Sayings of the Week

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLII, Issue 10, 10 March 1909, Page 3

Sayings of the Week

A Big Item. YJTJ'W’ HEX they came to consider that //I there was £26.000,000 invested I I f, in the railways, that the revenue was close on £3,000.000 per annum, and that there were close on 13,000 men in the railway service, it must be admitted that the railways were a big item for anvone to undertake.— Hon. J. A. Millar.' • • • • In Gaol. The number of persons in Dunedin Gaol, according to - the population, has very much decreased of late years, and, speaking from memory, I believe there are now fewer prisoners here than in the Napier Gaol. There are only eight women and 52 men here. As regards both daylight and cleanliness, nothing better could be desired. The gaol is exceedingly well managed.— Hon. Dr. Findlay. • • • • Energy and Application. Even if I fail as Minister for Labour, there is one portfolio that I trust of all others I will be successful in carrying out, and it is that of Minister for Roads and Bridges. That is a work and task that demands energy and application.— Hon. A. 'll . Hogg. .... The Prudent Scotch. They knew the people of Scotland were a very prudent race. Anyone who had lived among them for ,":j years, as he had done, would very soon find that out. They always wanted value for their money and for their votes. He could only think of one class of people better at a bargain than a Scotchman and that was a Scotch woman. Long ago Scotland had chosen St. Andrew as its patron saint. Everyone did not know the reason for the choice made by the people of Scotland, but if they looked into the Scriptures they would find it was St, Andrew who discovered the lad who had the loaves and fishes.: — Mr J. F. Woodhouse, Dunedin. * * * * Mr Fraser. Napier might have representatives for the next 50 or 60 years, but it would never have one more loyal to its interests, more energetic or more sincere than Mr Fraser.—Sir. William Russell. .... Wake up, Auckland ! For general classes of goods, I do not hesitate to express the opinion that Wellington is the most convenient centre from which to work the New Zealand market, and particularly when a representative is employed to book orders, and when only one stock can be held.— Mr Ben H. Morgan, British Trade Commissioner. • • • • Cautious but Optimistic. He enough to say that the barometer pointed to caution. He was optimistic enough to say that there was no trouble looming as far as New Zealand was concerned. But notwithstanding that he believed there was no immediate trouble coming, it was the duty of the Government to reduce its expenditure as far as it possibly could.— Hon. J. A. Millar. • • * • Almost a Recreation. The conditions of employment at the Frimley factory appeared to be very satisfactory. About 200 hands, including men, youths, women and girls, were employed, and some £3OO a week was paid in wages. The young women and girls, in the clean, well-lighted rooms, appeared so cheerful that he thought they regarded their work almost as a recreation.— Hon. ’A. y-’. Hogg. • • • • Quality—Not Quantity. In view of the rapid Increase in the lamb exports from the North Island, Australia, and the Argentine, it is obviously of the utmost importance that every effort should be made by Canterbury stockowners to continue to produce that high standard of quality which has in the past earned the excellent reputation which Canterbury lamb enjoys on Home markets. Unless that is done, it

would seem unreasonable to expect our Canterbury lamb can long maintain the premium which it fortunately still commands.—Mr. F. de C. Malei, Chairman Christchurch Meat Company. Thwarted by Its Own Success. It seemed to him that if Esperanto did succeed on a large scale it would be to a certain extent thwarted by its own success, for international differences of idiom would develop as they had done with other languages in the past.—Mr. W. J. Morrell, M.A. Esperanto. The growth of Esperanto within the last few years had been enormous, and a remarkable fact observed at the conventions was that it was impossible to tell, from their speech, to what nationality the speakers in Esperanto belonged. A minister had addressed the Cambridge Conference in Esperanto with conspicuous success after only five weeks’ study of the language.— Mr. G. Aldridge, Auckland. Entirely Opposed. He was entirely opposed to the action of the Labour party in putting such conditions on the master workers of the Dominion as brought them to work for a bare existence. Under the old conditions the men served their masters more faithfully, and the men were better oft' and more happy and contented. — Mr. J. Smith, N.Z. Ironmasters’ Association. For the People. Legislation should be for the people as a whole, not for any particular class, and not in advance of the time, else it would be irksome and retaliate on the whole of the communitv.— Mr J. P. Luke, M.P. The Great Advantage. His experience of the Auckland Chamber’s work showed the great advantage of having a number of subsidiary railway leagues working with a central body, and he hoped to see the Wellington Railway League resuscitated. — Mr H. ('. Teiesley. Wellington Chamber of Commerce. Idyllic Napier. Napier is, I may say. one of the healthiest towns in the Dominion. New Zealand, as you know, has the lowest death rate in the world, the North Island the lowest death rate in New Zealand. Hawke’s Bay the lowest death rate in the North Island, and Napier the lowest death rate in Hawke’s Bay. So you will see that this city has the lowest death rate of any town in the world.— Mr. J. Vigor Broirn, Mayor of Napier. Good Old Principles. Most chemists act on the principles which Dr. Brown, who was first a chemist and after qualified as a physician, says were taught him by the old pharmacist he was apprenticed to. This worthy gave the following advice to his pupils: "Prescribe when you have a chance, and take care when the nostrum does no good at least it does no harm, and the patient can be passed on to the starving doctor."— Dr. T. Moore, M.D., Napier. • * • • Millions and Ostrich Feathers. The lines which the Auckland Railway League were agitating for in the Auckland province alone would cost the country about two or two and a-half millions annually, but all their agitation would not make him take on impassible financial responsibilities. One of the lines the league advocated was a PukekoheWaiuku section. After going fully into the matter the Government had ascertained that the only probable revenue from that source would be upon the carriage of ostrich feathers.— Hon. R. Me Kensie. ♦ • • ♦ Nowhere So Low, He had been informed by Mr. Mulgan, now of Canterbury, that in no other district in New Zealand was the standard

