WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Evening Star, Issue 15539, 8 July 1914, Page 3

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

An honest and successful effort has bean made to secure, the subdivision of large European estates by the operation of the graduated land tax, and the record claimed by Mr Massey of having settled over 1,500,000 acres in two years is a creditable one. When the details of this total pro forthcoming, it will certainly be found that the large European land holder has found the settlement policy of the Government more agressivo than has the native landowner. —Auckland ‘ Herald.’ As it stands, the Bible-in-SchooJs Referendum Bill is one of the most able measures ever introduced into the New Zealand Parliament, and the closer its provisions are studied by intelligent people the wider and deeper will become the feeling that the Bill should be rejected, or, if not rejected, at least most materially amended.—Marlborough ‘ Express. ’ * * * Anybody can have anything he likes if only the Government are not responsible for their getting it—vide the Premier’s j answers to the No-license League, the j Licensed Victuallers’ League, and the Bible and CTergy-in-Schools League. A little more backbone, and a stronger assumption of responsibility generally would win the Government more respect. As it is, the impression is likely to grow that they feel' 100 precariouslv seated to take any responsibility at all, and so they shunt il on to Commissioners, the members of the House, or the people at large. “ Responsible ” government appears to have become a misnomer.—‘ Wairafapa Daily , News.’ j* * * ; We have a good school system, a system. that offers, if the law is observed, no direct or indirect offence to any sot of j believers, and to seek to destroy it seems both unpatriotic and unwise. And it may bo taken for granted that the system iviil ba destroyed, as a national system, if once the State book-of Bible lessons, and the i leigynian or his “ accredited substitute.” get into the schools. Justice will then demand subsidies to Roman Catholic schools, and justice will win.—Napier ‘ Telegraph.’ j* * * No .member of Parliament can possibly be said to- have broken bis pledge to support the existing secular system if he should decide to cast his vote for a Referendum, for the simple reason that his vole will have no other effect than to submit the whole question to the will of his constituents, who must always be the final court of appeal.—‘Dominion.’ * * -* Not a single restriction upon the laws relating to aggregation- have beeiy re- | moved, as Sir J. G. Ward and his friends I know perfectly well. But fresh restric- ( tions have been imposed. The Graduated Laud Tax has been increased, and that ought to be sufficient reply to the wilful misstatements ot the anti-Reionners. But the present Government did last yearn hat no previous Government ever did—tlv>y lerislatad directlv against the hitherto unbcTnded liberty of a private landowner to acquire as much more land as lie liked.— Christchurch ‘ Press.’