CURRENT TOPICS.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLI, Issue 9833, 26 June 1914, Page 2

CURRENT TOPICS.

onr« .>s opening, or just about to ta?' "f write ' an( * you think of the fionucal prospects of tho session wiU depend entirely on which 6ide you stand. 1 n « on neither, but cry a plague on both >our houses. There was a time when 1 tried honestly and hard to take a serious interest m New Zealand politics, but that time has passed. In New Zealand nowday* i»y political preference® aro mainly personi i i , r ° aro Cwrta ' ll men I hke, and 1 • noultl love to eoe tliem on top, merely because they aro good fellows. If you tell me tnat x am sitting on a rail, I can only report that then? isn't any rail. The " distinctions between parties are no longer more t/ian nominal, and the policies to which they ;>ledge themselves aro strikingly identical. It the party newspapers are to bo believed, every time Mr Maseey announces a point of policy Sir Joseph Ward 6teal9 it. and every tune Sir Joseph lays bare hia policy Mr Massey puts hi 6 mark and brand on it. no each party affects to conceal its policy in order that it may not be annexed bv tile other fellow: which scenw to me to be about ino sillie«>|, position in the world— a position to cause immoderate mirth in Titipu. oomo amendment in tho Electoral Act wid bo attempted. Nobody kno*s what torm that amendment, will take. Mr Massev promised that something should bo provided in place of the abandoned Second lkllot. and everybody is wondering what the something will oe. Newman, speaking the other night, prophesied proportional representation for the cities, with massed electorates: the inference boine; that countrv electorates will bo left as at present The Doctor may have spoken with some warrant 't authority, 0 r lie may have done a little •7, r ' l * s own 'he i* delioiouslv irrospoil--11 v 1 ol^;inl ' terrible of his party. Still. Jr. Newman may have been entrusted with lie task of putting out a feeler. We shall -vo.

f don't suppose that there will muoh -onotis obstruction iiii3 session. Members .no .ill rtixiouk to goi back to their constituencies, ■where various littlo foxes are •Urcady busy about tho vines. Prospects !dr December remain in Wellington ppitv mueh what they wore- N\> offort uill I>o spared to cM. Mr tidier from \V«dlincfton Central: firemen and seanvn are even being 1 withdrawn from Lvttelton to that end. 1 have it <>n what seems to U; poo<l authority that at least throe hundred voters of this class, who voted at Lyttelton thnv years a? 0 will thi? time vote in Wellington Central. If that proves to !v the ease, the thine will be serious for Mr Fisher, whwo majority last tini(> was very small indeed. I do not believe that Mr HerdmanV seat is in any st'rious danger. Mr Ilcrdman stand.- more solidly in tho <s f '"e>:i <>• great bulk of the electors than he di<i throe years ago. 110 has nuiiio groat rr.etuie«, as some <t| in think; but m i >o>rkn of exceptional delicacy and <!,!!!:•'!Itv ho acquitted himself ]iko a man. ile !<< pt a stifT upper lip, when thousands of average people were becoming hysierica!. He merits consideration at the hands of such old-fashioned people as like downright honesty. I don't know Mr Ilerdinan personally, and I <lor,'t think he is half so brilliant as some of his admirers would have us believe. But I am convinced that, he is a straight goer and no shirk.

I don't care to ?ny much about tho Opposition. lor one thine, most. of my personal fi:r: .Is are on that, si do of politic?. I'or another, there is no phraseology of polite English in which I can cxpro6.s mv contempt, for the era* Cupidity of gome members of that pa.ty. At a time when th<» r>artv was in great danger, some of them fought- for personal place as savagely at hungry curs fight for a b:me, nnc! apparent'v cared no whit though the party and 'tic country went, to the devil. Men who arc party men in that sense dwarfing the needs of party to the mean ambitions of their own undistinguish-d persons—move in mo noiliif? but a hick disgust. A FAMILY SHOW. t For the past few days, tho »'nm-.ly- has been performing nt. the Wellington Opera House. If you like good music, and a piecing entertainment. don't miss the Kennedys wivtt they come \our way. One of them, Laurie, is'a qtih* remarkable young 'C"!! ; st, r.tid all of t.heni have a fare knack of doing things in a really interesting way. 1 !iev are Sydney folk, who have becitizens of tho world. They have traveled far ;.nd pitched thvir tents in all sorts of remote p]«ces. They havo sung and played in Quetta (which is the end of everywhere], jr ; ]>, shnwer. in Rawai Pindi; they know India and the Far Fa t letter than most of you know Now Zealand.

