NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 688, 13 December 1909, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

' The proposal of -the .Prime Minister that Parliament should,meet earlier th'ajr usual next year is wholly commendable. According to present arrangements Par-, liament will close its doors iri._tcn- days' time, and-a heavy 'miss of -important business will be carried over into the next session.. At the moment there is : more, than enough business on the Order Paper to; occupy members -for a; whole' session; and in addition to this each session brings its own • special' business, such, as the Address-in : Reply'Debate, the Finan- ■' cial Debate, consideration of. the. Estimates; etc.; Moreover, no one can.doubt that somo of: the more experimental 'legislative: enactments; of' the present session, will; call ;for amendment next year,- In these circumstances it, must be' plain that if members are to do justice to the v wprk before them' they Imustto; called .'t'bgfcther earlier than, usual next iyear.:' It .would • bo idlo to ignore the fact that the session of ,1909 has been an extremely un : satisfactory one /owing., to: the date: for. which members-were summoned to do business. A,long list of : important'Bills has been 'placed before thev Legislature, some of them- embodying new principles of wide-reaching importance,, and members have "not boon jible to give them [that careful thought, and attention necessary to; onsuje .tho: proper protection of the public interest.... Some' of these legislative proposals appear quite commendable; but they may; be'open to improvement. and the chance ;of effecting; that 'improvement has, in many cases, been slight: indeed. .. :N6w, in-the: dying days. of,.the .session, we fear : still less attention is-to'be given , to the matters which remain to be dealt ', with. Ih'order'to minimise.Hhis eyil-as far as possible, it is of ; extrem6 import-' ance that the Leader of the House should make known at once the business proposod to .be taken i between, now and December 22. Each day's .work might '.then -be mapped out and'members; would? knowwhat is coming on and bo prepared ac- "■ cordingly. A;', reasonable : agreeable'to both sides, might.be. arrived at, and tho last tiays of the session would certainly, in that event, bo turned to more profitable account than will otherwise be the case., A most important observation on finger-prints as evidence has been made by the Chief Justice of New South Wales. He pointed out that it is not an accepted scientific fact that no two fingers are alike in their markings, and, what , is , much more to the point, he- declared that ovidenco based on finger-prints is doubt- [ ful ovidence by itself. A good many cases,havo been decided in this country ' on the evidence .of finger-prints—somu, 1 w<3 believe, such evidence alone. I Finger-print evidence differs from all . other testimony in this respect: _ that it . is based upon a theory which jurymen [ have no means of testing for themselves. They must take on trust what the proso--1 cution tells them of the improbability " of likeness between the lines on the fingers ! of any two persons; they- must take ' largely on trust what the prosecution t tells them of likenesses between the print f in evidence and the print from the ■ prisoner's finger. To other ovidence they t can apply their own common-sense quik ■ efficiently, We cannot help feeling that i as judge and jury must take so much ! on trust if they accept as conclusive i what the finger-print expert tells theni, » the decision of the Chief Justice is a. wise - one, and tho only perfectly safe one. The - matter is one that may with advantage - receive the attention of the Minister for i Justice. J M r HEN the Estimates for the Working , Itailways Department came down 1 last 3 year, the railways administration was c being sharply criticised. Yet the llousc ; gave practically no attention to the Esj timatas, which wore 'swallowed whole - after a trifling discussion of trivial dc- - tails. We should therefore be grateful - that this important vote was not allowed . to pass on Friday >mitil it had been dc- , bated for several houre., At tho same - time, it is a matter for regret that only - a small part ;of tho discussion was do • voted to the general question of finance, b Nor was the criticism as complete , as if f might have been. Tho Minister idmittcc 0 a loss of £i! 20,000 for the year 1008-9—a f lots, of course, for which tho Pitip: Min--1 ISTEJt is mainly responsible. The real t loss, of course, was two or three hundred t thousand pounds greater, for there it C no oxctiso, considering the favourable na- . tural conditions, for the extensive use of v loan money on "additions to open lines." . It is satisfactory, however, that the Min- , ister, .by. admitting that lo&s, and by dc- ? daring i that he wants to inako tho railf ways pay 35 per oent., has finally exposed

mie wcajrness 01 um buuwuud ""-» tho "3 percent, policy' is the right one. Perhaps tho -want of sharp criticism in Friday's discussion was duo |to the impression created by Mr. Millar's admir-, able tact and readiness.to '■ supply; infor-. raation sought by members concerning the votes provided for,, and also by his statement that for the eight months of the current year the revenue shows an increase or £212,000 over the figures , for the preceding year, while the increase in the expenditure has been only £76,000.. That statement, however, should not have closed the lips of the critics. How has the reduction in the rate of increase of .the expenditure been brought about ? That is tho question.- Have the actual running expenses been decreased? Havo the exposes of the: office administration been contracted 1 We are afraid that Hit. Millar cannot answer these questions satisfactorily'. ' Wo , have several times suggested that the brake has been applied to the cost of maintenance, and the Minister has never given figures ■to show that this suggestion is unfounded; If' that is how the rise in expenditure has been kept; at a comparatively reasonable figure", thoro will be a huge bill to pay in two or three I years. ' If the improved figures are largely accountable to the starving of- maintenance, the apparent saving is not only unreal, but will' in the long run load to a;greater loss than ever. We sincerely , hope that this is not. so.'; ■.■.'.'■■;■■.-..: , •'; ■■• ■ '.',.. ,:■ ' ■ ;