The Otago Witness WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1928.) THE WEEK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3889, 25 September 1928, Page 47

The Otago Witness WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE SOUTHERN MERCURY. (TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 1928.) THE WEEK.

Sir Joseph Ward.

“Nnnquam allud natura, allud sapientia dixit.” —Juvenal. "Good nature and good eense must ever join.”— Pope.

Sir Joseph Ward may be regarded as the

forlorn 'hope of the United Party—that is to say, tlie leadership of Sir Joseph Ward is an

essential factor in keeping the party true to its name. Yet Sir Joseph Ward is the o member of the present Parliament who was returned, under the old banner of Liberalism, and according to the chairman of the conference which selected Sir Joseph Ward as leader it was from the ashes of Liberalism that the United Party has arisen Phoenix-like. Seemingly the rumour so explicitly denied that Sir Joseph Ward had been approached on the subject while in Canada, if not exactly founded on fact, has at least helped to shape events and make history. The United Party, having selected a leader, is in urgent need of a policy, which will have to be framed ere its candidates go to the hustings and solicit the support of the electors. What will be the attitude of the United Party towards Labour, and will Sir Joseph Ward be found in the same lobby with Mr Holland on a want of confidence motion in the Government? And, in the unlikely event of such a motion being carried, will Sir Joseph Ward join with Mr Hol lam. in forming a Labour-Liberal Government? These arg some of. the eventualities which the United Party under new leadership inevitably .suggests, and concerning which the average elector wil begin to inquire. The United Party's candidates are already taking the field, and beyond being united in a desire J defeat the present Government the planks of their platform have .yet to be published. It is distinctly a question of wait and see, but voters are apt to become impatient unless their natural curiosity be speedily satisfied. ■

The Surprise of the Session.

The defeat- of the Licensing Bill on its third vpndinor hv n dr.™.

rnirn reading by a slender majority may fairly be described as the sur-

prise of the session. Last -year the third reading was carried by a majority of seven votes, and the process by which that majority has been trans-

formed into a minority of one is cause for great heart-searching on the part of the New Zealand Alliance, who all along had boasted of having the House of Representatives tied to their programme of a two-issue ballot paper, a bare majority, and triennial polls. To the chagrin of the Prohibition Party, after haying got Mr Coates's Bill altered to suit them in almost every particular, it was unexpectedly defeated on the third i<v jig division. Thus th# prohibitionists have been robbed of the slogan, so vociferously sounded forth last year, of the decision of the representatives of the people being negatived by a nominative Chamber. This time the people’s representatives have spoken, and there is no appeal against the verdict. Presumably an attempt will be again made by the New Zealand Alliance to pledge candidates for Parliament, making the two-issue ballot paper and the bare majority a test question. Candidates remembering the noose into which their heads had previously been slipped, will be chary of allowing their hands to be tied at the coining election. And electors everywhere will do well to bear in mind that issues of paramount importance are looming upon the political horizon, and that voting to be intelligent must be influenced by other considerations than the question of a two-issue ballot paper or the dangerous expedient of a bare majority.

South Island Shipping Services.

A conference of interested bodies convened last week by the

Dunedin Chamber of Commerce once more gave needed publicity to

the disabilities under which the South Island suffers in respect of shipping services to Australia. The position is that in so far as conveniences for the carriage of passengers and goods between South Island ports and Melbourne are concerned, they will not compare with what were in existence in pre-war days. Within the last 10 or 15 years the tendency has been for the North Island to profit at the expense of the South. For instance, all the subsidised mail services make North Island ports the point of departure and arrival, an expenditure which the South Island shares and from which she is entitled to benefit. The reason given by 'the Union Steam Ship Company for the paucity of the services between South Island ports and Australia is that the passengers and freight offering do not warrant any extension. To which it may be rejoined that a fair trial would in all probability produce an improved return, but that the present infrequent and uncertain sailings give little or no opportunity of any development. The suggestion of a subsidy in which Tasmania and Victoria might join hands with New Zealand is a most useful one. It would supply the needed incentive to give a fair trial to a regular service running between Dunedin, the Bluff, Hobart, and Melbourne, thus recalling the palmy day’s before the war.

The Mental Defectives Bill.

It appears probable that the Mental De-

fectives Bill, as amended by the Public Health Committee of the Lower House, will reach the

Statute Book. The amendments inserted are in the direction of greater safeguards in the interests of personal and public liberty, and this especially in the matter of compilation of a register of mentally defective -persons. These safeguards do something to alleviate the apprehensions excited by the original draft of the Bill. It may be questioned, however, whether the committee has acted wisely in retaining the provisions for sterilisation, as also the proposals for restrictions upon marriage. The provisions and proposals represent departures upon which expert opinion is as yet by no means agreed and concerning the practical utility of which much doubt has been expressed in authoritative quarters. The questions involved are of a most delicate nature, and-it is a moot point whether, if action were taken under ‘he clauses in view, such action would have the support of public opinion.

The Way of the Wind.

In some light measure the hurricane which has done material

•****<-** uvhu iimivi liu damage in the Poverty Bay district is a reflec-

tion of the terrible tornado which has devastated the West Indies and cut a swathe of death and disaster through the American coast. “ There is no part of the world of coasts, continents, oceans, seas, straits, and islands,” writes Joseph Conrad in one of the finest passages in English literature, “ which is not under the sway of a reigning wind, the sovereign of its typical weather.” ' He speaks of “ the peculiar, terrible, and mysterious moaning that may be heard sometimes passing through the roar of a hurricane, that-unforgettable sound as if the soul of the universe had been goaded into a mournful groan.” Conrad, who knew the winds so well and who described their ways in sentences so beautiful, says;— The caprice of the winds, like the wilfulness of men, is fraught with the disastrous consequences of self-indulg-ence. Long anger, the sense of his uncontrolled power, spoils the generous and frank nature of the West Wind. It is as if his heart was corrupted by a malevolent and brooding rancour. He devastates his own kingdom in the wantonness of his force. He breathes his raging, terrific squalls and overwhelms his realm with an inexhaustible welter of clouds. The Westerly Wind, asserting his sway from the south-west quarter, is often

like a monarch gone mad, driving forth with wild imprecations the most faithful of his courtiers to shipwreck, disaster, and death. . . . The West Wind is the greatest king; the East rules the tropics. They have shared each between them. Each has his genius of supreme rule.

British Films.

The Kinematograph Films Bill lias not mafpiiallv ini-

Deen materially unproved by the Select Committee to which it

vuinnniiee co which- it was referred, and it is doubtful whether, passed into law, it will achieve the object for which it was designed, viz., to ensure the showing of a larger proportion of British-made films in the picture theatres of the Dominion. It goes without saying that only by the production of the best British films can the American product lie partially ousted, and the problem is how to maintain the standard of the proportion of British films which the Bill now before Parliament lays down as a minimum. The theatre-going public has also to be considered, and an audience cannot be attracted by the mere announcement of a British film regardless of other considerations. The'difficulty arises in the fact that the Americans were first in the field in the film industry, and having got a long start the British manufacture! has a long way to catch up. There is a distinct danger that inferior British films will be placed in competition with the finest American product, and all to the discredit of the former. Nor is it easy to see how the difficulty is to be overcome.