Half Knowledge of Home Affairs.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLIV, Issue 21, 25 May 1910, Page 44

Half Knowledge of Home Affairs.

SIR < HABLES LUCAS ON THE CABLE N EWS SERI IC E. RECORD OF HIS TOUR. LON DON, April 8. The m i d of cheaper cables and better communication generally between Eng* land and Australasia is strongly emphasised by Sir Charles Lucas, the head of the Dominions Department of the Colonial Office, who his written a short record of impressions of his visit to the Antipodes. It was issued this week as a Parliamentary paper. Sir Charles explains'that, “as lie was not sent out in any sense to ‘report upon' Australia and New Zealand, but simply to see and hear, to make friends, and, as far as possible, to facil>

tatc public business,” he has only set down a few notes relating mainly to “the maintenance and promotion of a g.ied understanding” between the Mother Country and those two Dominions.

With this object in mind, Sir Charles Lucas follows other observers in laying strong and repeated emphasis on the improvement of communications. He ascribes the historic feeling of animosity against what was comprehensively known as “Downing-street” to the difficulties and uncertainties of communication in earlier days, and notes with pleasure the waning of this tradition as a result of telegrams and better mails, but he bears testimony to the still existing necessity of “quick, eheap, constant, and regular communication.”

HALF KNOWLEDG E. The inadequacy of the cable service of the Australian and New Zealand newspapers is commented on by Sir Charles Lucas: —“The Australian Press will compare most favourably, as far as I can judge, with any newspapers in any part of the world, but I seemed to detect a want of detail telegraphic information of what was taking place in England. The result was to me perpetual halfknowledge of contemporary home affairs. This half-knowledge at certain times and under certain conditions might conceivably have a dangerous effect on public opinion. It is a matter of pounds, shillings and pence—and one of the various good results of the valuable Press Conference has been to strengthen the movement for cheaper telegrams.”

Of particular interest also, as coming from an English Civil servant of long experience, is the following tribute to the Civil Service in Australia and New Zealand: —“As a member of the continuous or permanent staff of the office, I want to pay my acknowledgements and bear my testimony to the work and to the courtesy of my colleagues in the Government service in Australia and New Zealand. In new countries the services, which ought to be permanent, have not always the same strong and assured position as is accorded to them in England, and as they deserve. On the other hand, there is nothing more admirable in the public life of Australia thafi the efforts made to keep the permanent officials outside the scope of political influence. For instance, by the Commonwealth Act Of 1902, for the regu-

lation of the public service, the sei, kg is mainly recruited by examination, anti a Public Service Commissioner iq created with most extensive powers. Ha holds office for seven years, and is eligible for reappointment; lie can only, be removed from office by resolution of both Houses of Parliament; he recommends for all Civil Service appointments in the Commonwealth; and no Minister can go over hie head in making appoint* ments. Thus political jobbery in regard to Commonwealth appointments ia practically killed.” PRAISE FOR JUDGES. “Nowhere, as far as I know, does the judiciary, as a whole, stand higher in public estimation, and with better rca.son, than in Australia and New Zealand. The High Court of with Sir Samuel Griffith at its head, commands the fullest confidence, ami among the Chief Justices of the Stated are names of high eminence. Thef Bench in New Zealand, too, is highly and deservedly respected. In shorty though there must be exceptions to all rules, the rule in Australasia is thaft, alike in their own profession and ii» citizen life, as Lieutenant-Governors, it? may be, or Chancellors of Universities', the Judges carry with them trust and respect.” ! Sir Charles Lucas bears witness fqf the unfailing friendliness and hospitality of his reception by all whom he eneoun* tered in his tour, and says that ths experience was a source of -the interest and pleasure to himself and t<l Mr. Pearson, who accompanied him. Hej recommends that such visits should b<3 paid “once in every three or four years —say, once between every two Imperial Conferences —by one of the senior mem* bers of the Colonial Office, accompanied! preferably by one of the younger members of the staff.”

At the meeting of the Council of thes Polynesian Society Mr. S. Percy Smith’ (president) announced (says the “Tara* naki Herald”) that a large number of valuable papers dealing with native matters had come into his hands, having been willed to him by the late Mr. A. S. Atkinson, of Nelson. The papers include some taken at the looting of TVarea in 1860 by Imperial troops, and! among other things is a genealogical tree, tracing the people on the Taranaki coast back through Central Polynesia) to Fiji, a period extending over fifty generations. •