THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9125, 26 June 1908, Page 6

THE WEEK, THE WORLD, AND WELLINGTON.

(By BVank Morton.)

Wines Cora) Days Hurt.—'Pons Asinotur.u.—Tub Mat run ov No-License.— Nit Kiomton and His Country.—Hk Tat.kh in London.—Of Whitio Australia.—And of hiMMKATiON.—Points in Passing.

We can no lorger boast of outperfect winter weather, for the lash of the rain is upon us, and the claw of the cold is in our blood and bones. I am not a medical man, and 1 cannot attempt to de<i :e why it is so; but I know t- at in tnis Wellington, where it ia never really cold at all, one feels the col I a=s much as ever one felt it in countries where the water in the ewer \va" frozen white each rr.orning and half the adult skaters one met had icicles in their beards. A man from British Columbia who passe 1 through here last winter told me that he never felt chillier in his life, and that the very thought of tobogganing in Canada made him warm. tic used to put his feet into hot water at bedtime, and imbibe a jorum of pbnch as he turned in; so that there was no doubt at all of his sincerity. I remember my own first winter in Sydney. The preceding winter in England had been bitteny lon-* and hard, but it had not troubled mo'especiallv. There had been roaring fires in all the hoUEes, genial social reunions of sorts, and plenty of skating on me lake' at Tivntham; nothing in the cold, you understand to make one miserable or sorry. And yet, I gave you my word that the cold in Sydney made me sad. I was articled to a firm of engineers (a silly farce), and I had to be at work I at 8.45 each morning. The walk to mv suburban station was cold, the ride in the train was cold, the ride from Redfem station to the shop was cold, and the shop itself was cold as ftirmal sin. Later, I found the winters 'in Calcutta piercing; but the winters in Tasmania, where there Was abundant jollity and exercise, didn't trouble me at all, although the thermometer in Tasmania upon occasion kept steadily very low. In short, one is driven to the conclusion that cold, after all, is not a matter of temperature, but of circumstances or quality. You may be warm on an iceberg and cold in Java. There remains no reason at all why one should shun or decry the alleged cold places. The week has been somewhat unfruitful of event. Mr Harry Rickards has* opened an excellent vaudeville show at the Opera House. The builders of Babel have constructed the bridge between the makeshift Parliament House and the Library; and some far-sighted jester has, of course, promptly labelled the bridge Pons Asinoru. The great talk begins next week, and the session will probably be somewhat shorter than usual. As to the General Election, it is quite too soon for definite forecasts, even if the line of prophecy fell at all within the limits of my business or inclination. But there is one matter as to which a good deal is being said. There are constant assertions that the -jle'tion in Wellington is going to brirg shattering surprises to the party of License. It is freely alleged that the No-License Party, having worked earnestly and constantly right through, has succeeded in so sapning the foundations of the License Party in this city that the election is likely to bring No-License its desired threefifths. That may or may not be so; and there is so far ho evidence that the Licpnse Party is at all perturbed. It ia making no sort of fight yet. It is apparently lolling in accual or feigned content. Well, the thing doesn't affect me. I shall not vote either way. But I should love to see the thing fought out. I should especially love to meet the NoLicense advocate who would convince me of the saving rectitude of his propaganda; just as I should love to meet the License advocate who would not attempt to persuade me that he wears a halo in a virtuous glow. Once the No-License aivocates convinced the people that tie principle of Prohibition can be justified by its results, the cause of will be overthrown. Once the No-license advocates can even convince the people that the measure of prohibition asked for will cure drunkenness, the people will be willing enough to stretch a point regarding the priniple of the thing. It is the most menacing and squalid of the vices, this drunkenness that makes men beasts; and every man on earth not a lunatic desires it to be done away with. Only, the means of abolishing it must be sought with cure. In Australia they greatly desire to exterminate rabbits; but they will risk no method of extermination that may carry worse dangers than the" rabbits themselves have been. The No-License advocates need now to cease the appeal to sentiment, and to aim directly at convincing the intelligence of the people. They are dealing with a 'dread disease. Why not seriously accept that position? They would never dream of treating pneumonia or tuberculosis by the quotation of scriptural texts and the iteration of pathetic speeches. One thing more, while I think of it. Once the principle of Prohibitum is accepted, the principle of Prohibition must be honestly applied.. The only prohibition that is effective is the prohibition thut compels the drunkard to abstain. So far, we only have that in gaols and hospitals and (I dare say) the King Country.

Mr Kidsfccn, Premier of Queensland, who has had us adventurous a political career as any man in Australasia, is at present in London. He was in New Zealand last year, and made himself somewhat unpopular by speaking with a certain coldness of the things Irs eaw. Well, every man has trie right to hi 3 opinion, and it muse he remembered that Queensland is a very great an J splendid country; a country which, were it not for occasional devastating droughts, would asiitredly beco.ne one of the most prosperous t»nJ prolific in the world. It i< ich in every variety of agricu cir.il land, un i it is abundantly i rich in minerals; its climate, in some parts nacurally very hot, n healthy; ita death-rate is low. it is, in short, a country of vast resources and huge distances; and it was, after all, a perfectly natural thing that Mr Kidskin, as Premier of Queensland, H.iould express himself surprised at

the cost of land in New Zealand, and at the difficulties which beset the man who wishes to acquire bind for settlement here in any good agricultural area. All thin, however, is by the way. In London, Mr Kidston has had a good deal to say about the necessary determination of Australians to uphold the White Australia policy. As to that, he simply staied a position which the great majority of reasonable people in Australia now accept as beyond argument. No prosperous white democracy in Australia could co-exist with any considerable Asiatic population. Nor can any prosperous white democracy in New Zealand permanently co-exist, with any considerable Asiatic population; though that is a fact that the majority of reasonable people in the Dominion are slow to discover. Apart from that, it is interesting to note what Mr Kidston has had to say to the Londoners with regard to the matter of Australian immigration. There was room, he said, for many thousands of immigrants in Queensland. If th» Mother Country could not supply emigrants, Queensland would welcome Germans, Danes or Swedes. Now it is a fact beyond

dispute that Queensland could settle tens of thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of immigrants on her agricultural and pastoral lands; and it is exceedingly doubtful whether any large number of immigrants suited for such settlement could now be drawn from Britain. In England there ia a steady cry of protest against the inflow of the country people to the vampire - towns. England has not nt this time an agricultural population completely adequate for the requirements of hfr own small agricultural areas. Also, the best class of agricultural workers in Britain are as a rule extremely unwilling to emigrate. l'he poorer classes of agricultural workers would be of no u=-e in Queensland. In short, Queensland, in common with her sister colonies, must now look chiefly to the continent of Europe for her immigrants of the agricultural class. The ;rage for all-British immigration never had much sense in it. Australia needs Australians; and all classes of immigrants of the right sort easily become Australian*, just as in America all classes of immigrants of the right sort easily become Americans. That is to say, a suitable Swede is of far greater immediate and potential value to Australia than an unsuitable Englishman. Also, a gradual infusion infAustralia of a strong stream of the best mixed blood of Europe must settla and strengthen the Australian nation. It will tend to broaden the outlook and to widen sympathy, to sweeten intercourse and unroot the weeds of prejudice. How much finer and more stimulating a place to live in would Otago be to-day if half of the early settlers had been Scottish and the other half Danish or French!