CURRENT TOPICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8189, 2 August 1912, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

PARLIAMENT IN A PASSION. Mr A. H. Hindmaxah introduced into the House of Representatives yesterday a Bill having many admirable features, but accompanied by an intemperate - and high-pitched speech which was the signal tor ribaldry, and at once led the Legislature away into a most foolish and useless debate in which there was much recrimination, -verbal in-lighting, and washing of dirty linen. The main suggestion in Hr liinduiarsh’s Bill was that at election times articles and publications of all kinds relating to politics should disclose the names of their authors. Instead of the House settling down to a serious discussion of the policy outlined, members started a wrangle about the virtues and otherwise of certain specified writers, and the vices and otherwise of certain specified newspapers. It was a pitiful exhibition, of spite and incompetency, relieved only by the epicod humour of some of the repraeentatives who refused to • bake the proceedings seriously. If "Hansard" were as popular ns it is costly the public would speedily realise how utterly flippant, frivolous, and inconsequential a debate of this kind can be. On thq Question at issue there is something to be said for and against Anonymous journalism has. in our opinion, little to recommend it, except the hoary respectability which attaches to precedent. It is quite certain that when signed articles come into universal vogue, a greater sense of responsibility will attach to public writing, and we shall see an end to a class of journalism whoso inevitable tendency has been to bring discredit on literary craftsmanship. A practice the world over is to give more and more prominence to individual writers, and the signed article is a distinguishing feature of some of the most eminent of the newspapers in English-speaking countries. Under this system only the highest type of journalism can survive, because the public, which is at heart just and discriminating, will naturally revolt from a style of writing which makes anonymity the cover for abuse and ridicule, and give preference to the signed article in which issues will be fairly stated and thoughtful and constructive writing will receive the, appreciation which its merits deserve. The case for responsible journalism received its greatest justification yesterday when we saw the effect which irresponsible journalism has hod in stirring up the least admirable of the emotions of men who, taken individually, are the reflex of the com-mon-sense and judicial faculty of the comm unities they represent.

FARMERS AND DEFENCE. It was suggested in these columns some time ago that it would bo more satisfactory and more economical if the Defence Department could arrange for continuous training of farm hands in camps during the slack season than to have a number of drill instructors riding up and down the country conducting fragmentary parades. This view has now been emphasised by the Farmers’ Union. Mr Chambers put the whole thing in a nutshell when he said it was absurd to see men riding thirty or forty miles to attend a one and a half hours' parade. THE FORTY WINKS TOWSER. Considerable discussion took place at the Farmers’ Union Conference on the Government system of valuation. Mr Ewan Campbell said “straight out’’ that the Government valuers were no fools. In his long and practical experience it was rare indeed that the Government valued land up to its full market value. He counselled, “Let sleeping dogs lie, and, for God’s sake, don't wake 'em!’’ Nobody wants to “wake" the farmer who works his land, but there are a lot of people who will presently be awake to taxing the landholder who is working to work the oracle so as to hold large areas of unimproved land out of the reach of the worker who wants to work the land. That is the kind of sleeping dog that the valuer and the tax-collec-tor will have to keep his eye on when the community stops drowsing alongside the fat canine who lies stretched across the progress thoroughfare. DAYLIGHT SAVING. One of the most conspicuous changes in working conditions in England which struck Mr Matthew Clark, of the wellknown mercantile house of Archibald Clark and Sons, Auckland, during a residence of over twelve months, just concluded, was the habit formed hy business people of going to work much later and (leaving it proportionately late. “When I lived in England twenty-five years ago,’* said Mr Clark to & "star" reporter, "it was usual to go to business as early as wo do in Auckland now. At present many English people go to work perhaps as late as half-past ten in the morning and they leave at about seven in the evening. In explaining the change to me my friends attributed it to the fact that telephone and telegraphic orders

now reach the establishments late in the afternoon for attention beiore closing time, whereas formerly they used to arrive by mail first thing in the morning.” The Daylight Saving Bill was attracting considerable attention in Eng* land, Mr Clark said, and he thought its real object was to check tho very tendency to which he had referred. He attended a large public meeting while in London, at which a personal friend of his who had taken a prominent part the House of Commons towards assisting the passage of the measure was speaking. Tho meeting was quite enthusiastic. The feeling appeared to he strong that there was need for improvement* in regard to the hours of work. TO-DAY AND TO-MORKOW. There are two days more in which an opportunity will be given our readers to share the .£SO worth of prizes in connection with the simple skill comeptitiqn outlined in to-day's issue. The entries are now rolling in in real earnest. Those who do not compete will get no prizes. NO MORE TAXATION. At the Farmers’ Union Conference it was decided to send a resolution to Mr Massey asking him not to tax the gcosa that laid the golden ogg. Mr it. D. Vavasour, a struggling small settlor from Marlborough, was the mover. Farmers, he said, should firmly and emphatically oppose further taxation. Wa agree with this. There should ho no further taxation of tho farmer who farms. Mr Massey should devote all his attention to tho taxation of the farmer who farms the fanner. If tho Primai Minister is still the man who pot the telegram on the haystack he will probably do so; if he is tho man for whom the squatters burned their patrol at the polls he will probably forget the little goose which lays the golden egg and plump for the peacock who shreds lug tail feathers for the party fighting funds.

' THE ANNANIAS COMPETITION. An inspired gentleman named J. A. Barrer, of Ingleborough, Lancastoi (Eng.), writes a letter to “The Nation" telling of the horrors attaching to compulsory training in New Zealand. Mr Barrer. says there have keen no end of riots and damage and various conflicts at Christchurch between the militarists and anti-militarists; "just outside Wellington youths to the number of 700 stormed the military barracks”; the education authority in nil parts of New Zealand have refused their grounds for training purposes; several leading schools suffered severe damage from the cadet companies; many business people have sold up their businesses and left the country. Mr Barrer does not wish to discourage emigrants to “so otherwise pleasant a country," but he thinks that they ought "to go there with their eyes open." We hope Mr Fairer will not himself be deterred. There is a certain class of local journal to whom the services of a gentleman with so ripe and prolific an imagination would be invaluable.

CAPTAIN BRANDI

Our morning contemporary adopts n particularly mean method of explaining away Captain Brandi's claim to seniority. It says: “The authorities have been placed in the very invidious position of denying to Captain Brandi the seniority to which lh« is technically entitled by virtue of his irregular appointment to a rank to which he was not entitled in the first place." The reply to that is that immediately after Captain Brandi received "the irregular appointment to which' he was not entitled" ha made the appointment regular and showed chat he was entitled, to it by passing the requisite examination. If the rewords in the Territorial Forces are to go to men who make good in all branches of the service they will go to the men of the Brandi type. If they are to go to the "lookers, or the men. who wear their moustaches pointed in a certain direction and without regard to their ? notifications otherwise, wo shall probaby have a set of officers after the "I)o----minion's" own heart but not after the public's own heart by any means. We are very anxious that the Territorial movement shall succeed. It cannot possibly succeed in a country like this if favoritism or cliquiem is allowed to intervene between merit and promotion. Captain BYnndi's sacrifice after twenty years of meritorious service will not have boon in vain if he has succeeded in permanently establishing this salutary principle