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West Coast Times, 17 June 1912, Page 2

NOTES AND COMMENTS. Few men in Australasia are better fitted to write on competitions than Mr. C. N. Baeyertz, and his experience as a judge at such affairs gives his article on the subject in the “Lone Hand” si peculiar value and interest.' Ho declares that competitions are of a high value as stimulating at least one side of the spiritual life of the community, which does at some times and in some places, seem singularly beclouded. Men and women are helped to become citizens of the enthralling world of music and the sustaining world of books. Also, he has learnt the deplorable' lack of good teachers throughout Australasia. There are literally hundreds of persons teaching elocution who have no right to Resell

i at all, being ' “without special qualifications, without spiritual insight, ; without education, without that sim- i pig refinement that is necessary for the appreciation of decent verso or j prose.” The victims of such teachers have at competitions the advice of the . judge (if he is worth his salt) and the valuable object lesson of listening to better-taught,competitors. Again, fh. , Bacycrta laments the many mispronunciations and the horrible Austrahan twang; and again he makes comparison in purity of speech, to the advantage of New' Zealand. 0 i passes to the lighter side of things, and says that truth to ell > as troops on the heal of year, the cheap humours of competitions area diminishing company. On the who o compcthionsTiavc quite ceased to bo funny. in the sense of being absurd. Act hj s memory serves, and wo have the - of the lady whose gestures were appropriate, but her words quite inaudible, •md of the Scotsman who declaimed, “Ma hairrt is in the coffin there wn Osar,” drew a red handkerchief fiom his pocket, and wept about the stage for five minutes. Now there remains only tho humours of all amateur concert platforms. “I have no doubt at all that there was a day when Adam found Eve trying her voice beneath a ’ tree, and bade her desist. This desire ; to perform is as old as sin, but not as sinful.”

Away up to the far north of Auckland, the Conservativc-Libcral-La-bour Premier took a jaunt , on Saturday, and in the evening he got off a few of his well-known platitudes. Everything is all right with New Zealand, so says Mr Mackenzie! If he considers our financial position is healthy, then, we want no stronger evidence that ho and his ill-sorted crew should be hurled off the Ireasuij Benches at the earliest possible moment. Referring to the deplorable state into which our finances have been dragged by “ wizardly finance the 'Dominion declares;—“ Whatever may happen during the coming session of Parliament, one thing is certain: that the four million loan will bo the topic of some very serious debate. We hope, and we are inclined to believe, that the loan, which is the last straw ,• of Wardist finance; will load to such a discussion of tho gravely dangerous position into which tho ex-Prime Minister has guided Now Zealand as will wake the country right up. Tho time for soft phrases and foolish reticences is past; Wardism has done its best to muddle the country’s finances, and the sooner tho country understands that tho better for everybody. On page 697 of the Year Book for 1911 is given a list of the loans falling duo. The amounts for the current year and the three following years arc given as follows ; £ 1912- 4,913,201 1913- 777,700 1914- 4,943,365 1915- 4,270,202 The new loan, raised on bonds redeemable in 1914, lifts to over £4,777,700 the 1914 figure shown above. That is , to say, during tho next four years tho country will have to renew (for it cannot redeem) £10,327,597 of past borj rowings, in addition to raising whatever new loans may bo necessary. Could there bo madder finance than this? Or a more recklessly unpatriotic unconcern for the country’s interests? Tho London market, as the facts concerning Ihe four million loan make clear, is beginning to bleed us—almost, one might say, to blackmail us. What would it do in tho future il Wardist methods were to continue? A southern journal points out that if a British Chancellor of tho Exchcqer attempted to emulate the cx-Primo Minister, who is supremely responsible, he would create a financial panic. A pa*, ic is not wanted here, but the business 1 community should ponder upon what is threatened by the wild finance of the past few years.' The friends of reform in Parliament must apply themselves m tho coming session to the work of showing tho country once for all the national danger of Wardist nnanco.