CURRENT TOPICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8190, 3 August 1912, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS

THE LAST DAT, This is the Lost day on which entries can be made for the "Times" shill competition for prices amounting to .£SO. There was a big mail of entries yesterday and theadjudicator will hare a big task in sorting out the winners. The conditions are very simple considering the money value involved. The advertisement will be found on page INJUDICIOUS, A anonymous controversy is raging in the "Railway Officers' Gazette" because of an editorial attack in the last number on Mr McVilly, Assistant Manager of Railways. It seems to an onlooker that the "Advocate” is treading on very dangerous ground in its recent line of tactics. That journal is capable of rendering very useful service, but its usefulness will be seriously restricted unless great discretion is exercised by the man at the helm. YES—NO JOURNALISM. The Wellington "Evening Post." while pretending not to do so, says a few words in favor of signed journalism. It is possible (says the "Post") that some newspapers, with a day-to-day policy and a chronic disposition to change their character, would like the signed article proposal, because then the ridicule for vagaries of policy could be largely diverted from a journal itself to the individual contributor. But the "Poet" will find it hard to change its character after all these years of saying "Yes" vehemently one day, and "No" most emphatically the next. OUR NEXT GOVERNOR. A rumour is current in Wellington that the Earl of Liverpool is to succeed Lord Islington as Governor of New Zealand. Lord Liverpool is forty-two years of age. He served in the South African War, and was made major in 1907. He was sometime A.D.C. to Lord Cadogan when the latter ,-wae Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and later was State Steward and Chamberlain to the present LordLieutenant of Ireland (Lord Aberdeen). Lord Liverpool owns estate* is Lincolnshire and Nottinghamshire. His recreations are hunting, shooting, cricket, and

racquets. He married in 1597 the only daughter of Viscount Monck. The family name is Foljnmbe, and the heir to the title is the Hon. Gerald W. F. S. Foljambe, half-brother to the Earl. "WHERE WILL YOU PUT THEMF* A Conservative member of the Houas who hc4d forth at tome length yesterday afternoon on the urgent need for attracting immigration to New Zealand was quite • nonplussed by a Labor representative. The Conservative declared with vigor that it was the duty of the Government to advertise in the high ways and by-ways of Great Britain to induce people to come out. ‘‘What will you advertise?" asked the Labor man. ‘‘That we have the finest little country in the world," was the reply. “And where." pursued the Labor member, "will you put the people when they do come out here?” There was no answer.

WHO ARE THE PRODUCERS? What is true, what is evident to all who will think it out; is that every honest worker aids in the work of production. Ho may build houses for workers on the land to live in, he may make implements for workers on the land to use, he may make boots to shoe them, he may keep school to enable the children of the worker to be educated, ho may carry letters to save the worker on the land the trouble of doing so, but whatever he does of useful work, to that end he is a producer. The "man on the land' is but 'one of many links in a chain driving the wheel* of progress. The error of the Farmers’ Union is based upon the view that only the landowner is a producer.—Napier "Telegraph.” THE ORDER. OF ST. JOHN. Wellington citizens may remember that the late Bishop of Salisbury journeyed all the way from England to assist at the consecration of Dr Wallis nearly eighteen years ago. He was the only spiritual peer who ever visited Now land, and his advent caused considerable interest in church circles at the time. His Lordship was one of the few. Angli* can Bishops who has been specially honoured by the Sovereign, Queen Victoria having made him a sub-Prelata of the Order of St. John of Jenisalem many years ago. Ho took great interest in the British Ophthalmic Hospital at Jerusalem, and was devoted to the aims of the order generally. Before his death, be specially desired that the eight-pointed cross of St. John should be placed in his coffin to be buried with him, and accordingly his wish was strictly complied with. The Order of St. John, which claimed Dr Wordsworth as a very faithful member, is one of great antiquity, having been instituted by 1 ape Pascal 11. in the year 1010, and the sponsors of those obtaining admission stipulate that they must contribute to its glory, prbsperity, and utility. The lata Bishop consistently observed all the requirements set forth in his Declaration of Allegiance. MINISTERIAL RESIDENCES. There are throe establishments in Wellington, known ns Ministerial Residences, that ought to be got rid of for the benefit «xf the State, says the Feuding Star. Awarua House, in Tinakon road, where Sir Joseph Ward so long resided, is as damp ns its situation would lead one to expect, and it has absorbed a small fortune in upkeep and maintenance since the days when Sir Julius Vogel was. m residence there. - At the present time, W 6 believe, AvranLa Hons© occupied, only by the packing cases containing oar Joseph’s furniture, ready for removal since his own removal from office. Every change of Ministry has meant renovation and alteration' at the other two Ministerial Residences —and that has meant no small expense for carpets and other furnishings. One Minister, was in residence for one week only, yet everything hod to be altered and new goods got in to suit hi® own and his . wife® taste* Ministers have -been very extravagant towards 'the (State under circumstances that would not have caused them to spend an extra penny in their own homes or in the rooms occupied by them at a hotel. It would pay the State well .if Parliament abolished the Ministenal Residence and allowed even .£SOO extra house allowance; for there has not been, enough entertaining don© at the Residences during th© past twenty years to justify their extravagant upkeep. If any member is curious, let him ask for a return of the expenses and an inventory .of the goods supplied to the Ministerial i Residences. The figures would be an eyeopener.