TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Evening Post, Volume LXXVI, Issue 111, 6 November 1908, Page 6

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

♦ — — . In some electorates Liberals of the m a t „ . Massey brand cry Too Many Cooks for a cook to pret, ,. f . or , t Jj c Pare political broth Political Broth. for them. The chief has given them a meal, but has left no chef to keep the pot boiling. In other districts, however, the Opposition masses do not lack broth and froth. In Ashburton, three gentlemen, who wear the 0, or Opposition halo— Messrs Jones, Nosworthy, and Maslin— are three musketeers trying to wing the Government's Mr. Flatman, who has heavily attempted many times in the House to prove, by humorous Rallies, that Hjs name :s a misnomer. Mr. Nosworthy is interested in "what happened to Jones" while Mr. Massey was flying through Canterbury a few days ago. Mr. Jones received the official blessing, the 0 tag proper, and Mr. Nosworthy desires to know why he was not worthy of the leader's preference. "Who is Jones? What is Jones"? exclaims the Nosworthys, and the Joneses retort by turning up the nose at the Nosworthys. Mr. .Massey may be embarrassed by the minor schism among his Ashburton followers, but he has the comfort of knowing that the Government has much similar worry. In the vast majority of the electorates there is more than one hawker of the Year Book, crying "Government, Government," at the electors. _ In some cases the Ministry has put its brand on the wares offered to the public, and in other cases where a similar stodginess has characterised the contents of each pack, Cabinet has diplomatically withheld the tag. A local candidate complains that his enemies have accused him of every crime bhort of murder, and others are threatening libel actions against their traducers, but they all seem to think that the Parliamentary billet is worth the birching and the smirching. It will be discovered shortly after three o'clock next Saturday Loose Talk afternoon that many about people dreamed about Immigration, the winner of the New Zealand Cup. There will be many folk wise, after the event. Similarly, after the futile immigration gallop in Parliament's lasfc late run, we have many jockeys who declare that they could have ridden the steed to glory. Everybody now is an immigration reformer , all the candidates, from Mr. Massey downwards, ha-ve "ideas" on the subject to-day, but where were the brilliant notions when the time for their utterance was important in Parliament? -The leading facts of the case were presented in The Post and other journals. We urged more than once, before the .session closed, that a sensible debate on the floor of the House should do something towards getting some ot the alleged "mud" out of the immigra* tion muddle, but reformers in and out of Parliament were then mosfly silent. When the opportunity was available it wrfs ignored, and now, when Parliament is not due to sit till next June, the earth groans itnder the weight of immigration experts. There is more nonsense, if possible, talked about this topic than any other election, issue. It is . meetly "claptrap" which should trap nothing but ridicule for its exponents. Many are moaning that a country with •an average of less than ten people to the square mile does not need m«re adult population. This country has been but scratched by the hands of men who have gone on the land, and the scratching has tickled the landscape into a smiling mood, but some of the immigration philosophers appear to believe that the heart of New Zealand has al- , ready been clawed out. The Government's lack of thoughtful policy in this matter has been bad, but some of the candidates' criticism 1& worte. Wishing to benefit the catchers of the wary vvarehou and A Way to Block the guileless cod, the and to earn the graFish Market. titudo of the public, the Marine Department has urged the City Councils of the four chief centres to, establish public fish markets. The Christchurch municipality has childishly tried to evade its duty to its constituents by speciously arguing that it would bo futile to act on the Departmental advice unless the corporation was given authority to compel all fish to pass through the public market. A similar wrong notion entered the heads of the Wellington Council's Markets Committee, which reported yesterday that " until they were granted power to compel all fish to be sold in the municipal market it would be useless to establish a fish, market." The committee must know, if it has pondered for a moment (which seems doubtful), that such a stipulation will not receive the Government's sanction. A report of that kind simply puts a Jjsh market out of the realm of practical politics. Luckily the council, as a' whole, was wiser than the committee, and referred the report back for further consideration. The Mayor spoke common sense when he declared that to restrict the sale of fish to a single municipal market would be unfair to the outlying districts, and he might have added that it would be also unfair to the men who have money tied up in the trade now. The principal object of the market is to ensure a .supply of fresh fish at a reasonable price, and this can be attained without forcing every terakihi and moki to wriggle through the corporation's fingers. It is fervently prayed that the abattoirs, milk, and ol.hfi- comedies are not to have an addition,

An innocent cup was lying in the General Post Office at ChristA Storm church, and the No-License in a party thought it was a Tea Cup. cauldron containing poison for the people. So they blew upon it, and made breakers roll about in it till .some of it was spilled, ' and then everybody* except the selfdeluded leaders of the No-License party in Ckristehurch, laughed. It was thought by tlie suspicious that the Licensed Victua-llterei' Association was storing up circulars in the post office, piling them up thousand on thousand-, on an understanding that they were not to be sent out tiH the eve of election day or thereabouts. An alarming telegram was sent to the Prime Minister, and it was hinted that a great department of State was being exploited in the liquor interest: The explanation has thoroughly cleared the Liquor party o4 dishonourable intention, and must nave brought some ridicule upon the fentlemen who were so eager to lay i lame where none was due. If the Rev. L. M. Isitt and his zealous brethren desire to induce people to "strike out the top line only,* they must refam irom striking out on such an imaginary line as the recent one at Christchurch. Of course, they may retort that they, too, have been subjected to misrepresentation by their opponents, and ' they may plead in this case that they acted with the best intentions, but this excuse for such an indiscretion is not hkely to greatly please the public. Ine generals of a great army must, for the sake of the army, if not for themselves, look before they leap