public may be drawn. It also infers that, in the past, places on public bodies may have been fought for for business ends. Whatever truth there may be in such an inference, there is little doubt that municipalities arc served as well as they deserve to be. Seeing that the people have in their gift places on local bodies, the safeguards which existed up to the time of the passing of the law would seem to Lave been sufficient, providing, of course, that the body of ratepayers did their duty. And there's the rub. The other day the Prime Minister deprecated the habit the people of many municipalities had got into of adversely criticising those who gave their time and attention to local bodies' affairs. Many of these critics, said Sir Joseph Ward, refused to record their votes. It is a well-known fact, indeed, that only a minority of folk take any interest in municipal matters, except by way of criticism of methods they might have frustrated at the polling'booths There is, therefore, reason for the Prime Minister's assertion that "there should be 110 drones in connection with public life." Now that all chance of personal gain has been eliminated, there is added assurance that men desiring (o work for the people on local bodies will do so unselfishly. but it rests with the people at the polls to select the best men available, for under a system where every person entitled to a vote exercised it, local bodies would absolutely mirror public opinion. It has lately been said that every person entitled 'to a vote should be forced to exercise it. On the other hand, it has been pointed out that the vote of a person ( who had to be coerced into using it was not of much value. The better way is obviously to induce a greater interest in public affairs. Such an interest could be fostered by the entrance of the most high-minded of our citizens into the municipal arena, for the instinct of the people in regard to their leaders is almost infallible. For the sake of the country, the personnel of every local body should be a matter for the deepest thougat and most mature consideration, for in the hands of these bodies rests the welfare of the nation.

REPUBLICANS AND ARISTOCRATS. A British peer (Lord Decies), who is "devoted to sport," has lately married Miss Jay Could, whose "popper" was devoted to money, and who herself is devoted to spending it in philanthropy. She has also evidently devoted some of it in purchasing a peer. It must have occurred to anyone who has taken the trouble to read the papers that American millionaire tradesmen are -nowadays related to the nobility of every European country, but most closely to the British peerage. Primarily one may look upon the contract of marriage 'between an American millionaire's daughter and a British peer as an agreement whereby the woman pays the man a large sum in consideration of .1 joint interest in a title. American people, however wealthy, cannot purchase titles in their own'republic, and so tliev buy them in monarchial countries. The wholesale introduction of American women into the ancestral halls of Britain has had many effects. They have straiglitened the broken-backed financial state of many peers, and have made the nobility immensely richer, and, therefore, more powerful, than hitherto! The "crusted old nobility," as distinct from the "two-for-a-penny" members of the peerage, has been well'advised to seek partners on the other side of the Atlantic, for American women in British Society have made intellectual pursuits fashionable. The keener enthusiasm, the greater iinconventionality, and the stronger individuality of tiiese American recruits to the nooility have made the peerage sometimes almost useful. The Ik( of America 11 peeresses who are nut, drones is verv large: their influence iwide; .-in,| ,-is they generally <.,, n |.ro! bankiii!' accounts, they control to mi up. nrecinbli' extent. British socie!v. Since it became fashionable to admit American women Hiiil their dollars inin (he etnio-plier,. of liritish soeiclv it has become mure fn-sMoiirtlile for (tie urns and daughters of American women and British peers to live a life of greater usefulness. It is possible that if this wedding of dollars with coronets continues,

and the influence of American women grows, that sons and daughters of peers may yet be called upon to show even greater cause for their existence. It is notable that the sons of American millionaires, born with gold soup ladles m their mouths ("silver spoons" would be 100 inexpensive) generally represent the acme of uselessness, but there is no doubt that the British children of an American millionaire's daughter and a JSmisK noble are frequently of better national value than the first-named. It has, of course, been noted that peers and peers'| sons have not only a penchant for marrying American heiresses, but for wedding with ladies of the music halls. If one may judire from the frequency of divorces from music hall ladies the British noble is best advised to sell his coronet in the commercial centres of the U.S.A.