NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 547, 30 June 1909, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

. The Minister for. Public .Works has made a very interesting statement on the. Government's attitude in .the matter' of railway construction.. He denies the re-port-that lie stated ill'the North that .until tho railway mileage was the same in the North Island as in tho South the Govwould build ton miles of railway in this island to every mile built in" the rbouth. What he intended', to 'convey, Jic explains, was that as tho railways in the Bouth_ Island under . construction arc ncaring completion" there will soon he tinder construction in this island several tnilf-s. to every otic ill tho South. ' Tho•probabilities arc that Mit. M'Kenzie is a httlc alarmed to what our friends in the south may think of any preference in Mli ' M'Kenzie migut tjuJtf tafoly hftva Stated that tho

ten-to-one policy uoulJ be pursued, since in support of. such..'a policy-he can quote the very strongest and most unanswerable figures that the statistician can imagine. At the beginning .of this year thero'wero 1100 odd miles of railroad in this island as against' 1500 miles in tho South, and yet the net revenue- from the Northern lines exceeds that from tho Southern lines. The following table,- based on the figures at March 31, i9OB, iB worth quoting once more. It relates to opened lines; .-Net Capital Revenue. PereenCoet. for year, tago to £ ' 1 . ■■ £ ' Capital. North ' ... 9,713,534 416.000 4,23 South, ~... 14,587,056 : 390,179 : ;2.71 The North Island members of Parliament should keep this table in mind. Wo vory much doubt whether they. will be. satisfied with Mr. M'Kenzie's denial of any intention to endeavour to give this island its full due. . -.

We have been asked ,to mako inquiries as to the distribution of tho Penguin Relief Fund,, and have done so. A. statement on the subject from'the Town Clerk, Mn. Palmer, Hon.' Secretary of the Relief Fund Committee, appears elsewhere. It will be seon that the Committee has taken up the stand that it is undesirable to make public details, of the grants made to sufferers by the.calamity. Somo.objeetion may be raised .to this attitude, but in our opinion the Committee, has acted wisely. The secrecy observed is not Buch' as to. raise doubts as to the fairness or wisdom, of the treatment- accorded the. various applicants for assistance. Particulars of the grants made have been supplied to thp press, and we have no doubt that should any grievance o'xist the newspapers 1 will bo teady> enough to inquire into it and probe the matter to the bottom. • • ' :• .-.■■■ : Y.v- ;\ 1

■ Some timo.ago a Southern Ministerialist journal spoko.of Parliament's" control of the public purse, and when \vc took a little space to show that Parliament had surrendered ,thc control of the public' purse to the Government, the most that oui\ Southern, Contemporary could say in reply was, in effect, that the Government could not be blamed for seizing its opportunity, A, statement by' the Mayor of Kumara, published on Monday, reminds 'Us. that Parliament has surrendered, not only its control of the public funds, 1 but even a large; part of its legislative " authority.- iSpeaking. of the . water-power regulations, 1 the Mayor, "took great exception to the regulations which.gave tho Minister the Sole right to grant or infuse an application. It was a dangerous in the hands of any one man." The public probably does not realise,'the full extent of the Government's authority in the matter of issuing regulations,for the working, of Acts of Parliament, ' "The Goyerno'r-in-Council may from time.' to timej issue regulations,; etc.is"the commonest'of all' ckuscs; .nowadays; ) There woujd bp ) ho objection to the provision that regulations under" an Act siiould be framed' by ■ tho •!'Governor'in-Oouiicil"-r----who .is, of course, the Minister concerned —if it were further provided that Parlia-• ment. should have trio, final voico in re* Spect of; them. But Parliament is not consulted. The result has .been that a very large legislative authority ,is vested in the independent of 'Parliament. - \Ve'. have seen, in ,the. waterpower 'regulations,' that the ...unrestricted authority' 'so improperly, surrendered by Parliament to tho Govornor-in-Cbuncil &nd, docs,-allow, of tho variafcioiror nullification of Parliament's intention. It is not a moro matter of transferring the care, of • the petty details to the Governwhole policy can be: contained m c Tho recapture of its legislative rights is pllc.bf tJic miriy reforms that, Parliament must force from the; Government.. • ■ :. i

