THE VOICE OF THE PRESS

Stratford Evening Post, Issue 71, 27 July 1929, Page 5

THE VOICE OF THE PRESS

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY, CURRENT EYvNTS REVIEWED, ONE KIND. The Mayor of Hamilton, though 1 an Aucklander, conceives the completion of the South Island Main Trunk railway in the right spirit. He raised a laugh from those assembled to welcome the Southland farmers when he expressed the hope that another Government would he elected promising a railway oven Cook Strait to bring southerners and northerners into close touch. He expressed the opinion that, whether the railways paid or not they were certainly the means of bringing New. Zealanders together. That is, we believe, the strongest argument in favour of closing the gap in the Main Trunk system. To have one island treat the population of the other as virtual foreigners is not conducive to progress, and one can only believe that this state o£ affair s rises from the lack 0 f P er " sonal contact. For that reason most unprejudiced people will agree that, whatever the work costs, it will he cheap at the money.—lnvercargill News, WELL DONE, THE WARATAHS. For the second time in football history, New Zealand have lost the Rugby ashes to an Australian team. Saturday’s defeat at Brisbane may be put down to a variety of causes, of which injuries to leading players were possibly one, but the fact remains that Rugby on the other side of the Tasman has made tremendous strides during recent years. Por some time it has been noticeable that New South Wales fifteens visiting New Zealand showed, for a considerable portion of almost every game, marked superiority in combined rearguard movements and a celerity and crispness in phasings that were delightful to watch. If those things failed to achieve victory in the past, it wa s mainly because of the absence of a football “general” to profitably round off attacking movements and also because the visiting forwards had

neither the weight nor the vigour to withstand the constant battering of a typical All Black Vanguard. Thi g season the boot apears to be completely on the other foot.Christchurch Star. EARTHQUAKE/ RELIEF WORKS. It would be something unprecedented, and perhaps unhealthy, if there were no criticism of the measures that are being taken alike by the Government and by the Central Committee which is charged with the administration of funds for the relief, of earthquake distress. The wisest and promptest efforts to cope with the results of such a disaster as that which the West Coast has experienced are bound to leave room for criticisms. What is , done too soon involves the danger of being badly done, and the circumstances will not tolerate delay. _ Humanity is impatient to see the victims of such a misfortune restored to their original conditions in the shortest time, but it is only first relief that can be immediately given. The evidence of sober witnesses who have been through the stricken district is that the Government has done remarkably well to date. It lost no time in sending some of the best men of the Public Works and other departments all over the afflicted region, providing for the removal of, the most helpless sufferers, the restoration of at least temporary communications and the supply of food to the most isolated communities. A STARTLING EXPOSURE. The debate o tt the Address-in-Re-ply has not been devoid of illuminating and useful results. It has afforded the Minister of Public Works, the Hon. E. A. Ransom, an opportunity for showing where political favour s went under the dispensation of the late Government. This he did with some effect, for the figures he adduced constituted something comparable to a bolt from tho blue. Not to mince matters, Die Minister exposed one of the worst political scandals ever brought to light in this Dominion, and the central figure in it was the Right Hon. Joseph Gordon Coates, late Prime Minister and present Leader of the Opposition, who was given a most uncomfortable time. The new Minister of Public Works has determined to adopt a new method of distributing the votes for roads, aiming at a more equitable distribution. This change is not to the liking of Mr Coates and his constituents, and Mr Coates denounced the change as likely to cause an unseemly scramble and do many other disagreeable things. We should imagine that by thi s time ; he is sorry that lie spoke as he did. J —Oamaru Mail. ,