Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1888. CURRENT TOPICS.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1840, 14 May 1888, Page 2

Magna est Veritas et Prævalebit. MONDAY, MAY 14, 1888. CURRENT TOPICS.

ment when it assembles will without loss 1 of time attack the regular work and do what is right m the interests of the people, with the least possible delay. It is some satisfaction to' the Protectionists m Parliament, and out pf it to find that the revenue necessary to carry on the work of the Government will be raised by an increase m the Customs duties of those articles which can be produced and manufactured m the colony. Five of the Ministers are known as Freetraders, but they will have to give effect to the voice of the Parliament as well as the popular voice, and make some arrangement to secure for. our local industries, a full and secure measure of Protection. The tariff will be revised throughout and this will be done during the next fortnight so that when the Financial Statement comes down the whole subject of Protection will be discussed, and we have no doubt, the Protectionists will get their own way m this-* particular instance. Increased duties on tea and sugar, are said to be what the Government intend to impose, but this- class of Protection is not likely to go down with the House. We cannot | produce tea m New Zealand, and aB yet no real attempt has been made at manufacturing sugar. These two items, therefore, are not likely to be among those levied upon to increase the revenue. More retrenchment is still the cry m Wellington and every civil servant quakes m his cookhams until the Civil Service Bill decides who are or who are not the favored ones to be retained m office. It seems the Public Works Office is doomed to go and then there will be a huge, addition to the ranks of the unemployed. When the Bill dealing with the civil servants is passed the salary of every public servant will be stated, and after that no further reduction will be made. AU civil servants will be classified and increase m salary will only come with promotion. The new Electoral Bill, to be introduced this session, is said to be one m which the Hare system of representation will be brought into operation, and the system of public nomination and show of hands is to be done away with. The latter has always been an absurd addition to the formulas of our Parliamentary elections, and it never was any good. No one will regret its being wiped off tho Elections Act. Under the new Act the present loose system of registration will also be altered, and every man wishing to be registered will require to sign his application, upon which he will have issued to him an elector's right. As these voters' rights are to be renewed every three years . the roll will practically purge itself. Ballot boxes will after an election be returned unopened to the chief returning officer, and by him the returns will be made up, so that some delay must necessarily be ( oocasioned before the result of an election can be declared. It this way greater secrecy of the ballot will bo observed ; indeed, the whole system will be completely secret. The measure will perhaps be modified from the lines on which it is announced to run, but a measure of the kind is greatly needed. No person will have more than one vote, and, so far as we know, no provision j will be made for female sufferage. I

The rate of wages paid to laborers m this oolony, as compared with those ruling m Victoria, has been the subject of discussion m high places recently. It has been contended that . railway laborers are much better paid m Victoria than tbey are m New Zealand, and some trouble has been gone to by those who hold the New Zealand rate to be higher, to prove it so. It would appear from an official document issued by the Victorian Railway Commissioners, that the wages of porters, car cleaners, and railway laborers is from Is 6d to 6d higher m New Zealand. A porter m Victoria receives 5s per day, m New Zealand 6s 6d ; a car-cleaner 6s, m New Zealand 6s 6d ; a laborer 6s, m New Zealand 6s 6d. The statement upon which these fignres are based gives names, ages, and pay per day for the three classes of laborers under the Victorian Railway System. Tho Trades and Labor Council of Auckland, has called these figures m question, but we cannot e ?ee, on the face of the official document, how they are to be refuted. Improvement m the designs of school buildings is a thing to be welcomed by parents, pupils and teachers. The usual style of Bchool architecture and finish has faults of a more or less serious character. In general, little attention is paid to comfort, convenience, or light. The arrangements made for the latter are of the most unscientific kind, and myopia with its attendent evils is more than cultivated by the bad lighting of the general run of our school buildings. Cur school architects will have to be educated up to a much higher point than they are at present before they will be compelled to adopt any other style than that of an oblong building with heavy overhanging roof, unsightly, and not at all what a school building should be. In Auckland a school architect has risen superior to the fetters of old time ideas, and has produced what from description appears to be a good design of a building. If all that is claimed for it is true, a revolution m the building and finish of schools may be looked for, and | it may be a model for the rest of the world to improve upon. Every class | and every individual m it is under the j superintendent's eye without his moving a step except to turn his body, and as I the head master, writing to the designer of the plan, says : — ' The classroom is identical with the " visionary scope," so that children m the back row are controlled by the eye with as little trouble as those m front. 2. The vision of children is naturally concentrated on the teacher. 3. The teachers are within reach of the principal, who does not lose valuable time by trotting through long and widely-distributed rooms over trifling inquiries. 4. The principal is enabled very readily to answer all en- ' quiries, and investigate complaints. 5. A more perfect supervision of pupil teachers is at once apparent, as the principal can immediately step into any of the rooms, and put the pupil teacher right if he sees one at fault. 6. The * marching m and out are under control ofthe principal, 7. During examination the inmates of the classrooms will be under the eye of the examiner, be he inspector or otherwise. 8. The truant officer, members of committee, and other officials will be able to see at a glance the state., of attendance. Another and most remarkable feature of this building is the rapid means of exit allowed. The whole building could bo emptied m two minutes, no matter how many were contained m it.' The Legislative Coiincillora and the Representatives of the people, are once moro assembled m the Empire city to devise means and ways to carry out the good Government of the colony. The Governor has delivered his so-called speech and it has been received with no iota of excitement by the Representatives. The speech was words, words and little more, strung together to mean almost nothing. The Government who prepared tho speech were careful to say as little as possible, except upon mere commonplaces. It is a pity all such formulas as Governors' speeches are not consigned to the limbo of rotten institutions. What good they do or ever have done, has never been very apparent. Like many other useless forms they are tolerated because we are rot Radical enough to sweep them all away at once, j A reform is coming about yearly, however, and little by little tho useless pageant of the Governor, reading a made up speech that he had no hand m writI ing will be done away with and Parlia-