of attainment possessed by headmasters so low as in Auckland, and that there was no other place in New Zealand where large schools were held by teacher- who only had a DI certificate. He (Mr. Parr! believed in encouraging the man who burned the midnight oil to secure higher qualifications.— Mr. (•_ J. Parr. <_ hairman Auckland-Board of Education. • • • • A Sacred Right. If the secrecy of the ballot was to U' preserved, it seemed to him a very wrong thing that people should l>e canvassed for their votes, that they should be asked or invited to say for whom they were gomg to vote. Every good citizen should recognise that his right to vote was a sacred right, which he should at all times exercise to the best of hh dis cretion.— |/r. C. <•_ Kettle, S.J/. Cheaper Telephones. Ihe charges for city telephones compared most favourably with the rates imposed in England. It seemed to him. however, that the Government were not doing as much as they could for the outside people, and certainly were doing nothing to induce those people to connect their homes with the telephone. A telephone at Sumner, for instance, cost something like £22 a year, and that charge prohibited all but a few from making use of the system. Bureau charges were also too high. He felt sure that if country people were treated better it would lead

to a large amount of additional business being done with the city.—J/r //. •/. Jfarrtner, President Canterbury Chamber of Commerce. Methodism's Strength. They did not realise the strength of the Methodist Church in New Zealand. Their organisation was as great as any in the Dominion, and if they would only work it they could easily move New Zealand. And the young men were teaching them to use their organisation.— Rev. C. 11. Garland. • • « • The Limit of Advertising. It has been wittily said that the ideal writer of patent medicine advertisements is able so to frighten the type-setter that he stops work to buy a bottle.— Dr. T. ('. Moore, M.D., Napier. Favoured Napier. The surf bathing you have on the beach at Napier is unique, and the Borough Council has shown itself to lx* fully alive to"*this asset in building the municipal baths, which were now in process of erection. On every side, in fact, there is evidence of the advancement of the town being in most capable hands. Mr

J. Vigor Brown. 1 may say, is my idea! of a mayor, ami his one object seems to l>e to forward the interests of the town and district. The town is clean, and in this respect is a pattern to many other cities.— Dr. J. R. Purdy. Price of Coal. The miners at Huntly are paid 2/ per ton for breaking the coal, and yet the price of coal at Thames is 33 per ton. and it cannot be obtained except through one dealer, which is making it practically a corner. It is sold at Huntly up to 13/ per ton. railway carriage to the Thames, say. 7 6 per ton. ami yet there is this huge difference in price. If is estimated that the extra 1 per ton put on it (it was said on account of the extra insurance risk j will bring the company in £BOOO per annum. Is the added risk anything like that IZc.Vei/. Thames. A Tribute. John Wesley was a learned man. coming from one of the universities of England. A man of broad outlook and greater adaptability, the founder of the Church always rose to an emergency. Th? Church he founded was one which taught a joyful religion. To realise what Wesley had done they had only to compare England with France at the present day. England had grown under the influence of Methodism, but France had grown in another direction, guided by false teachings of Wesley’s contemporary,

Voltaire. the man who had boasted that, given a printing press, he would soon make the Bible a forgotten book.— Rti\ C. Slade. Before Business. Men should take up their responsibilities and place the work of God before business. All laymen should feel that the work of the Church was just as much their matter as that of the minister.— Mr Holmes, Wellington Y..M.C.A. • * • • Lying in Waste. The native land question was a very big one, ami every effort should l»e made to grapple with it. Thousands of acres were lying in waste; personally, he looked upon it as a crime that such a state of affairs existed. Great areas of fertile land were locked up. and were no good to anyone. Those lands should lie open for settlement purposes. The Iteight of his ambition was that everyone in the Dominion should have every facility for acquiring a piece of land of his own.— Hon. R. McKenzie. Music in Wellington. During last year some very distinguished musicians had visited Welling-

*OD, and most of them had to him their surprise at the appreciation and discernment shown by audiences at their concerts. One of them had expressed great surprise that there were so many signs of interest in music. He thought that attention should be drawn to the great advance of activity in local musical circles. There was no town, he thought, at Home of similar size to Wellington where more was going on in regard to musical matters than in Wellington.— Mr J. Ma uyhan Bam<ll. Wei lington. • « • ♦ Mutton. The Canterbury Frozen Meat Company alone had now three works capable of freezing about 14,000 sheep a day and of storing about 300,000. The business done by those works was a practical illustration <d the expansion of the meat trade all over New Zealand. He was proud of his connection with the great industry.— Mr F. Wayinouth. Canterbury Chandier of Commerce. n • • • The Addington Searchlight. Those who had been appointed to the [Addington Commission by the Government were thoroughly qualified men. and it would be their duty to ascertain all information as to the method of working and workmanship, and report to the Government. Their rejMirt would satisfy the public of New Zealand. They were absolutely free from all Government interests. They had no axe to grind, and their duties were to report matters exactly asthey found them. H»* hoped that their report would show that the workmanship and methods of working prevailing at Addington were satisfactorv. — Hon. J. 1. AfiZZnr > • » • Great Mistake. It was a great mistake to make laws for the Maoris that were denied to themselves. and what was a matter of fact — the natives themselves wanted the land to be dealt with in the same manner as Europeans. Thousands of pounds had been spent on this legislation: but still the land had not been opened up as it should be.— Mr Mandrr. M.P. • • ♦ ♦ For Trade. While J am responsible for the Board of Trade no utterance of mine shall tie the hands of the country in taking any steps for the permanent advantage of trade.— Mr Hi n&ton Ch urch ill.