PUBLIC OPINION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 17 August 1910, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION.

THE GOVERNOR. Without derogating from the merits of recent occupants of the Vice-regal position, it may be said that since Lord Onslow's time the Crown has not sent New Zealand a representative of Lord Islington's calibre in point of direct relation to political life and the problrms of contemporary statecraft, and there is a general expectation that the new Governor will find means of utilising hie knowledge and trained -ability for the benefit of the Dominion, while taking tactful care to observe the prescribed limits of constitutional propriety.—Dunedin "Star." PRISON REFORM. Between the Scylla of namby-pamby-ism on the one hand and the Charybdis of degrading and vengeful harshness on the otheT hand, there seems to lie, as .ne experience of reformatory efforts in other countries suggests, a safe and reasonable course. It is that course that Dr Findlay is endeavouring to steer in the proposals which arc now before Parliament.—"Otago Daily Times." MR HINE'S ALLEGATIONS. We again challenge Mr Massey to formulate a series of charges on this .-natter. Can he point to any instances in connection with the Government of New Zealand, which any unbiassed visitor from, say, England or America, would describe as Tammayism. So far as wo have been able to observe, his one and only chance is that advertising orders are not dispensed as liberally as he would wish to certain newspapers friendly to him. Mr Hine is the untamed colt of the Opposition. He appears to possess no knowledge of what is due to Parliament, and his sense of fair play has hardly reached the rudimentary stage. We have no hesitation in suporting Sir Joseph Ward's pointed statement that in the absence of any names the country will express its disbelief in Mr Hine's stories. He is still, therefore in the unenviable position of a. man who has either gone too far or not far enough.—"New Zealand Times.' PRISON "REFORM.

We are no sticklers for abstract logic as an infallible guide in matters of this kind, and can fully appreciate the danger, from which Elmira has not entirely escaped, of treating a prison as nothing but a moral hospital, but we should nevertheless have been glad to see, and especially in the dhse of the longer terms, a much wider measure of elasticity allowed by the Bill. If the reformatory treatment is to be a farce, as the Rev. E. C. Budd declares it to have been under the Habitual Criminate

and Offenders Act. the less we have the better; but if it is to be a reality, and effect a genuine moral cure, why should it be delayed in the case of the serious offenders until thev have been, say, live or seven years in gaol.—'Evening Post,'

A WORD TO THE WORKERS

We observe that several of the miners' unions on the West Coast have recently cancelled their registration under the Arbitration Act. with the obvious intention of clean mj the way to. •i strike if thev should consider such a step necessary." Whether this policy * regarded from the standpoint of the miners themselves or from the point ol view of the public interest we regard it as extremely regrettab e for nothing has happened since our Arbitration Act wi-s last amended to shake our conviction that peaceful means ot settling industrial disputes are infinitely preferable to the "dread arbitrament of war. —•'Auckland Starv-