THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9095, 22 May 1908, Page 6

THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

• —-4K ■" " (By Frank Morton.) Turn tViBR Editor—The Banknote Nuisance—Wages and Life—Kidino a I-Touby—Meatfi and Imperialism—Rich Ehv-mics Ciiisvssa Dulcie Deamer— Dundee and the Suffragettes. .

With the winter well upon us, we are getting no winter. Which Paradox implies that the weather keeps | unseasonably warm. In May last year, it was distinctly and sometimes miserably curl. To-night, with my window open to the street, 1 have let the fite out. Not carelessly, be it understood, and not in mere bravado. O ie Christmas Day in Dunedin, I had tires all over the house. Any old excuse that enables me to sit over a fire gives mo satisfaction. But this May in Wellington it is warmer than 1 ever knew it in Calcutta in January. There has been, off and on, a good deal of rain. In that and other ways, apart from the unseasonable heat, the weather is just ordinary. The morning papers have been seeking tu stir up excitement by a squabble over their respective circulations. No figures have been quoted by either side. There has merely been a calling of names and a waving of dishclouts. What the circulaticjin of either paper is, nobody knows and robody cares. "A wise editor." A.nnt ReiJ once paid to m a . "ntfver tells his circulation. When you come to edit a paper, don't clatter about the number of copies you sell, but rather try to win credit for the stuff you put into each copy. If the stuff is right, the circulation will take care of itself. The advertiser haa always most faith in the paper he is most interested in reading. The advertiser is an average man. Catch the average man, and you have a sure hold of the advertiser." * * * * * * ' There is some more trouble concerning dirty bank-notes. The Health Officer beseeches the banks to withdraw the dirty notes from circulation, and the banks periodically assure Dr. Mason that they will do that. But there still seems to be some difficulty. I don't quite know what it is; but it is there. I offer a solution. If you want to get rid ol dirty bank-notes don't put them on the fire or waste them on the bookmaker. Don't worry at all. You send them to me. I like to pad my suits with them. Let me invite your, attention to a circular issued by the of the Dunedin Branch of the Political Labour League—this passage "I take this opportunity of urging you to make known to all withrwhom you may meet the true objects of our league, never forgetting that we realise the value of many of the reforms •which have been introduced by the present and past administration, ■whilst we are also aware of the fact that these reforms have been accompanied by an increase in the cost of living equal to at l»ast 33 per cent., wages on the other hand , only being increased at 8 per cent. 1 Thus we find that these reforms have reduced the purchasing power of money considerably, and as we have no assurance that the present Government will take steps to cope ' with this disastrous state of affairs, there is only one road open to the workers—to do what is necessary for their welfare themselves —and this can only be done by returning to Parliament men pledged to advocate and support State ownership of land manufacturing and distributing establishments of the necessaries of life, by which means, and these alone, the purchasing power of money will be increased!"

When I say a thing like that with regard to the relative increase of wages and of the coat of living in ftew Zealand, any score of infuriated partisans of existing condition will tell you that I lie. Coming from a President of the Political Labour League, I suppose that the statement will be adjudged worthy of consideration. The fact of the whole matter is that, once you have secured the worker a living wage, every added increase adds disproportionately to the cost of living. As to that the Workers have to reckon, not with wicked capitalists but with natural law as applied to modern commercial conditions. The suggestion that the "purchasing power of money" would be increased by the full and complete extension of the pinciple of State Socialism, is exceedingly quaint and interesting. A little of the treatment has increased the cost of living: therefore, a lo.t of the treatment will lower the cost of living. That is the argument; and I confess that I don't find it convincing. I say now, as I have always said: that the arbitrary fixing of high standard wages must increase the cost of products; and the thing is so obvious that the necess ity of saying it seems amazing. * * * * * * That very thorough-going and persistent enthusiast of Imperialism, the Earl of Meath, has written his regular letter to the newspapers of Greater Britain. He desires everybody to "keep the watchwords of the Empire Movement Jin full remembrance." I daresay that the people will do that, whenever they think of it. Lord Meath is one of the amiable gentlemen wl o love to ride a hobby tj death. Fur years it ha 3 been his whim to adopt the Empire. He issues to the wide earth instructions of how the thing shall be done. He is a devout lover of streaming bunting and a large noise. But we have yet to hear of him doing anything in particular to j .stify the eminence he has assumed. Meantime, there is some discussion as to whether May 24 or Jun-j 3 should be obsarved as a public holiday thu year. lam all for June 3. I'd sooner celebrate the birthday of a live prince than that of a dead queen; if only because the prince m'erht lie pleased and the 1 q ietMi co l ll I ntvar know. But—l have II bitter Why not c.elebrite thru igliout the Empire the Lirt'id. y '.f the Earl of Meath? ****** The Wellington evening paper, which is nothing if not ingenious, hjyuliscovercd live new and original to "ddventy" —to wit,

"twenty," "plenty," "centy," "lente," and "went he." It now only remains for the "P<st" to furnish us with those rhimea to "silver" for which the world has been long a-waiting. I suggest (if, with nil humility, I may suggest) "builder," "killed her," "held her," "spilled her," and "Gubbins." Thus shall the Wellington evening paper continue to be of great service to budding poets and persons similarly afflicted. * * ♦ * I have it on creditable authority that Miss Dulcie Deamer, the little girl of Featherstcn who wrote a short story of great promise a while ago, shows high promise as an actress. She has, it seems, a keen dramatic instinct, an excellent speaking voice, and (rarest of God's goud gifts to woman) a pleasant sense of humour. She is with the Taylor-Carrington Dramatic Company, in Westport, Ilokitika, Dahomey, the Kerguelens, or some outlandish place like that. And while she pursues her dramatic career, she is said to he collecting materials for a forthcoming book on the habits of the tribes that live and labour in the outlandish place—whsrever it may be. ♦ #«*** It was a foregone conclusion that Mr Winston Churchill would be returned for Dundee. The Scottish city is an obstinate stronghold of the old Liberalism. Also (heing a Scottish city), it is keenly alive to its local interests, and prejudiced in more than one matter. Further, he new women suffragists of Dundee heckled Mr Churchill; with the result that quiet women of the older type supported him zealously. It is a very' curious thing, this characteristic attitude and manner of the new women suffragists in Britain. We never had anything like it in Australasia; and there was never anything quite like it, even in the Western States of America. Every indiscretion they can possibly commit for the discrediting of their cause, these English new women suffragists seem to have com- j mitted. Everything they can do to ( ailenate the sympathy of ordinary quiet people, they seem to have done. | They have probably put the cause of womanhood suffrage in Britain back j for fifty years. Meantime, Mr Win- , ston Churchill safely returned, the I British Government is probably none | the worse, and almost certainly none j I the better.