PRESS OPINIONS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 24 September 1913, Page 4

PRESS OPINIONS.

So far as the attack on the Public Service Act is concerned, and the wildly foolish talk _of "illegal Estimates"—a term which actually has, and can have, no meaning—the truth of the matter is as it was bluntly stated by Mr Fisher: the "Liberal" politicians hate the Act which has ended their power to job friends and supporters into billets in return for votes. Had the new Leader of the Opposition deliberately set himself to involve his* party in the largest number of gross follies possible in one adventure, he could not have bettered this stonewall.—Christehureh Press.

The voting strength of the Opposition in the House is not estimated according to those who are for Sir Joseph Ward, but those who are opposed to Mr Massey, and there are at least 37 such members in the House at the present moment, while reflection may bring two or three converts. —Southland News;,

There is need for a little more publicity regarding the proceedings art inquests "on deceased mental .hospital patients. No one desires to sarily harrow the feelings of relatives by the publication, except in very exceptional cases, of the names of those upon whom such inquests are held, but the public would feel somewhat more secure if inquests at mental hospitals were attended by representatives of the newspapers in the same way that'inquests outside such institutions are usually attended.—Chnstohurch Spectator.

Whether the high cost of living is good or bad depends dn the point of view, and from New Zealand's point of view nothing is more desirable than the maintenance of high prices in British markets. We can protect our own people by maintaining an equality between wages and prices, and the report of the recent Commission on the Cdst of Living in New Zealand showed clearly that though the cost of living has increased wages have increased more rapidly, and the worker is now in a better position than that which he occupied when food, clothing*, boots, and rent were all at a lower level.—Southland Times.