NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1263, 19 October 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

It will bo remembered that owing mainly to the criticisms of The Dominion and other journals the Government decided last year that it could no longer continue its policy of allocating to the South Island the bulk of the money available for railway construction. This unfair and nationally undesirable policy remained in force until. 1909, when the Government asked the House to vote £449,500 for construction in (ho South and only £287,500 in this island—and this despite the fact that the Northern system pays far better than the Southern system, which is half as large again. Last year £1,002,000 was set down in the Public Works Estimates for "railway construction. " Of this £104,000 was assigned to miscellaneous liabilities, surveys, and materials. Of the rest, £467.000 was allocated to this island and £4151,000 to the South. We noted at the time that this seemed to be at any rata the beginning of a return to fairness and sanity, although the North's share should have been larger, and wc were prepared to congratulate the Government. But the rppearanco of fairer dealing was a sham. In the Estimates now before Parliament it is shown that the Government took care to spend many thousands less in the North Island than in the South, thus:

1910-11. ■ Voted. Expended. Unspent. £ £ £ North 407,000 317,600 119 310 iiau Lb '131,UU0 355,48-1 75,51(i The wliolo thing was a political confulcncD trick. For 1911-12 the Minister assigns £536,000 for railway construction in the North, and £-132,000 for railway construction in the South. In the face of last year's figures the public will probably continue to view these votes with a cold and suspicious eye.

Tiie election professions of that open-hearted member of the Ministry who is seeking to secure the support of the electors of Parnoll by showering at their feet expressions of his readiness to give them every mortal thing he can think of likely to win votes are already coming home to roost. In one of his speeches at Parnell he said : "Ho believed the day was not far distant when, with tho heightened standard of education among the race, special representation of the Maoris in Parliament would be unnecessary. The llaori, as that day neared, must be placed in the saiiio position as the European in regard to the duties of citizenship and tho use of tho land. Ho owned that day was comin» fast/' °

A member of the Opposition, to wit, the member for Tauranga, Mr. Hermes, a practical man, who believes in the deed following on the promise, promptly placed a question on the Order Paper asking: "If this policy, which has been always advocated by the Opposition and opposed hitherto by the Government, is to be adopted by the Government, will they bring down legislation this session to give cffect to it'?" The answer given by the Prime Minister will, we fear, prove a rude shock to the electors of Parncll, but a still ruder one to the very superior and titled gentleman chiefly concerned. In one curt sentence Sir Joseph Ward informed Parliament, Parncll, and the people that Sir John Findlay's electioneering promises and professions arc not to bo taken seriously. The Priiie Minister's exact words were: "Sir John Findlay was addressing the people in his capacity as a candidate, and was expressing nis own personal opinions." It is extremely interesting to note that Ministers when electioneering consider themselves released from Ministerial responsibilities, and can say or promise what they please without committing their party in any way. Thus, whiie Parliament is still sitting the AttorneyGeneral'can, if he pleases, neglect his work in Wellington, for which he receives a substantial salary, rush away to Parncll, load his constituents with promises, which the innocent electors believe have tile weight of the Government behind them, and all the time he is regarded by his colleagues .is nothing more than an ivrosponsiblo free lance, ..It is an

the doctors of Egmont, who are being wooed by the Minister for Agriculture, wil'l think of the Prime Minister's dictum that Ministerial promises arc not binding on the Government; when the Minister making them is speaking as a candidate.

It seems that a section of the Government following are becoming very anxious about the way the voting will go at the second ballots at the coming elections, and want the Act repealed. No doubt a good many candidates would be glad to have the contest decided on the first ballot, but it is too late to make any change in the lc-w in time for the coming elections, and if the Government are hoist by their own petard they thoroughly deserve it. Tile introduction of the Second Ballot law was a piece of political trickery designed to serve the Government. Whether it ever did so is open to doubt, but it certainly will not prove to their advantage at the coming polls. After the elections we hope to see introduced a Proportional Representation Bill, and later both Houses of Parliament elccted under a system of proportional representation. In the meantime members should bo on the alert to safeguard the country against trickery in connection with the Legislature Act Amendment Bill, which the Prime Minister has announced his intention to pass this session to remedy the blunder of the electoral census.

