WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Evening Star, Issue 15480, 30 April 1914, Page 8

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Sooner or later some connection will have to be established between the authority responsible for the fixing of wages and the authority responsible for the conditions under which goods are imported. The fiscal side of the question has been ignored far too long. Parliament sidesteps the tariff question, and although New Zealand is supposed to'be a Protectionist country, its tariff is rapidly becoming out of date.—Christchurch ' Sun.' * * * A teacher's standing in his profession should have a more important influence upon the amount of his remuneration than the number of pupils he teaches has, and , though the difficulties in the way of fram- j ing a scheme of grading based on efficiency and service are very great, the authorities at least should be endeavoring to ovarcome them.—Timaru 'Post.' * * * To a certain extent women arc masters of their economic fate. A fuller use of technical schools and training colleges, and a closer familiarity with business methods, would render girls more adaptable to changes in'demand; f or, while it may be difficult successfully to invade many of the men's fields, it is comparatively easy for adaptable girls to enter many of the newer occupations if they have the capacity to associate themselves with inventions in their initial stages, as they did with signal success in the case of the typewriter.— Christchurch ' Star.' * * * We are told that the Navy proposals of the Government will be inexpensive, but it is in their inexpensiveness that they must be most extravagant. £2OO per annum spent on obsolete or useless warships is money absolutely thrown away, while £200,003 per annum spent on assisting the Imperial Navy will pay interest on two lattleships of the latest type, and add to the efficiency of an already efficient Navy to that extent.—Southland 'News.' * * * No danger threatens in the Pacific, and peril cannot arise as long as the AngloJapanese Alliance endures. When the Alliance ends there will be in commission, if Mr Churchill has his way, an Imperial squadron composed of British and Dominion ships and powerful enough to safeguard Imperial interests without leaving the Empire's heart unguarded. Mr Allen offers New Zealand in place of that squanron one or two light cruisers, which would be utterly incapable of facing one armored ship of the Japanese fleet. Yet Mr Fisher would have us believe that if a Bristol cruiser is not built New Zealand's safety from foreign aggression cannot be guaran teed for an hour. Really ha had better leave the defence of the little navy policy to its obviously discomfited authoT.—'Lyttelton Times.' * * * Wherever the question of locally-ap-pointed Governors is under consideration Conservatism parades the gibbering spectre of a former party politician paying back old scores or rewarding his quondam friends. That at least would be finality; it would be tangible and definite action. The worst of the Tasmanian muddle is the miserable state of indecision it reveals, and the ultimate blundering on a. procedure that, if not challenged, would make Parliaraet a mere tool of the Crown.—Melbourne 'Age.'