EVENTS OF THE DAY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5736, 3 November 1905, Page 4

EVENTS OF THE DAY.

HUTT IMPROVEMENTS.

The ratepayers of the borough of Lower Hntt should have little hesitation about supporting the lean proposals concerning which a poll is to ho taken to-day. ' Within a short time, when the project of the Railway Department is carried into execution and a fast and frequent suburban train service is established, tho population of tho Hutt. borough will he more than doubled, and property values will experience a great’ advance. By these means, tho burden of interest on the proposed loan of £52,000 will be lightened, and property-owners, business people, and residents in general will bo benefited. The scheme of improvements has been drafted on the basis of supplying a population of ten thousand,) so that it will suffice for a large expansion in tho borough. That expansion will, hotvover, be chocked if tho projected improvements arc not carried out. To maintain the reputation of tho borough as a residential suburb, sanitation and street paving must be attended to. It is essential to health, safety, and comfort that a drainage scheme should bo adopted, that a sufficient supply of pure water for domestic use should bo provided, with pressure adequate to the suppression of outbreaks of fire, and that roads and footpaths should bo formed and maintained in good condition. Tho scheme for which the ratepayers are asked to find tho ways and moans contemplates tho expenditure of £29,393 on drainage, £17,800 on water supply and firo extinction, and £4300 on roads, bridges, etc. Tho details have been well considered, and tho works present no difficulties that are likely to cause the engineer’s estimate of cost to bo exceeded. Finally, excellent arrangements have boon made for the financing of the scheme. Tho Council has been able to procure tho necessary money at 4* x>er cent, on a par basis, and tho loan will not all be raised at once, but only as required to meet expenditure, so that there will bo a saving in interest payments. All the conditions being favourable, and tho works being most desirable in tho interests of tho ratepayers and of the borough as a whole, it is to bo hoped that the proposed loan will receive tho sanction of tho majority at tho poll to-day, and that thereby a fresh impetus may bo given to tho borough.

RELIANCE ON THE RUSSIAN ARMY. It is to the Russian army that the world looks for tho next development in tho great tragedy now being acted on tho wide stage of the Russian Empire. Service in the army is theoretically universal and compulsory; hut the regulations are construed in a lenient spirit and the exemptions are numerous. The fact remains that the array is in effect a conscript army; tho soldiers aro enlisted for comparatively short terms, and after their service they pass into tho reserves. So that tho army is the people. Confirmatory evidence of this basic community of interests has been given by the open sympathy with the strikers displayed by tho soldiery throughout tho distracted Empire. In St. Petersburg the troops did (or dared) not interfexe with tho procession of revolutionists -who sang a hymn for the dead on the very spot made wet with their predecessors’ blood on that terrible “Red Sunday” of last January." Tlie resox-vists in Russian Poland, and tho troops of tho capital of Finland, refused to firo on the rod Hag. In Warsaw some of the troops actually threw down their arxns and joined the crowd. It needs only some regiment to follow this example, and step from passive acquiescence in the revolt to active participation, and another revolution, as momentous as that of Fiance, will take its place in history- Tho safety of tho autocracy resides, however, in tho number of different tribes and nations comprised in the vast circle _of the Russian Empire. By utilising troops from one part of tho Empire to cow the inhabitants of another part, it is sought to keep citizens and soldiers from making common cause. The presence of Cossacks, who are horsemen of the plains, in the streets of St. Petersburg is evidence of the autocracy's policy of distrust of regiments quartered in tho districts from which they have been recruited. It remains to bo seen how long oven tho Cossack will do tho bidding of a discredited, master.

TO-NIGHT’S MEETING. • TttiS session just closed has been remarkable for a number of fresh departures in the Government’s policy. It has been reiterated that the Government’s programme was ended ; that its originality had become exhausted; and that it was looking abroad—that is. to the Opposition benches—for a policy. If . the earlier part of the session betrayed no indication of freshness of ideas, it must certainly be said that the closing hours gave no signs of Government inertia or lack of political grasp to cope with the requirement;; of the hour. And with tho Opposition how fares it ? They have put up a stubborn fight during the session, mostly _ihthe form of land and financial criticism. Nono welcomes fight more than the Premier. Now and again his opponents have hit him fairly hard, but ho has held his own. The leader of the Opposition is confident that ho will come back from tho hustings greatly strengthened; the Premier admits that the Government will lose men, just as will tho Opposition; and in view of tho interesting issues before tho electors, especially in regard to tho land question, the coming struggle possesses more than usual interest. The first “big guns" of the Government will be fired to-night at the Opera House, with tho appearance of the leading Ministers of the Crown, at a great meeting held in tho interests of the Liberal cause. The Premier’s address, tho first opportunity he has had since the session closed, should place before the people in concrete form the work of the session, and the programme and the prospects of the Liberal party in the ensuing contest.