PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9223, 30 April 1908, Page 1

PUBLIC OPINION.

FROM YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPERS. (By Telegraph.) ARBITRATION LAW. We believe we do not err in saying that there is an opinion that as a. rule the Department of Labour administers the law firmly when an employer is guilty of a breach and weakly when tho guilt is a labourer's. Some of the proy ceedin'gs in the case of the Blackball strike would seem to warrant such an opinion. There we see the Minister choosing out of two courses open to him the course which provides the lesser j penalty for the strike and which gives the greater opportunity for delay and uncertainty in enforcing the penalty, — "Evening Post." DOMINION FINANCE. Sir Joseph Ward does not, like the leader of the Opposition, keep silence altogether. He has pointed out the causes of the general prosperity which, independent of booms, and in spite of slumps continues to astonish the critics with a brimming treasury and increases : of revenue, following upon decreases of '.. tariff. The accumulation of six mil- ; lions proves as substantially the soundness of the financial methods of tile Government as the bounding revenue proves the elastic prosperity of the population. 'Sir Joseph, it is complained, is never done with allusions to %he brimming treasury and the , prosperous people. On their side 'the critics are never tired of decrying the conclusions iof the treasurer. It is a case of fact against fiction. There is precedent for i the belief that fact generally prevails. — " New Zealand Times." WAIOTAPU PRISON CAMP. Does it require a ghastly tragedy to teach us what may happen when, vicious degenerates flying from long sentences are making a dash for liberty through a practically unpoliced and sparsely settled district, and have the inhabitants of Rotorua no claim to consideration that lightly guarded housebreakers and other violent criminals should be congregated in their neighbourhood? If the present system is continued long enough it is bound to end in crime and bloodshed, which will produce a pxlblic indignation before which the authorities must give way. It would be wiser I and better to change the system at once, aud to limit the Waiotapu camp to short sentence and good conduct prisoners who are not in any way confirmed offenders against the law, are not given to crimes which endanger human life, and may reasonably be expected to so profit by mild and kindly imprisonment that when given full liberty they will not again offend against the laws. — - "New Zealand Herald." WASTE OF INFANT LIFE. The diseases from which the vast majority of infants suffer cannot fail to leave a lasting effect upon them, to lessen their prospect of usefulness as j well as of health and happiness as they grow up. It is chiefly in this direction in the work of training mothers to deal rationally and carefully with the young : lives entrusted to their charge, that the | practical work of an Infant Protection Society can" best be done, but while pure food and improved hygiene and a better knowledge of the principles of health will do much to protect infant life we have still to face the infinitely more complicated and difficult problem of physical and .mental fitness foT the parents' good, and until some satisfactory solution is reached, the worker must continue to deplore the terrible wastage in infant life from which it suffers year by year.— "Auckland Star." APPOINTMENT OF TEACHERS. Is there a remedy for the present unsatisfactory state of affairs? Emphatically yes. Let the schools be graded into say ten divisions each, carrying a fixed salary (with a minimum and a \maximum) within each division and promote only from those filling positions in the division immediately below the one in which the vacancy has. occurred. Then,- and then only, are we' likely to get rid of existing anomalies and to give to the teacher the security and fair treatment he sighs for, and the absence of which has driven so many able men and women out of the service. We are aware that the Minister of Education has it in contemplation to ask Parliament next session to sanction some pressing reforms. Let him have the courage to take hold of the most pressing reform of all and carry it to a successful issue, H© will find Parlia-