OPINIONS.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 183, 16 August 1888, Page 1

OPINIONS.

“ Opinions may be worn on both tides like a leather jerkin.” PUnLICAN’s LICENSE. A man builds premises in a large city in Great Britain some twenty years ago, at a cost of one thousand two hundred and thirty pounds. In these premises he carries on the busines 8 of a publican: in time he has the buildings enlarged, at a cost of £BOO. The premises stand him—as so much brick and mortar in £2030: there is the license and the monopoly of the trade which such license implies and entails. This person sold the premises th other day, by auction, for sixteen thousand pounds. Such must be the cheery (?) result if the principle of compensation be allowed when the British Government passes the Local Government Bill: in that Bill the clauses dealing with compensation in cases of reducing the number of public houses are, it ’sems, strong points with the present Minis, try. If these clauses be struck out, the Ministry is likely to fall. The publicans themselves are ready to make substantial concessions to publio opinion with regard to the reform of the licensing law. They conceded the right of local option, and they were prepared to leave the question of Sunday closing in the hands of Parliament, bat they stipulate that in return their claims to compensation, on the grounds of equity if on no other, should be conceded. And it is further shown by other authorities on this vexed question, that the proposed compensation would really be paid by the publicans themselves in the extra 20 per cent, which it was suggested should be put on the license duty. And even this extra 20 per cent, has been agreed to by the traders, so that, on the whole, the Temperance party and Sir Wilfred Lawson and our own Sir William Fox have good reasons for thankfulness, despite the croakers. DANCING BAREFOOT AT THE WEDDING,

So well old England may, when, as some folk tell us, she has lost the major portion of New Guinea to Germany through the act of Lord Derby; again Australia is in huff by negotiations with France in respect of the transportation of convicts to New Caledonia ; following on this is a mistake in dealing with France, and in order to get France out of the New Hebrides, a present is made to that country of valuable islands and harbors near Australia; and now, is Australia to bs refused to make terms with China of equal import to those made between China and the United States of America in order to arrest the influx of Chinese to Australia ? In the case of Australia, the policy of the Colonial Office is to force the various and independent Australian governments to become the United States of Australia. If Australia should separate from the mother country, our whole Empire will decay and England will be reduced to a very humble position indeed. Still, ft |s an undeniable truth that Australia is acting well and wisely in this Chinese invasion, The question is not mainly eoonomioal, nor is it one of morality, but essentially one o! polities, It has come to this, not as to whether AngloSaxon or Mongolian systems of civilisation are the best, but as to which shall prevail in political predominance in Australia. America welcomed all to her shores and so secured cheap and unlimited labor and so developed her large and widely distributed sources of wealth, thus laying the foundations p{ the great cities of the States at the most advantageous terms and periods of her career. Australia, yielding in part to ths outspoken clamour of the laboring classes, is thus adopting the exact reverse of the course followed I by the astute American. i But the Chinese deluge is certainly a totally different thing. In tropical Australia Black labor is necessary. As this is so, there is India from which the Hindoo laborer would immigrate if sufficient inducement were afforded,

China and Great Britain are mutually bound by treaty to give full protection to the persons and property of citizens of either State when in the territories of the other. And neither state prevents emigration of its oitigens to the territories of the other.

A very simple and effective way out of the difficulty would be to welcome Chinese laborers as immigrants in all our colonies where climate forbids European labor, and on no account to permit tbs immigration of such labor into colonies where European labor is possible. Yes, this seems fair- on paper—hut what it would inevitably turn out is not far to sfe ek. Like the farmer who, walking in his fielu’” one cold wintry day, saw a beautiful snakt . to all appearance dead, on the ground ; piekins,’ U P’ Ba -y in R, “It *>ll make a plaything foC my children." He carried it home, the cbilA"e n were delighted. Boon the .."-mth of ,*he house took effect on the seeminslv dead s.nake, and quickly reviving, it « irted upright on its tail, and beginning to hi «s- the farmer, pitchfork in hand, had all his ability put to the test to rid himself and his family of the now enraged and venomous ren tile John Piggie-tail is a mild man, but his knowledge of humanity is pretty profound. It would seem that here again the longheaded Amer> n h“ “° ured bi ” self ' as ♦>*? term s of the t>• n ‘ fl « d mto and agreed to between the Um. ’ d Oh ' n “ perhaps all that may ?’ d “‘" b ‘ e '. Bat n ?‘ a moment too soon ; for u ® to China the sum of £55, 00c •‘ er, “ | g>n compensation for injuries done to Gmnamen.

Australia had better take care. . There ie an aspect under which the . ' Ul s no ' B are regarded as most undesirable wretch., '' I? encourage as neighbors or citizens, and th- 1 is their "horribly low private character”: their secret vices, etc., etc. ; it may be as weli to remind ourselves that our own countrymen —Englishmen—are as surely proved guilty as the Chinese in that respect. A Chinese book oalled “ The Death-blow to Corrupt Doctrines,” circulated far and wide in China, and generally believed by myriads, attributes indesc obscenities to the English merohants a nd Christian missionaries in China. Whether th<? ehlW« brought against the Chinese are as as those brought against ourselves is a."* °P^ n question ; 'but to brand the entire China. *• P s ®ple as being tainted with immorality is a huge inconsistency and lie infamous.

The wish to exclude Chinamen partly made up of a kind of jealousy, resulting cotn the exhibition of John’s vices—not at all—.** ut largely on account of the poor dog’s virtues. John Chinkee is industrious, frugal, and don-' tent with little. It would be a grand day in. deed in the history of Johnny Bailee if as much could be said of him. A LITTLE BODY WITH A MIGHTY HEART. Once, perhaps often, said of England, how times change, and men also. A writer a few weeks since says :—The qualities which lead a statesman to Cabinet rank in England Me tending less and less in the direction which the right government of a great Empire demands. Good debating power, mastery of the detail of local government or finance, capacity for work—all these things are not only compatible with a total inability to understand the broad aspects of great military problems, but they may be associated with complete incompetence in the mere administrative work of a War office or Admiralty. And it is possible to arrive at the head of either the War office or Admiralty, even without the possession of one of the attributei enumerated. This is very plain talking, so that the heading of this paragraph will now stand correctly as, England is managed today by “ Little Hearts in Mighty Bodies " • and sadly enough is this] apparent from the tone and substance of addresses given by naval expet ts in London the other day, where thirty-five officers, ranging in rank from Admirnls to Captains and Colonels, together with a large number of unprofessional but inter, ested men listened to and gravely debated the important and undentable fact that inoom. potency, inefficiency, and unreadiness, and obstructive ignorance very cruelly predominates and overshadows everyone and everything in connection with the British navy, excepting the men actually comprised in that arm of the service.