VOICE OF THE PRESS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXVII, Issue 19344, 19 November 1932, Page 9

VOICE OF THE PRESS

NEW ZEALAND OPINIONS Noxious Weeds It can be conceded that every sound farmer will destroy noxious weeds if he can; if he cannot the existence of an Act of Parliament will make no difference. On the other hand, the existing law contains provisions requiring unoccupied Crown land and native land for which the title has not been individualised to be kept clear of noxious weeds, and laying on the Minister concerned in each instance responsibility for seeing that it is done. These clauses may have become a dead letter. Frequent complaints suggest it; but so long as they remain in the law there is hope that they may be revived. If they are swept away there will be nobody responsible for preventing such land from becoming breeding grounds for the dissemination of weeds. These points should be seriously considered before the advice to repeal the Act is accepted.—“N.Z. Herald.” Public Trustee and Local Bodies. “The Government’s legislation to protect the Public Trustee from local body demands for the return of sinking fund moneys may seem to many an unwarrantable interference with freedom of contract, but really it is another step forced upon the State by its own departure from the straight path of orthodoxy. Once the State begins to interfere with contracts there is no telling where the process will stop, and this latest move is quite a pretty example of the way in which one entanglement leads to another. Certain legislation ties the hands of the Public Trustee as well as other mortgages, in the interests of the mortgagor. But the Public Trustee, as holder of local body sinking funds, is in the position of mortgagor, so why should he not be protected also? This is the consideration on which the Government bases its Bill to prevent local bodies from calling in sinking funds until 1935.—“ Auckland Star.” Protected Industries An investigation of industries which are accorded protection is not a new idea. In fact, all protection should be granted with the stipulation that such investigations should be made at intervals to see the effect of the protection given by the tariff. The character of this investigation, however, must be such that the findings are reliable in every sense of the word. In the main local industries can stand such an investigation, but it must be admitted that the basic idea of all protection is that it shall be a temporary measure, and that it can be with-drawn if it is not profitable to the country. Mr Holland's amendment to the report was an attractive collection of words, because the phrase “economically produced in New Zealand” begs the whole question by introducing many factors which can be properly valuated only after a searching investigation.— “Southland Times.” M.P.’s and the Press “Mr Speaker, I smell a rat. I see him brewing on the horizon. But mark me, I shall yet nip him in the bud.” The words are the words of the late lamented Sir Boyle Roche, but the sentiments are those of the member for Christchurch South. Mr Howard’s “rat,” however, happens to be a mare’s nest. He told the House of Representatives yesterday that he knew the Government had entered into a conspiracy with the Press of New Zealand to prevent the publication of anything from the Labour side of the House. Of course he did not know anything of the sort. He may have imagined it, or, like Sir Boyle Roche, he may have smelt something. We cannot guess what the bad odour may have been that came betwix the wind and Mr Howard, but whatever it was it did not arise from any conspiracy between the Government and the newspapers regarding the publication of parliamentary reports.—Christchurch “Times.”

Cromwell Gold The nature of this Cromwell deposit is emphatically virgin ground, evidently of exceptional value, and, let us hope, of considerable extent. Prospecting in such ground is of infinitely more value than the retrial of such worked-out fields as Cardrona. to which the Government chiefly directed the prospectors whom it assisted as an unemployment relief measure. It is to be hoped that the gold yield of Otago will be supstantially augumented by this latest very promising activity, and that the old township of Cromwell, redolent of vivid memories, will regain, and more, its one-time importance and activity. One suggestion that might be made is that some of the proceeds of- mining there might in some way be earmarked for the development of the adjacent Upper Clutha Valley by means of hydro-electric power development and arrigation and closer settleA goldfield is a wasting asset, .b.ut it might leave behind it a permanent memorial in a long stretch of smiling and highly productive country in the same district.—Dunedin “Star.”