PUBLIC OPINION.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17528, 4 May 1925, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION.

WHAT OTHER WRITERS ARE SAYING. A BUOYANT REVENGE. I lie preliminary statement of Dominion revenue and expenditure for the past- financial year is most gratify ing. Revenue has exceeded the estimate by almost £BOO,OOO, even though there have been substantial taxation concessions. On the expenditure side too result is much better than was anticipated. The Main Estimates provided for an expenditure of £27,505,060, leaving a balance of £352,560 for the •supplementary Estimates. As actually approved by th,c House, however, the Supplementary Estimates totalled £<ol.lll, eriving a total estimated expenditure ol £28,266,471. The actual expenditure lias been £27.39-5,000. It is impossible to comment upon this in cietail until information is available to show how far the reduction of expenditure is attributable to genuine saving', and how far to postponement ot works. But it may be stated without hesitation that the general result is highly satisfactory in these times when it is much easier to overspend than to economise.—“Post.’ - WellingI. ABO UR ON LOCAL BODIES. Labour s successes and failures at Wednesday’s municipal elections in various parts of New Zealand have some interesting features. Tiie main o-ne is the difference between Labour's representation in national and local politics. Auckland City, for example, sends lour Labour members to Parliament, but it could not elect more than two members of the new City Council. It is in Christchurch that Labour .s strongest in municipal politics, and there the struggle has approximated more closely to the lines of national politics, and has been waged more vigorously, than in any of the other centres. For a long while there has been a definite “class-conscious” Labour party in the council. Yet Labour elected on Wednesday only five out of sixteen councillors, it is"true it also elected a Mayor, and it is entitled to take some pride in this success, but the Rev J. lv. Archer would not have been chosen bad not the anti-Labour vote been divided. It is worthy of note that in Christchurch, as in Auckland. a Labour candidate (Mr D. G. Sullivan, M.P.). topped the poll for the couileil, and that he also is personally popular. Christchurch, indeed, went one better from the Labour point ot view ; it filled the second place with a. Labour candidate. Labour may 6ay that the reasons it does not win more representation in municipal elections arc that .voters are. apathetic and thatits organisation is defective. Apathy, however, is not a- characteristic of Labour supporters in Parliamentary elections, and Labour is at least as well organised-as any other party. It- is clear from the voting that there are many electors who mix their “tickets,” selecting a majority of non-Labour candidates and including one or two Labour representatives. Rigid adherence to “tickets'’ is not general, which is a good thing.—“Star.’’ Auckland. SEOON D All Y EDUC ATI ON. For some reason or other the educational authorities at Wellington not regard with much sympathy the preparatory classes of the High Schools. Nor have the Government and Parliament shown any marked disposiV’on to help them. One- reason that wY have- heard given for this want of sympathy and help is that the classes calculated to perpetuate class distinctions, but that seems to us a far-fc** ’ t£‘ argument, advanced an exctis. 'To' withhold financial assistance. The jSeoplo who use it appear to think tha r the recognised and long e'stid " • system of education in New Zea': -free,'’secular, and compulsory —is perfect and that any deviation from that coup-set or system is to be opposed. But those who know mo A about education -believe that education for a professional career should have its foundations laid early.-—“Taranaki Herald.” THE CHIRuH AND CHl’RuHf GOING. Church-going is generally regarded as a good hatC. to much so that the designation o’ 'fiurcb-goe • other tilings being equal J.ei •)• ever < mployed as a term < z /■36aeh. Moreover, the 1 'Lurch is i. .tgitnised expression of the Christiart ' *''ion upon which Western civilisati based. It Is reasonable. therefore * consider c.n acknowledged decline church-going as affecting the maintenance and progress of civilisation. We speak of an “ acknowledged decline.” The acknowledgment I is exhibited in an appeal that is being I made by a number cf churches in the i city, and not in Dunedin omy, to those I who are not regular church-goers, lo ’ attend the services during the Sundays j ot the present month. It is, indeed, a | fact admitting of little dispute that c.t- ---| tendance at church is not habitual, j even on the part of persons -vl.o arc i nominally connected with one or other !of the several Protestant lenominaJ lions. The reasons are not so easy to j discover. Controversies over the ques- ! tion why people do not go to church’ i have been as frequent as they have j proved inconclusive. The weight of op- ! inion seems to have gone in the direei tion of charging the Church with lailI ure to adapt itself to the spirit ol the times. —“ Otago Daily Times.” * c HIXD ENBURG AND Ellf:r*PG. ~ The international coming; .yyhich have been cabled on Hindenb c ..e.elccI tion ns President of Germ have been most illuminating. A stdisposition of the British Press lias been '■ Lo make the best of the outlook. That iis not surprising. Six years since • tire war. during which the state ol Europe, has been one of division, susi pic ion. iind jealousy, bad impressed, j lhe conviction that there could be no | ! health for Allied, as well. as ex-enemy, 1 nations until that condition bad gnen j I place to one of nerv confidence and co-operation So instead of the old j j attempts to ostracise Germany we I | have liad the commercial treaty made with her bv Great Britain -made not. | j by Ml- Jlnnisay MacDonald, but by a ! Conservative Government—the agree- | moot on the Daves scheme, encouragement to her lo enter the League of ; Nations, and talk of a general defeni sive pact. Liberal and Labour j on l j nals, like the “Daily Chronicle” and I “ Daily Herald.” would fain persuade ! themselves, ;is is the manner of those I parties till an international peril can ' no longer be blinked by the extremist j trust, i hat the choice by almost half • iho nation of n junker militatisl. and ! ;i Hobenzollern worshipper :I _Presi- ; dent and wild transports following it j mean nothing at all- Conservative j papers hope, and have some <:iu>eto believe, that there will be no mini ' 1 ate ohan.gi - Star." Du i