Current Comment.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XXII, Issue XVI, 22 April 1899, Page 531

Current Comment.

•We are not,’ announces the * Napier Telegraph,’ * advocates of unlimited gambling, or of gambling at nil. It is one of the greatest curses under which the colony labours. But .we object to the totalisator monopoly because it has by its existence led to a vast increase of gambling, and because under the law which allows it one section of the community may be prosecuted for doing what may be done by another section under Government protection and encouragement.’ The conversion of prisoners into skilled, or even partially skilled, agriculturists by the employment of their energies upon the land is, in a country like this’, an eminently practical proposal, in the opinion of the * Wellington Post.’ Seeing that New Zealand is almost wholly a pastoral and agricultural country, it is quite natural that the gaols should be brought into line with the genius of the community, and we would once more suggest that the- Government should establish one or more prison farms. + + + John McKenzie is the best Minister of Bands that this country has ever produced. He has had his opponents and detractors, but at this moment no one would stand forth and dispute the position he now occupies in the estimation of his adopted country. So says the ‘ Wairarapa Star,' and it continues : He stands forth as a man who has done remarkable work in his day ; he has had a hand in making history ; he has changed a system which many thought would last to the end of time.

‘The Prohibition question touched the lives and pockets of the people more vitally than any other question within the region of politics at. the present day, and the man who said it was a fad did not read the signs of the times. They had only to look at the figures recorded at the last poll and see the progress made. In the Taranaki electorate only 564 more votes were required to carry “no license,” which, in other words, meant 282 had to be alienated from the other side, and there would be trouble among brewers and publicans.’ This is ‘ Clutha’s message to Taranaki ’ as delivered by Mr * Tommy ’ Taylor. + + + , ‘Ask and it shall be given.you. It must have been upon the principle of this Scriptural injunction, the ‘ Otago Daily Times ’ surmises that the political platform of the Trades and Labour Conference, held last week at Christchurch, has been framed. Upon no other conclusion can a number of the extravagant demands that are contained in the platform be accounted for. It is not imaginable that a number of presumably sensible men, sitting together in calm deliberation, can have supposed that many of the ‘reforms’ which are enumerated in the platform are attainable. ♦ ♦ +

Sounding the war cry for the next general election, the ‘ New Zealand Trade Gazette ’ lays it down ‘ That every man of business should provide himself with a copy of the electoral roll and a supply of applications for registration. Notwithstanding that the Government canvassers are supposed to have embraced all in their net, there must be numbers who have escaped. Every day some young man or woman comes of age, and is there<by entitled to a vote. Every week some young woman gets married, and having lost her identity under her maiden name must be registered under that which she has acquired.’

‘ If,’ says a Taranaki contemporary, ‘ settlers met periodically and held discussions, the great good resulting from such meetings would be surprising, and the organisation worked on thorough lines could not but be of great service to the locality where it existed. Farmers’ clubs shed enlightenment, and though farmers as a body are not the most dense set of men in the world, yet I’ve not met the farmer who could say he knew everything, and had nothing to learn pertaining to the industry he followed. I commend the suggestion of Mr McGuire to the earnest consideration of settlers.

♦ ♦ ♦ It surely is better, says the Nelson ‘ Colonist,’ to wear dungaree and work

with black hands for a comfortable living, than to wear line raiment and be in perpetual straits for the necessaries of life. The struggle is not yet so severe in this country as in older ones, but it is getting more severe every day. Parents are exceedingly foolish, who. from false pride or vanity, prefer to put their sons into employments where they are unlikely to make themselves independent, rather than have them learn mechanical callings, which in reality require far more intelligence than is demanded of the ordinary clerk. That New Zealand is destined to play a much more important part than she has hitherto done in the supplying of produce to Australia there can be no doubt. Whether that will be done without federating with the other colonies is a question yet to be decided, but of this we are confident that a very much larger trade is to be done. Of course, the initiative will have to be taken by New Zealand. New South Wales, notwithstanding its comparatively large population and almost limitless extent of country, can never hope to compete in the raising of produce with the superior soil, certain seasons, and abundant harvests of New Zealand. —‘ Wanganui Herald.’ ♦ ♦ ♦ The political women of Wellington want the Premier to establish more State farms. One would have thought, comments the ‘ Hawke’s Bay Herald,’ that the disastrous financial results at Levin would have deterred anyone from proposing an extension of the New- Zealand system. But, it is urged, the experience of Germany and some of the Australian colonies is in favour of the scheme. Well, there are State farms and State farms. In Germany tramps and vagrants are arrested and made to work on the farms for fixed periods at very low rates of wages, and they are punished for .leaving. 4We cannot be quite certain yet what the effect will be upon the effort to establish the beet industry in .New Zealand, but there seems to be little room for doubting that the European bounty system is doomed to speedy extinction.—‘ Waikato Times.’