NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1032, 23 January 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Hon. T. Mackenzie is probably sorry by now that he allowed himself to attempt a little finessing over the dairy school question, It will bo remembered that early in 1903_ Mr. M'Nab, then Minister for Agriculture, announced that the Government had decided to establish the school in Palmerston. Nothing had been done when the general election camo round, and it was sought, unsuccessfully, to secure the defeat of Mb. Buick by means of a threat that the school would not be established, if the Government's nominee were not elected. At a gathering in Palmerston last year the Hon. T; Mackenzie talked • with a clumsy bluntness . that must have made his chief shiver. What did Palmerston want with a dairy school anyhow 1 ho asked. It would not get any school while there were better things to spend money upon. We recited these facts' the other day, apropos of a • suggestion that the Government had definitely decided against the establishment of the school. In Palmerston last week Me. Mackenzie referred to our note as having "misrepresented the position." We have since invited Mb. Mackenzie to point out any misrepresentation, but of course, as Ministers usually do in such cases, he declined to become explicit, or, indeed, to say anything. In his case,, no doubt, silence is bett at most times. -To the Palmerston interviewer, who asked whether the position was changed "nowf that times are more prosperous," Me. Mackenzie made a statement amusingly in contrast with his bluster of a few months ago, when he issued his personal edict against the school. Here is what he said : "Conditions have very much altered for since I made my Palmerston "speech, but it is the Prime Minister Who has to make any announcement regarding policy matters, and undoubtedly tho erection of an important institution like the Dairy School would be is a matter of policy which would have to bo dealt with by Sie Joseph Ward and Cabinet before any pronouncement was mado regarding it." ' Mr. Mackenzie has evidently been warned by his chief. In the meantime, it must be apparent to everybody now that, as Manawatu Standard puts it, the Government "will continue to dangle this tempting morsel .before the electors "of 'Palmerston." A very shabby business, and 'very characteristic of the Government.

On Saturday the Peime Minister caussd to be published a statement that "no invitation of any sort or kind has been received by tho Government for members of the Legislature to attend the Coronation ceremony." This statement he accompanied by a ludicrous assault upon those who, hearing him reply "No" to a question upon the subject one day, "Yes" to the same question the next day, and "Yes-No" on the third day, cannot conceal their inability to feel quite sure what the facts really are. He referred to his critics as "building up inaccuracies which would do credit to an Ananias," and added that he saw "an article in one of the Opposition, papers" the other day the writer of which would hardly be worth a pound a week in ordin: ary avenues of occupation. The. Evening. Post' very, good-naturedly abstained. from pointing ' out that the Prime Minister, as he always does, carefully neglected to name any of these inaccuracies, but •it dealt very faithfully with the Prime Minister's manners. It pointed out that in a free country cheap and puerile impertinences are at the service of any man whose taste is sufficiently defective, but that, even if his taste does not- impose restraint upon the Prime Minister, his office should. We should like to add a word upon Sir Joseph Ward's solemn assertion that "at one time proved inaccuracy was looked upon as a complete disqualification for a responsible position." That time is, as he implies, gone by—fortunately for him, if unfortunately for the country. Were that disqualification still effective, Sir Joseph Ward would not now bo Prime Minister, Bince inaccuracy is his most striking' characteristic. He definitely stated, for example, on October G, that New Zealand had been invited to send a number of legislators to the Coronation. He declared in Dunedin last week that nearly all the financial critics of standing had declared the recent big loan to be . satisfactory, although everybody knows that the exact reverse is the case. The truth is, we suspect, that the Prime Minister, so far,as politics aro concerned, has for so long dwelt in the dusk of fancy and evasion and equivocation, perpetually twisting and turning and somersaulting in the gloom, that a plain bald_ fact hurts his unaccustomed eyes like the blaze of the noonday sun.

Mr. P. Hally, the Conciliation Commissioner for this district, is to be commended for promptly and firmly discouraging the demand of tho Carpenters' Union for a working week of five .eight-hour days. When this novel and surprising step on the part of the union first became known, we stated in general terms that the demands customarily put forward by organised Labour were not based upon -any sound calculation of economic < possibilities, and we suggested that' a ' reduction of working hours bolow the present recognised standard would be followed by a marked falling-off in efficiency and in output. Mr. Hauy may have been thinking only of tho particular industry before him, but he pointedly expressed the opinion that the proposed 40-hour week would "cripple industry and harass trade." He was equally emphatic in "declaring that the demand for an incroaso of tho minimum wage from Is. 4d. an hour to Is. fid. was "out of all reason." With the consent of the assessors for the employers, the . Commissioner then took the unusual course of conferring privately with the representatives of the union, and induced them to fix their claims at a forty-four-hour week and Is. 4d. an hour. We suppose nobody will accuse Mr. Hally of want of sympathy with the workers, _ but it is Satisfactory to find that, in his present semi-judicial position, ho can summarily dismiss an exorbitant request even when it comes from a union.