CURRENT TOPICS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8257, 21 October 1912, Page 6

CURRENT TOPICS

A WHITE ELEPHANT. A Johnsonville resident wants to knowwhy it is that a Government which wastes money in running trains of empty carriages to Te Aro cannot provide a few pounds to protect the lives of the residents in the suburb he lives in. The entertaining thing is that the To Aro railway enthusiasts represent that the suburbanites would be very grieved if the Government stopped wasting AIOJ a week (or .£5200 a year) over this nonpaying section.

MONEY NO OBJECT. The Wellington “Evening Post," which is an ardent exponent of economy when it happens to be in that humor, now suggests that the Government should appoint “a dozen, or, if ■ the occasion demanded it, two dozen" of its own nominees to positions in the Upper House. As these gentlemen cost the country in one way or another about -£3OO a year each, a dozen would cost us JCOOOO and

two dozen X12,C00 a rear. All this because the Council refused to endorse Mr Massey's xound-the-oorner proposal to appoint Councillors for three j’cars as a preliminary to electing forty members ! of the Upper House every six; years to duplicate the bower House at enormous cost to “the nation.” The most obvious characteristic of Shamreform is that it is going to prove a very expensive luxury. The amusing thing is that it is being supported by members who ore always in ecstasies of protestation about the dearth of money for backblock development. HISTORY RECALLED. The incident which occurred in a Parliamentary Committee on Friday night, resulting in Sir Joseph Ward complaining of Mr Hiue’s ■'impertinence’' and leaving the room after refusing to'withdraw. recalls a small page in I'arliamentry annals. Hon. John Bryoe declared in Parliament that Sir (then Mr) John McKenzie “ought to be ashamed of himself." Ho refused to withdraw, and left the House and politics for ever, justments. TRAFALGAR DAT. < To-day is tho anniversary of Nelson’s groat victory in Trafalgar Bay. and tho Navy League, as usual, has taken steps to have the fact observed. Headmasters and school committees have been requested to have patriotic speeches delivered at tho schools and tho flags saluted. Tho boys and girls of tho Navy League will be addressed in tho King’s Theatre at 3.50 p.m. by Sir Joseph Ward, Now Zealand president of the league. Ministers have been invited to this gathering. The league has requested citizens having flagpoles to display hunting to-day. References to Trafalgar Day will bo made at some of the theatres this evening. FARMING IN THE BIG WAY. When the middle West was in the making, it required an ox team, one man to drive and another to hold, the plough, and tho time between early dawn and late dusk to “break” an acre of ground, says the Boston "Monitor." Recently at tho experiment station of Purdue University a machine of fifty fourteen-inch ploughs, pulled by three powerful oil-burn-ing engines and operated by four men, ploughed a strip of land fifty-eight feet and four inches wide at a speed of four miles an hour, or one acre in every four minutes and fifteen seconds. This broke tho international ploughing record; but machinery on the farm has been doing many things quite as remarkable during the last twenty-five years, and quite as marvellous, when compared with earlier agricultural methods. CONTRACTORS’ LOSSES. A great deal of public oommont has been caused by the publication of the recommendation of the Parliamentary Committee which inquired into tho Otira tunnel contract to tho effect that the contractors should bo relieved of their contract and have a deposit of .£SOOO returned. We have been asked bo explain. why tho State should give special treatment to contractors on a large scale and insist with the exactitude of a Shylock on. the completion of agreements entered into by small-fry contractors being carried out to the letter. The reply is that there were special circumstances in connection with tho Otira tunnel matter; hut Parliament will have established a very awkward precedent if it endorses the proposal referred to. The suggestion that this enormous and expensive undertaking should be abandoned and allowed to fall into disuetudo comes from persons with disordered intellects. Parliament has a heavy responsibility upon it in coming to a determination on tho whole question. It is a case in which the interests of the community stand paramount. The problem must be approached without fear, favor, or affection. t DAIRYING IN EUROPE. In an interesting article in the current issue of the "Journal” of the Department of Agriculture on “Dairying in Europe,” Mr J. Pedersen, who is at present