What the Papers Say

Observer, Volume XXIV, Issue 27, 19 March 1904, Page 3

What the Papers Say

RADICALISM, both with regard to land and on other questions, appears to have a much firmer hold in the South Island than in the North. — Wellington Post. . • • • • The Legislative Council and the Supreme Court have always been as thorns in the side of the Premier, for the reason that they are the only checks upon the will of a demagogue. — Hamilton Argus. It is true that New Zealand has prospered of late years, but to say that the Government are alone responsible for this pleasing result in the height of absurdity. The Government, instead of assisting the colony to obtain the greatest benefits possible from temporary prosperity, hamper and restrict enterprise. — Palmerston Standard. • • « It will be a sorry day for this colony if ever, forgetting its sturdy manliness and love of justice, it servilely submits to bolstering up a system of administration that in its heart it condemns as unjust, undemocratic, and unBritish. — Whangarei Advocate. • > • The decrease in the number of sheep is inimical to the best interests of the country. Though it would be unfortunate if it became necessary to so limit the exportation of lambs as to affect an important branch of the frozen meat trade, something must be done to check over-exportation, which must lead to distress if persisted in. — Nelson Colonist. If anyone is entitled to relaxation, it is certainly King Dick. He may, we think, be allowed to choose "be tween church attendance and sea excursions as a means of spending the only day of the seven in which he can possibly dodge that " demnition grind." — Wellington Free Lance. • • • If the national scholarships should be, as they ought in common fairness 10 be, opened to all and sun ry of the people who find the money for them, then they will deserve the title that has been destowed upon them. If, on the contiary, they are to be the appanage of people who are not the nation but only part of it, then it is high time they were given some name which they hive a right to assume. — Blenheim Express. • • • Should Dowie visit New Zealand, our people may be expected to pre--8 3rve their sanity. In this observation we might be allowed to except Christchurch, for there, where Clampett and Worthington succeeded, Dr Dowie might anticipate a flourishing season. — Wellington Times. 1•• • • The whole question of treatment of fruit pests seems to be viewed from , the standpoint of the grower for com- , mercial purposes. But the owner of a : little orchard for domestic supply, the cottage gardener, and the general . public, are the majority to be conj suited. — Hawera&tar. • • • Mr Seddon is not tied down by any : shallow consideration for consistency, for while it would be difficult for him to perform two parts at once, he can accomplish a lightning change that would astonish John F. Sheridan. — i Oamaru Times. • • • The first plank in the Opposition platform is still the freehold, and so > far none other has been laid beside it. . It really looks as though Mr Massey and his party intended to appeal to the country next year on this shaky and, '■ narrow footing. For the rest, the policy of the party seems to be one > of passive resistance. — Christchurch Times.

The tribunal the Premier proposes [in lieu of the Legislative Council] would be powerless to alter any political principle adopted by Parliament, and consequently would be no check upon hasty legislation. It would simply make such legislation -more injurious than is at present the case/ because any injurious principle would be clearly expressed.— Hamilton Argus. ;.:.••■■■ .■ *' ;■■_■ .' ; • . ■ : With the leader atone great party systematically saying "YearNo " upon . the quest tbnj and the leader of the other definitely making an answer hostile to the public interest the test of party allegiance, the freeholds of the State are in a very parlous condition. -^Wellington Post. It seems that there is, after all, to be no reconstruction of the Cabinet before the meeting of Parliament. Mr Seddon has hardly admitted as much as this, but he has hinted once or twice lately that it is easier to bear the troubles he has than it would be to face those that would be created by a redistribution of portfolios during the recess. — Christchurch Times. •• ' • The birthrate question will never be righted until Man gets down off his pedestal and Woman obtains a hearing ; and the illegitimacy deathrate will never be diminished while it is fashionable to be a Don Juan, and supremely unfashionable to be the woman who " fell." — Palmerston Times. • • * If the people really want the Bible in the schools, nothing can keep it out. It is a question they must themselves settle. By all means let there be a referendum on it. — Wellington Free Lance. • * • Mr Seddon wants, roughly, to make it an offence to export ewe iambs As a matter of wisdom, no ewe, either 2tooth, 6-tooth or broken mouthed, ought to leave New Zealand for a year or two Something also ought to be done to save the New Zealand people from the doom of eating "scrags." — Grey town Standard. • * • Prosperity has lulled the people into the easy carelessness and tolerance of security, and they take no thought, much less feel any apprehension, either for municipal or colonial government. Mr Seddon can thank his stars that the colony has been prosperous, and that there is a lull in politics, for hid power, personality, and popularity will not be jeopardised so long as adversity keeps away from our doors. — Invercargill Times. • • • There are very few visitors to the colony who can possibly have any claim to the privilege of travelling at the expense of the State, but we are afraid that, in their good nature and their desire to be hospitable, the powers that be are inclined to be over generous in this direction. — Taranaki Herald. • • • No colony will De able to afford a a battleship for a century to come, at the very least, but every colony might have fifty submarines to-morrow. — Blenheim Express. •■ • • The Australasian colonies' sin in allowing the moral and business Asiatic pollution to go unchecked, is as heinous a one as the crime the Rand millionaires desire to commit, and which we are so shufflingly concerned about. The mote in our own e>e represents a contract that should keep us busy for quite a while, without desiring to perform optical operations on the Rand buccaneers. — Greytown Standard. ■■• • • ■ Apart from one or two exceptions in which the wage? of artisans have been slightly increased during the period — which cases are more than balanced by handicrafts and unskilled . employments in which are paid lower wages than were paid fifteen years ago —the wages paid to the bulk of the workers of New Zealand are about the same, nominally, as could be obtained i by them twenty years ago. In actual purchasing value wages areldwernow than then.— Napier Telegraph.