PUBLIC OPINION.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLVII, Issue XLVII, 5 March 1912, Page 7

PUBLIC OPINION.

I • LOCAL GOVERNMENT. In the Local Government Bill provision is made for the payment of subsidies on- the general rates ■ collected by provincial and county councils and on hospitals and charitable institutions. If the revenue from Crown Lands were paid, over -to the provincial councils could not these subsidies be abolished? The subsidy system has the disadvantage 6f keeping the local body in a state of "dependence on the Legislature. It robs the local authority of it 9 independence, perpetuates State patronage, artel constitutes a method of support uncertain and unreliable. If the distribution of the land fund would enable local bodies to carry on their functions without the assistance of tile State feedingbottle it would have a wholesome and purifying influence on the whole body politic.—Dunedin '"Star." THE POLITICAL SITUATION. It is certain that the allotment of portfolios in the Government when it is reconstructed, whether it be under Mr Laurenson or Mr Thomas Mackenzie, or Mr Hanan, or Sir Arthur Guinness, will cause such .an amount of disappointment as will augur ill for the cornfort, of the Ministers. In all the circumstances the triumph of the Opposition, prevented on Tuesday night through the cynical violation of their pledges by the new members of the House, seems only to be deferred. The will of the people may temporarily be defeated through the tergiversation of some of their representatives, but it must ultimately prevail.—"Otago Daily Times." THE RETIRING PRIME "MINISTER. Now that Sir .Joseph Ward has been forced into temporary retirement, it is "up to"' the younger generation to see not what it can wrangle about, but what it can accomplish. There is enough brains in Parliament to furnish three first-class Radical Cabinets if the elements of vaunting ambition can be efficiently subdued. In saying this we do not seek to belittle th e retiring Prime Minister. Sir Joseph Ward is a man who cannot be poljtely waved aside. He has not achieved all that w e could, have wished, but he has done mcr e than eome of us have realised. His name will be written in letters of gold in the an,nals of New Zealand when those of his detractors will have- vanished into dust. — "New Zealand Times.'' THE NEW MINISTRY. The formation of a new Ministry means that • the control of' the affairs of the country will pass into the hands of a new set of men about whom neither Parliament, nor the- country has had an opportunity of forming a judgment or expressing an opinion. It must bo plain that in such circumstances it is desirable that Parliament should know before it disbands who its new leader is to be. and who ho has chosen as his colleagues, otherwise a situation will be created in which the control of the affairs of the country will b:f ihanded over to tbp sweet will of a set of men. chosen by one man without cdnsnHfnjr Parliament, and against whom no effective protest will be possible for something like, four months. —"Dominion." '