NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 591, 20 August 1909, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

■': Some months ago we directed public attention to the boycott' instituted by the' Government Against; this' paper in the matter of State advertisements. We also pointed put incidentally that in venting their spleen on the paper in this way for. its .free criticism of ..their acts of • maladministration Ministers were aggravating ..their,"- offence 1 by spending the money which they hold,- in • trust for the -publicv to the worst. advantage. Obviously it is the duty of the' Government ' to spend the people's. inoneT so as to secure the best roturn ,, possible; and in newspaper-advertising the , test: lies in the publicity gained in ' the. quarter in whicn.it/is desired to .secure; that .publicity.'; In yesterday's, issue of the local morning • Ministerial journal was, published an advertisement, covering nearly i two and a half columns of space, invit;ing: tenders for the: carriage/: of mails throughout the suburbs and the country portion: of the Wellington Postal District.. As a' matter of form_ application was made by a representative of Thb Dominion for this advertisement for our columns, and the, application was, as usual, refused. We direct attention again.to this matter : because of tlie excellent example it affords of the grave abuse of p'ower on the part of Ministers. The> advertisement, following our usual practice,/ we publish elsewhere,/at' oui' own. cost,, in the interests of pur. readers. What we desire to point out in connection, with it is this: .The Dohin-.' ion has at least double the circulation of the Ministerial, journal in the districts concerned with the advertisement.. The scale of charges for Government adi yortisements is,'we: believe, thesaine in all newspapers., By placing this advertisement in The Dominion the Government would secure at least twice the amount of publicity in the districts affected that it will receive by_ placing it in the journal in which Ministers themselves are interested, and at the same cost. ; We,do not suggest that the Ministerial jour.nal should not receive-Gov-ernment advertisements. Its readers are entitled to the information such advertisements contain. What we do say, however, is that readers of The Dominion are equally entitled to that information, and that if only one morning paper in Wellington is , to receive .Government advertisements they. should go to the paper',with the largest circulation, and which can give the best • return for the money spent.'. But the pretence that the ■adverfcisements are withheld' for reasons of economy is too absurd for argument. The advertisement mentioned, for : • instance,, appears in full in ' this week's issue of -The- Free Lance \. Probably, the worst feature of the wholo business _is the fact that Ministers are in a position to know that the circulation of The Dominion eclipses that of any paper in the country districts covered by. the advertisement. Yet, despite this knowledge, they persist in using public funds so as to benefit their supporters and penalise their critics irrespective of the public in-, terest. .. ■ ■ '

The House of Commons has fallen away from its old respect for established custom or- Me. Winston ChuechhA's appearance in pyjamas and overcoat in the early morning would not have been so lightly treated. It is not recorded that .any momber of the New Zealand Parliament ever appeared in the House in'-his sleeping suit. The nearest approach to this kind of despiteful assault on the dignity of' Parliament was on a sunny morning some years ago when a veteran journalist wandered down to the gallery during a stonewall in a costume in which a. coat and Hat were the only daytime garments.' Me. T. Y. Duncan had a habit of romoving his boots on occasions when the House saj; late in order to sotfcle down comfortably to slumber. The late Mr. Seddon on one. occasion removed his collar and tie, and presented a. very odd appearance, for he was wearing a frock coat. He was in excellent fighting form, and when chaffed by Mb. Massey he,hinted that he might have to tako off. his coat.. Onco t the House of Commons was vory punctilious in matters of. dress. In the year 1494 the rule was made -enjoining 'the Lords to appear in their robes. : It appears that "during the space of twenty' years the English Lprde of Ireland had, through .penuriousaess, done away with the uud

robes, to their own great dishonour, and the rebuke of all the whole land." In the 39th year of Elizabeth the Speaker had to ask members' to obey the rule which forbade the wearing of epurs in the House. At that time members wore allowed to wear their jackboots and swords, but later these also were forbidden. In 1730, Colonel. Tottenham gave much offence to the Irish House of Commons by appearing in the House wearing- his ridmg-boots, and a chronicler said of the incident: "The members stared; and the older ones, as I have been well assured, muttered sadly and loudly at this crying innovation, as they termed it." We wonder what the shades of theso gentlemen, felt when they saw Me: Churchill entering en deshabille.

