WHAT THE PAPERS SAT.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7021, 8 January 1910, Page 5

WHAT THE PAPERS SAT.

Sir Joseph Ward has already, on various public occasions, shown that ho is fully alive to the importance of this new development in telegraphy, and we hone that when concluding an agreement with Australia for the establishment of wireless in the Pacific, he will endeavour to bring Rarotonga and Tonga, with which we have large trading interests, within tho .circuit from the outset.—‘'Auckland Star."

The Conservatives, the great landowners, the Peers, the wealthy and the privileged classes, are everlastingly talking about “Colonial Preference/' and they have the audacity to assert that Australians, New ZealandeVs, and Canadians are bitterly disappointed that our "offers" of Colonial Preference have hitherto been laid aside by the Liberal Government. We cannot believe it possible—indeed, we believe it is quite im-. possible—that any New Zealander or Canadian would wish to get a higher price for his wheat, meat or butter at the expense of the half-starved workers of the Old Country.—“ Marlborough Express." In the whole of the United Kingdom then© is an area of nearly 78,000,000 acres of land, including rivers, mountains, bogs, public roads, parks, etc. Taking England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales together, 52,083,095 acres out of the complete total is owned by the •trifling number of 10,911 persons out of the 45,000,000 comprising the entire population. Standing by itself, the fact is at once discreditable and damaging to Britain, but if wo consider it in the light of Mr Balfour's plea for the freehold it ought to make us laugh where it fails to make ua angry.—“ Napier Tele-. graph." Schools are strangled with foolish and unnecessary regulations, which cramp individual efforts. In a given school both tho teacher and the local committee should have fuller powers than they now enjoy. They understand local conditions and local requirements, and, if left alone, will adjust -all school matters in the best interests of the particular locality where the given school is situated. In school matters a little more commonsense is needed to obtain the best results. The old provincial schools of forty years ago were more efficient than the syllabus-haunted school of the present day.—“Wairarapa Daily Times."

The desire to contribute to the encouragement of agricultural education is undoubtedly one to be fostered, but we have doubts as to the suitability of district high schools as the media for the furtherance of this object. It seems somewhat vain to plan to teach farming indiscriminately to country boys and girls whether the knowledge is to be of -use to them or not and whether they wish to acquire it or not, and, indeed, protest be heard were an. effort made to carry it into practice. If the district high schools wore all turned into agricultural colleges there would bo (complaint, we suppose, that the country districts were nogJected ag regards ordinary secondary education. "Otago Daily Times."