WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Observer, Volume XVIII, Issue 1018, 2 July 1898, Page 4

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY.

Few Australian Premiers would consent to travel by a steamer loaded with sleepers and timber as Mr Seddon did to Akaroa. — Wellington Times.

The strongest point with the Seddon Ministry is their inexorableness in the collection of revenue. They overlooknothing, not even the most paltry source. — Greymouth Argus.

Parliamentary Government has come to something when it lets loose about the country men who are capable of mating such statements as have emanated of late from the Premier and the Minister of Lands. — Palmerston Standard.

It is the school hour and the teacher that are wanted ; and if this object cannot be attained, the children may grow up young heathens for all the zealous Bible-in-schools advocate will do for them. — Dunedin Star.

The gulf which separates political promises from their fulfilment has been widened to an appalling extent during the existence of the present Government, and the country must be prepared for delays, disappointment, and disillusionment unless it learns to gauge Seddonian verbiage at its net value. — Wellington Post.

- Take forty or fifty young colonials — it is only too probable they will be found walking with a slouching gait,- which not only has a very ugly appearance, but which grows upon them, and, increasing with years, gives them an ' old man look ' long before their time. Regular drill would soon change this state of affairs. — Blenheim Express.

The relief work for the natives of Galatea whose crops suffered by the summer frost are regarded as a ' perfect farce.' The price given is 4d per yard for earthwork and 7dfor rock, out of which gunpowder, tools, etc., have to be found. Several contracts have, been finished out of which the natives have barely cleared their ' tucker ' bills. — Rotorua Chronicle.

The Ministry, of which John McKenzie is one of the principal members, took a leading part three years ago in asking the support of the country to assist the Bank of New Zealand. Of course, everyone is entitled to change of opinion, but to ask for assistance towards propping up an institution at one time, and shortly afterwards to endeavour to knock it down, shows anything but 'stability of purpose. — Grey town Standard.

"What is wanted in connection with the Bank of New Zealand is not that there should be any accession of Government control in the management of its affairs, not that there should be any wider knowledge of .the business done by it ; but that there should be as little outside interference as possible, and that the cobfidence which is manifesting itself in the Bank's affairs should not be shaken in any way. — Carterton Leader.

The ' tiffs of man and wife,' it seems, frequently disturb the domestic repose of the Cabinet, and Messrs Hall-Jones, Thompson, "Walker, and Carroll must occasionally have their agility put to the test in dodging the Cabinet crockery and fiatirons that the ' old man ' hurls at the ' old woman ' and that the ' old woman ' returns with as much interest as years and weight will allow.— Oamaru T%7nes.

G. F. Richardson must thipk very poorly of the- intelligence of the New Zealand public if he imagines for a moment they will be misled by his figures into the wished-for belief that the present Government has run the colony into debt to the tune of over six millions during the last six years, without having ample assets to show for the expenditure, a large portion of which is reproductive and self-supporting, costing the general taxpayers'nothing for interest.— Wanganui Yeoman.

Prohibition in the King Country has been attempted and has miserably failed, and granting ordinary licenses to. sell liquor would not be productive of anything for the better, as the holders of them would encourage drinking for profit's sake. The only alternative, then, is for the Government to take the matter in hand, establish a licensed house or houses under their direct control, with strictly . denned rules as to management,- and make a source of revenue out of what is now a source of trouble and moral debasement.— Waikato Times.

. Canterbury is somethings like this district, half of __ which is for sale.— Napier Telegraph

Mr Seddon is part owner of the Wellington morning paper. — Napier Telegraph. "

- Maori] and certainly; has the credit for being the most advanced of all the peoples. — Hamilton Times. ' _

It will be well if all future Ministries are as free as.ihe present ooe is from men whose monetary interests conflict with those of the State. — Christchurch Times.

There is no mistaking the feeling of dissatisfaction thatis s eadily gaining strength in respect to mining legislation It is becoming more accentuated every month.. — Grtymouth Argus.

There is no Ministry that will -ever be stroDg enough in this colony to resist the demand made in' the constituencies for the inauguration of an Old Age Pension Scheme. — Carterton Leader.

An expert is a cyclist who can scare the life out of a pedestrian by running to within one eleventh of aa inch of him withont hitting him. instead of running into him and killing him at once. — Christ, church Cyclist.

Spain is paying dearly and bitterly for ytars of unwisdom, corruption, procrastination, and all those vices of indolence and thriftlessness which have sapped the foundations of society and of the State. — Wanganui Herald-

Mr Seddou is a man- of brave words. He has times out of number declared that the Ministry would stand or fall on certain proposals, but when the day of conflict arrived, his discretion overcame his valour.— Paeroa Advocate.

Qaite lately His Excellency the Governor found his way to Akaroa by the usual passenger steamboat and train, but these plebeian ways jump not with the Premier's inclining ; he must make a royal progress in'a special steamer. — Wellington Post.

Let us see how the Ministry have themselves performed with regard to the adoption of the land nationalisation plank in their platform. Mr McKenzie and his family are large land-owners. Mr Cadman is a wealthy man, and owns large areas of Hnd, as well as other properties. Mr W. P. Reeves — not now a member of the Government — just before he left the colony became a social past by acquiring an interest in a five- thousand acre block of land in the North Island. — Oatnarji Times.

Bight up to the death of the late Mr 'Ballance ie had been the practice of his and former Ministers to ask the magistrates in the different centres to report on the fitness of those gentlemen whom it was proposed to enrol on the Commission of the Peace. This practice was, however, discontinued shortly after the present Premier took upthe reins of Government, the only apparent reason for the discontinuance of such a desirable safeguard being that conscientious magistrates might, through their reports, interfere with the freedom of political preferment. — Wanganui Chronicle.

Life in New Zealand is far too monotonous and uneventful to kill anyone. About the only excitements in the colony are earthquakes and the National Council of "Women, and the people are so accustomed to the place rocking that they could hardly eat four meals a day unless the land quivered as an aid to digestion. The National Council of Women occasionally talk an old and respectable citizen to death, and the oldest inhabitant occasionally falls asleep and forgets to wake up again ■through sheer ennui; but otherwise it is almost impossible to die in the country. Many estimable New Zealanders wish it wasn't, because they are very tired. — Australian Star.

There is an unwritten law that a special dissolution of Parliament shall not be granted until the representative Chamber has been, what is termed, ' exhausted '— that is r until both sides have tried to carry ou the business r»f the country and have failed. According to this rule, if Mr Seddon ' rode for a fall ' Captain Russell would be sent for and asked to form a Ministry. If he failed to secure a majority in the House he would be entitled to But that would not suit Mr Seddon'at all. His opponents would have time to turn but the Ministerial pigeon-holes, and to find out the true state of finances, and the facts of hidden transactions. — Napier Herald.