NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 964, 3 November 1910, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

It is very satisfactory to know that there is every promise of a great success for tho carnival that is to be held at Newtown Park' on Saturday next to celebrate the golden jubilee of Mother •'Maky Joseph Aubert. Wellington is very proud of the Reverend Mother, and has already given abundant evidence of the affection and gratitude that it feels for her. We are not going to praise her here', nor to commend the carnival to the generous attention of the public— to do so, indeed, would be rather superfluous, since there is nobody who is not quite well enough informed in both particulars already. _It seems to us, however, that this is a proper occasion for saying one or two things that have long required to be .said. The Reverend Mother is,' of course, one of the most popular and trusted of our citizons; she is one of the very few persons in the community who enjoy the regard and confidence of the whole public. This is the natural recognition of the nobility of her mission and of the wisdom with which she has carried it on for fifty long years. To havo a citizen so wise that it is impossible that the combined wisdom of the rest of us can compete with hers in the administration of the magnificent charitable undertaking to which she has devoted her life— this is really an extraordinary luxury. In enjoying it, however, many people must have reflected rather sorrowfully upon the loss of such a heart and brain to the public life of the community. We should like also to point to one respept in which Mothee Mary Joseph is a higgar ass;t of the community than is generally remembered. Hor good ■works at the Homes she has established are. known and appreciated by people of all denominations. But of hardly less, importance lias been her silent influence for peace and .oliarity. and tolerance between the different religious coinmunious'. The work of praising and aiding her has again and again served to make a common field for persons of every faith, and nobody can doubt that she has thus 'operated strongly for tlio' lrairitenance of the religious peace that happily exists in this country. 'We trust, that the carnival will be an enormous success, for MoTHirit Mary Joseph is to have tho entire disposal of the. : funds that are raised, ar.d the more she is able to do the greater will be the'happinoss that everybody wishes for her.

Now that tho Aid to Water Power Works Bill has passed, the most we can hope for is that the discussion of the past few days may persuade the House, when the Public Works Estimates coma down, to restrict the experiment to the Lake ' Coloridge scheme. There is only one new point we wish to touch,, upon just now. The Attorney-General, who, we regret to observe, seems not to havo liked our editorial comments of yesterday, complained that "many of the Government's critics seemed to think that the Government of the day could not bo entrusted with .the carrying put of any great scheme for the national benefit, and'that they would bo prepared to sell themselves for political advantages." We are very sorry, but that is just what nearly'half the country thought <it the last election, -and what a still larger number think at this moment. Tho Attorney-General added that it was not fair to drag in ■ "political railways" (his target here was Me. \ViGiU3i) by way of illustrating the. possibilities of the water-power schorae. On this point he appears to have, wished the Council to believe that the Liberal Party has not done any wrong. We should like to remind him of what his chief said to a deputation in Dunedin on April 28, 1909. "There was no place in New Zealand," Sie Joseph said, "so cursed.as the city :of Dunedin had, been by political promises made in the past for political purposes, and they were suffering for it." It was on this occasion that he made his famous statement that "as for the word spoken of. promises made, he had not the slightest hesitation in saying that the present Government, and'he hoped no Government, was going to be tied down by promises made by members of its own or other Ministries to carry out works that would injure the country." He cited the dreadful Otago Central railway, and he was condemning tho Law-rence-Roxburgh railway. Now, the public knows that, ■ the LawrenceRoxburgh Hue was planned and begun just before the 1905 election, by the Seddon Government. It is also a matter of 'history that Me. Seddon, in 1891, said of the Otago Central line, in his Public Works Statement: "We shall find that, by the construction of this railway, instead of a wild waste, occupied largely by rabbits, we shall have a thrifty ' population settled in a prosperous and productive country." In 1894 the Liberal Government included the line in an Act as one that "may be completed," and it spent upon it in the succeeding years nearly a million and a half sterling. These are the lines referred to by .Sir Joseph Ward in more recent times in the terms stated above. But of course .it is unnecessary to labour the notorious fact that the Government's railway and public works expenditure is , still based upon the party's political necessities, and that the same considerations will direct the carrying out of tho water-power scheme unless Parliament assorts itself on behalf of the true interests of the nation.

A stranger dropping in at a sitting of tho Legislative Council Committee of Inquiry into Mr. Hine's charges against the Hon. T. K. Maoddnald would probably be a little bowildored at tho procedure. Mr. Myers is present on behalf of Mr. Hine, and Mr. Skerhett is appearing for Mr. Macdonald. When these two learned counsel have done with a witness it would be thought that very nearly all that was worth getting would have been extracted. As it happens, however, there arc several lawyers on the Committee, and in the earlier stages of the inquiry most of them also exercised their privilege of cross-examining with freedom. The Attorney-General especially has taken a most active part in this portion of the proceedings throughout, and at times appears to bo so far carried away by his professional zeal_ as to forget for the moment that he is not in attendance at the sittings as ,counsel for tliWDMJiecutiou or defence, but aa

one of a number of judges whose duty it is to give an impartial finding on the evidence brought before them. Last evening there was a somewhat unpleasant incident owing to Dr. Findlay appearing to think that a question by Mr. Myers was intended to cast some reflection on the late Mn. Seddon. Mn. Myehs promptly and emphatically corrected this idea, and shortly afterwards was defended by the Chairman against a further attack, this time by opposing counsel, which. Me. Oallan described as unfair and one which should not have been made. These incidents were only to be expected. It is quite impossible to expect party politicians in a political inquiry of this nature to clear their minds of all party feeling. However much they may strive to keep their sympathies under control they are bound to come to the surface on occasions. It was because of this that we felt that the present inquiry should be entrusted to a tribunal ouite clear from the atraosphore of politics.