“The Press” In 1864

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30560, 1 October 1964, Page 16

“The Press” In 1864

October 1 Two other subjects of importance have been dealt with by the Council It has recommended the General Assembly to deal with the tenures under which the sheep farmers hold the licenses of their runs On this point one remark is to be made which should attract attention If the squatters do not petition the General Assembly, it may be assumed that they acquiesce in the proposed arrangement, to which every publicity has been given It will in that case be difficult to sustainany argument in the Assembly that they have been unfairly treated. One only objection to this scheme has been, that they may choose to stand by a fixed bargain. We have never said that it would not be wise for them to abandon it in favour of new terms. But

now is the time when they should make up their minds on the matter. If nothing more is said it may be assumed that silence gives consent, and the recommendation of the Provincial Council will doubtless pass into law. The other question is that of Education. We cannot say that the matter has been at all settled The Bill passed this Session is one which makes no system but rather admits the existence of every system now in force We doubt whether any great improvement in the present state of . education will flow from the measure. ' It was time the Council should break up as the members had worked so hard- as to have displayed a disoosition towards that infirmity of temper which not unfrequently arises from the exhaustiop of

nature. Mr Moorhouse was vexed that the Government should so frequently draw ungenerous comparisons between their deeds and his own, forgetting that the comparison was one instituted by himself in almost every speech he made. But after all, these comparisons are an essential part of party Government, and they are a fair mode when they do not degenerate into personalities, of testing different policies. We do not, nor do the public, regard Mr Moorhouse as a great financier: but we are compelled sometimes to admit that he enunciates sound views, and in one view which he put forward the other day cordially agree, namely, that it would be far better to postpone the execution of great works, thain to put our debentures on the market at a discount