■A speech which may ba the prelude to a very important change of policy was dc-: hy the, Minister, for Education at. Addingtdii on Saturday* <■ According to the.-Preifi which gave the £ullest;rcport Of his Observations,- Mr. FoW'lds said that 'in .Other .countries they foiind. that local control was accompanied by local • reBponsibilitiea, and local cbritributions towards the cost of .education. > He thought* that in the days to come Now Zealand' would i probably' havo to move in tho same direction. Ho ;wont on to quote'figures which,,if, accurate, showed that New Zealand is practically tho only in which ( thfe cost of oducation is a wholly Imperial charge. ■In sotne - parts of' Amehca '.fchd local .charges-. fo?; r education amount to 98.1 per Cent., leaving. Ohly 3.D per cent, to be borne by Imperial finance, ihe strongest argument in favour of the devolution hinted; at by /the Minister is qno which, for obvious reasons',: lie did hot mention, namely, tho fact! that locally-': financed education would make for . a Soundness that is impossible in an Im-perially-financed system, when siich a Government as bars is in office.- A large .part of the staggering increase of tho Education vote has : gono in frills and futilities undor the present highly-centralised system. It can iilso be said in favouriof the devolution' proposal that, its substitution of direct for indirect rating or taxation for educational purposes would make for. greater efficiency and economy in expenditure. But the Minister seeniß. to favour> a transference of the burden from the tax-' payers to tho t ratepayers. 'That would be a pohoy of islain robbery, An oducaticn system that is universal and free ' should be: made a ;universal \charge. The only justification of the New, Zealand system of free education by'the State is the fact that everybody helps to bear the cost of it.

The scope of the inquiry of the Police Commission is BCt out olEcwno're, and iri most respects seems ; satisfactory- enough. There is, however, one rather rctoarbblo limitation which calls for comment: ' The clause of th 6 order of reference ill question': is'as ; follows:— ; \ Provided that Jio inquiry.: shall be'-held ty you into any matter or tiling which has already been investigated and determined be* foro any judicial or other lawfully-poneti-tuted tribunal, or wlioro any member of the' Polioo Force has been dismissed,.from the service, or whose services have been dispensed with in consequence of his misconduct or for any other reason'.) . '• •. At first sight this may seem reasonable enough, .where abuses- already been' remedied, it may be argued,'there is no occasion to further reviow them; If, holdover, the inquiry to bo the "full inquiry." promised, it is very necessary that the Commissioner; should ndt bo restricted in his investigations in tho manner proposed. It may "prove highly: desirable to; ascertain how members of the Force who have been.'dismissed,, or otherwise punished, for misconduct, Came to bd admitted into the'Forcfl., Moreover, it-'niay be necessary hi' ; investigating^..complaints made to. roview. the- .Whole circumstances surrounding''casen-. already: investigated by some Other tribunal. , Then .again,' a man may lia.Ve been .dismissed unjustly.' }Vh,y should not-he be heard? No inquiry iis to be held, so the order of reference >bads, .inio the case of "any Member of the Police Force who lifts been" dismissed the sorvicc or whose services have been . dispensed with iti consequence of-hia mis* conduct or for ntiv other reason, " What reason can :thero be for. this l'Cstridtiofi I What-the public Wants is a ,full, and freo inquiry into the state of the Police Foru;. 11l order to answer evfiti' the questions set ■ out In the order of l'efercnco it'will be uoOofcattry to ItiVfiDlifcato thu mothodb of

tho Police Department over a reasonable period of time. It is usually recognised that , when Commibsionkr TujfBKiDQK relinquished offiea tho Force was in ft high state of '■. efficiency, and, rightly , ov. wrongly, the impression is held that it is not m that state now. How. has this, defeneration come about! Dr. 'Findlay, we believe, is anxious to have this question) answored.; Let him then extend the soope oi the inquiry—give the Commissioner lull authority to investigate oyer: a fixed period—say the past three years.' The limitation proposed is likely to'give rise to the suspicion that thore is a desire to ovade a full inquiry. The subject is one f u, 1 - P u ' i ' lc conccrn that' any attempt o£ this nature will be vigorously, resented.