THE WEEK THE WORLD AND WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9158, 4 August 1908, Page 6

THE WEEK THE WORLD AND WELLINGTON.

(By Frank Morton.) Batting . Strekt-preachers. The Xaboub Dkpautment and Politics.— •Overcrowding. Christchurch is Aroused. Sometimes ominous signs of the times escape the attention ot the easy and the thoughtless. Thus these rather frequent recent cases of the baiting of the street-preachers m our larger cities have caused no noticeable uneasiness or alarm. In Christchurch the sport has become quite common. It has appeared once or twice in Dunedin. A few day 3 ago a case wag reported from Auckland. Viewed as symptoms of our state, these things are abominably bad. It is bad that in a nominally Christian country specialists of religion, however rabid or eccentric, should be hunted like dogs through the streets. It is worse in a nominally free country men should be pelted because of their attempts to exercise the right of public utterance. Nor is it pleasant to discover that our police force is inadequate for the protection of unoffending citizens. These hooligans that exult in the baiting of street preachers are plainly ripe for any sort of brutality and devilment. They are dangerous ruffians well advanced in the making. And it is a rather singular thing that the "great"-city dailies have not yet attempted to make any serious protest against the ruffianism so , far reported. When earnest Christian ministers state their opinrons, Ave are in a tremendous rage if the opinions do not happen to ilatter our parochial pride; but surely there is no gainsaying the facts grudgingly reported in the most respectable newspapers. Now that the general question of the claims and disabilities of labour is again being thrust prominently upon the attention of Parliament and the people, it is time to consider the constitution and the methods of the Labour Department. In so far as that department manifests any partiality as between the two classes with which it is chiefly concerned—the employers and the employed—the department is bad. There can be no doubt—there never has been any doubt—that Mr Tregear is a very , sincere man. Equally, there is no doubt that Mr Tregear, from his vantage point as an officer of the Government, has done things and said things that would be tolerated and condoned by no other Government uider the sun. The factory inspectors are active politicians, almost to a man. You have only to observe them in the Arbitration Court in order to realise how charactaristic their horror of the curse of Capital. Well, I may be wrong; but from a considerable experience of Governments and civil services in other parts of the world I have formed the idea that a servant of the State should be in no way moved by political bias, and in no way subservient to the whim or will of any political party. Government departments should be disturbed by no outcrops of political fervour or malignity. Probably the Labour Department of New Zealand is as greatly stirred by political influence, and as greatly moved by political motives a-* any Government department in the world. , And that is a very bad thing indeed, in view of the collapse of the Arbitration Act, and having regard to the other Labour' troubles that are so definitely looming. Mr Tregear should be subjected to necessary discipline. Every day in the lunch-hour, there is a crowd at the Queen's Statue, where a Mr Dowdall has a pleasant time abusing the Government. Mr Dowdall has a large voice and a bitter vocahulary, and the crowd listens doggedly and doubtless thinks the show worth standing in the drizzle for. But there seems to be a possibility that these orators of the Queen's Statue may upon occasion do good work. Some of them, for instance, have b°en collecting facts as to overcrowding and dilapidated houses. One of them asserted that a wretched place in a suburb, for which a rent of 15s was paid,~was owned by Dr. Chappie. Dr Chappie explained that he was not owner, but trustee, and that the rent was only 14s a week. "What can you expect for 14s?" seemed to be the burden of the doctor's rejoinder. The deputation —I forgou to mention that this was a deputation to Mr Fowlds—the deputation gave other facts. It was alleged that in some places in the city whole families lived and slept in one room. It was freely stated that places condemned years ago were still standing. Mr Fowlds promised to make enquiries and see what could be done—it is his invariable formula. , Well, 1 know that there are places still standing that were condemned long ago. I know that in some streets and localities there is a disgraceful overcrowding. And probably the city officials know it as well as anybody. Personally, I don't sea why we should be so cramped as we are down here. There's plenty of room on the hills about us, and at Dunedin they have built all over the hills. If there were tram communication, I would rather like to live on one of the big hills. Kelburne is pleasant, but at Kelburne land is costly andreritsare high. I'm neither a tradesman nor land-agent, and I can't make out how it is that land is so expensive, with so much unoccupied land about. In Sydney and Melbourne great numbers of people from seven to ten miles out of town, and are the happiar for it. Life would be much cleaner and sweeter on the ß e big hills than cramped amid these squalid streets. -s And I suppose that there is still land to be hail out at Miramar, though personally I am no lover 6f flats ef any sort. Christchurch is having a good time just now by indulging in a little anti-vaccination skirmish. It's no use wdrrying; Christchurch simply can't a-bear vaccination and disinfectants and those new-fangled notions. It's a pity in this case, becaus3 for some years the anti vaccinationists have not had the shred of a leg to stand on. Of old there was something to be said in their favour, for the old method of vaccination was (KCuriionaHy productive of bad results. Vaccination with pure lymph, such as is now put by up by great chemists, is positively safe and unquestionably efficacious. Ithave seen a good deal of small-pox in Asia, and the percentage of cases Jwas always n 'ably high in unvaccinated persons.

I have noted as a curious thing that in bad epidemics the anti vaccinationists have a trick of being vaccinated in a hurry. I don't know whether calf-lymph may have any harmful effects in any case, because I've not been vaccinated more than seven or eight times in my life, and so am not qualified to form an opinion. I always had an idea that it did me gond. I'd cheerfully be vaccinated again to-morrow, if by doing so I could encourage some doubtful brother to get sense. The father of an unvaccinated child that dies of small-pox is the murderer of his own progeny.