What the Paper Say.

Observer, Volume XXIX, Issue 46, 31 July 1909, Page 3

What the Paper Say.

THE original idea of the State Fire Insurance Department was that it would keep down premiums. If it has abandoned this mission, there can be no object in maintaining it as a Government department, and the sooner it is abolished the better. — Maaterton " Times."

The whites of New Zealand are being taxed on all they eat, drinkj wear, or otherwise consume, to add value to Maori lands and to assist in building up a huge Maori landocracy, which, if permitted to develop unchecked, will throttle the enterprise of the nation, while sitting at ease and taking toll of its enterprise. — Napier " Telegraph."

Dickens' satirical reference to a Government Department as the Circumlocution Office finds a current application in the Department of State in New Zealand which has jurisdiction over native lands. — Palmerston "Standard."

No doubt the scheme of insurance against unemployment would work very well from the workers' point of view if it were made compulsory on the same terms ; but we doubt very much if the workers as a body will voluntarily insure themselves, or agree to be compelled to do so by law. — Carterton "News."

The financial outlook is not yet bright enough to justify any departure from the prudent course which the Government has laid down for itself, but it should satisfy our Conservative friends that there is no occasion for the gloomy predictions with which they have been trying to aggravate the passing difficulties of the country. — Christchurch " Times."

Under present conditions, millions of acres are idle and unused, paying no rates, and contributing nothing to the national prosperity. The settlement of those waste lands would very speedily, and permanently, remove the unemployed difficulty, and set the Dominion forward on a new era of prosperity unexampled in the history of the past. — Wanganui " Herald."

If the maiden speeches of the newlyelected members, as reported in "Hansard," can be taken as an index of their capabilities — and we see no reason why this should not be so— then Parliament has been reinforced by a body of men who will do infinite credit to themselves and to the country. — Stratford "Post."

The right to work is proclaimed by the Labour party, but this really seems to mean in practice the right to refuse work, or the right to pick work. How can the community be in sympathy with an unemployment difficulty when they find that the men out of work refuse a living wage ?— Manaia " Witness."

Of all men in the world, the man who has Bpent his life amongst pena and ink and official documents, and whose hair has grown grey in the service of the State, seems to be the unlikeliest to send into the bush with an axe, to reduce the wilderness into smiling pastures and carve out a home for himself. — Hawera "Star."

The startling feature of the minia. tare Budget is the fact that the public debt has gone up nearly four and ahalf millions during the year. This is enough to cause any body of men to pause, and ask themselves whether it is not time to put the pee in.— Chris fc. church "Spectator." yaxu*