PUBLIC OPINION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXX, Issue 15124, 13 October 1909, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION.

*~ — FROM YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPERS. (By Telegraph.) THE TRADES CONFERENCE. If there is any justification for the assumption by tho State of any share of tho, expense of bringing together the delegates to the annual Trades and Labour Conference, by what process of reasoning can it lie asserted that the State would not be equally justified in making a contribution to the cost of tho annual conference of employers? And since the subjects of discussion at the Trades and Labour conferences arc chiefly political, it might bo argued that a portion of the cost oi the annual conferences of the no-license organisation-!, dealing as they do with pcLtie.il ; Lscssttcns. aright legitimately bo mad..' •' fhargo upon the public funds; > .... tho 4imits to the de-

mands lu. ...distance from tho State might be almost indefinitely extended. But it is a wholly unsound principle under which the taxpayers as a body are expected to boar any portion of the expenses incidental to tho holding of annual conferences that serve as the medium for the expression of tho political views of any limited section of the community.—" Otago Daily Times." THE BUDGET FIGHT. "The Lords may decree a revolution," says Mr Lloyd-George, " but the people will direct it. If the Constitution is to be torn to pieces issues vili be raised which the Lords little dream of. Who made ten thousand people owners of the soil?" This question is one which a friend of the peers might reasonably ask them to consider quietly, but we regret to see it put by a Cabinet Minister almost in the guise- of a threat. Property, however, as well as political privilege, must expect many rude questions asked if a House of hereditary landowners is to tear a democratic Budget to nieces.—" Evening Post." GOVERNMENT BY COMMISSION. Tho appearance of Mr Herdman's Public Service Bill has raised the general question as to the respective merits of political and non-political control of the State departments. That is a question that can never bo raised now without making a few thoughtful people wonder whether it might not be possible to place the whole business of Government in the hands of a Commission—" Dominion." A LOCAL jNAVY. But if wo are to bo told it is necessary to keep pace with Great Britain in naval expenditure and have a local navy and train all beys and men to arms, the upshot will bo the revolt of tee community from the counsel of feather-brained Jingoism., and a great and necessary reform will be strangled by the alarums of ehortsigkted zealots, who father such extravagances. Indeed, if the friends of universal service wish to accomplish anything it is high. time they dissociated themselves altogether from the embarrassing patronage of local navy dogmatists. If they do not, and become identified with one another in tlfe public mind, the consequence is not hard to foretell. Universal service will become a dream.— "New Zealand Times."