What the Papers Say.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXVI, Issue 13434, 22 July 1911, Page 9

What the Papers Say.

The people of New Zealand are sick of the talk of Tammany and .extravagance and incapacity, and even the tempting 'Kill of the freehold has not been eagerly seized by the section for whom the Op position party have angled.—lnvercargill News.

The gallows has no justification in a Christian country and among civilised people. The crime of homicide is not affected in the least by the terrors of the r.carfold. As a deterrent the brutality of hanging lias heen grossly magnified.— Mnsterioit Argus.

The Mayor of Wanganui is indisputably right when lie says that such matters as those dealt with in the proposed tramway regulations 'should, bo decided by Parliament and not by the Minister of Public. "Works or any group of Ministers, and it may be said with confidence.thai had Parliament done its duty in' this respect the regulations would never have come before the municipalities in their present form.— Southland Times.

Mr. Fowlds was careful to note in his .speech at Kaponga recently, when advocating proportional representation, that he spoke on this subject as a private member, not as a Minister—"the majority "thought differently, and so he supposed "they would have to go on and make, the "b;Tt of the present system"—but we cannot help wishing that he would try to convert his colleagues to a principle which assuredly lias the future on its side.—Dunedin Star.

It is true that the Government has been roused to the need for action. We give it all due credit for its nursery-and tree-planting activities of recent years, but we are not satisfied that either Ministerialists or Oppositionists are fully alive to the importance of conservation, wherever possible, and re-afforestation. Such a national issue is apt to be overlooked in the battles of the Ins and Outs. Arbour Day should be a help to keep tins great need of trees before the people's eyes.—Wellington Tost.

From £45 per aero for 90 acres, and £73 per acre for 4o acres, to £B7 per acre for 20 acres, have been paid for land in the region of Hawera, Taranaki, the first two transactions being for cash. No conscienceless.landlord ever imposed a weightier burden on .his- tenants than that which is the direct consequence of the freehold system. But nobody seems to knock this oppressive principle on the head, or .shoot it from behind' a hedge, alter the fashion of dealing; with landlords, who offend less than some of those settlors, or unsettlers, who, bv the prices they impose, place an intolerable tax on their successors.—Oaraaru Mail.

The submission of the. tramway regulations for approval on the eve of the genera) election is the *iJiost indiscreet action of which the Government has been guilty since the dairv regulations wro issued under confidential seal in 1908. It had been proved that the confidenceimposed m the individuals to whom the draft of the dairy regulations was submitted was sadly misplaced, and punishment was meted out to the Government Iry the rejection of their candidates in several, electorates. Both the tramway and the dairy regulations are capable of improving materially the conditions under which the respective businesses are earned out, but the crude state in which they were forwarded for the approval of "vnerts merelv plaved into, the hands of the enemy.—Southland News.