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New Zealand Mail, Issue 1617, 25 February 1903, Page 70 (Supplement)

The “Timaru Herald” looks AA'ith disfavour on the proposed Parliamentary excursion to Fiji and the Cook Islands, and thinks the Tutanekai could he more profitably employed than “gadding about the Pacific Ocean Avith a cfoAA'd of New Zealand legislators.” Our contemporary lias worked itself into a state of great excitement on this subject, and declares —AA'ith rather noisy emphasis—that “the trip is an impudent imposition on the public, and that if members of Parliament Avant to make personal acquaintance Avith tlie Cook Islands, and the other islands of the Pacific, Avhether included in the colony' of Noav Zealand or not, they ought to charter a steamer for themselves or make use of one that is running to the localities in question, and aboA'O all pay their own expenses.” IntervieAved by the Auckland temperance parties last AA’eek, the Premier said his experience of the electoral rights system was that it afforded many opportunities for plural A'oting. Pie favoured discontinuance of the purging of rolls after the elections, as it caused irritation. He said Auckland Avas not alone in its complaints. Wellington was alive AA'ith irritated people. In vieAV of the pitiable condition of thousands of families in NeAA' South Wales and Victoria, and the fact that it will be many months before there can possibly he an improvement, the Wanganui “Herald” supports the suggestion of a correspondent that NeAV Zealanders should not he deterred by the rebuffs already given to Madame Melba and Mr Seddon, and possibly other offers of outside assistance, hut start a subscription for their relief. The correspondent offers five sacks of wheat, and thinks that in vieAV of the bountiful harvest in this colony, tlie matter would be heartily taken up from one end of it to the other. The Premier is to be communicated with on the suggestion*