E'- vie ID Or Hevieus, IjCjOG. 



History of the Month. 



439 



plactd l:here for experimental purposes with a view 

 to ascertaining whether the poison will take effect 

 upon live stock. The main objection to the intro- 

 duction of the scheme is made on account of the 

 huge trade that is done in rabbits to foreign coun- 

 tries, and the great extent to which rabbits are used 

 as an article of food in Australia, Although thev 

 are such a pest in certain places, thev nevertheless 

 are a great boon to thousands of people; in the 

 cities. Butcher's meat is dear, for the simple reason 

 that such heavy shipments of it are made to the 

 other side of the world (where, by the way, it is sold 

 cheaper than it is here), thus leaving the local supply 

 short, and the rabbit has so largely supplied the 

 lack, that a very grave position would be produced 

 for a great many poor people if the supplv was 

 suddenly cut off. Even should the experiments be 

 a success, it remains to be seen whether the respec- 

 tive Governments will allow them to be carried out. 



London, May, 1906. Bv W. T. Stead. 



The new House of Commons last 

 The first month experienced its first dis- 

 Dissppointment. appointment. When the Liberals 

 were last in office the Army and 

 Navy vote amounted to _;^37,326,ooo. When the 

 Jingoes left office they had raised the expenditure on 

 war to ;^76,367,ooo. That is to say, the net result 

 of Tory rule was to more than double the amount 

 spent every year on powder and shot. Naturally the 

 Liberals confidently expected that .when they re- 

 turned to office the first thing they would do would 

 be to effect enormous reductions in these overgrown 

 estimates. Mr. Haldane, before the Election, had 

 mentioned ;^5, 000,000 as the reduction demanded 

 in the Army vote. Imagine, then, the dismay of 

 the stalwarts when Mr. Haldane, now become Sec- 

 retary of War, stood up in the House and announc- 

 ed that he could not possibly show any greater re- 

 duction than — ;£^i 7,000! His speech was ingenious, 

 persuasive, and eloquent. But /^i 7.000 instead of 

 _;^5, 000,000 — " It wadna doon.' 



Every allowance, it was admitted. 

 The must be made for a Minister who 



first Split. inherited the Tory Estimates, and 

 had only had a few' months in 

 which to get a grip of his department. Major 

 Seely, therefore, instead of demanding an immediate 

 reduction, moved an amendment, the object of which 

 was to induce Mr. Haldane to promise that in next 

 year's Estim.ates he would reduce the Army bv 

 10,000 men. To this Mr. Haldane might easily 

 have consented, had it not been that the debate took 

 place at one of the most critical moments in the 

 Algeciras Conference, and it was held that if he had 

 promised to strike off 10,000 men, the French would 

 have considered we were weakening in our support 

 of their claims against the demands of Germany. 

 So in order to avert a semblance of weakeninc; 



New Zealand is in the happy posi- 



A Decreasing tion, like Britaii^ of having been 



Drink Bill. ^Y)\e to very considerably reduce 



her drink bill last year. The ex- 

 penditure on alcohrlic liquors was jQ;^,i2o,-io:{. 

 This is a reduction of ^r32,ooo on the previous 

 year, and is of greater significance when it is re- 

 memberetl that the official estimated increase in the 

 population was 25,284. Considering New Zealand's 

 great prosperity (and history shows that in prosper- 

 ous times the drink bill invariably goes up), this re- 

 sult is truly remarkable, and must be accorded to 

 the wave of temperance sentim.ent which is sweeping 

 over the colonx. 'V'ctoria is looking forward with 

 great hope to an amending Licensing Bill promised 

 by Mr. Bent, and, taken all round, matters in the 

 States generally look promising for temperance re- 

 form. 



Ministers stood firm in opposition to Major Seelv, 

 and the House divided, fifty-six members going into 

 the lobby as a protest against Tory war estimates 

 being adopted by a Liberal Government. The 

 division was interesting, not only because it was the 

 first time in which Liberals voted against the Gov- 

 ernment, but because, as the divisioJi list showed, 

 several Independent Labour members refused to 

 give what seemed a vote of no confidence in the 

 Government. A minor Government official railed 

 foolishly next day against Major Seely, but as a 

 matter of fact the best way in which you can sup- 

 port a reforming Prime Minister is to go into the 

 lobby against him whenever he fails to keep his 

 Cabinet up to his own high level. 



The Indian Estimates, which show 



How to an increa-:e of ;^8oo,ooo in mili- 



Restore Unity, tary expenditure, instead of the 



reduction of ^2,000.000 which hid 

 bee:i hoped for, have not tended to reconcile the 

 Liberals to the ruinous burden of armaments. It is 

 therefore imperative, as soon as the Algeciras Con- 

 ference is safely wound up, that the Prime Minister 

 should take the earliest possible opportunity of pro- 

 claiming the positive programme of his plan of 

 campaign in favour of that League of Peace which 

 must precede any great reduction of armaments. 

 Ho said at Albert Hall: — 



As the principle of peaceful arbitration extends, it 

 becomes one of tlie highest taslts of statesmen to adjust 

 these armaments to the new and happier oouditions. No 

 nobler role could this great country have than at the fitting 

 moment to put itself at the head of a League of Peac-a 

 throuerh whose instrunient ility this gieit work I'oulu be 

 effective- 

 It is now full time that we should know what steps 

 C.-B. proposes to take in order to achieve this 

 highest task of statesmanship, by playing the noble 

 role of leading the Peace League of the world. No 

 one expects him to work miracles. But we do ex- 

 pect him to be practical, to be persistent, anrl. 



