CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 260, 13 March 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

WORKERS' DWELLINGS. Although a worker who desires to obtain a dwelling under the Workers' Dwelling Act of last session is given facilities for so doing, the Act obviously cannot be taken advantage of by any worker. The man who desires to benefit cannot select his own land and must necessarily take a sectioa on the ground defined. The rural worker or the worker who happens ! to reside in a town not having a selected area for workers' dwellings is quite outside the scope of the Act. It is already obvious that it will be impossible to deal with all the applications sent in, and if the Act is to have general and not local application, it will be necessary to amend it by way of permitting an applicant to purchase a section anywhere he likes. The Act is a benevolent concession to workers who are able to take advantage of it by residence near available sections. Directions are printed in the Gazette, and the Wellington Dominion gives the following precis:—Forms for renewable leases are provided, and weekly or monthly tenancies may be obtained, with every application four weeks' rent requires to be lodged with the superin- | tendent., and to declare that he is not |in receipt of more than £175 a year, , and is landless. Applications to purchase are to be given preference over applications to lease or for tenancy, and preference may further be given to those n.ost in need of the dwellings. The rate of interest to be paid in the case of purchase on the amount remaining unpaid is 5 pel cent. The payment may extend over •2. r > 1 /, years. If the tender for the erection of a workers' dwelling exceeds cost of that dwelling, the applicant, with- ■ jn fourteen days after being notified, may etdflt to withdraw his application, and shall thereupon be entitled to a refund of his deposit in respect of the purchasemoney or r'°nt. Upon such erection the agreement sha.'l be deemed to be cancelled. If for,any x pther reason an applicant withdraws he shall not be entitled to a' refund of his deposit; but the board may refund the balance of such deposit after deducting not less than £ 1 for sxpenses.

A NOTABLE "GRAFTER." " Abe Ruef, the notorious "boss" of 'Frisco, has, the cables toll us, been refused a re-hearing of his case, and will therefore serve the full 14 years' imprisonment imposed on him over two years ago for frauds on the City Treasury. He was a precious ruffian was Ruef. In March, }!)08. it was cabled tiat t] 1 ? j'jjy had f6ta^..no. fewer than 05 indictments against Rucf, was charged with being an intermediary in bribing the Board of Supervisors in the overhead tvolley deal on behalf of the ynitsd Railroads, and also With other acts of corruption in conjunction with Eugene Schmitz, who was formerly Mayor of .San Francisco. When Schmitz Mas placed on trial, Ruef pleaded guilty and made a confession; but when he found the Courts favoring Schmitz, he withdrew his confession on the ground that he had been coerced into making it. Schmitz was found guilty and sentenced to live years' imprisonment, but th^ 1 Court of Appeal set his conviction aside and he went free. The trial of Ruef, which lasted for many weeks, was not without its sensations, the most tragic •f which was the murderous attack made on the State Prosecutor, Mr. Francis Heney, by a saloon-keeper named Haas, who afterwards committed suicide. Haas was believed to have made the assault as the agent of the "graft" party. Only with the greatest difficulty could a trustworthy jury be got together for Ruef's trial. • No fewer than *IOOO jnrors were rejected, and the task of cmpannellinff a jury lasted 10 weeks. Ruef, whilst theSfe preliminaries were proceeded, was out on bail, with sureties amounting to no less than £300,000, but when .Mr. lieney was assaulted he was re-arrested. For a long time both Ruef and Schmitz were almost popular heroes in San Francisco, but during the final stages of the trial the public opinion regarding both men veered round. No longer is Schmitz cheered in the streets, and the public generally applaud the verdict in Ruef's ease. The sentence of 14 years' imprisonment on Ruef was passed in December, 1008. Since then his apepal for a new trial has been kept before the Courts, with the result above mentioned. AN ECHO FROM ZION. The amazing career of that monumental religious fraud, "Elijah" Dowie, the obscure Australian tradesman who founded a city for mental decadents in America, was one of extraordinary interest, and we are reminded of it by the fact that at present there is' turmoil in the city of Elijah's triumphs and dishonor over the election of an "overseer." Dowie invented new brands of religion and business eminently calculated to further his own financial interests and to extract from the special neurotic type of persons who became his "converts" a fealty and worship dear to his conceit and helpful in his immoralities. Dowie was able by the force of an extraordinary personality and vocal invective to draw people to his city from all over the world, and quite a number of New Zealanders sold up all thoir goods and chattels in order to throw in their lot with the "prophet" and their money into his private treasury. Some of these people afterwards returned to 1 New Zealand broken in health and pocket. The prophet's vigorous curses against the clergy, the press, and society generally are well remembered, and he maintained his wonderful hold on his disciples by the gorgeousness of his raiment and 'his insistence that he should be regarded as the first consideration in heaven or on earth. He used to publish a paper the chief contents of which were photographs of himself and his expressions of opinion, curses, and so on. When his disgraceful career was laid bare and his poor maniac followers found that he was not really a deathless human being, there was considerable disturbance and examination of Zion's banks and other financial institutions. Although it is likely that Voliva, who succeeded the prophet, was antiDowie, he also succeeded in managing the lives and purses of the majority of Elijah's followers. Where Voliva comes in in the present arrangement is not easily discernible, but the probability is that this raucous and condemnatory leader is putting up a tremendous vocal fight. We smile at institutions like Zion City, but should not do so, for an accumulation of thousands of mental decadents is a real tragedy. Places like Zion City have their uses, too, for they are cosmopolitan and help widely severed countries to get rid of a dangerous element of society-. It is better to have ten thousand cranks in one heap administering their own affairs than spread over the earth to be a menace to the normal.