Mil NORTH The Rn. .T. ,T. North, who hr.« been vor i|uict of late. lms made an*>iii< r fensatiotu s[ )ooc«i in Chrisi-hurch. He accuses tha city of unexampled immorality, and h clamours for tic imposition of n rigid con -oi'.-bip on ovcrvthinsr. lie apparently hold I hat if you screw iho safely valve riirli 'lowu th<> boiler will lv ?af«- —;i queer i d ej j enough, but typitiJ of Mr North and hi class. In plain fan, ('lirislchurch ax a wholt I is no more moral and no l.«s moral thai any other city of Australasia. If is t.h< | Mines that- are changing-, and not the be haviour (>f the people. Young people r.r< being freed nt. too early an mo from tin proper discipline of home, and so ar* earlier exposed to the serious temptations that he in tho pat.li of nil men. We arc unmuzzling tho < I<"»et, and then expressme surprise that so many folks get hitten. The fault does not he with the dog, and it is tho height, of stupidity to blame tlie folk? 'hat are bitten. Society is to blamo for toloratin<r the removal of tho muzzle. I am old-fashioned enough to believe that hove and girls should submit to parental authority till they are old enough to take care of themselves. I hold that young girls, in particular, should >v.» cl"solv guarded till ' hoy reach the \eain of womanhood. This talk of censorship i 9 silly. '1 lit? Fronoh systorn is far better. Give the entertainer* reasonable liberty to provide the «ort of tare their patrons desire to pay for. and on that make very pla:.i what sort, of entertainments young girls should bo permitted to attend, what book* thev shall read, what, pictures they shall see. The ack of rood discipline in most New Zeaand homes is no less than scandalous. I have made fun of Christ church often enough, because its poses and odd capers are really very amusing; but I have never seriously blamed Christchurc-h tjirls for being easy in their manners. For that their parents are to blame. Tike the case ot tho silly child who got into trouble down there a week ago for going on \ joy-ride. The first thing that is o!>-. ions :s that a girl of that age should not have been at liberty to go riding with anybody. In the circumstances, she is not to be blamed, but pitied. If parsons like Mr North would cry out. acramst parental neglect and indifferent tlivv would have a much better chance of cheeking the evils against which thev rail. L.irJs of tender ago should not bo allowed in the street at ail without proper escort, tho man who assails a young girl with tempting suggestions should bo sent to gaol. We have started at the wrong end. is all very well to raise the ape of con- ?' ,• tilings are little good would > (Jono it the ago of consent wor« raised to eighty So long as young girls are mposed to certain temptations, vounir girk will occasionally succumb. I'OXALL. Mr "Tod" Foxa.ll, who was badly injury)T a burglar in a Japanese Consulate at. oycJupy a day or two ago, w an old friend of mine, and a very good fellow. He ia a valient smgle-taxer, ono of the small enthusiastic band that induced Henry Jrcorgo to visit Australia a good many \f ar 'u"°r Another crony of t he bunch was T . ; K Johi!y_>n . now Sneaker of tho ustrahaa House of Representative*, i'oxails enthusiasms aro all red-hot. A good, sweet, strong, brotherly, oompaaion- . chap. Has a good baritone voice, and sings a good song. His friends will griere I over his injuries, but will hare full oonfijlenoo in his recovery. Tod Foxall was no* born to be killed by a burglar. MATERNITY. In Australia t.lis Commonwealth Gorernmont is doing a very sensible thing. It is issuing to every mother and prospective mother in the country pamphlets on care of self and care of Uabies. A very remarkable thing, don't you think, that the average girl who comes to womanhood knows next, to nothing about the maternal , notions, ail d of tho care of inf»tits nothing at. all? In New Zealand, I)i. Truby King has done wonderfully mutt) to rem<xl> tins state of things; but ono man's powers are limited. It would b* an excellent thing if instructions on ths care of infanta were given in all our primary schools. 1 ho result would bo that infant mortality would decrease when girls »o instructed grew up. Meantime, it is fullj time that her# in

New Zealand Dr. King's work won fuller recognition. A* it is. many people who know nothing whatever about the subject regard him at of a crank It it th* uoiumou l'jt of :o for inert.