DAILY NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 8104, 1 September 1904, Page 2

DAILY NOTES.

In urging the importancestbategi(: to Australia of the Solomon roiXTS. Islands, the Sydney "Daily Telegraph " was merely giving a further expression 'to the opinion thafc no foreign Power should be allowed 1 to annex any of the xmacquired islands of tbe Pacific. Strategically the question affects the Australasian colonies very deep, ly. As the^eteaoiing caincity of warships • enlarges, the, danger from outlying hostile bases becomes proportionately greater.,. Realising this fact, the United States naval I eipeHs have laid it^ down that America j ought not to permit any foreign Power to I > acquire ». coaling station within SDOO miles of San Francisco. Now it will stri^te the ■uninitiatecl that what is «. dflsirabl© policy for America- in the Pacific must also in certain respects be a' desirable poUcy f or Britain/ It is this reflection which no doubt is partly responaible for the growing feeling throughout Australia and New Zealand that all unanneiced islands within raiding dietanw ti Australasia should be i f

either preserved as neutral territory or incorporated in the British Empire. Certain Opposition organs ■it-does' are .condemning as insuffisalaiues. cient the proposed increases in the salaries of the Supreme Court Judges. It is proposed to raise the salary of the Chief Justice from £1700 to £-2000, and that of each puisne Judge from £1500 to £1800. It will strike most people that these increases aro enough for the- present at any rate. Perhaps the Chief Justice might be paid more than £2000, but it is distinctly unjust to declare, as one prominent Opposition newspapsr does, that em under the altered conditions "proposed in the Bill .now before Parliament New Zealand will be paying her Judges in a beggarly manner. As a matter of fact the Chief Justice will be receiving more than the Px-emier, and the puisne Judges n-early twice as much as the i amount paid to everyone of the subordinate Ministers, except Sir Joseph Ward. The [ Chief Justice, of course,, will still be 511- --| paid compared with the presidents of the Victorian, New South Wales and Queensland Benches, but in view of the establishj ment of the Federal High . Court it is not unlikely that the salaries- of the State Chief Justices' '; may be reduced. Meanwhile the ,-Opi position, newspapers would do well to bear in mind that the Chief Justice, of South .Australia, is paid only £2000, and that each puisne Judge receives £1700. .If Mt'T. E. Taylor has an injustice, been reported aright, he has allowed, in one particular, his natural antipathy to most of the provisions of the hew Licensing Bill v to blind his sense of justice. In reference to the provision in j ! case of changes being ' made in electoral districts he is reported to hay* said that if a portion of a license district were thrown by the Boundary Commission into a no license area the existing licenses were automatically renewed and continued in force until the next T^lid poll. It was a direct incentive to the Commissioners to alter boundaries in that 'direction. The inference to ba drawn from the foregoing assertion ii 3 that the Boundary CommisHoners would be guilty of making changes in order to benefit the holder* of licenses. Such an insinuation is, of course, a grave imputation on the fairness of the Commissioners, and Mr Taylor, rash as he is in regard to many of his utterances, probably by this time regrets that he ever made it. The debate on the land the land question, proceeded uninterdebate. ruptedly throughout . yesterday, nnd is being continued to-day. Judging from present indications ifc will certainly not closa aratil to-morrow night, and possibly ifc may extend into next week. It is said that the Opposition would be glad to discontinue the debate, and 1 we have no doubt that this story is true. But j it is easier to set a heavy mass in motion than to pull ifc up, and by roto the Opposition realise that it is one thing to start a j debate on the laud question and another thing to stop it. Evidently they reckoned without the reformers, who, having whetted their appetites for controversy, intend to satisfy them to repletion.