CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 257, 9 March 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

COLONIAL GOVERNORS. A branch of the Australian Natives' Association (a powerful organisation having no parallel in New Zealand) has suggested that the time is ripe to make State Governors from native-born material. Sir T. Gibson-Carmichael, retiring State Governor, so it is cabled, agreed that it would be a fair thing, and went on to say that it was likely State Governorships would be abolished; plainly showing that, in his opinion, Goverships are unnecessary, and that, being unnecessary, distinguished Australians should occupy the positions. The filling of colonial Governorships with native-born men has been advocated any time these thirty years, and in antagonism to such proposals it is grandiloquently asserted that Governors are buffers between the Crown and the colonial Governments, apart, nonpartisan, elect, magnificent—and imported. As it is not at all necessary for a Governor to know anything of the people of a dominion he becomes head of, or their aspirations and ideals, it is remarkable that the dominions are generally well served. The contention that "nothing in Australia is too good for the Australians" is a very sound one, and even if it is found impossible or inconvenient to honor native-born men with the supreme billet, the idea might well be carried into effect in lowlier but equally important walks of life. At some periods each of the States of "the Empire have been bound to fall back on deputy-Governors, and it has never been found necessary during such periods to cable to the Old- Country for the immediate importation of a man to fill a temporary breach. In fact, Chief Justices have been found to fill the bill with dignity and decorum, and the Empire has not suffered. It seems likely that if a I system of giving, dominions the power to appoint native-born Governors were | inaugurated, men whose whole hearts were in,the cpuntry they served would give as good service as men whose interests were naturally divided between the two countries. Such appointments, if they are ever made, might do more to spur Governments and great colonial corporations to greater loyalty. We have always held that if there is a good position in.the gift of a colonial State, or corporation it should be given to the man who is best able to fill it, no matter where he ,comes from. Formerly, however, in all the dominions there was an extraordinary disposition to pass over the native-born no matter how well qualified they might be, so that, although Australian and New Zealanders hold many gorgeous billets abroad, they do so because the inhospitality of their own countries has made them take their talents elsewhere. Happily there seems to be a mpre enlightened; method of dealing with these, matters nowadays, and Governments of dominions seem almost to agree that not all of their' own people are fools. In the matter of colonial Governors, it seems likely that! they will continue to be imported, and sis it has been shown in Australia that State Governors are unnecessary, it is not likely that distinguished Australians i will rush useless billets. The appoint-! ment of a native-born Australian to the post o( Governor-General would be un-thinkable-—at Downing-street. WHY IS IT? Perhaps you have noticed that the child | who is surfeited with good things is more dis.satisfied than the child who manages to amuse himself with the commonplace objects at hand and to whom i the unexpected and infrequent penny is a notable gift. And you will agree that "we are but children of a larger growth," content with life when we have achieved our desires than in struggling for their achievement. We advertise that tumultuous person Peter Bowling once more, in order to prove a contention recently made that Labor'is fast becoming its own enemy, and we are told by cable that the discontented Peter has just 'violently attacked the Labor Party." Peter is an excellent example of the cog quarrelling with the wheel. The "outsider sees most of the game," and there seems to be no doubt that the outsider, Mr. J. Sinclair, of the Scottish Agricultural Commission, is capable of expressing an opinion upon Labor matters in Australia. Here is what he said: "Australia is the saddest country I have ever seen, having regard to the labor problems confronting the Commonwealth. I have never heard more bitter expressions used by employers of employees, and vice versa, than in Australia." Australia and New Zealand are countries each of which has passed legislation in a wholesale manner for the benefit of the worker, and either country has at times considered itself to be a i "working man's paradise." It is true of Australia that benevolent legislation has had no effect in quelling strikes; it has not caused cessation of fightin"- between employer and employed; it" has neither cured nor conciliated. All the efforts of organised parties, nil the fatherly care of Governments, all the careful concessions have not killed V the, rancour. But by far the most inter-1 esting phase is that in this paradise the I inhabitants are quarrelling with the angels. It seemed natural enough that in the great fight for right and justice and wages that employees should aspire to dominate the "boss;" but having Deen vigorously State-aided in the pursuit of his scalp, it is remarkable that the Labor birds do not agree in their little nest. Some employers the other day refused to "sack" some non-union-ists. Hence a strike of agricultural implement makers, involving thousands of people. What right have non-unionists to work, anyhow? What right have the wives and children of non-unionists to eat? What right lias anybody but a unionist to live in a paradise?" What right has Australia got to be called a paradise in which workers fight for a halo, and. having, achieved it, quarrel with the fit? I

GROWTH OF INSANITY. Dr. Forbes Winslow. a well-known authority, recently pointed out the alarming increase in lunacy in flreat Britain" Fifty years ago one person in every 530 was insane; to-day the proportion is one in 277. The same fact has been noticed all over the civilised world, and the tendency is naturally to urge' that civilisation with its rush and "hurry, plays havoc, with our brain. This argument is, however, liable to exaggeration

for the increase in insanity is also due very largely to the fact that registration and detention are now more strin-. gent than they used to be, and to-day many people who are classed as insane who, fifty years ago, would not have been. Also, since the disease has been better understood, and the stigma at one time attaching to it has been swept away, many persons mentally afflicted, now voluntarily undergo treatment who would previously have avoided it. The statistics of Australasia are much the same as those for the Old Country, lint the gravest question in connection with mental, disease is that to-day we take feeble-minded persons and carefully nurture them in aslums until they attain just sufficient intelligence to earn a living ouiside. Then they are discharged, they get married—and the number of their children is nearly twice as high as that of the general rate of the country. This appalling increase in the proportion of feeble-minded was pointed: out a little while ago by Professor Whetham in the Nineteenth Century. It is right to care for the distressed, but is it right to allow them to perpetuate their weakness to the detriment of the rest of the community ?