WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Evening Star, Issue 15074, 4 January 1913, Page 1

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

In the very nature of things those who are interested in high finance sympathise with and appreciate cautious expenditure [and economical administration, so that r we may now expect to obtain the most favorable terms upon the London market, and should not need to pay extravagantly for short term loans, as we*did a year ago. Altogether, the financial outlook' is sufficiently good to justify a healthy optimism, though for obvious reasons" recklessness and lack of caution are to be as strongly denounced as shrewd enterprise and thrifty foresight are to be commended.—Auckland "' Herald.' * * * The British Federation for the Emancipation of Woman are making an appeal to the public. It is desired to establish a "one million shilling fund'' for the abolition of sweated female labor and the suppression of that fearful product of poverty known as the white slave traffic. Apart from the moral aspect of the question, it is a national blunder to allow labor to be ill-paid, for workers with insufficient income,a re manifestly a social evil and an unprofitable section of the community in relation to general trade. Some dav, "perhaps, the sweater will be treated "as the criminal that he is, and public opinion may reach a state in which preventable poverty .will not be tolerated. The conditions existing in England to-dav are a grave reproach to the whole of tlie people and a hideous injustice on the weak, miserable victims.—Wellington ' Times.' ■>:- * * The Church, by opposition to military training on Sunday, when that day hap"pens to come within the range of an encampment period, -is doing a lot to draw upon itself well-deserved public ridicule. It refuses to fee anything meritorious' but church-going on the Sabbath. It conveniently ignores the fact that those voting Territorials would very probably be out of doors engaged in some form of sport or aimlessly loafing about if they were not in a military camp. It also'ignores, or pretends to ignore, the fact that every -day spent in a military camp under existing conditions is of distinct moral, mental, and physical benefit to the young- New Zealander. Would there we're more of these camps, and on Sunday, too. Youths would come home from them benefited in and body, and in fitter frame to benefit by the ministrations of the Church. —Wellington ' Free Lance.' The rich or well-to-do man pays a great deal more than the average through the Customs, while the poor man, if he chooses to do without alcoholic liquor and tobacco and other luxuries, may escape, with less than half the average 'Customs taxation. Again, the poor man pays no income tax and no death duties, which together form over 15 per cent, of the total taxation.— New Plymouth ' Herald.' , * * * The causes of marriage failure are, speaking generally, the lack of the sense of responsibility in entering the married state, and the lack of self-control, selfsacrifice, and sense of duty in continuing it. To attempt to deal with these matters by multiplying grounds of divorce is surely to attack the problem at the wrong end. Legislation improving the social environment of the people may do something . . . but the only real remedy we believe will be found not so much in Acts of Parliament as in such influences as can be exerted to rouse the conscience and stimulate tbf mnr;>! smisc of tb, 'uatio't.— Wanganui ' Chronicle.' If it pleases our Reform friends with their peculiar notion of chivalrous fighting to persistently refer to their opponents as the " Spoils party," we have, no wish to interfere with the enjoyment they are obtaining from the repetition of this" sillygibe. But it would be well for them to remember that if phrases of this kind are to be -employed in our political controversies they can be as easily coined on one side as they can on the other. . It mav Tdc the present Government's misfortune, i but it is a fact that during their six months of office their administration has lent itself to the cheap sneer at least as flagrantly as did that of the Government who preceded them.—' Lyttelton Times.' One of the most significant features of the Referenda campaign which will be fought in Australia this vcar is the attack upon prices. It has long been recognised that any attempt to fix wages is generally neutralised or nullified bv corresponding or greater increases in the prices of food, clothing, shelter (that is rent), and other necessaries. The complaint of Arbitra-tion-protected labor is that prices outrun wages, and that progress in a vicious circle leads only to the enhancement of everything to the disadvantage of the many. Suggested remedies divide themselves into two classes—(l) the direct fixing of prices by the State; [2) the regulating of prices by State competition." If Australia endorses the Labor Government and their proposals, some economic experiments interesting to the world at large I may be looked for.—Wellington ' Post,'