What the Papers Say

Observer, Volume XXVII, Issue 38, 8 June 1907, Page 3

What the Papers Say

AMATEUR sport has an ennobling influence on its participants, a quality that cannot be claimed for professionalism, which quickly brings disrepute on the sport itself and those engaged in it. — Tanranga Times.

Those who are on the land, or who irftend to go on the land if they can get there, will always vote for the freehold ; those who are not on the land and who have no intention of getting there will, on the other hand, vote for the leasehold. — Oamaru Times.

Compulsory military training is not necessarily conscription. It need take no one from his avocation ; it need dislocate no industry if properly applied ; it is democratic and commonsensible. — Wanganui Herald.

What is really wanted in connection with the State Farms is that they should be made experimental stations in a more modern manner, and that they should be equipped and run upon scientific and up-to-date lines. As the Minister says, this would mean a lot of money, but expenditure on such an object as the improvement of agriculture is always justifiable. — Hamilton Times.

It is a reason for surprise that the principle of usiDg prison labour in profitable work has not been extended in other directions. In this respect New Zealand law could very well be brought into line with that of other countries. — Palmerston Standard.

How can children feel any delight in farm life when it is a wearying, disheartening repetition of monotonous work that must be performed? It is a chain of duty which only holds them until they are strong and big enough to break it. — Dargaville Bell.

The colony is prosperous because its lands are fertile and its population industrious, and because its products exported to other lands have for a long time been bringing to the producers remunerative prices over which the Government can exercise no control. — Gisborne Times.

It is one of Sir Joseph Ward's persoual advantages that, however violent the opposition may be which is offered to his political views and measures, as soon as it is a question of honouring the man, political animosities are for the time forgotten, and friend and foe strike up a truce and agree to meet on the common ground of esteem for Sir Joseph's personal character and public services. — Wellington Times.

The staft of life has become a source of wealth io a practical monopoly, whose constitution and methods are injurious to public morals" and the financial interests and rights of every human being in the colony. The public has no right to be exploited to secure the milling interests of this colony from the monetary loss it alone should bear as a consequence of its imprudent and excessive investment of capital. — Petone Chronicle.

It is a pretty open secret that even some of the prudes and purists among amateur Rugby authorities have winked very hard indeed in the past at practices that can only be defined as professionalism. Clubs and cities have touted for crack players. They have been brought from the country to* the town and been found billets for the playing season — possibly, have even been paid their wages. Therefore, the latest development of professionalism need not be a matter of so much surprise after all. — Wellington Free Lance.

Is there not an unbeaoming absenceof dignity in a Minister and the Leader of the Opposition stumping the country in the interests of particular candidates, as in the Taranaki election ? Mr Seddon set the bad example, but Mr Seddon has gone, and it might be be a wise thing to let the people decide for themselves without the intervention of outsiders. — Oamaru Times. • * m The Land Bill is purely and simply a bid for notoriety on the part of George Fowlds and Robert McNab, both of whom will be very sorry indeed to be called upon to cut down their real and personal estates to a humble £50,000.— Foxton Rerald.

Australia and New Zealand are firmly convinced that to admit coloured immigrants would be to imperil their national future, and the stand taken by Sir Joseph Ward on the question, will earn for him the heartiest approval of New Zealand and Australia from coast to coast. — Invercargill. limes.

If the landowner desires to protect his hearth and home he must return^ men to Parliament who will support measures for the assistance of his industry, and not be led away by the clamouring of town agitators andschemers. — Palmerston Standard.

We see no necessity for squandering money on an unnecessary though fast mail service, out of which no material advantage is to be gained. What difference, for instance, will it maketo the trade of the colony whether our letters reach us from London in 24 days or 28 ?— Hawera Star,

While there is, in a general way, apparent a stroDg community of interest, it is also manifest that the farmers have not yet reached ground upon which it were possible to combine in a solid body for the maintenance of rights and privileges peculiar to their class, in the manner pursued by the members of the amalgamated trades unions. Probably they never will. — Blenheim Express.

The Maori wants a coloured Seddon, and he has not shown up yet. There is no hope that the Maoris will do anything further than they are now doing unless some vivid soul with a brown skin rounds up the race with a stockwhip ot conviction, and yards them into the stockyards of work. New Plymouth News.

It is surely a gross injustice to the Manawatu Railway Company, and to the colony, that the purchase of the line should be discussed year after year with unfailing regularity and nothing done, the result being the maximum of insecurity for the company and the inevitable adjustment of its expenditure on any news enterprise to the probabilities of a purchase by the Government before another six months has passed. — Wellington Post.

It is a rather extraordinary thing that Australia, where a crop of wheat of twelve bushels to the acre is considered a fair thing, should be able tosell better flour cheaper than New Zealand, where three times the number of bushels per acre is a reasonable crop. — Foxton Herald.

The exercise of a little common sense would soon result in the quack being "fiozen out." Quackery isrampant simply because many people are ignorant \and credulous. — Christchurch Truth.

The excessive prices of commodities to the ordinary man in New Zealand' is driving him out of the country. It is only in some callings that he gets more wages than the Australian, and for his daily wants he has to pay at least fifteen per cent, more than the Australian. The reason is not far to seek. It lies in the excessive price of the land, and the reason for the excessive price of land is a dunderheaded Government which stumps the countrylying about the land and by so doing.: increasing the burden on the land. — Foxton Herald.