WHAT THE PAPERS SAY Door Sports

Observer, Volume XVI, Issue 950, 13 March 1897, Page 4

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY

Door Sports

Recent revelations have tended to show that the general election poll was a comedy of errors. Errors by tens, errors by hundreds, errors by . thousands, errors by battalions, were undoubtedly committed all over the colony. Never was a general election so muddled up and obscured by illimitable error, and .the only wonder is that any true or reliable issue is the result of it. What has been proclaimed from the housetops is only a tithe of what is generally known and talked about. — Wairarapa Daily Times. -

Only last week a vessel arrived in Auckland from Clarence River, N.S.W., with a cargo of 181,000 feet of timber for the New Zealand Government. If this is not carrying coals to New Zealand, we don't know what is, let alone disgracing our own country — a land teeming with the finest timbers in the world for bridge work, railway sleepers, etc. — Kawakawa Luminary.

Send Mr Seddon Home, and let the ■world know what an important place New Zealand is. The Hon. W. P. Reeves may feel annoyed at having to take a pit ticket when the Hon. K. J. is in evidence, but although Mr Beeves may be an excellent poet and a straight-out Socialist* he cannot expect to be placed on the same plane as our Premier. Mr Seddon has no poetry in his composition, and, judging by the positions he monopolises and the salaries ne draws, is not much of a socialist. But he is a patriot. — New Plymouth News.

So long as we accept chicanery in politics and bankruptcy in our public men as matters of course, so long will there be persons and parties who use trickery and dishonesty as ordinary means of gaining" personal ends. And so long will others, only a little less impure, also use those means to expose their opponent rather than to purify conditions.— Nelson Mail.

The Maoris have an alphabet which contains neither £, s nor d, and the result is that no interpreter has ever made money out of the native race. The same reason makes a Maori such refractory ore to crash debts out of. On the other hand, it was ignorance of the magic triliteral which permitted the Maoris to be so easily robbed of their land, before they learnt the English alphabet — Sydney Bulletin.

Another to the long list ! Mr D. H. Hastings has been appointed Inspector of Fisheries. The Government probably chose Mr Hastings as Mark Twain chose astronomy as the subject of a lecture, because he knew less about it than any other. — Dunedin Budget.

Mr Dobbie had built a home here costing, with its orangery, some four or five thouand pounds, and the Government, knowing this, ordered his removal. There can be no two ways of viewing this. It means resign or sacrifice one's home interests. Now is it not altogether wrong that a member of the Civil Service cannot make a home for himself without the Government having the power to make him quit it and sacrifice it at any cost ? — "Whangarei Advocate.

It seems strange that the gentlemen whose conduct as directors of the Colonial Bank has been so seriously impugned in the interim report have not thought fit to vouchsafe any explanation whatever, but have left the very damaging statements and conclusions unchallenged. Possibly they may have some sound reasons for reticence, but they must expect to suffer in public opinion if they continue on this course. — Dunedin Star.

We should like to suggest to the N.Z.R.A. that the use of the ordinary service arm should be compulsory at future meetings. Every one cannot afford a £10 or £20 rifle, and, as we take it, the object of the Association is to develop^ shooting in general, and not to provide prizes for those wealthier men to whom the expense of a private and superior rifle is nothing. We know of one ex-champion who could not get beyond 75 out of 105 with the ordinary gun, but made 35 with a borrowed private one. — Waihi Miner.

"We were informed a few days ago by cable that Mr Seddon was considering the question of sending Home 100 of the colonial forces to taKepart in the record reign celebrations. With every desire to assist in sending Mr Seddon to London, we feel compelled to protest against a proposal that, if carried into effect, will fall little short of being a huge piece of costly tomfoolery. — Wellington Post.

The Hon. A. J. Cadman is one- of the best Ministers of Railways the colony has ever had. He is made of sterling .stuff, and although we do not. agree with much of the policy of the present Government, we yet can conscientiously subscribe to the opinion that the present Minister of Railways in the discharge of his official duties is above reproach. — North Otago Times.

"Why not send Home a brass band or two ? And so that the colony might not have its dignity in any way affected, the Premier and the soldiers and the bands should not travel by an ordinary passenger boat, but by -His Majesty's Hinemoa, which should be loaded with provisions, and start early, for it would be a universal calamity if Mr Seddon and the troops (not forgetting the bands) arrived too late for the pageant. — New Plymouth News.

' v Mischievous as is some of the Socialistic legislation proposed by the present Government, it is doubtful whether it is likely to do so much harm as the iniquitous ' spoils to the victors' system which they introduced. It corrupts the whole course of official and Parliamentary life at the source, and is the more dangerous because to a large extent its operation is hidden from the public. — Christchurch Press.

The alarming fact recorded in the vital statistics, that 150 deaths occurred in this Colony last year from cancer, re-awakens public interest in the havoc caused by this terrible scourge of humanity. It is significant for Wellington people that of the 150 deaths last year in New Zealand, 54, or more than one-third of the total number, occurred in this district. But this is not surprising when we know that the system of meat inspection in Wellington is of the most worthless character. — Wellington Times.

' The Crisis of the Frozen Meat Trade ' is the subject of a pamphlet by Mr J. C. Firth, of Auckland, in which the author traces the causes of the steady, downward course of the frozen meat trade of this colony. The state of the frozen meat trade of New Zealand is going from bad to worse, and if Mr Firth's contentions are correct, then the sooner the shipping companies are brought to realise the fact the better will it be for the trade and for the underwriters, who are largely interested.-i-Taranaki Budget.

New Zealand is the Great Britain of the South, and even under the barbarian Great Britain made progress. But when it comes to an enlightened, patriotic, and progressive policy, such as federal unionship, then New Zealand hangs back. An imperial policy and broad views are not in the line of her leaders. — Melbourne Argus.

It is a peculiar fact that whilst the Government is spending money in advertising New Zealand timber at Home, Australian timber has been imported at great expense for the necessary repairs to the Ngawaparua Bridge, which is situated in the heart of the bush, where totara is most plentiful. — Woodville Examine}-.

The complaint is, that of the claims which have passed the Warden, few are being worked, and protection is being largely applied for. One person applies for two or three dozen claims. They are all granted to him. In most cases the capital is stated at from £50,000 to £250,000 ; the naked fact being probably the applicant does not own the shirt on his back, and has raised the deposit money from credulous people, who are only too ready to believe the representations made to them t s to the auriferous nature of the ground. — HauraJci Tribune.

COMING EVENTS. March I»— Auckland Amateur Athletic ana Cycle Club's Autumn Carnival, Domain Cricket Ground. March 17— H.A.C.8. Society's Gala and Sports. March 17— Ngaruawahia Regrtta.