CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 25, 24 July 1911, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

GALLONS OF TALK. The Governor lately wrote to Palmerston Nnrtli to say he intended to discountenance the practice of making speeches at shows, and intimated that he would not orate in the Manawatu on the show occasion. One wouldn't mind so much if speakers of the calibre of the Governor orated whenever they had anything to say, but the fact that a Governor is about is generally a spur to a selection of dreadful oratorical bores who never have anything to say that is in the least worth hearing, and who inflict themselves on a suffering gathering which is much more interested in cheese or butter or turnips. Deluges of the smallest kind of talk arc poured out at every conceivable opportunity at every conceivable function in New Zealand. In a large number of -cases such speeches are in the worst taste, the speakers using the occasion to listen to the music of their own voices. To hurl a row of figures that were published a year ago at a crowd of inoffensive diners is very frequently considered the height of useful oratory; to roll out a mass of greasv platitudes and compliments an art that will drive a man at last to Parliament. Five out of ten men who inflict speeches on the public would blush to make the same artificial remarks to a friend at the street corner. The passion for saying nothing because speechmaking is fashionable is a dreadful one. It flourishes in New Zealand more vigorously than elsewhere. Commonplace things cannot be done unless somebodv blesses the deed with a peek flf platitudes. Tf a sense of the fitness of thinss pervaded our public and semipublic men thev would leave the necessary talking to the few people who have something to sav. The outstanding public men in New Zealand who never talk in public unless they have a message can be counted on the finger's

of a pair of liands. We hop:: the Governor will be most vigorous in his anti-. speech-about-nothing campaign, and that in time that even a new bit of railway will be able to do Jts duty without being fortified with gallons of talk expressly brought to the spot as a real necessity.

FREAK HORSES. If one were told that in order to improve the physique of a man it would be necessary to make him work longer hours and harder, one would laugh. ! When one is told that in order to improve the breed of racehorsoi they should gallop a mile and a-half instead of six furlongs, one say, "Hear! hear!" Why?' Because Sir George Clifford says a longer gallop will improve the breed—and he is president of the Racing Conference. The authority pointed out that sprint races were run at such a pace that a modern six-furlong race needs a more perfect heart and lungs than a mile course did ten years ago. The "logic" <of it is that a horsa that gallops a mile and a-half instead of six furlongs at a slightly les3 rapid pace is not straining 'himself so much and may become the sire of improved stock. When racing men, however distinguished, talk of "improving" the breed of horses by such absurd means, they surely cannot mean improving the breed of any horses but racehorses. You are not going to get better roadsters or coachers or weight-cajTying hacks by making races longer. Racehorses, as everybody knows, have nothing whatever to do with the utilities of life, except that a cracked-up old racing stallion is considered fit to sire hacks. The suggestion is that racehorses engaged in sprinting are no good for anything else, and that racehorses generally may be made much better by giving them more to do. The farcical solemnity of such a suggestion is apparent even to the man who would believe that the further one drove a motor car the larger the supply of petrol became. The sprint racehorse is an equine freak, As a freak he is useful, but as a commercial, every-day beast he won't add a halfpenny to the wealth of nationa by galloping a mile and a-half instead of six furlongs.

PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION. Speaking at Kaponga recently, the Hon. 6. Fowlds thus referred to the subject of proportional representation. He had nover been what could be called an extreme party man. In the old days, when he was a perfectly free lance, he had frequently introduced a Bill in favor of proportional representation. The Bill embodied one of his fundamental beliefs in fne days when he felt free to advocate whatever he believed. He still held the same view on this, matter, and he was glad to find that there was a growing appreciation of the system of proportional representation, not only here, but in other countries. With this system, instead of having single electorates returning one man only, they would have a number of electorates grouped together, and instead of a man needing a majority, ho would only need a quota of the total votes polled. Suppose that three men had to be elected for one constituency, and that -there were in all 12,000 votes. To be returned a candidate would only need to poll 4000 votes. Provision was made in the system for transferring the votes recorded in favor of those who came out in the first counts at the bottom of the poll to those in the lead. Under this system they would get representation in proportion to the strength of any class. Take, for example, the election in Australia. Labor secured nearly every seat in the Senate, and yet they only numbered a little more than one-half of the population, and their opponents, who numbered a little less than one-half, did not secure a single seat. They had had a party returned to power in England when their opponents actually polled more votes than they did, and yet they went on following that system, which did not give what it was supposed to give—representation of the people. He believed that the proportional system would be a great gain in Parliament, not only by giving a true reflection of the mind of the people, but it would cause the hollowness of party government to pass away, and the country would be governed something after the manner of a large joint stock company. He did not mean to say that they would get a Parliament all of one mind. That was not desirable. But on every question that arose they would have a fresh adjustment of parties, and all questions would be approached on their merits. But the majority in the House did not see this as he saw it, and so he supposed they would have to go on and make the best of the present system.