NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 598, 28 August 1909, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

It is vory satisfactory that a settlement of tho "free-placo difficulty in /connection with tho. Wellington . Girls' . College has> at last been arrived at. The Government has undertaken to provide any furthor accommodation: that is required at tho . College for tho frce-placo pupils, and tho Board of Governors has accepted this 'arrangement. As a-result, the Ohairman of the Board, Mr. A. de 8.-Brandon, has resigned. It was a vory plucky fight that Mr. Beakdoij fought for the preservation of the original purpose of the (College, but it was inevitable that the .claims of "democracy," which is altering. tho whole structuro of so-: cioty,; would bccome too strong for. his resistance. The question of co-education was raised by Mr. Brandon's motion' at' yesterday'B meeting of the Board, but nobody, not even the mover himself, gave any serious attention to a proposition which, really cannot' be-considered for a moment. What _ Mr; Brandon fears, is that the admission of the."free-place" pupils 'will break/down q. class distihc-. tion . which he honestly , believes it is to the interest of the: commuhity to maintain.. Dr. Findlay, on tho otber hand, stood for the "effective.; carrying out,: of 'the legislation tho spirit of which is "to go another step in the 'direction of; removing all tho specios of class distinction which evory democracy trips to. get rid of." The issue raised by thess conflicting views is too large and important. to gq into hero, and in o,riy; event, there,is not much profit in, discussion.,where there can never bo: agreement. But if Mr. Brandon's fears ave not all well-founded, yet on the other.hand Du. Findlay expects a great deal too milch' from the "free-place!' system,. considorfcd either,as a means of improving the machinery of education : or as a'sort, of democratic dynamite for bursting up society,

'So startling. havo been--the discoveries of arbhaeologists of recent years that wo have come to the conclusion that anything is possible, in this branch lof science, and' so it comes about that a cablegram such as that .which we published yesterday, reporting the: discovery, in a cave of Arizona of the remains of a racepreviously \unkno\yn, is by most people -with oily a .passing exclama : tion of interest or surprise. Discoveries such as ; this' have proved, a. great holp in the reconstruction of tho history of v the human race. JJysuoh. means it has been, for instance,: established that;men'must , have lived' in Europe as contemporaries 'with.' the lion,, the. mammoth and the; rhino? ceros, and the places where.palaeolithic /S.tQrje Age).implements,h ( ivel)ppn found indicate that their original owners must havoilived at least'- 150,000 years'ago. And; these implements, as an. eminent ity tells us, were ,not tho work of novices, for in their well-finißhod form they compare favourably with some df 'the • ,rc : suits 'of tw'entieth century ,handicraft. But far older than these palaeoliths arc the eoliths, /which' probably: take us 'back to. 300,000 years ago. Of onlya.rninuto portion :of thoso 3000 centuries; havo .we any recorded history, ' yet'! during those long' years some of the ; beTiefactors of our race have died-''unwept, uniiououred, and unsung.": A 'greater; than Edison was the man who first discovered how to,make and use Are. It must have been an epoch-making discovery. Another prehistoric benefactor of mankind waß. that' Unknown ancestor who 'made • the first .wheel. ■ Nearly all intricacies of modern machinery; are-variations and! development? of thiß original idea. Somo people -are inclined to sneer at archaeology as a useless fad, but a thought shows how' many other sciences have benefited by it. The- researches of the archaeologists,;- as Professor Driver, of Oxford, has pointed' out, are "helping us to understand the great literary! works of antiquity; they give us picturosiof aspects of ancient lifer-arty roligionj: society, games, coinage, political and other institutions; and tliey enable many important chapters of ancient history, to be written which a hundred, or even fifty, years ago would have . been- out of the question." In a. word, they teach us our own' past history as a race; and, after all, the.proper, study of maqkind is man,

The brief report of • Mil. G. • Hetchison's opening ■ address to <the' Rangitikci electors which we. published ' yesterday makes ifc very clear that the ox-member has lost none of his platform .ability, l , and that;he is as keen'and outspoken apolitical critic'as ever. Mr. Hutchison is pre-eminently a fighter, and he has. made it plain that .he is out to fight the present con test with 'all the vigour and skill of which he is possessed. '. Mr. HuTCHir son has the advantage of all "his oppon-: ents in point of experience and political, training, but against this Mr: Jlockly, the other . Opposition " candidate, 'is a farmer's man, and it is' a, farming seat, that is being contested. 1 ' Both' these candidates are straight-duty opponents 'of the Government, and should; both go to the poll they, must split the Opposition vote. , At the same time the. Government vote will be split in the same, way, bo that neither party is likely to gain much because of the number of candidates. The contest will no doubt be decided on the second ballot, and it iri too early yot to judge of> the chances of any of the Government candidates getting as far as that stage, of the struggle. ■■.

In another part of this issue wo print the comments of Some southern mctro 7 politan journals on the Government's attitude towards The Dominion in the matter of Departmental advertisements. We-only* desire to call attention' here to the-second of' the Otago Daily Times's articles.' Our contemporary was apparently taken to task by somebody , for placing tho blamo' in the matter upon the shoulders of the Governmorit, instead of upon tho shoulders. of the Advertising Department, It pointed put, howovor, that it is absurd to say that the Minister controlling tho Advertising Department is at fault, and it expressed doubt as to. whether that Department has any real existence. Our coiitomporary was evidently particularly disgusted at the thought that Dh. ; Findlay approves the policy of boycotting Tn'E Dominion, and it has exhibited a generous zeal to exculpate tho Attorney-General from blame. "We must absolve Dn,. Finsdlay personally," it says, "from-participation in what, on the face pf- ib, is a highly discreditable breach of trusteoship on. the part of tho Government." . We wish that we could-.agree with this view", and that wo. cpuld join contemporary in scouting tie suKKesfcwti that Mk Basso,

as Minister temporarily in charge of tho Advertising Department, iß'out of sympathy with tho boycott. Wo do agree that tho prime responsibility rests with neither of these two Ministers,'and-that it is patent that "some higher power" has directed the Government's, policy. But Dn. Findlav and Mit. Botdo, and all the other Ministers, including Mil. Fowlds, who is held by his frjenda in very high esteem, must submit to the ccn-. sure of our disgusted contemporaries so long as they fail to repudiate any sympathy with tactics which, involved tho übo of Stato funds so as to penalise. a nowspaper which freely criticises their political notions and to reward journals which render them p'olitical support. ISlot one of the Ministers has evor said a word 'to show that ho docs not heartily approyo' of the boycott as an excellent and honourable act of policy. And not.one of the Minister has evor dared to" dofcnd_ it as a business-liko transaction in tho interests of the pcoplo whose money is being thuß squandered for political party purposes. In itself this particular instance of abuse of office may-seem a .small matter, but wo direct attention to it again to emphasise tho lengths "to which Ministers aro prepared to go even in face of certainty of ultimate exposure. If-they will do this sort of thing with a newspaper of the standing and influence of The Dominion, what hope of fair play would the private individual have under similar circumstances?