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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8543, 25 September 1907, Page 5

is not then again there is not much objection. As a matter of fact, there is what may be called a don't-care-a-hangativeness about the matter except in so far as the change may result in establishing a new holiday whereby labourers on the one hand and' employers on the other may be compelled to lose a day's profitable work. The opinion in Parliament and out of it is that there are toomany holidays at present, and that, an additional one is out of the question. This is recognised by the Premier, who states that he does net intend to provide ior an extra perpetual holiday to celebrate Dominion Day, though he will endeavour todovetail the celebration ol another anniversary into the new one, and so satisfy patriotism and prudence.. Meanwhile the workers are asked to display their patriotism on the initial' celebration of the day at their own, expense, and they will probably respond; but it will be with a bad grace in many instances, and with a loss to workers and employers in' many more. The Premier promised to> consult the House upon the subject, but so far he has not done so; and aIL the arrangements that have been made up to date have been upon own initiative. The Parliament and' publii: buildings have been fitted up with devices for electrical illuminations on Thursday, and jingoism—sosome say—is being encouraged at a cost which will bring no corresponding advantages. Alas for the commercial spirit of the times! Mr Seddon would have crushed such a spirit had it been displayed it> his time, and metamorphosed it into the unanimous semblance of pure patriotism.

THE IRONY OF CIRCUMSTANCE. Humour and pathos are closely allied. Some years ago a resident of the colony —a scenic artist^—was requested by the then head of the Government to prepare a panorama of New Zealand scenery for exhibition at Home with a view io inducing emigration from the Old Country to the country known as "God's Own." He carried out his task to the satisfaction of the "powers that were," and although an aged man, he took the "show" to England. Upon arrival there, a shipping company, connected with New Zealand trade,, paid him £2O for the advertisement he had given them in his panorama, and with that capital he set about, with varying financial success—the variation being generally on the downward grade—visiting the chief provincial centres of Great Btitain. For six long and weary years he travelled from province to province with his cumbrous paraphernalia, and in the end became bankrupt.- By dint of perseverance on his part he and his unprofitable panorama were gni; back to the Empire City, where the fates were once more unfavourable. Mr Seddon was away in Auckland at the time—probably electioneering, though this is not asserted and the money-grabbing Customs officers decided that the "show" could not be landed unless, duty were paid. The old man hadn't the money to pay the duty, so the stupid and inconsiderate emissaries of the Government, which had ordered the panorama, confiscated the whole concern, and still more stupidly sent it off to the public desiccator, where it was burned, in conjunction with asphyxiated dogs, dead cats, and general household refuse. The old man had no remedy. How could he? He had no money, "no means of earning any, and—"Mr Seddon was away!" All this I glean from a petition which vtas presented to Parliament on Friday last by the said scenic artist, praying—no* - for compensation, not for compassionate allowance, but for the privilege of being placed upon the old-age pension list! He has resided in the cplony for 40 years, and is n0w,75 years of age and penniless; but his absence from the colony, in the interests of the country, at the direction of the Government, has placed a bar in the way of his securing the old-age pension. The irony of circumstance is manifest in'this case "with a vengeance.". It emphasises a manifest flaw in a beneficent Act, which, while providing for old age, requires uninterrupted residence in the colony, and debars the man, however long he may have been resident in New Zealand, from leaving it for health or other purposes from receiving the benefit of the statute. The petition of the old colonist in question has been submitted to the Petitions Committee, and, if the petitioner's statement is approximately true, one can only hope that for once, at any rate, equity will prove weightier than law.