"What The Papers Say"

Observer, Volume XI, Issue 853, 4 May 1895, Page 4

"What The Papers Say"

The announcement of the Premier that a halt was to be called in Labour legislation is not correct. These little Bills are the very breath of Mr Reeves' nostrils. Without them he cannot pose as a regenerator of humanity, and to keep him on his side we snppose Mr Seddon humours him, and allows him to pose before Trades Union Conferences with some half-dozen ' incomplete ' Bills. Mr Seddon is, we suppose, afraid of his waspish tongae, and hence this new batch of Labour Bills. — Wellington Post.

Surely the Hospital Board's cup of iniquity will soon be full, to overflowing. Tv;o sJiillinys and one and ninepence are the contract prices it has entered into for the burial of pauper patients who die in the institution— two shillings for each adult, and one shilling and ninepence for each child. What, in Heaven's name, induces the Hospital Board to lead itself to such a business as this? What ghastly details are there behind ? — Christchurch Star.

The Government are giving to the Banks an uncalled - for concession by allowing them to supply practically nearly the whole currency of the colony. There does not seem to be any need in this colony 'for the appreciation of silver if the Government would take into its own bands the settlement of the question. Paper will do just as well as silver for the greater portion of our needs. — Thames Advertiser.

The country has been reduced almost to bankruptcy by class legislation, which held the sway for many years. Then why not give the masses a chance and see if by self-reliance, by combined action, by honest work, and by mutual good feeling the position of the Colony cannot be improved ? — Masterton Star.

During a conversation with a rabbiter the other day he informed us that with steady work on ordinary ground a man can earn about £100 a year jut killing rabbits. His earnings for a number of years had averaged from £115 to £120 a year. He says there is a fair living throughout the country for hundreds of unemployed if they were sent to destroy rablits, but that they would have to work for ttieir money early and late, as the eight hoars a day system would not do. — Clutha Leader.

To-day Oocar Wilde is in prison, whilst Queensberry figures as a public benefactor. Worldly-wise men nevei mix themselves up witn scandals, violent reforms, or unpleasantnesses of any description. To be useful you must be a little bit ridiculous and ' objectionable ' always. There are 99 chances to one in favour of your living and dying despised for your pains, but no matter. As a rule, it is quite as honourable to get expelled from the meeting for making yourself unpleasant as to sit in the chair and receive a nearty vote of thanks — Sydney Bulletin.

The Labour Bilk are in such a state that the Minister of Labour clare not submit them to pnblic inspection and criticism. We -would like to know why, then, have they been laid before the Trades Union Conference ? Was it to iool the -workers ? Or is it not a further proof, as we have said, of Mr Reeves' attitude to any Trade Union organisation ? — he grovels before it.—Wellington Post.

At length this extraordinary company (the Richmond Rifles) is officially dead, a Gazette notice the other day announcing the fact. For considerably more than two years this company has had no existence only in official records, and even there it has been returned as numbering about four strong, officers and men included. Its relations with its officers were —in the polite language of the day — strained, and on one occasion the tension was so great that a breakage took place, somewhat more than half of the men* resigning. This, we believe, followed the nearly as drastic method of righting matters — a requisition to certain officers to retire. But the officers stood their ground, and the men left them alone in their glory, and one at least of them has managed to hold that ground until last week. But although it has ceased to exist for over two years, it has regularly appeared in the official notices. For two years the regulations as to the minimum strength of a company have been regularly and persistently ignored. — Chriatchurcn Tmth. -

Ministers have laboured unceasingly to promote class differences. They have done everything in their power to ruin the employers' interests whilst attempting to improve those of the employees, being .too dense or too obdurate to see that they are identical. — Christchurch Truth.

The greater number of rifles used by the Chinese in the late war, and which suited the Japanese admirably, were old obsolete weapons obtained from England, France, and Germany, and a few from New Zealand. We know of one lot of old ' Enfields ' sold by ourselves, when we (Dwan) were auctioneering, to a Wellington Chinaman named Mong Chong, who took them all over to China and sold them to the government there. These obsolete ' implements of war ' were no more effective than the burning of fire-crackers, to which the Chinese attach so much importance. — Wellington Weekly Herald

The other morning, in Sydney Divorce Court, eight. matters of costs and alimony were mentioned, and in six of them either the presiding Judge's son or his son-in-law appeared on one side. In one case, his Honor's son was on one side and his son-in-law on the other. — Sydney Bulletin.

Then let us awaken from our lethargy. Let us realise the grand possibilities that lie before us. Let us combine to assert our rights. Let us start boiling-down, and fellmongering, and meat preserving, and jammaking. — Masterton Star.

Had Mr Seddon done half the harm toth c interests of the employees which he ha aimed at doing to ithe employers there would s have been a universal howl of indignation throughout the country. — Christchurch Truth.

.Bear in mind that the Zone system is coming slowly but surely into favour. The Gazette hereby prophesies that the Auck-land-Paeroa line will be the first line on which Vaile's system — extended to goods traffic — will be tried. — Paeroa Gazette.

The Rev. Mr Elliott and the members of the Women's Christian Temperance Union think that some provision should be made for ex-prisoners. So do we ; but what we want to know is why a person who has been to gaol should be treated better than one who has, by hard striving, kept himself or herself out. — Wellington Daybreak.

It is the idle, thriftless, and extravagant section who mostly clamour for relief work and revile any Government that happens to be in office if it is not at once supplied them. — Wanganui Herald.

Children with bare feet are not admitted in Melbourne Sunday schools. ' Suffer little children to come unto Me ' — if they are nicely dressed and you're quite ""sure their parents are respectable. — Sydney BulMin.

Light railways, now computed to be made on a scale of about £1300 per mile — thousands cheaper than roads — have many champions, notably amongst others Mr Vaile, the railway traffic reformer. A light railway running from Kawakawa up Scoria Flat, through Ngapipito and Mangakahia, coming out at Kaikohe, and going from thence to Hokianga, would open thousands of acres of the best ' agricultural' land in the Far North, while probably the whole distance into the heart of Hokianga would not exceed fifty miles. Compare this to the expensive present system of about £10,000 a mile. How monstrous ! — Kawakawa lAiminary.

Now it's the oysters they're trying to turn us from. The English papers contain articles and letters showing that these delicious bivalves are patent disseminators of typhoid fever. Lloyd's Weekly is very emphatic on the subject. The estuaries where they are cultivated periodically become mud fiats the reverse of pleasant to smell, and in them the typhoid germs lie concealed. — Christchurch Truth.

Only a few days ago a most successful trip of school children and their guardians was organised from Te Aroha and intermediate stations to Auckland, the fare being 3s adults and Is 6d children. We understand that this proved payable, and if this is so why conld not the principle be extended to the goods traffic also. — Paeroa Gazette.

Is it politic, judging from past experience, to hold a volunteer encampment at Easter at all ? Why should it not be held earlier, when the weather is more settled ? Otherwise there will be but few volunteers who will he foolhardy enough to run such risks to health as they did at the Feilding Encampment of 1895. — Wanganui Herald.