CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 264, 17 March 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

ST. PATRICK'S DAY. , To-day is St. Patrick's Day—a day dear to all Irishmen. It is a peculiar circumstance that in all countries where the Irish people have " taken hold," March 17 has become a national (festival, and not merely a Hibernian one. The exiled Englishman forgets tlve date of "St. George's Day," and there are Scotsmen who do not give that attention to St. Andrew that his "day" might be supposed to necessitate. One merely wants to show the intensity of the Irishman's regard for the "old sod"; for the dear traditions of his country, and his adherence to tlie national ideal. If one has been in far sundered places on many St. Patrick's Days, one will have noticed the tremendous enthusiasm of the Irishman in his celebrations. Even if one has seen the St. Patrick's Day Hibernian armed with an axe-handle (in place of a shellelah), looking for fight on any. March 17, one will be disposed to forgive him for his belief that the honor of his country is before all else, and the protection of its rigiits and traditions. In the "Green Isle" itself the vitality of "the day" is undiminished, and there fs still no diminution of seasonable antipathy between North and South. The people who are emotional enough, and sentimental enough, and imaginative enough to glorify a memory, or an ideal, possess an unconquer-/ able optimism that will ultimately triumph over all obstacles. To-day is not Ireland's day only, but Irishmen's Day the world over. It is a peculiar circumstance that the Hibernian remains Irish wherever he happens to be, and that however his nationality may be disguised by circumstances, he is imore, loyal to his Mother Island than any other people. Happily, New Zealand possesses many people of Irish descent who are able to be good Irishmen as well as good New Zealanders. If it were not so \ it would be a little unreasonable for the famous Mr. Redmond to come to! New Zealand for sympathy. As it is, Mr. Redmond will probably feel very much at home. GETTING TIRED. The strikers in the implement trade in Melbourne are dissatisfied. Their dissatisfaction is the result of a failure of some unions—the members of which are not on strike—to support them. This is very unkind. It is, in fact, a polite invitation to them to "go and get work." It is a particularly easy tiling to stand boldly up for a principle even if it robs the pocket as long as the other fellow pays the rent and the, family "tucker" bill. Many people could be found to keep sticking up for a principle all their lives under such conditions. It is, however, simply another illustration of the contention that Labor, especially in the Commonwealth, is varying its quarrels with Capital in order to tight itself. A branch of Labor which supposes that any of its fightable actions will be financially supported by other branches not concerned in the row hopes too mucii from human nature, and if it became the fashion for the country's amalgamated tradesmen to "shell out" when any section of it decided to quarrel with its bread and butter, the fashion would not last very long. The striker says, "There is a principle at stake, and I'm going to knock off work. What will the missus and the kids do ? Why, you'll support them, of course—you're working." Consider the beauty of the principle that has induced twelve thousand miners in Wales to starve their wives and families in order to "beat the boss." The boss seems to have a principle, too, and won't be beaten. We are told that the strike funds arc petering out; that women and children are fainting in the streets with hunger. But the strikers' principle is evidently still quite intact. "If the other fellow cant' pay for the support of my family, let my family starve." That's manly, isn't it? Why should an Australian or a Welshman, or anybody, be loyal to his own when he can be loyal to a machine specially devised to cause trouble and starvation? I "EIGHTPENCE BOOKED." j Awhile ago, some New Plymouth person who was, trying to adequately feed his family with an inadequate salary mentioned that he thought bread was too dear in this town. Asiy baker will tell you that this is quite wrong; that, in fact, bread is too cheap. It does not matter to the New Plymouth baker of bread that most other bakers in most other towns in New Zealand sell bread at a cheaper rate than he. He will suggest that the baker of this town suffers under severe disabilities, that he has to drive a cart a mile to sell a loaf, that firewood is dear, Hour is "up," potatoes are on the rise, and that mortgagees are insistent. He js perfectly right in accordance with modern business methods, to obtain as much as he can, and as he is carefully entrenched behind the walls of a small but effective combination, he is able to "call the tune" while the public "pays the piper." The citizen of New Plymouth pays scvenpenec for a fourpound loaf delivered at, the door. If he allows the loaf to be booked, it will cost him eightpenec at the end of the month. The citizen wants bread just as good and just as "full-weight" and just as cheap us does (lie hospital patient. But the Hospital Board has just been able to seal a contract for the delivery of bread at l%d per lb, or j'/.d per* -41b loaf. No baker accepts a contract for philanthropic motives, and no baker can obtain payment for his bread at the door of the hospital on the day of delivery. The question is, "Why'does the citizen of New Plymouth pay twopence-halfpenny more per 41b loaf than the Hospital Board?" '