OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2873, 11 December 1890, Page 4

OUR SYDNEY LETTER.

(rjJOM OUR OWN COKRK.SI'ONPK.VT.)

Sydnkv, November 26. The special constables were formally disbanded yesterday, after a few welldeserved find appreciative words from tne Premier. They not only braved personal danger, but (what to most men is much harder to bear) the tire of ridicule and contumely from dinatt'eeted speakers and writers. That su large a body of men should have incurred very real dangsr, at) well as serious iuconvenience and loss of time without any recompense beyond tho satisfaction of having done their duty is un omen full of encourage raent for the future. It shows, moreover, that our social condition is not nearly so bad as somo self-appointed " rcconatructors " would havo us believe. In all probability tho services of the specials will again be needed. Tho loaders of the Übour party now publicly declare, in their otlicial organ, that iu any future strike thoir ultimate reliance will be on the compulsion of brute force. They say that thoy will try moral suasiou first, but if that proves fruitless they will gain thoir ends by violence. Hitherto, although their practice, as the public records show, has, in numberless eases, been in accordance) with this doctrine, they have always been careful to disavow it in theory. But now they hold it forth in all its naked shamelessness. All workmen are to be subject to tho unions of their respective crafts, if not by fair means then by foul. As the unioDS generally come to be "run" by a handful of the most headstrong and violent of their members, the prospect for those who do not care to become accomplices in such a conspiracy against the liberty of their fellows is not particularly cheerful. It is curious to note how history repeats itself. Thoie ia no need to go back to the Holy Inquisition (which made the same pretence of commencing with moral suasion for the good of its victims.) Not more than a few years ago some of the Sheffield Trades Unions adopted this principle of action, and one Broadhead, a secretary of one of these organisations, subsequently confessed that he had used the union funds to hire assasina to commit tho most dastardly outrages on men who were too deeply imbued with British love of liberty to submit to the tyrannical edicts of Broadhead and his like. However, to be forewarned is to be forearmed. The generous response of the specials rendered impossible this policy of open and lawless violence during the late strike, although they could not prevent some isolated evidences of its existence. I have no doubt that this open avowal will render it easier instead of more difficult to keep the peace in future. When it is known that a body of men mean to resort to violence, the problem of dealing witb them is comparatively simple. Bat when they cherish a deadly purpose in thrir hearts and claim all the time the consideration and protection which is due to lawabiding citizens, it is more complicated. The strike still lingers among the coal lumpers and the Illawarra miners, and it is stated that a great deal of distress exists among their families in consequence. It need hardly be said that this distress in most cases is self-invoked. Tho bread-winner could have remained at work if ho had chosen, and could have maintained his family in comparative comfort. Even now a large proportion of them could havo work and wages for the asking. They will not ask because thoy cannot have it on their own terms. Ic is therefore a speotuele of obstinacy rather than of unavoidable distress, very much on a par witb the spectacle of M. Ibbott, the fasting man. It is the petulance of a spoiled child who refuses his food if he cannot have everything his own way. rather than the mature intelligence of the full-grown man, who seeks to ascertain the laws and conditions of existence in order that ho may adjust himself to them, rather than to alter them to suit his own caprice. Politically, little ol interest transpires. The Government iu all probability will 'jo allowed to close the session in peace without more than the usual amount of factious opposition. The ordinary dividing lines of party politics have become blurred aud confused. Protection or Freetradc seems for the moment to have lost its power as a party cry, aud it is quite "on the card" that the next struggle may bo between the " Haves" and the " Have uots." I do not pretend to affirm that everyone of the former party obtained his position by pure industry, enterprise and thrift. Hut I do •kflirm that prosperity is impossible to honest men without the exercise of these virtues, and that those who lead the masses to believe that tliny can add lo their prosperity by terroism and intimidation ate not their friends but their cuemics.

One (rentloraan, a magistrate, who advised trades unionists to arm themselves with repeating rilles and ammunition in order to be in a better position to enforce their demands, has received a notice from the Premier calling cause why he should not be struck oft' the commission of the peace, w it is hold that his wards formed an incentive to a section of the population to rise in armed rebellion against the laws and institutions of the colony. Social reform is no doubt very desirable, but I question whether anyone (fanatics and lunatics excepted) expects any reform worth the name from Mich leaders as these. Slichtly altering Madame llulnndii fainniM apostrophe, we may exclaim: Oh, "social reform," what oriino.4 and what blunders, are porpetrated in thy name.

Mr Click continues his canvas at West Macquarie. The Government have given him plenty of time to bring himself under the notice of every elector, but I fancy some of them have by this time got rather a surfeit of Crickism. The peculiar mixture of personal abuse and appeals to clbbs prejudice, which is the strong point of the Crickian oratory, may have its use as a relish or spice, just as a slight suspicion of putridity gives flavour to game. But as a staple dish it is apt to be sickening, except of course to the congenial stomach.

A comical instance of hurry to dance to a popular tunc is afforded by the action of the Government in regard to Dr. Koch and his alleged cure for consumption. .Professor Stuart, who is now in London, has been commissioned to inquire into the matter, but he in to send a supply of lymph as soon as ho reaches Berlin. No one except the inventor knows what this lymph is, for he has uot yet revealed his secret, lie declares that it might prove highly dangerous in the hands of unskilled practitioners, but because a number of nuaKilled people have clamoured for it a supply of lymph is to be sent right away. This is certainly a <.iseof ''shoot first and ask questions afterward*." However, whether the toialbumeu paratolia kills or cures, the < lovcrunicut will have demonstrated that they are fully abreast of the age in regard to the latest development of medical science (?). By and by some other sensational device will be fired at thr expectant doctors, and Koch and his consumption cure will be as clean forgotten as the thonsand-and-one other nostrums for this disease are at present. By the way, ft man at Jnneo the other day t;ot so efficiently inoculated by the bite of a fly that he died. It is supposed that the fly had been dining off a putrid sheep, aud if eo there h little doubt that it was pretty well charged with toxalbumen— poisoned •Ibnmen. Attenuation, dilution, or cultivation would, of course, minimise the power of the poison, bnt it is evident that the "tcxic'' quality remains in Dr Koch's preparation, else why does he chooße the uame? The word "toxic' means poisonous, aud is derived from a Greek word meaning a poisoned arrow. As the inventor himself has expressed the fear that his lymph on the lancets of unskilful practitioners might prove veritable poisoned arrows to their unfortunate patients, it is pretty evident that it is ttet stuff to Lu played yith, aud that it

would have been wiser, to say the least of it, if the Professor had made thorough enquiries before promising to send the lymph. A gigantic conception, which metaphorically speaking, will knook Dr Koch and his consumption cure into the German equivalent for a Koch-ed bat, has just come undir my notice, but I must reserve the particulars for my next letter.