"WHAT THE PAPERS SAY"

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 911, 13 June 1896, Page 4

"WHAT THE PAPERS SAY"

In Napier, as in most other centres, Conservatism as a power is as dead as Julius Ca33ar, The machinations of the National Conservative Association, with a suborned Press at its back, has utterly failed to lay^hold of the minds and hearts of the people.— Napier Evening New*.

No Minister of the present Cabinet has worked with a more single eye for the interests of the colony than has Mr Cadman, and although we do not agree with a great deal of what is called the ' policy ' of the party with which Mr Cadman is associated, we can recognise and give credit to him for~ his straightforwardness and evident desire to conserve the interests of the colony. It would be a blessing if the colony had more men of Mr Cadman's stamp — North Otat/o I Times. I

Some day lawyers may come to the conclusion that it doesn't help a robbed man to make the thief live on hominy and pick oakum for six months. -Some day Restitution and not Revenge will be the watchword of the law. In the meantime social defaulters of all sorts are put in jail to secure that their default shall become chronic. — Melbourne Free Lance.

Settle the people on the land, by all means — but train them first. It is useless to set men who never haudled pick nor shovel in their lives, and who hardly know a horse from a cow or a sheep from a pig, farming. Some of those North Island village settlements proved failures years ago, simply because the settlers were qnite igno rant of farming. — Christchurch Spectator.

We do not suppose that the farmers are in danger of being hoodwinked by the specious arguments that the Opposition press are so persistently using as against the Advances to Settlers Act. The avowed object of the Government in bringing down the measure was the reduction of the exorbitant rates of interest charged in the past upon loans to farmers That this object has been attained the class which it was intended to relieve know perfectly well — Wa'ikato Advocate.

The finest specimen of bard common sense that we have known a Trades Union to be capable of was exhibited by the Stawell branch of the Miners' Association the other evening, when it was emphatically refused to extend monetary assistance to the striking coal miners at Newcastle, N.S.W. That one set of hard-working men should be called upon to penalise themselves because another set, enjoying greater advantages, choose to spend their time in idleness in order to endeavour to screw still higher pay and privileges out of employers, is a common principle of Trades Unionism. The Stawell men have kicked against the absurdity of it ; more Btrength to their heels. — Melbourne Punch.

The shuffling of the present Government in their dealing with the matter of the Tairua leases calls for the loudest condemnation, and has already provoked mining communities into entering their emphatic protest against what we have no hesitation in characterising as a monstrous wrong. — Coromandel Sun.

The shadow of the impending general election lies athwart the path of the politician, and it becomes more difficult every day to discover on what platform that wary gentleman proposes to ' face the music' Will Mr Seddon, with his faithful legionaries, return triumphant ? Will Sir Robert Stout float into power on the wave of pro. hibition ? Or, finally, will Captain Russell and the rump of the Conservative Party be borne to victory on the shoulders of a political organisation the name of which lends itself to an unfortunate abbreviation 7 These are questions that the candidate of Parliamentary honours must weigh well, and when he has finally made up his mind it is odds against him that the unknown quantity in politics — the elector who votes but does not talk — will upset all his calculations — Wellington Post.

Those who in their wisdom differ from Ministers as to the merits of their policy and administration have been subjected to no end of abuse on this account. The Premier has been the chief culprit in this respect, and time after time has referred to those who are in opposition to the Government as a ' few selfish people ' who were anxious to obtain power. Mr Seddon must know that instead of the opponents of his Government consisting of a ' few selfish people,' they comprise a very large proportion of the electors of New Zealand, who have come to the conclusion that the present administration of affairs is not conducive to the prosperity and well-being of the colony. — Christchurch Truili.

There is here no such^thing as a sharebroker pure and simple. We have never yet been able to discover an agent who does not from time to time buy and sell on his own account — New Zealand Journal of Insurance, dlininff and Finance.

Where is the flax'market ? The question s important, because of the answer, which is ' almost anywhere we choose to make it.' In the United States the consumption of binder twine reaches an aggregate of many millions of pounds. The flax of New Zealand is much mor« suitable for this purpose than any other fibre in the world. It can be placed in that market with profit to the grower, the manufacturer, the carrier, the insurer and the sale agent, at some £16 per ton. Yet not a single pound gets there. It is an industry which can employ thousands of men and boys, scatter a reasonably substantial amount of cash among the foundries, and give necessary variety, and therefore increased profit to agriculture.— Wellington Times.

The fight for the chairmanship of the Board of Education has been a very fierce one, and according to the city press the fault wa3 wholly with the country members of the Board. People in the country, however, view the matter in quite a different light, and the election of Mr Muir will give great satisfaction. For a long time past the people in the country have felt that the Board had developed very strong symptoms of centralization, — that the Board was controlled by and for city members — and it was broadly asserted that the Secretary, Mr Rice, practically ran the Board and Mr Udy, the late chairman, too.— Whangarei Advocate.

In San Francisco, the Chinese quarter is a horror. In Melbourne and Sydney it is very much the same. We know now that in Dunedin the most abominable practices are carried on with white children, and in Wellington aud Christchurch pretty much the same state of things exists. It is a shocking thing, but only too true is it that the same gross immorality exists in every centre where the Chinese go in for shopkeeping, and the worst of it is that the mothers and fathers of the little girls do not seek to keep their children from these dens — Napier Eveninu Xews.