CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 265, 30 March 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

THE HOM THOMAS MACKENZIE. 1 The Hon. T. Mackenzie is making his first Ministerial visit to New Plymouth, ( and is sure of a hearty welcome in the , chief town of a province whose people ( sincerely admire men with notable j achievements to their credit. During Mr. j Mackenzie's occupancy of his high of- ( flee he has, above all things, been a man , of action. Since Mr. Mackenzie has at- j tained Cabinet rank, even his political , enemies have been unable to find fault j with his work. He has infused into it a , rare enthusiasm, possible only because ( of the intensely practical nature of the ( man. He,knows the farmer—because he ( has boen intimately associated with farm- > ers all his life. He has helped agriculture J because he is aware that the land is the , life-blood of New Zealand commerce, the , way to prosperity, and the one great , question worthy of the closest study and ] the most enthusiastic attention. Mr. . Mackenzie is a business man who is able to originate as well as to examine and \ advise, His training as our produce ■ commissioner in London gave him a . unique insight into those questions affect- ■ ing the New Zealand producer. His work in the Old Country will stand to ! his credit lastingly. He thoroughly or- i ganised the system of dealing with our , produce, he attacked and defeated fraud- ■ ulent practices, and he fought as a farm- 1 er for the farmer. Mr. Mackenzie's sue- i cess is due not only to his fine training and education, hut to his uncompromising antagonism to subterfuge, dishonesty and anything but plain dealing and speaking. He is quick to grasp a suggestion that promises good for farmers. When asked by T'aranaki farmers the other Jay to have included in the High Commissioner's report quotations of pork, bacon, etc., he did not "keep the matter steadily in view"—he did it. The information is of great value to the farmers of this province. If the Taieri constituency is absorbed after the Boundary Commissioners have done their work, Mr. Mackenzie must go elsewhere for constituents. Already he has been approached by grasping people in eighteen constituencies to offer himself as a candidate—an indication that he is a much-wanted personage, Taranaki would like to know if Mr. Mackenzie is likely to become a representative of one of its constituencies. If one of them were lueky enough to snare him, the political status of the province would undoubtedly be much greater than at present. He is a man of affairs, keen, enterprising, trained with a vision that sees further than the parish pump—and in time the yard-of-road-metal politician must disappear before the politician ! whose views are not solely parochial. DISTANT FIELDS. It is a little early for the young people of an infant country to develop a nomadic tendency, and it is difficult to arrive at the real reasons for a desire to 1 leave New Zealand. Lately South Africa [ has bsen offering land on exceptionally i easy terms, and we are told that many young New Zealanders are leaving this 1 country in order to settle in that country. Formerly the New Zealanders in Africa remained there because they were able to obtain billets the wages for which were very much larger than could be obtained here. The slump (and the Dutch) came, and the New Zealander turned his i eyes towards his own land once again. . The young New Zealander will not stay j in this country for the mere sentimental reason that he is wanted to defend it, ' if other countries offer him greater cash ■ advantages. If he can get Queensland ; land given to him and South African , country thrown at him, he will not battle j , to obtain New Zealand land at a large ' price and with infinite trouble. South 1 Africa has its internal problems. Its ; business is to increase the number of its ; white citizens in order to make the men- . ace of the black men less menacing. New Zealand's problem is to people the coun- ' try with sufficient white foils to make " aggression from outside unpayable. If other countries are inducing settlement by having a real land policy, they are doing worthy work. Tlnworked land is useless. It is better to give it away than to let it remain idle. It would perhaps serve to keep young New Zealanders in the Dominion if the State were as generous (or at least as sensible) as Queensland or South Africa. Here the cry is Land for the people." There the cry is the people for the land." Sooner or later the State must consider the settlement of the land to be of much greater importance than any other question. It offers the solution of every problem before politicians to-day. New Zealand is far behind many countries in the matter of inducing settlement. ■MUSIC v. FOOTBALL. "New Zealanders still think more of football and hockey than of music." said Mr. Hugo Gorlitz at a meeting of the Sheffield Choir Committee at Palmerston | North. ''They don't realise the importance of music," he added; "music helps von to court your girl and to fight your battles, and many a battle has been won tii roii!_ r h the spirit engendered by music." Mr. Hugo Gorlitz is quite right-—with certain reservations. A German football team would draw a larger crowd than a I German band, and the average New 1 Zealander would rather play Rugby than (he cornet. We must not blame him for I being more physical than artistic. The ' ■

artistic temperament takes a long time to grow. It is fostered in trouble and sadness, joy and the great emotions. There has been no time for the creation of a national artistic sentiment in this country. New Zealanders are too busy. Sometimes, of course, colonials "throw back," and if they possess an instinct the genesis of which might be traced back through the centuries, they leave New Zealand to express their gifts in foreign lands. One cannot, however, suggest that a footballer should eschew football in order to "think more" of music. In time he may combine the two delights. Tt is not yet proved that the New Zealander is musically nnappreciative, but the New Zealander is certainly discriminating. If he as a nation cannot express the highest form of tone poetry, he at least knows who is able to express it. In fact, his discrimination is very nice indeed. Watch the audiences. The perfect mechanical singer hasn't a hope. He or she who sings from the heart will gather even footballers to the stalls. The power of good music over the physical man is perhaps the "eighth" wonder. And talking of football, did not those wonderfully musical people, the Welsh, beat the i "All Blacks" by singing at them one of the fierce and moving national songs that so stir the Celtic temperament? What about the wonderful effects of "battle" hymns and the inspiration they have given tp fighting men? Musicians have done more to stir nations than statesmen. The genius of the masters is the property of the world. Every primitive people spurs itself to endeavor with more or less musical sound. Even the footballer, who isn't primitive, likes to open his lungs before the kick-off, and if the concert in the home-coming train or brake is not a "musical" concert, it answers the same purpose. Great musicians who accuse the people of new countries of lack of appreciation accuse themselves of not understanding the people. The singer who sings to half-a-dozen people who understand him, when a thousand people have paid to be sung to, is as ignorant as the audience. The value of a picture is not in its appeal to an artist but in its appeal to the people. The writer does not write for the benefit of literary critics with hob-nailed livers. He writes for the folk who read his books—and so on. The great exponent of Chopin or Wagner has no moral right to inflict either the one or the other on a whole audience which is hankering for simplicity, and if the musical education of the New Zealander is incomplete, it is the business of musicians to gradually educate him. One does not initiate a five-year-old child into the mysteries of arithmetic by teaching "fractions." He desires to know what "two and two" are. Quite accountably the great musicians who please the cognoscenti in Paris, London and Berlin, not to mention the musical centres of Russia and places whore drones most abound, do not please New Zealanders. We are very glad that they do not please them, but we have seen a singer with, say a "third-class" musical reputation make a New Zealand audience rise to its feet, and wave its collective hands. The music seed is there. If wants watering. One cannot get fruit from that seed one day after it is planted, and, the five-finger exercises will always remain in favor as a preliminary to a perfect exposition of Wagner's most terrific triumphs. If one were a very great musician one would much rather stir a big bunch of unsophisticated Zulus than achieve a success before the most discriminating Berlin audience. All nature loves music; it helps everybody. True music is the road between'heart and heart, but nobody ever "learnt" that kind of music. It is as natural as the leaf, as spontaneous as the song of the bird, as precious as it is rare. \fc all know true music when we hear i&ind must not be scolded because we refuse to confuse music with mechanics,