"WHAT THE PAPERS SAY"

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 924, 26 September 1896, Page 8

"WHAT THE PAPERS SAY"

Whebever two or three have gathered themselves together to promote a gold. m|oing enterprise, there John Bull has been in the midst of them. The Kauri Timber Company is mostly John Bull, which in a measure explains the hullaballoo which has arisen against the invasion of hia ' rights.' — Napier News. Seddon of Maoriland wants to Bend the advanced females to the Legislative Council. 'It's bat right that all the old women should sit together !' says ' Digger Dick.'— Sydney Truth. We regret to see Mr Seddon shuffling over the Alcoholic Liquors Amendment Bill. He promised that Bill as straight as ever a man promised anything. He said it was a policy measure and he was going to put it through. But though Seddon is called a king, there is a greater power behind him, and that power is Bung. Bang says the people mußt not be given the power they ask to prevent men being degraded by drink, faeddon throws Liberalism and Democracy to the winds at the bidding of Bung and responds ' amen ' to Bung's prayer. — Wellington People. ■ Churchyards 'yawn' because of the epitaphs. — Sydney Bulletin. One hears a lot of sympathy expressed nowadays for the persons who have incurred heavy losses by the banking operations, and who'have only a moiety of the comfortable incomes left which had hitherto been the means of providing afflaent surroundings and sumptuous fare. But by these people and their sympathisers scarcely a thought is given to the poor individuals who never enjoy affluence, and whose stinted means of living have been dissolved by trade depression, misfortune, ' sickness or other causes, and who still decline to make their abject position known even to their most intimate friend?. — Nelson Star. To attempt the cure of drunkenness, as a disease, by the isolation of the victim, may be philanthropise, but to prevent disease by proper supervision is more so. To place the drink trade under proper supervision is more logical. The best brands are too often torch light processions going down your throat. The isolation of the victim may lead to reformation, but better supervise the system and the victim will not require isolation. — Melbourne Free Lance. The sole object of the framers of the Masters and Apprentices Bill is to prevent the handicrafts from being overcrowded — crowded beyond the needs and prospects of the Colony — and to put an end to the possibilities of unfair competition. They recognise the advantage of technical skill as an equipment for life, but they also recognise that it must not be over-pro-duced — Wellington. Times. Neither the British Government nor the British nation has hitherto made a systematic business of foreign and colonial extension It is abundantly clear that England must realise the force and persistence of foreign competition if she is to retain her unique position of absolute commercial pre-eminence. — Christchurch Press. The appearance of the Mining Amendment Bill on the perspective of the Statute Book hap, however, dashed the fond hopes of the Kauri Timber Company, and we hear of the most vigorous protests being showered on the Government, and indeed upon members of Parliament individually, and we are informed on the best authority that when the Bill reaches a crucial stage great pressure will be brought to bear to endeavour to snuff it right out. It will be very interesting to watch the progress of the measure, and electors will no doubt closely scan the division lists to discover those, if any, professed Liberals, who for any reason whatever may vote against it — Napier News. The biggest scoundrel unhanged has hitherto only had to swear that some plucky journalist had libelled him, and the journalist was forthwith committed for trial. The magistrates said that was the law. They had not the decency to say there was a higher law — the law of right, and like every magistrare and lawyer who is a slave of precedent they said : ' This has been done before ; we mußt do it again.' If Christ himself came before a New Zoaland magistrate he would look up some musty old book and give judgment as follows : As Jesus Christ was crucified nearly 1900 years ago, he must, bo again.'. Such is the foolery with which so-called justice is administered — Wellington Fcople.

The loan will be spent in a year, and next year there will b~e another loan, for once a state of high pressure is inaugurated it is next to impossible for a Government to pull up. Mr McKenzie says the Government were prepared to go to the country on this question. If so, why take the decision of the House? Why not go to the country ? Does Mr McKenzie imagine that the applause that greeted his declaiations of Don-boirowing will still continue with a declaration of borrowing?— Xorth Otayo Times. What difference is there between a man standirg in the street with a collectionbox on a barrel-orgaD and a straight-out mendicenc who solicits alma from the passerby ? — Wellington Mail. When our people go to China to pursue the missionary industry are they treated as New Zealanders should be ? We trow not. They are not pol l taxed, but they are frequently pole-axed by an indignant populace. In any case they have to get their h*ir cut, and cultivate a Celestial cast of countenance, and do various other things to have any chance of keeping their thinking apparatus uppernost. Our methods are not so summary. We merely aek what we are entitled to — a cash guarantee of hona fides before we permit Slant Eye to invade our territory, pollute our civilisation, and seduce and degrade our daughters.— Napier Neics. Switzerland should make a profitable ob-ject-lesson to many who exaggerate the difficulties of compensating expropriated publicans When that country determined to make a State monopoly of the sale and manufacture of spirits it found 1400 private distilleries in operation within its boundaries. A few of these it retained aB the nucleus of the State establishment, and the rest it compulsorily abolished. The total cash the State undertook to pay amounted to £236,000. spreading the instalments over a period of ten years. The last instalment will be due in Wdti, and from that day forward Switzerland will have a clean sheet. The per contra side ii quite as interesting and instructive. Beginning with a comparatively small annual profit, the State, during the last three or four years, has cleared over £200,000 per annum per medium of its spirit monopoly.— Sydney Bulletin.

Only ten -bankruptcies in the Colony. They kid us that H'k a sign ot prosperity, and a further excuse for more borrowing and more taxation. — Chriatchurch Truth. The rite of offering human beings in sacrifice is not confined to savage nations, but is practised in civilization, where men are of less value than bank. balances, and bone, muscle and life are outweighed by the thirst for gold. It is only the slave of Mammon tyrannising over a slave of another colour — the Christian dominating and crushing the savage — Melbourne Free Lance. With the exception of the Act providing the principle of rating on unimproved value, and the Act -which builds up the Hew barrier against Asiatic immigration, there is not a measure during the session that need have taken more than a few minutes to discuss — Wellington Times. A disguised member of the force has gone at midnight screaming from the affected pain of neuralgia to purchase brandy, in the name of Heaven; another has been carried up to a bar door- by disguised companions in a state of sham coma from sham snakebite, and in both instances the force has won. Of course, a law is law, and should not be broken under any circumstances. E:hieally, the hotelkeeper who is entrapped by any device into selling, when he has no legal right to do so, deserves punishment. Ethically, also, the policeman who causes him to Bell drink in prohibited hours is an offender against the spirit and essence of the law, whatever his purpose. — Sydney Teler/raph.