There was something alien and unfamiliar in the speeches delivered by Sir Joseph Wakd at the Empire Club banquet and at Mit. Wason's luncheon. They were very good speeches, composed in a manner which must have appeared unfamiliar to the admirers of Sir Joseph's peculiar style of oratory. We think we detected -another 'hand" in somo of the passages. It was doubtless with no little relief that £ir Joseph's friends read the observations on the, Defence Conference which he to a private gathering of New Zealanders. He was quite back to his old form: it was the authentic Sir Joseph. The cable message, published yesterday, read as follows:— ...,'.

Sir Joseph Ward assured a private conference of New Zealanders yesterday, in reference to. the Defence Conference, that he would go ■ back to Now Zealand with" many good results. He felt ho would be justified m saying, in, general terms, ■ that he was confident a very much better condition of affairs would exist after tho Conference than was ever the case before.' ■ i

We feel that our sympathy is due to one of our contributors, who occasionally ventures to supply counterfeit presentments of Sir 1 Joseph's oratory, upon his having been forestalled. Nobody's parody of Sir - Joseph can be quite so delightful as' Sir Joseph's own parody of himself. The public will be delighted to hear that Prime' Minister will come .back, '"with many good results." That is most inspiriting news.'' Nobody else, we are sure, would have been able'to make such a proud boast. But wo feel that Sir Joseph's . bold prophecy will be fulfilled. Nor is it likely that there will be any widespread., disagreement with the, Prime Minister's unequivocal declara.-tiotf-which, it is quite certain, he did not make without "the fullest consideration of the question" or "the fullest sense of bis responsibility"—that "a very much bettor'condition'of affairs would exist after the Conference than was ever the case before." This'will confirm the general suspicion that-the Conference met in order, to discuss the improve.ment of the : Empire's naval:'- de- ' fence. What, else Sir '.' Joseph : told the private conference of, .New ■ Zealanders we; must wait as patiently as we can'for the mail to tell us.- Sir Joseph is to be congratulated on having regained .his old form. : .:.. •

Thß announcement in our 'cablegrams to-day 'that General Booth, . the head of the Salvation Army, is suffering from a recurrence of his eye trouble,, and has been compelled in consequence to abandon his proposed tour, serves to direct attention to .the tremendous -vitality ■ of this remarkable man. It. was only a few months back that .Generalßooth celc- , brated his 80th birthday, and yet ho. is to be still found in : the fighting ranks of the -great organisation of 'which he' was the founder. He is.above all:things a man 'of •action;.'.. While.politicale.political diets in Parliament and loud-Voicea agi» tators at the street cornors have been talking about the remedies for the .woes of-humanity,. General Booth basybecn acting. No ono could look wistfully than he to,the tho time when, all men will Jive'in comfort and die peacefully in happy old f age, but his practical common sense: $eesj,'tua(f in', the , meantime we must take the world as we find it and try to make ,thc best, of things as-they-, are: ' There is a class ', of so-called reformers who profess to > re-, gard.'the stops taken by , the. Salvation. Army and a hundred other.religious and philanthropic , organisations,to relievo: want and suffering as mere palliatives. These theorists want to establish' theii imaginary Utopias wi,th a 'leap and a bound; ; but while they are-.waiting, and talking .there are starving ; men and homeless children in the world, and, realising _these : sad facts, practical; philanthropists like General Booth are doing their utmost to provide food for the hungry ancl shelter for the homeless. .Let us by all ineans strive without ..coa'sing'. to remove the causes of poverty, and suffering, and crime; but the, world moves very slowly in these matters, and we all owe a debt of gratitude to.those men of goodwill who in their own day and goneration,do what they t can. to . lessen the pressing ills of mankind.- It,is perhaps superfluous to say that General. Booth will go down to posterity-as one of the greatest philanthropists of his.time.