Discussing, on Monday _of last week, the muddle and widespread disfranchisement caused by the unnecessary and nevcr-yet-explained taking of the electoral census, and the Prime Minister's suggested remedy of an army of enrolling agents, we urged that the only satisfactory remedy would be to make the electoral census bo as if it had never bee.!. In other words, that its disfranchising qualities should be destroyed. In tho Bill which he has now brought down the Prime Minister has taken this course. He has included, however, a proposal that "every elector who on the close of the poll is present in a polling-place for the purpose of voting shall be entitled to rccoive a ballot-paper and to mark and deposit the same in the same manner as if he had voted before the close of the poll." We trust the House will strike out this proposal; and wo adviso every member to read an excellent article in the Dunedin Star of Monday upon the subject. Like most people, the Star objects to "tinkering with the law after this fashion," and although it is a staunch supporter of the Government, it says it is "afraid that some sinister purpose is hidden beneath this insidious proposal." Unless it can bo shown that the new clause is necessary to remedy a large, persistent, and otherwise incurablo grievance, so our contemporary argues,' matters must be left as they are. Mr. G. W. Russell cited the caso of a few persons who, on ono occasion, although they had entered tho booths to vote in time, had not succeeded in obtaining voting papers when the hour struck, and were turned out. This, however, was obviously duo to tho bungling of the officials. _ If thoroughly competent and sensible practical officers are appointed, there win be no trouble. The Government's proposal is a distinct incitement to voters to procrastinate in discharging their electoral functions; it, is a direct encouragement to crowding, bungling, errors, and even fraud at the closing hour. Nobody ever suggested sncli an innovation before, and tho election can |vcry well take place, without it. Like the Star, most people will wonder whether some sinister dodge is not behind the proposal. It is utterly illogical, in any case. Even were it put in operation there would bo voters who would arrive at the door just as it slammed. Why should they'not bo considered as well a-s the others who arrived, not too late to get into the booth, but too late to vote before the striking of the hour ? Indeed, why should not spccial provision bo made for those, intending voters who have got within half a mile of the booth by closing time? Tho lino must bo drawn somewhere; it is drawn at tho right place now.

If one could buttonhole the averago man who contemplates a visit to the races at Trcntham on Saturday and ask him what he thought of the British Association, he would probably say' something caustic about grown men who study beetles and radium. Yet the British Association casts such a wide net of inquiry that it becomes interesting to everyone in turn. One of the papers read at its annual meeting last month was entitled "The Application of Genetics to Horse-Breeding," and it was a really practical paper. The author dealt largely with colour. In the thoroughbred, ho said, a good horse was of any colour. A much more important question was: "Can lie win the Derby i" "Generally speaking, coat-colour and racing power did not seem to bear any sort of relationship to one another, being apparently inherited quite independently. On the other hand, evidence was gradually accumulating which suggested that in certain strains there was a partial coupling of coat-colour and racing power. For instance, the chestnut grandchildren of the famous racehorse St. Simon had so far proved themselves to be much inferior in racing power to their bay and brown ■brothers and sisters. While these chestnuts had between them only won two classic races, their bay and brown brothers and sisters had between them won fifteen classic races, and were only about twice as numerous. Another interesting point under investigation was the apparent partial conjunction of brown coats, high racing power, and female sex in St. Simon's own _ offspring. St. Simon's brown fillies proved themselves to be strikingly superior in racing power to the bay fillies, the brown colts, and even the bay colts, a few individuals of which wore extraordinarily good. This was the more remarkable when one considered that in racing colts had many advantages over fillies. It seemed possible that the elucidation of such an apparently trivial thing as coat-colour might help to throw light on the more complicated question of the breeding of a classic winner." It appears that white, cream, and grey horses are generally inferior on the turf. At the same time white racehorses have their uses. The man who puts his modest sovereign on a white horse has at any rate the pleasure of being able to see, at any stage of tho race, just where his money is. If he cannot collect a dividend, he has at any rate enjoyed the race without the bother of glasses far more than his friends who have backed- the bays and browns.

Mr. I'owmis, in his recent speech •it tlio Single. Taxers' little dinner, seemed to feel sad at having got nothing out of his resignation excepting hard words from his Liberal fvienda,. It.will console, him to know

"Note of the Day'' in the Westminster Gazette. The London Times correspondent sent Home a summary of Mi!. Fowliis's speceh of resignation. The Gazette was chiefly struck by Mi:. Fowlds's sorrowful decision that ho could no longer remain in a Government incapable of conducting the affaire of the country with "dignity." "We recall," the Gazette muses, "how once upon ,1 time (alas! it is already nearly ten years ago) Mu. Balfour did not like Dn. Clifford's style." It should console Mr. Fowlds to be even thus faintly linked with Mit. Balfour in an analogy. We dare not even speculate as to what Sir Joseph Ward will think of his similar linking with Dr. Clifford. We feel sure, however, that he will say, to anyone who asks him about it, something about damaging the credit of the country. The Gazette, goes,on to note that Mil. Fowlds was moved by something more than his feelings upon dignity, and suggests that he may end as a Third Party leader. "In the meantime," it adds, "Mr. Pember Reeves, who read an extremely interesting paper on the settlement of labour disputes in New Zealand to the British Association yesterday, will note this sign that the spirit of unrest has entered his Paradise." It is, indeed, pretty sad for all our "Liberal" friends, any way they look at it.