PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 10769, 15 May 1913, Page 3

PUBLIC OPINION.

FROM YESTERDAY'S NEWSPAPERS. (By Telegraph.) THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. Mr Barnett's nomination as a likely man came from the Public Trust Office itself, and not from the Ministry or any member of it, nor did it come from outside. Mr Baraett was a member of the staff of the Publio Trust Office who, when in charge of the Christchurch branch, built up a remarkably solid and successful business for the institution. It was purely in the ordinary course of departmental procedure that his recommendation was made for the promotion offering, and it was purely in the ordinary course that Cabinet accepted it. It is also well to remember that the Commission of Inquiry into the working of the Public Trust Office, to which the present changes may be assumed to be primarily due, was not originated by the present Government, but was a legacy from their predecessors. Under all the circumstances political animus might well have restrained itself from making a charge of like nature where palpably none could lie.— Dunedin "Evening Star." THE TIMARU STRIKE. This strike at Timaru seems to furnish evidence, as did also the strike in the slaughtering industry early jru the year, that there is a strong disinclination on the part of very many workers in the community to associate themselves with attempts to dislocate industry and to subject the public to loss and inconvenience for trivial reasons and upon grounds that might suitably be the subject of negotiation. Experience has shown that a strike launched upon an unsympathetic publio and upon a community which has every cause to resent it is apt to recoil badly upon those who participate in it. It is likely that many of the Timaru strikers realise by this time that their action was, to say the least of it, very ill-advised.—" Otago Daily Times." WHAT IS THE GAME?

The squatters' organ has come forward with the suggestion that the Mayors of the four New Zealand centres should be elected for two years. Three weeks ago our rather weird contemporary was using all ita resourceful casuistry to prevent Mr David M'Laren from being elected for a second year. Why this sudden change of front on the part of the purity party for extension of _ the period of elected officers? Is this a more or less astute preliminary to a proposal that Parliament- shall have fte term extended to five or perhaps seven years? There has been in the past, agitation in that direction from members of the self-stvled "Reform " party, and it is well known that they would dearly love to have the period of Parliament extended.—" New Zealand Times." HOUSEWIVES OF THE FUTURE. What should be the proof of success for the experiment? Those who rejoice hi Dunedin look for their warrant in the number of students (now forty-nine) and the quota (twenty-nine) working for a degree. This is not a satisfactorybasis for jubilation. If, for argument sake, a certain scheme of study i« wrongly planned, the regret of those who observe tho mistake, is proportionate to the number of students misled It is not a ease of "the more the merrier, but "the more the sorrier." We do not wish to suggest that the course at Dunedin is a "mistake," but the syllabus is undoubtedly complicated, highly technical, and it is too soon to shout "Success.''—Wellington "Even-i ing Post."