WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 861, 29 June 1895, Page 6

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

The amount of freight upon butter and cheese exported in gross. weight is greatly in excess of that charged on frozen mutton, and the percentage of value in primage duty could be reasonably reduced. — Napier News.

The equalisation of the local and the parliamentary franchise would be a measure of justice and sound policy. As for the danger which some people affect to see in such a reform, the best reply is to point to the experience of our Parliament under universal suffrage. The heavens have not fallen, property-owners have not been disppiled, capital has not left the country, and anarchy has not swept over the land. — Christchurch Times.

Contract work for the Government means virtually that the Government take no responsibility but throw it all on the contractor. It makes cheapness the test of efficiency. It is a bid for grinding down wages', and for getting work done in the .most slipshod fashion. The competition is entirely for the cheapest labour. Day labour, on the other hand, throws the whole of the responsibility upon the Government and the Minister in charge, and the competition then; is on the plane of efficiency, and not of mere cheapness. — Sydney Worker.

The Prohibitionists connot run against the common sense and instincts of liberty pervading the community, and to command any support the> will have to modify their platform, or carry on the campaign for the total abolition of the drink traffic in a more temperate and discreet manner. To promote spying is to degrade the morals of the people, and to prostitute the work of the Prohibitionists and in a measure the praiseworthy efforts of Temperance Societies, to the lowest level of contempt. — Nelson Star.

When Mr Tennyson Smith was in one of the colonial towns, he went to the newspaper office and asked why his meetings were not noticed. ' Because you are only a cheap showman,' grunted the proprietor. 4 I'm not a showman,' replied the longhaired one. ' Then why the devil don't you get your hair cut ?' was the reply. — Wellington Herald.

Only a month or two ago the Bulletin read in London Sketch a sparkling interview with Oscar Wilde — which looked very much as if it had been written by himself. In it Wilde was represented as saying: 'Exercise! Oh, no, I never walk — I only tajk.' And now they have put him for six hours daily on the treadmill, where he must walk and dare not talk. The irony of it ! — Sydney Bulletin.

If it were once admitted that the Government was to be held responsible for the provision of labour for every man or woman out of work, the colony would speedily become the happy hunting ground for the thriftless, the witless and workless from every part of the world. The task of pro vidingwork for all, and every adult male or female who applies for it, is so utterly beyond the power of any Government, much less the Government of so small a community as New Zealand, that as a question of policy it should be abandoned at once. — Christchurch Press.

For pig-headed bigotry, narrow-minded malice and all manner of uncharitableness commend me to a publication issued in Dunedin, uuder the title of The Christian Outlook. In the eyes of the Prohibitionist an honourable and upright citizen, who in the course of business deals in wines and spirits, is an object of execration and contempt. Let him be ever so good a Christian, ever so zealous a worker in God's vineyard, his motives are base and his conduct criminal if he sells a case of spirits. In the same way, The Christian Outlook proceeds to abuse a gentleman known to lead an upright, unselfish and benevolent life, for the monstrous crime of giving a thousand odd pounds to build a "showy red brick church," while at the same time he seconded a resolution at the meeting of a Jockey Club ! And the congregation which bene yfited by his lavish benevolence is held up to scorn and contumely because it accepted money to be spent in the cause of Christianity from a man so shameless, so base, so criminal that he dared to show his face at the: annual meeting of a Racing Club!— , Christchurch Press.

The Key. .Mr Katterns has purchased 500 acres of land atKatikati, and will now supply Waihi with spuds and salvation at lowest rates. — Paeroa Oazette.

Mr Duthie, M.H.R., says it would be ' very gratifying to the old veteran (t c, Sir George Grey) to be allowed to retain his seat.' So it would be to any other member — very gratifying indeed I—Auckland1 — Auckland Star.

Lord Brassey announces, amongst other things, that he will spare no effort to advance the moral welfare of this colony. We will forgive him anything if he will promise not to bang the big drum in the Salvation Army Band. — Melbourne Punch.

We have heard of country newspapers having a safe or a strong box, but never — well, hardly ever—^f there being anything in them, except perhaps a clothes brush or v bar of soap. Kawhiti, the editor of the Maori paper up North, breaks up this idea of the poverty of printers, for a thief got at the office till and abstracted £178 in gold from it the other day, There was also £50 in bank notes there, but he did not appreciate paper money and left it behind. That Maori can give points to any other upcountry " ink slinger " we know of in raking in accounts. — Wellington Weekly Herald.

A country gentleman was so pleased with the preaching of a Congregationalist parson on a recent Sunday morning that ire resolved to hear the same gentleman in another and far distant church in the evening. He went and had the pleasure of listento the same sermon. — Adelaide Quiz:.

.Where are the rescue societies, the ladies' visiting committees, and so^forth, that poor unsexed wretches like Louie Smith are left to wallow in iofamy? Vile as is the fallen woman, she was not always so, neither is she incapable of reform. Is this reform work being carried on with that vigour, that earnestness that ought to characterise such work ? The churches may be filled every Sunday, smug-faced citizens may snooze through long and dreary sermons as to the glory and power of the Church, and the duty of supporting it with pounds, shillings and pence, and when the sermon is over go forth with smiling faces, content that the;/ are the elect and nobody outside the Church has a soal to be saved, but — and there is much virtue in that but — outside the churches in such purlieus as Haining-street poor lost women are allowed to lead depraved lives with veneered savages - whose -veiy presence in our midst is a testimony to our adherence to the dictates of selfishness — and no one seems to care a jot whether they die like rats in a hole, whether they have immortal souls or not ? Oh, yes, we are a glorious Christian country in name, but probe down 'neath the fair outward skin of the apple of our society and you find unutterable foal ness — Wellington Hail.

There will be an enormous amount of law over the Midland Railway matter. If Maoriland loses, it will have to pay a massive bill of costs and heavy damages, and then it will have to go back to the old deadlock, and have another big litigation, or arbitration over the Co.'s ' claims.' If it loses there also, there will be more costs, and another big bill for damages ; if it wins, there will also be costs, and the Co. will probably remain on strike, and leave the work in its present unfinished state, and after all the sacrifices that have been made to get the Midland line there will be no Midland line after all. On the other hand, if the province wins the first case, and thus asserts its right to seize the unfinished railway, there will still be costs to pay ; also, the nation must find the money to finish the line if it is to be of any value in opening up the country, and when it is finished there is very little probablity that it will pay its way for the next 10 or 20 years. There isn't much to win if the country does win. — Sydney Bulletin.

We know that a. cable message recently assured the Premier that New Zealand could borrow any reasonable number of millions it might require. No doubt three or five millions could easily be got at a price, but directly and indirectly the price would be a heavy and ruinous one for the colony to pay. — Wellington Post. • * •

A prosperous, sedate, church-going merchant would be horrified to discover that any of his clerks frequented totalisator shops and put their bit on their fancy ; and would probably either dismiss them straight away, or would read them a severe lecture on the sinfulness of such a practice, if he did find out that they had done so. But the same austere moralist would have no qualms of conscience about a mining speculation, for instance, from which by no labour or effort of his »wn he hoped to make a large snnx of money through, a rise in shares. And yet the one investment is as uncertain to turn out profitable to the invester as- the other. — Wanganui Yeoman.