NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 121, 16 February 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

Tn replying to the Mayor's suggestion that the Prince of AVat.es should be asked to lay the foundation fitono of the new railway station in Wellington, the Prime Min jster has stated that tho proposal will be noted for consideratior when the itinerary to be submitter to the Prince's advisers is drawn up. Though it may not be so in tended, this has the look of a polite evasion and will be likely to liavi. much the same effect. Mr. Massey has passed over the real point. Tt is not at all in doubt that tho Prince of Wales would find time to lay the foundation stone. The only question open is whether the Government is capable of showing as much enterprise as may be needed to have matters in train for _ the ceremony when the Prince ai rives. It is reasonable, in the circumstanccs, to press for a more definite reply from tho Government; more especially when it is considered that plans of the general layout pf the new station were published (in tho then General Manager's report) as long ago as 1914.

Another stage in the fight between the Commonwealth Government steamship line and the shipping combine will be reached on March 2, when tho new Australian law comes into force forbidding overseas liners to carry passengers between Australian ports. Large numbers of Australians have been in the habit of travelling from port to port by incoming and outgoing P. and 0. and Orient liners, and the traffic presumably has been a profitable one for the companies. The other day a definite move was made by the shipping "conference" against the Commonwealth State, ships by the refusal of the usual rebate to a British manufacturing firm, which had subsequently shipped goods by a Government steamer. Tho Commonwealth Government promptly paid out to this shipper the amount of his lost rebate, and Mr. Hughes, in commenting on the incident, said that although this was the first refusal of a rcbato by tlie shipping combine it had been for some time, past threatening merchants with dire pains and penalties for using the State steamers. Several of the Australian steamers have had to leave England in bal-j Inst—some with only five or ten tons of cargo. Mr. Hughes is a fighter, j but he has taken on a big job.

A SotiND note of progress wan struck b,v Sir James Allen when ho snoke a'few days acto at a university function at Dunedin. "The timo must <;/>me." be said, "find that soon, when local districts must take on themselves more responsibility for the control of their own affairs. . , Parliament had now to deal with many things that it ought iiot to have to deal with. It must bn set free to deal with questions of the greatest importance that had arisen durinj: the last few ynrs." The Minister's reference to the. subject was little more than incidental, but he touched unquestionably upon ono of the most essential conditions of progress. As matters stand in the Dominion, the Government and Parliament are far too mueli encumbered with matters of detail and their authority and influence on the coursr of national affairs is as a result contracted and mado much less effective than ,it) .ought to . bo.

At the same time the organisation of local governing bodies is at many points (Infective, and the conditions mirier which some of them are subsidised rather impede than help sound development. This is illustrated at times in the. division of counties and in other ways. Great benefits would result if big local bodies were established and invested with such powers as would enable them to adopt up-to-date and (systematic methods in providing for the of their districts. Bef;ic!es making directly for economy nod efficiency, this policy would enable the Government and . Parliament to conccntralc on major policy issues which at present receive only fleeting attention. The plebiscite by which the people of the northern part of Schleswig Holstein have secured reunion with Denmark was promised them as long ago as 1806, but it has taken a European war to obtain it. The population is a mixed one, the area had been in dispute between Denmark and Prussia for centuries, Denmark held it as a personal appanage. of the Crown, Bismarck adroitly stole it in 1803-1 when a dispute as to tho succession arose. Bismarck wanted the duchies mainlv to accuiire the fine harbour of. Kiel, and the modern Kiel Canal'' goes' through the southern portion which is not included in the present plebiscite area. The heavy majority in favour of union with Denmark may be taken nartly as due to the sentimental and racial attachment of the population, and partly as a, desire for escape from . the crushing post-war obligations which would otherwise have Imd to lie borne as a nnrt of the German T)r>. public. This latter fact no doubt nartly accounts for the iinrcr of the Hermans at the result of tho plebiscite.

The desire of the Australian marine engineers to purchase the Burns, Philp steamers and run them themselves recalls the painful experience of tho engineer in one of Mr. Joseph Conrad's stories whose burning ambition was to own a steamer, Eventually he drew a prize in a Shanghai lottery and purchased a coasting tramp, and then, having achieved the dream of his life, he found it as dust and ashes in his mouth. His motive in buying the vessel was to own it and be his own ljoss. But tho Merchant Shipping Act got in his way. A shin cannot go to sea without a qualified master, and while it is a.t sea the master has supreme nower over every person aboard. This Unfortunate engineer thus found that while ho could sack his employee, the master, as soon as lie got ■ into nort, yet whenever he went to sea lie.must vcrv dutifullv do as ho was bid or run the risk of .becng clapned in irons for mutinv bv r. nmn whose sain''" he would still be liable to pay. His' ship was not p, linnnv one. The sea captains had little liking fo'' his eninlov, and in the end, as th« tale tells us, the engineer preferred collecting the insurance money to running the ship.

A step in the right direction is the plan of the Women's National Reserve for a residential children's nursery. At tfjis institution, to be opened slinrtlv in Owen Street, children will ho cared for while their mothers n,ro ill, and while n win 11 charge will be made the object is, by voluntary work and contributions. to keen this so low that it will ho prohibitive to no one. Itun on the right linos, the nursery should have ft big field of usefulness before it. •a■ • o The Australian Constitution is proving as rigid and unalterable as the laws of the Modes and Persians. All proposals for amendment have been defeated, and to-day's news brings word of the calling of a convention to examine the Constitution and recommend to the peoplfl whatever amendments are found necessary. In the first twenty years of its existence twelve amendments were made to the sacrosanct Constitution of the United States, and six moro have been since effected, including the Prohibitii n amendment of 1019. The Australian Constitution was considered by its authors to be a much more flexible instrument than the American one, but in practice the ease has proved to be just the other way round. A two-thirds majority in eacli branch of Congress is required for alteration in the United States with ratification by the legislatures of two-thirds of the States. In Australia only an absoluto majority in one House is required with a ratification by a majority of all the doctors voting at a plebiscite and a majority in each State. It is the popular referendum which has wrecked every effort to transfer further power from the States to the Commonwealth and leaves the latter to-day very incompletely master in its own house.