PUBLIC OPINION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XCIII, Issue 10565, 26 January 1895, Page 5

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE TBBABoiIEB*B VISIT TO LONDON. Taking. all circumstances into consideration, we are not disposed to join, in the condemnation by a section of the iidependent Frees of the arranged visit at the Treasurer to London. His presence at the headquarters of the fimnnlal wotid is likely, we think, to prove exceedingly useful. * *'* We do not ese that tire question is affected by the very posable fact that Mr Ward may have badness to forward in connection with the mercantile transactions and other enterprises in which he is personally engaged. It is natural enough that he should take the opportunity of advancing his own interests and those of the company with, which he is associated, and, so long as Ike does his duty by the colony to the matters committed to his charge, wo cannot see that he can reasonably be blamed.—Dunedin Star. THE SHOTS HALF-HOLIDAY. The City Council, by refusing to appoint delegates to a conference which the Major had convened for to-day, to compliance with the law, has made a eorry exhibition of itself. Menaced hy the advocates of Saturday on the one hand, and Wednesday on the other, the members who voted in favour of this course seem to have been struck with a blue funk, which obscured their judgment. — Auckland Star. THE UNPAID MAOISTEACT. We say this unhesitatingly, that before any person is appointed as a Justice of the Peace he should prove to the satisfaction of some person in authority-—say the Stipendiary Magistrate of the district—that he is properly qualified to sit and adjudicate on the matters brought before him'. And we say also that the haphazard manner ,in which Justices are'appointed—without any regard to the qualifications so necessarily required—if persisted in, must in the very near future lead to anything but the law being carried out in its integrity.—■ Wanganui Herald. INSPECTION OP EOMAN CATHOLIC SCHOOLS. We desire finally to emphasise the fact that the concession made by the Education Board on Thursday has no remarkable significance. 'The board authorises a proceeding of routine in accordance with the direction of Parliament: nothing more. It. is true that Dr Stenhouse holds that willingness to submit to inspection entities the managers of private schools to pecuniary aid from th« State; but, so f:ar as the Education, Board is concerned,‘we believe that he is singular in this respect. Certainly the resolution passed on Thursday implies concurrence with no such principle.— -Otago Daily Times . thb taeiff commission. Fault has beau found frith the Government for setting up a Eoyal Commission to acquire information as to the directions in which amendments to the tariff should be made. On two grounds. First, that there was no pressing necessity for doing so, and next, that the personnel of the Commission, consisting, as it does, of members of Parliament, is open to objection. Begirding the latter, it must be admitted that the inclusion of men of special commercial knowledge, free from political hiss, might have been judicious. But such are not easy to find, and as the business of the Commission is chiefly to collect evidence, there is no room for supposing, other than that the work will be well and fcashfully done. A.b to the urgency of the case there mn be no questiQn. —EonihlasA Meets.