PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9304, 3 August 1908, Page 1

PUBLIC OPINION.

♦ FROM SATURDAY'S NEWSPAPERS. (By Telegraph.) PUBLIC DEFENDERS. There is a sound reason why in the interests of justice provision should bo made for the public defence of accused persons who are without the means to arrange for their own defence, just as ! much as for the public prosecution oi : prisoners, and the law which was enacted by the Imperial Parliament five years ago supplies a sufficient precedent for similar legislation by colonial Parliaments. — " Otago Daily Times." IMMIGRATION. At the same time it can scarcely be argued that our possibilities in the United Kingdom are entirely exhausted, or, in fact, that they have ever had a fair trial considering the constant stream of English, Irish and Scottish I people which continues to flow into North America year by year. It seems difficult to hold that we have done all that wo mitht to attract at least a portion of tho current in this direction. At all events it behoves us to be up and doixig it we are to fulfil our natural destiny, and to pay no hood to the petty caterwaul ings of those paltry-minded pessimistic^ and incapables who would bar all true progress in the gratification of their own selfish and umvorthv ends. — :£ New Zealand Times." NEW ZEALAND RAILWAYS. Parliament never accepted tho doctrine that tho railways should he> worked at a loss because the earning is sunk in a grossly extravagant expenditure, penalising tho whole people for the benefit of the overcrowded Railway Department. — "Evening Pest."