PUBLIC OPINION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15922, 7 May 1912, Page 9

PUBLIC OPINION.

—♦• — FBOM YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPERS. (By Telegraph.) THE IMMIGRATION RETURNS. The completed returns for the year ending March last show that the im-. migration gain by the dominion during that period did not reach 6000. This is a most appalling indictment of our legislative practices and administrative system ("for it means, if it means anything' at all, that working people find other countries bettor to live in than New Zealand. Instead of making this dominion a "working man's paradise," to which wage-earners and land-settlers would hasten from all parts of the Eng-lish-speaking world, our weird experiments and perpetual harassment of industry have made it a land which can hardlv attract strangers and cannot keep its own.—" New Zealand Herald." PRIME MINISTER IN THE SOUTH. Everyone knows, of course, that if Mr Mackenzie had a definite policy ho would be proud enough of it and of himself to prod aim it everywhere. How does he expect to get on when the time comes when ho simply must declare his policy? His reason for refusing to reply to the criticisms and challenges addressed to him is a more humorous tiling still. They were not to suppose, he said, that he could not smash his critics to smithereens, but he is really too busy saving the country ! He cannot apparently dispense with a single one of those banquets that are so essential to Bound government and devote the time so saved to the pulverising of his critics. Perhaps he is wise, for nothing could have been more feeble than his rambling evasion of the simple request that we put to him to name those members of the Opposition who sent Home wails of despair with the express object of injuring the flotation of the five million loan.—" Dominion." CIVIL SERVICE REORGANISATION. When tho Premier says that a thorough' investigation into the methods of departmental work is needed, we aro glad indeed to hear it. A thorough overhauling is needed at the hands not of harassed and distracted Ministers, most of whom are absolute novices to the work, but of business experts, free to look at the defects and needs of the service entirely from a business standpoint. What sort of investigation does the Premier contemplate? Ministers and the prominent heads of departments must share the responsibility for the unsatisfactory condition of the service, yet it is probably between these very authorities that the Premier intends to share the responsibility of investigation.—" Evening Post."