POLITICAL NOTES.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 10594, 25 October 1910, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

By Telegraph

(From Our Own Correspondent.)' : - Wellington, October 24.' —Hospital Don'ts. — Usually the Hospital and Charitable, Aid Department's annual report, contains paragraphs refreshingly .original and unofficial. This year the InspectorGeneral of Hospitals, l)r Valintme, provisos excellent tabloid advice to hospital administrators. He moralises thus: - To hospital committees an officer is only worth keeping so long .as he knows that lie has something to learn. Ihe ■ ... in--dispcnsiblc" officer does not exist; at any rat©-no; institution' can afford to.rcxtain him. No man is fit to sit on a. board who , quotes., what ho wears through a "lady friend." Doctors preach to persons outside a . hospital that either a highly nitrogenous- dietary, a stuffy room, or want or occupation is by itself an evil and a truitiul source of trouble; why their do they, allow their patients inside,a. hospital to be in the convalescent rootas to a combination of these evils and then wonder that complaints arise; —Railway Construction.— There is no such thing at present as promising any new-railways in any part of the country, said the Prime Minister to a deputation this afternoon, adding: "AVc do not know ourselves what we will be able to do this year until we go into the whole question of. public expenditure preparatory bringmg down, the Public /Works Statemenxj. "I doubt very much whether wo will be able to start new railways this year, said the Minister of Public Works, who was present at the interview, because all the money available will be required to carry on the lmes now in hand, and we must not borrow any more for some time, because .if I Wo ,, dlc J the first thing to happen would be that the Opposition members would cry out. that we are ruining and Ipadmg posterity "

—The Land Bill. — A great deal lias been written of the prospects of" the Land Bill, which has been reported from the Lands Committee with amendments, but no member, has yet been found bold enough, to, hint at the possibility of- its passage, m a sea of probabilities it is certain onlj that the leaseholders are-"preparing a, number of .amendments against the unlikely consideration of the Bill m L/ommittee,' and these will be in the direction of substituting the ' present .day value wherever it" is proposed to give land at the original value, to, -provide for cash without terms ana to bring the compulsory leasing clauses in more uniformity in regard to the values of which estates may be acquired. -However, the compulsory leasing proposals are looked on as the least likely ot passage. The Bill may come up, for second reading; m that case it will be debated for a day and then placed down on the Order Paper with no prospect ot revival. • _____