The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1913. HOLIDAY-MAKING IS OVER.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 194, 6 January 1913, Page 4

The Daily News. MONDAY, JANUARY 6, 1913. HOLIDAY-MAKING IS OVER.

The holiday is over, and we arc all more or less bilious and happy and satisfied and dissatisfied and tired, and secretly longing to get back to the normal stage of existenee. The worst—or is it possibly the best—of holidays is that they <ire so soon over. One is hardly into one's stride before the office desk calls insistently or the shop counter cries in a loud voice to be dusted and restocked. This season we have had it period of mixed storm and sunshine. and secretaries and officials of the various sporting organisations, in common with fathers of families, have been driven well-nigh to desperation in attempting to faithfully discern the face of the skies. But we have' all conic through it smiling and ready to face another year, full of good resolutions and of Christmas fare. The good resolutions, of course, arc easy to get rid of, although they have been known to last for at least forty-eight hours, but the results of the holiday fare-even when it does not run to ptomaine poisoning—are more difficult of digestion. We Britishers, as a nation, are terrible sticklers for precedent, and none of us would think it was really Chri=tmas time if the national roast beef am! plum pudding did not, grace the festive board. They are essentially the accompaniments of the snow and the niislleto of the Old World, but as we are Antipodean in our climate as well as in our situation, there is reallv no rea.-.on.

outside sheer sentiment, why we should perpetuate a menu that is obviously due to climatic conditions. Better a dinner of herbs with the thermometer at 85 than a stalled ox and brandy sauce therewith. One (hesitates to attack the traditions of Christmas and New Year time, because the anniversaries that are left us in this age of hustle are few and far between, but | this eating habit really ought to be attended to. Perliaps the establishment of a Cold Lamb and Salad Society or the Hot Meat Prohibition League would help, but we certainly want some assistance in reorganising our holiday fare. One would surely retain the holiday spirit quite as well on a suitable summer dietary as on the unctuous warmth of many baked meats'. We should, in fact, try and fit our Christmas to our climate instead of making our climate misfit somebody else's Christmas. There is little cf the precedent of Yuletidc tha+, is suitable to our Antipodean conditions, and we have foresworn' "the sack" of many English traditions. We go picnicking on the beach, instead of revelling over a huge fire in the ingle neuk, and there is no reason why we should not adapt our table to our 'revised conditions. .Anyway, it is but a passing form of physical affliction and not so sufficiently pronounced as to prevent us hoping that the town will speedily recover from its temporary, indigestion and settle down to a really prosperous and profitable New Year. We have all made the best of the holidays, and it is up to us all to now make the best of the inevitable working days to follow.

