WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Evening Star, Issue 15137, 19 March 1913, Page 8

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

The decision of the Arbitration Court on the appeal of the Ngahauranga Slaughtermen's Union is one of the moat interesting and important that the Court have ever delivered, and has the great merit of reconciling the technical requirements of the law with the claims of common sense and public policy. A contrary decision would indeed have required the immediate attention of the Legislature, for it would have exposed the whole machinery of the Industrial Conciliation and Arbitration Act to the risk of an absolute deadlock just when it was most urgently needed. Workers will surely see that they cannot both eat their cake and have it. They must declare for the Arbitration Act or against it. They cannot be allowed to use it when it fits their purpose and then to bring the whole machinery to a standstill till it suits them to set it moving again.—Wellington ' Post.' To prevent the law from becoming an object of public contempt and an agent of serious injustice, unions actually engaged in a strike should be denied registration or reregistration. They should be treated as being beyond tho vision of the Arbitration Act and its administrators. The abortive strategy of the Wellington District Slaughtermen's Union has shown the necessity , for amending the 'Act so that the cancellation of registration shall (proper safeguards being provided for the cases of individual objectors to cancellation) automatically debar that union and their members from registration for some reasonable period.—'Dominion.' * * * Mr Wells, speaking before the Auckland branch of the Dental Association, said he looked forward to the time when there would be a room for the dentist in every school in Auckland. There has been, and still is, too much economy in directions which should claim liberality from the State. . Either a proper sense of proportion has been lacking in those who composed the Governments of the past in New Zealand or the safety of the race has been subordinated to the security of power. Even since it has been suggested that the State might do much to create a responsible spirit among parents, aud might also provide treatment for the children of parents who cannot afford to pay the dentist, we have proceeded but slowly.—' Southland News.' * * * If the Overseas Dominions are to be brought into closer touch with the heart of the Empire, the cable connection will have to be cheapened and improved. The matter has been receiving the attention of the Imperial Government and of colonial Govrnments, but the progress made has been exceedingly slow. Until we possess an All-Red cable the position will continue to be unsatisfactory.—Wairarapa ' Age." # * * The general conclusion in America is that the introduction of Municipal Commissions is a distinctly progressive step. No doubt their advocates have promised more than the Commissions can perform. All human institutions are imperfect, and a city generally gets the sort of government its citizens deserve. But the iri< stitution of these Commissions shows that the American people are beginning to strive to attain to higher ideals of civic life. The system will at least show clearly on whose shoulders the responsibility for incompetence or 'corruption should lie, afford independence and high personal qualifications a better chance at elections than under the old plan, simplify a far too complex machinery, and provide a form of government which the ordinary citizen can easily understand.—Christchurch ' Press.' * * •» We believe that before the next election comes round there will be such a widespread demand for the breaking down of the land monopoly which is obstructing the progress of Hawke's Bay and Marlborough that Mr Massey will simply have to accept the inevitable and bow to the popular desire. But we would vastly prefer to see the Government honestly tackle the problem on its own account, and that long before the election.—Marlborough ' Express.' . # * * But why should the Maori, who is so capable of receiving payment of rent, not pay rates ? Why should a people who do not hesitate to apply for old age pensions, who make such laudable use ot the public schools, who are beginning to understand that the hospital is better than the tohunga, who very properly travel by the State railways, and who in a thousand ways are benfited by the laws, the State services, and the national organisation, be forced or permitted to hamper settlement, to block expansion, and to restrict the public revenue?— Auckland 'Herald.' # * # Mr Massey did the right and proper thing in delivering such an important address at a "hostile" centre like Christchurch. Personal efforts in such localities will undobtedly do much to breakdown antagonism, which, ( a great extent, it is safe to say, is boi from lack of acquaintance with members of the new Government and the principles for which they stand.—Gisborne ' Times.' « * # It is, of course, easily possible to exaggerate the importance of outbreaks of anti-militarist spleen. Christchurch, with all respect, has always been notoriously inclined to encourage "cranks"and "faddists " of miscellaneous sorts, and Christchurch is the only centre in which the anti-militarists have succeeded in producing any impression upon public feeling. After all, these people, noisy and demonstrative as they, are, form but a very small minority of the general public, and we must not overestimate the amount of weight that they carry, but we trust the authorities will take a firm stand against Ihese recent outrageous proceedings, and will mete out punishment to the offenders without fear or favor.—Auckland ' Star.'