NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 537, 18 June 1909, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The nows which is dispatched by the Press Association agents is generally as cafcefitl, as free from colour, and lis judiciously estimated as the regulations of the Association require. It is very rare indeed that it is as biased and misleading as the following report sent out by the night agency of the Association in this town on luesday evening: The Town Hall was packed to (ho doors to-night, when u meeting was held to pfotcsl agailist Uie postponement of Parliament. The speakers were Messrs. , Ll "A SU '-> »«<! WpllnijwV |U4 W.

ex-M.P. Tho meeting was rather cowdv, it being apparent that many hundreds were there for entertainment. A resolution was adopted protesting against tho pdatponeriient of .tho session. At tho close of tho meeting Mr. Aitken suggested that they should march to P&rlianient Buildings and mako. a demonstration. This was taken iip in a rather half-hc-artcd fashion. The' mob' that went down wa>s stopnod at the" gates, where, after a little bother, Mr. .FisllOr advised them to go home. Tho Wellington public does not require any annotations to make clear the extent to which this report deviates, not only from impartiality, biit from plain trhth. We should add that the report was sent out from tho officc of our morning contemporary;

Ihe exports from Great Britain to New Zealand for tho month of April, Compiled by Mr. RoLleston, the British Trade Commissioner, from tho Board of Trt.de returns, reveal interesting •' featufes, the most important of which is . thb fact that New Zealand is importing IcSS. The value 'of the exports from Great Britain to the Dominion in April last wds £152,366, as compared with £225,667 in April, 1908, a decrease of £73,301, equal to about 32.40 per cent. The exports from New Zealand, which were mainly to Great Britain, in April totalled £1,552,755, as against £1,150,283 in the corresponding month of 1908. The value of tho wool exported last April wits £478,570, or sufficient to pay more thftn three times over the total imports from Grcat v ßritain in :that month. The defcrease jn the imports from, and the increase in the exports to, Great Britain will help to restore tEc trade equilibrium which has been seriously disturbed by the fall in tho values of our produce and tho over-importation of goods last year.

A never-failing sourco of amuscnient and delight is the forgetfuliless of the Ministerialist newspapers. Generally it is a forgetfulness of their former .opinions. Sometimes it is a forgetfulness of plttin facts. A case of the second kind, of a particularly seductive character, cries for introduction to tho public note. Our morning contemporary, Ih a very bad temper, declared that "a Wellington newspaper" was "depressed" because Sir Joseph Ward ''did not benleaii hithself by leaving his seat in Paflia' mdnt to address the crowd of hooligans Who made themselves and their, sponsors ridiculous, etc., etc." Nor was that all:

If (fro are told by'the journal in question) he h.'id followed 'tho example of some Parliamentarians and fraternised with the adolescent fibblo at tho gates of Parliament he would have committed the mistake of his life. _ Sir Joseph Ward was not on- ' trapped into any suoh : indiscretion. Adopting' a cotffso which suggested itself in his judg'nelit to bo iti tho best interests ol" the and.'backed by tho support of tho majority o£ tho nieri returned by the constituencies, ho his pilrsued the oveii tenor of his way, arid, etc., etc., etc." Unhappily for its hcroics our contemporary completely forgot that on the prc ; ?eding day it had thus reported Sir Joseph s refercnco to the matter: He declared that if ho had tho tim 6 he would have gone down to the gates. (Applause.) ' ... This sort of thing must 1 bo very ombarfasßlfig to the I'Juitr Misiswit, but we trust'that, in the interests'of jollity, our Ministerialist friends will never contract the habit of remembering.

The boys who arrived from, Sail Francisco last • night under the 'charge of Majou EEixbri'O, . the founder of the I Columbia Park Boys • Club, may be safely commended tonth&ocoi'dial<tconsidoration this city. Futinded' fifteen yeirs ago, till) Club has been doing a splendidwdrk in th<s way'of ."uplifting and transform-' ing iftto strong,- clnan young citizens boys who might othsrwiEc have developed into socially ukikss units. Major Peixotto has,now takch forty of his boys to make tho acquaintance of ■ the Australasian public, primarily for thb good of tho boye, but also. perhaps, for the good of Australasia. The project is one that'cannot fail , to appeal vfcty strongly to tony person of fecpg,- and it is to be hoped that ; the ; .little travellers will bo mado welcome iii-.otlicr ways than by a cordial public the two concerts which the)' will give lii this city. It: is/uhfoftunately, only in America that such an institutioh its the Columbia Park Boys' Cllib could flourish. America is still {lie only country in which ethical ideals are gefletWly cultivated, , Too often rcprissonte'dj or rather, too often feisunderstood, as a paragon of vicious materialism and as the home di.social blemishes, our. great Pacific neighbour is known by tho. foreign observers who haVo really studied it as the land of practical ideal l ists.. The Club boys may not stir anybody ih this country to emulate Major Peixotto's experiment, but 1 their presence cannot fail to teach the.beginnings of a lesson ih the Value of personal and individual interest in. social service. ,