NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 859, 4 July 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Some surprise has been occasioned at tho neglect of Mr. Wilford so far to make good his Mayoral election pledge to resign the Chairmanship of Committees of the House of Representatives. It is possible that Mr. Wilford is meeting the convenience of his political chief in delaying to send in his resignation of the oificc. If this is so it is.a very wrong attitude for the member for the liutt to take up. Apart from the fact that he definitely pledged himself to the citizens of Wellington that he would not carry the joint burdens of Chairman of Committees and Mayor of the city, if entrusted with the latter office, the Chairman of Committees should lie independent of any Ministerial influence. It is the House ho has to consider, not the Ministry. Members have known for many weeks past that they will have to elect a new Chairman, and have probably quite made up their minds as to how they will cast their votes, so that there can be no excuse on tho ground that it isthc convenience of the House that is being considered.

As our renders have probably concluded from our occasional discussions in the last year or two of the "road-and-bridges" disease in the French Chamber of Deputies, there arc in French politics many points of interest to A'ew Zealanders. One of these comes by the latest mail, and ib ought to interest our Parliament us deeply as the public. On May 15, M. Benoist, one of the leading Deputies, and one of the most active combatants for proportional representation and the purification of the Chamber, gave notice that when Parliament mot ho would move a reduction of the salary of £600, received by the Deputies for the last two years, to the original amount of £360* His motion is less a plea, against an unreasonably high honorarium than "a protest against the hole-and-corner way in which it was voted by about a score of members in a practically empty House." The Standard's Paris correspondent explains the resentment against "the. trick played on the public purse." "It has always been felt," he writes, "that (.ho reasons for the increase should have been adduced and thoroughly examined." In the Eclair M. Ji;dkt is severe in his criticisms. He considers that a public, debate on the question is most necessary, "so as to do away once and for all with the sarcasms and scorn with which Deputies have since been covered." Wc do not think the New Zealand

public has yefc forgotten the famous "£GO steal" in our own Parliament,, of would bo anything but pleased if Parliament could effect a tardy rehabilitation of its honour on this point. Most of the 28 members who on October 13, 1904, voted in vain for the late Mr. Vile's motion to re-establish .the old figure of the honorarium, £2-10, were members of the Opposition. Amongst them, however, were some Ministerialists, and of these Messrs. Ell and T. Mackenzie are still in the House. Gould not one of these two gentlemen give the House an opportunity of showing its disinterestedness this session?

The New Zealand. team of representative footballers, which has been touring successfully in Australia during the past few weeks, wound up its visit on Saturday with a very handsome win over the Australian representatives. Although the team lost only one game, it is generally conceded that it was not up to the standjird of teams of recent years. The present season is a weak one in Australian Rugby football, owing to the secessions from its ranks to the ranks of the professionals who play the Northern Union game, so that the All Blacks probably met weaker teams than they are accustomed to meet in New South Wales. Still, they acquitted themselves with" credit on and off the field, and appear to have upheld the best traditions of the amateur Rugby game. The struggle between the amateur and the professional football organisations in New South Wales has been very keen this season, and with the assistance of a visit from a British team the professionals seem to have had rather the best of things in the matter of attracting public attention. While opinions are divided as to the merits of the play in the rival contests which have taken place, there can hardly have been two opinions as to wdiich section plays the cleaner football. The amateurs certainly have had the best of the argument from that point of view.