MR. CHURCHILL ON WAR. Mr. -Winston Churchill (First Lord of' the Admiralty) was the chief gues; at the Sheffield cutlers' annual feast recently. In the course of a speech he made some pertinent observations regarding war and the necessity for preparation to meet it should it ever arise. He said:—"\Yc have sometimes been assured by persons who profess to know that the danger of war has become an illusion, and that in thostt moie:i days that d-.nger would not exist at aII but for the machinations of statesmen and diplomatists, but for the intrigue of financiers, aide;! by the groi i-'less suspicions of generals and admirals and fomented by the sensationalism of the press—all directed upon the ignorance and credulity of the people. Well, here is a war (the Balkan war) which has arisen from none of these causes, which has 'broken out in spite of all that rulers and diplomatists could do to prevent it, a war in which the press hag had no part, a war which the whole force of the money power has been subtly and steadfastly directed to prevent, which has come upon us, not through the ignorance or credulity of the people, but, on the contrary, through their knowledge of their history and their destiny, and through their intense realisation of their wrongs and of their duties, as they conceived them—a war which from all these causes hag burst upon us with ail the force of a spontaneous explosion, and which in strife and destruction has carried all before it. Face to face with this manifestation, who is the man who is bold enough to say that force is never a remedy? Who is the man who is foolish enough to say that Martial virtues do not play a vital part in the health and honor of every people? Who is the man who is vain enough to suppose that the long antagonisms of history and of time cm in all circumstances _Wi adjusted by the smooth and superireial conventions of politicians and ambassadors? When I consider what is passing elsewhere and tiie position of our own country I cannot help feeling, and I think you will share my view, that we are fortunate indeed among the nations of the world. We are fortunate—horn under a lucky star—and in a good age, and with no old scores to pay, no modern enmities to prosecute, we can survey our past without a pang, wc can survey our future without "a grudge. But we must be prepared. AVe must he ready for all eventualities. It is good to be patient; it is good to be circumspect, to be peace-loving, hut that is not enough. We must be strong; we must be self-reliant, and in the end, for all our party politics, we must be united. If our hearts—our British hearts—are devoid of hate, if our skies are clear, we owe it to those valiant generations who. by their prowess and manly wisdom, have slowly raised the fortunes of this small island to the summit of a glorious empire, which draws this'year into closer unity under the influence of freedom and ' peace. As First Lord of the Admiralty, I am entitled to remind you that we owe a debt also in a special sense to that hardy breed of sailors, to that unfailing succession of skilful sea captains, who, m every kind of vessel, against every kind of enemy. ;„ t ,n the oceans, and through'all the centuries, have maintained unbroken the mval power and—why should we not say it?—the naval supremacy on which the greatness and safety of our cound depends. We live in 'a world of -unceasing change; the spirit of decay pervades all human arrangements Xo race, no empire, no institution reposes for any length of time, on past virtues or past achievements. Unless we renew our street.!, rantinually, unless we revive and fxh-ri without ceasing those impulses -,i rw.-radeship and duty which are the ,„ !1H .,., o{ national strength, we cannot „,|„. , 0 preserve definitely our happy a. ■! prosperous position. We must mm:;,-v ~|l r affairs ami organise our 'ife that those who come after us shall have easier and not harder burdens to bear, that they shall have fewer ,i un „ e . rs tf) face and greater resources to mcei those dangers. When we corn-para our fortunate position m the world with that of other people now so desperately struggling, we cannot but feel ] lo w much we have to be thankful for. jt wou ] ( i ; n . deed bo shameful if we who had inherited so much, if we who had so much done for us before we came into the world if we who started so fair on the path' of life, were to leave our children no-thin" ■but bitter memories to avengo and nmfortuues to retrieve. The tusks which devolve upon us are serious. the t j mes in which we live areccritical.y e },.,.,„ to hold what wo have won."

ROOSEVELT AND THE OIL TRUST. Undeterred by the allegations made eon periling the spurious and frandulen character (if niiiiiv of tlio '"Standard Oi Heart's Magazine, the magazine' continues .to print reproductions o f\ Rllcn letters, and in tho November auimiber places before the public, certain <. om ,_ spondonea which it is implied -Mr. Roosevelt in a charge, of having iW,, on more intimate and confidential terms with the great trust and its o(lit)als than be would have the public beli ft y e< The purport of the correspondencis s \' fi that tin; ITon. J. C. Sibley, chairman of the Committee on Manufactures in the Ilon-c of Representatives, was :>< a "go-between" by the Trust in' its negotiations with the President. ij r Sibley impressed upon Mr. Roosevelt, so

the letters indicate, iho ''friendly disposition" of the Standard Oil Company towards him. Obo of the letters from Mr. Sibley it 6 the company "political manager," Mr. Arehbold. contains the following words:--"! told the President some unpalatable truths as to the situation (politically, and that no man could win or deserve to win who depended on the rabble rather than upon the conservative men of affairs. 1 don't know if ho really liked all I said, but he thanked mo with apparent heartiness." Later on Mr. Arehbold wrote to Mr. Roosevelt, we are told, asking the President to interest himself in the case of Mr. Arclibold's brother-in-law, an officer in the United States army, with a view to his promotion. Mr. Roosevelt replied that he would consider the matter, and hoped to be able to give Mr. Archbold's brother-in-law promotion. As a result the officer, so it is alleged, was promoted "over the heads of other experienced officers, who, with all their faithful service to the nation, had not the military genius and the strategic foresight to become related to the political manager of the Standard Oil Company." These letters were published immediately 'before ithe Presidential election, and the writer of the article incorporating the letters adds insult to injury by stating that as he desires to be absolutely just and fair to Mr. Roosevelt, he must say that there are no letters in his possession from Mr. Roosevelt personally written fo Mr. Arehbold concerning Standard Oil contributions to campaign funds.