Our Wellington Watchman.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2830, 23 February 1888, Page 2

Our Wellington Watchman.

The latest news of the Crown Prince of Germany presages something more, I fear,- than the beginning of the end. As repards that personage-who. is that raraaviss, good prince—death one ..would think will he a happy release, and lie.has looked the enemy too often in the face to fear him overmuch, But his disease at this juncture will mean in all human probability the signal for the outbreak of war, more bloody and devastating than even blood-stained Europe has ever known.. Can anything more clearly demonstrate the awful folly of war, and of monarchical' institutions, than this fact that'the lives of hundreds -of thousands of men are dependant" upon one frail life. '■ v '

lam one of the most rudimentary philosophers, 1 cheerfully confess, kit I declare when I reflect upon the little pivot on which the; most' awful and momentous issues hang,-1 often wonder whether the whole problem of existence is not a stupendous comedy. A man eats too much cheese, or indigestible pudding,, neglects to'take a pill, something stirs his bile, and he commits murder.. Bismarck drinks too much beer, or the wrong sort of beer, and two.great nation's fly at one another's wizens; an-inoffensive gentleman gets a bad throat, the " eminent .pathiolsts" tinker' it tilll they kill him, and the artillery of Europe roars out its hellish discord, and a river of human blood, deep enough to float .the navies of the world; is shed. Say, is it tragedy, or merely a farce?

The late Liberal gains in England show that the'inevitable rebound in public opinion ia taking place. Politics at Home are strangely suggestive of the ebb and flow of the tide on the coast where the sea slowly, but surely, gains on the land. Ever and again they suffer the Tory ebb, for. if there was no such ebb, how could there be a Liberal flow ? But. always with the flowing tide, the great principles of right and truth and justice to the many, make some gain, however small, and even at the deadest of low water, we do not discern quite so much festering Tory mud, but clear water, where once was nothing but ooze and slime and stagnation.

Each of these gams is, of course, cear gain to Home Rule, which is thus surely being brought within the region of what our own Mrßallance calls " practical politics," and there can be little doubt that should Mr Gladstone live,, the Irish will have' self-government ere the next five years have passed. But this will he an awful blow to our rather too cock-sure friend Puff, of the Evening Press, whose prophetic utterances on the subject of Ireland are by no means of the ambiguous character' of the oracle of Delphi. Poor Puff! in his terrible anxiety to make his case against Gladstone aud the Nationalists, he is often .betrayed into the most amusing misstatements; and the perverted' ingenuity with which he twists every incident to fit his own distorted views is worthy of a better object. Still, Ido not think the worthy gentleman has any right to hiash up.geography as he has done once or twice lately. For instance he defined Southwark in a late issue as" that crowded and busy part of London, lying on the Surrey side of the Thames, between Lambeth and Poplar! Say, between Blackfriars Bridge and London Bridge!" Shades of Whittington, and have they really moved Poplar over to the Surrey side? Perhaps they have. Perhaps this is another instance of Fenian malignity. Still, even for the life of me I cannot imagine how even a Fenian dynamite bomb could manage to, jam the immense district of Poplar, with its 74,000 odd inhabitants between Blackfriars and London Bridges. In my younger days, Poplar stood on the Middlesex, and Southwam on the Surrey side of the Thames, and even as the crow flies were a'goodish distance from one another, aud the electoral district of Southwark was composed of' Bermndsey, Rotherhithe, and West Division. And now it is shifted between Blackfriars and London Bridges, and has got mixed up with Poplar! Well I Well I

Imperial Federation has a deadly but sleeping enemy, whose color is yellow, complaint leprosy and elephantiasis, and name Ah Sin. The Chinese question; the question of Chinese immigration into Australasia will do for us what Chinese tea once did for America, secure our ultimate separation from the old country. This, is my prophecy, and I don't see why I should not go into the Elislia business as well as the rest of the prophets who go roaring up and down the land. A large number of these Chinese immigrants are British subjects, i.e., natives of Hong Kong or ftowloon,' and as long as these Colonies are British dependencies, our masters in Englaud can compel us to admit them., John has every whit as muoh right to enunciate his Oivia. Eomanis mm as any other Britisher. I do not know how much it costs the blessed heathen, who is not a Hong Kong, native to take out naturalization papers in that delightful abode of stenches, but not more than a few cash, or at outside a Mexican dollar. As for the: rest, if South Australia or any other Colony, refuses to admit' them, the Chineseauthorities will simply address the Foreign Office and threaten .opium, and our British philanthropists and statesmen are not going to sacrifice the sacred interests of Mulwa and Patna for any "miserable lot of Colonists." —don't you believe it!

Though Australia has plenty of ■" Statesmen" who, to please the English .bapbaws,, would swallow a good deal more than Ah Pook's leprosy and unnatural vices, popular sentiment in these Colonies will eventually force these accomodating politicians to resist the Chinese inflow, or it will swamp the time-servers like a bore on the Hooghly. As for the bosh that is talked about the illogicality of Freetraders objecting' to' FreeWe in

about, ;Australia : "resis|t;and -sue : '; ; ;; cessfully, the importation of convicts, .: :: and she has as much-right-' to-resist ■ ;;;■; being swamped" with a race 1 that m : ,-. w: many lespects 'are ; worse than ;,>;; criminal. . \ -■ • • ; ; ■•'.->.'WT''''^-' When lam in.the countryl often ' .'. hear people repining at" tfie; duUness ; v/, and isolation of their existence/ and v pining for a town life and;its: enjoy-;;. ..>■ ments.' They should live in our •- street. There is rip mournful quietude, ;■;.; there. Inoneof the:op|b% v houses-;.:;; tliey keep 'a.cockatoo, -cheerful. - creature that heralds the dawn with a - ■■;' ; ; volley of the blackest Billingsgate con- : ; ceivable,- and' continues; it .far' into .'•■;•; ; dewy eve. The lady.right.opposite :,;., teafthes singing. Shehaia composite; ■;. ;;' voice, which is now alto,;-.now bass. .; and occasionally feezes. -SheMa- ;-;;.;: goodly number of pupils, and they ; form their voices onhers. Nextdoor '■ there are three sweet children all; ; learning the piano—and 'it to .. ;v ;' hurt the piano. On the ;_other the gentleman is a noted concertina ;s£■] player, and whistles. He;is an early-/! : ; riser, gardens a good deal, and accom* ■ panies himself in original ;- few doors down there is a dove-cot, in : .;. which the doves are slightly soiled and.;: . 7 noisy towards midnight. The is owned by one,df our' distinguished' : : . Senators. Some'dearMe:xliilta-,-v:;;. : ; not far aiway own.; a go-cart with; ■- creaking wheels, which'perambulates .'." the footpath'most of thiday. The ~ Salvation 'Army nay us-one or two ' visits daily, and there is a ohapel close handy, in -which odd members of the. ;; congregation continually try their voices as race-horses are tried—at .&.'..:■-■; gallop. We are not fit all sad. • .