The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1911 THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 90, 29 November 1911, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1911 THE COMING ELECTIONS.

Nominations of candidates for election ■ to the new Parliament 'closed on Monday for the seventy-six European seats, and it appears there are to be contests in all electorates with the exception of Gisborne. In all, there are 215 persons nominated. Inclusive of Independents with leanings to one party or the other, there are ninetyeight Government and sixty-eight Oppositionists in the held, according to the “N.Z. Times.” Labour has 2S representatives in the held, and the Socialists are putting up hve. The remainder comprise 15 Independents md one Prohibitionist. The “Times” goes on to s?iy: Some of these descriptions are no doubt a little inadequate, though they are as dohnito as can well be given in dealing with groups. As an instance, it may be mentioned Siat the only direct Labour candidate who secured election to the last House certainly owes that success as much to his .Liberalism as to anything. From the multiplicity of candidates, it is i foregone conclusion that there will bo many second ballots. Wo must again express our regret that New Zealand has not yet adopted more up-to-date electoral machinery. The best that can lie said of the second >a 1 lot is that it is, theoretically at all wonts, an improvement upon the old system which allowed minority representatives to secure election. The Parliament should be a reflex of the opinion ol the whole country, and there are means by which such result may bo secured without prolonging the strife and turmoil of a general flection as we do now. Fortunately, however, the demand for electoral reform is spreading surely, if not rapidly, and there is reasonable ground to hope for the early adoption of improved methods of electing the representatives of the constituencies. THOUGHTS AMD THINKERS. Sir William Ramsay, the distinguished scientist, thinks that 1101113- —in fact most—people are content to take the world as they find it. What did for their forbears will do for them. Thej are not concerned to do new things. It is sufficient for them to cope with the difficulties of life as they turn up. Win- should they look for fresh trouble? Most people are more interested in persons than in things. Practicallv all women are. Xearly all clergymen, of whatever denomination, take the view that the soul is more important than the I»ody, and it had, at least until very recently, been the

practice to deal with the soul, regarding the body as a secondary consideration, He was not concerned to controvert that fundamental principle. “There were cases where a Peter the. Hermit, a Fox, or a Wesley profoundly altered the course of men’s action. Hen of science, however, were more ccrncd noth things than with persons, with thoughts than with thinkers. All people began as experimenters. Every baby was a philosopher, a lover of wisdom. He even became somewhat of a nuisance by his eternally reiterated ‘Why ?’ He was soon made to stop that, and, as a rule, at the age of six or so, lie had become so repressed that his behaviour was more or less conventional.” Some few, ho says, continue their inquisitiveness into later years. They are the future men of science. Men of science were concerned with things rather than persons, witli thoughts rather than with thinkers.