EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7368, 16 November 1898, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

THAT thrlce-tangled question of precedence has again cropped up in Melbourne in connection with' the annual Mayor's banquet. Rear-Admiral Pearson, wo are informed, refused. to shed the light of his august. countenance upon the function, but stood sternly ..aloof because the, toast to which .jhe jbad •to was placed after that .of 4 ? Visiting Governors" instead, of i r immediately after -that of • " The Governor.-' And so under the Admiral's caustic censure of absence the banquet wilted and the turtle aoup and the venison and the; Pomery; sec alike ; turned to -Dead Sea fruit. Meanwhile the Admiral brooded darkly in his cabin and wondered why the British Government should be fooling around with Fashoda and playing a >,trumpery game of diplomacy with France while out here at the Antipodes its maritime representative was being insulted and degraded and metaphorically spat upon by the civic authorities of a beastly colonial hamlet. What surprises us is that the matter sjhould have been referred to the Home authorities for consideration, presumably by a special meeting of the Cabinet, to the temporary banishment of all other important questions of State. We should have" supposed that the Admiral would have settled the question definitely himself. There is a simple recognised method, sanctioned by infinite precedent, of dealing with the turbulent savages of the Pacific Islands, and if the Admiral had quietly hauled off and shelled the huts of the inhabitants of the " Marvellous. City" he would doubtless soon have found nobody left to dispute his claim to absolute priority at any function he liked to organise. We commend his humanity in this respect while marvelling at his forbearance. Possibly he anticipates a more palatable revenge, and, looks forward to the dramatic production of a historical parallel to the fall of Calais, when he, as a modern Edward 111, shall sit to receive on bis quarter deck the Mayor and Town Councillors of the .offending capital with ropes round their necks and the keys of the city in their, hands, prepared io expiate the. sins of the metropolis, and with no Queen Philippa to .plead , for them. We shall anxiously await .the decision of the Colonial Office upon this vexed question, for it is one which affects not only our own little earth, but the very planets in space, whose eyes are upon us in this matter. Meantime, it would be well if some definite modus operandi were decided and gazetted for the proper settlement of the order of precedence. And why not go to the children for advice 1 the wisdom of the babes and sucklings has long since cut this Gordian knot which tangled all their games. Let the guests assemble in the banquet hall, and at a given moment shriek for places. Then to the childlike cry of " Ferry, ferry, ferry ! Secky, secky, secky!" by a sort of process of natural selection in which strength of lungs and force of character play no mean part, the "vexed Bermoothes" of disorder would glide into the still waters of triumphantly-established precedent. And if any writer of comic operas is seeking for a subject, the " order of precedence " lies ready to his hand.