investigating tho industry abroad on behalf of the New.' Zealand Qovwrnmanti says:—"The prospects of butter in Europe have never been to good. Germany is every year •increasing hog consumptive power, and, 1 believe, will in the near; future bo a good customer for New Zealand butter. Certainly, there is a duty of Id a pound on butter entering Germany, but the retail price is invariably higher than on British markets. As there itf no duty on cream, Danish ekimming-etatious on tho border are increasing their shipments of cream to German buttor-faoterics. Germany is also absorbing more Siberian butter. The population of Germany, it may be remarked, is increasing at the rate of a million souls a year. Ten years ago Germany was exporting .butter: to-day she is importing nearly four times as much as the total export of Now Zealand. The tendency of Germany is also the tendency of several other Continental countries. France, Italy, and even Switzerland cannot now meet the demands of their own consumers. All this points to the fact that butter-values will be well maintained in the future, and that New Zealand daiiy-farmeaw can. have -every confidence in establishing the business of milk-production on a more permanent basis. As long as quality is maintained. New Zealand butter has a splendid future before it.” HAWKE’S BAY IN JUDGMENT. “We fail to see that fresh inducements of any substantial value are offered to tho owner who may not already be disposed towards subdividing and selling his land." says the Hastings “Tribune” in its comments on tho Land Bill. “The qnly advantage offered is the provision of funds for survey and reading, which would bo of use only to a needy owner who could not get the money elsewhere on like terms. As, however, such a one would probably be well mortgaged, and the Government advance is to take priority of all other encumbrances, the mortgagee would need to have some very definite , reasons for’’ concurring in an ' arrangement which postpones his security to that of the Crown. In addition to this, the owner, and with him tho mortgagee, having once committed himself to the arrangement, is tied hand and foot to the Minister. Whatever little advantage might be gained by availing himself of the Government offer of money for preliminary' expenses is more than counterbalanced by the absolute surrender of freedom to contract and finance for himself. We cannot see, therefore, how this particular part of the measure is going to materially promote tho object which it ostensibly has in view.” It is not often the "Times” finds itself in agreement with , its friends at Hastings, but this is just tho same opinion as we ourselves have been < xpressing. The Bill is worthless, and if the “Tribune" had added that the system of land disposal under these "agreemente" will be disastrous to settlers our views would be identical. AN EXAMPLE. -There is an object lesson to young New Zealanders in the performances which are nightly attracting huge audiences to the Opera House. Mr Oscar Asche, whose name is now a household word in tho community, is a colonial oy birth, having been born . in Geelong. When he went out into the world to make name and fame, he adopted “thorough" as his maxim. What his hands finds to do, he does with all his might. It is not sufficient for him that ho is staging “Kismet" or staging Shakespeare. He insists that the same attention to detail, the same perfection of stage management, shall characterise the production of the plays here as in the great world centres. Every member of the company knows that Mr Asche expects nothing but the very best. If things are not going right there will be a rehearsal, and still another rehearsal, or a third or a fourth if necessary. Now rehearsals are very tiring ordeals and above all things to bo avoided. Mr Asche expects nothing that

ho will not do himself. He stays on deck all the time, criticising, supervising, insisting, until everything is just so. Ho is not only an actor, but an artist in stage effects. Pursuing the motto “thorough” lie has familiarised himself with tin? minutest detail of stage management, of tho handling and. setting or Mviu-ry, of ‘ light and shade in scenio effects. Ho is tho man who knows, and nothing is “near enough” for him. Tho result is what wo have seen —a delight and an education to playgoers, and an object lesson to all. The Wellington public is under a debt of gratitude to Mr and Mrs. Asche and to their excellent company for the splendid performances which they have given us. W o can only hope that they will feel sufficiently encouraged by tho demonstrations of approval which they have received from crowded audiences to come this way again.