NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 796, 20 April 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Council of the 'Wellington Chamber-of Commerce is to be congratulated on its favourable reception of the Hastings Chamber's request for co-opsration in the formation of a. North Island League. We have often wondered why the local Chamber has made bo little use of its undoubted infiuence v and we trust that its Council's endorsement of the principle that-jus-tice and common-sense should be given a' trial in railways construction means the beginning of a really active policy. The Chamber has many times shown that it feels strongly the need for a better railway station than the disreputable and ramshackle 'structure' that is considered good enough for the capital city, but that would bo despised by any decent-sized township in the South. Yet the need for a better railway station,in this city is almost negligible, not only from the national viewpoint, but from the point of view of Wellington itself, to the need for a drastic reconstruction of the Government's ideas about tho allocation of railways construction expenditure. It is i secondary consideration that in recent years the people of this island have been despoiled of hundreds of thousands of pounds for the benefit of the users of the South Island lines. The prime fact is that the Government persists in spending the bulk of the national public's money—the greater part of which is contributed by the people of this island—in the overrailed and unprofitable South. If the 1500 odd miles in the South gave a higher rate of return than the 1100 odd miles in this island, it would be- to this , island's interest that the'national capital should be mainly expended in the profit-earn-ing region. ~', But the .reverse is the case., We shall have frequent occasion to deal with the details of the' position later on. In the meantime, we trust that the North-Island members of Parliament realise that pub-, < lie opinion on the subject is grow-, ing very determined and will grow i stronger still as time passes.

To-day's news respecting the political crisis, in Great Britain is interesting and important. The Rbdmondxtes, we are told,* have agreed to support the Budget, which will be opposed, of course, by the Independent Nationalists. At first sight this would appear to indicate' that Mil. Redmond has received from Me. Asquuh an unimpeachable assurance that the House of Lords shall be deprived of all real .power —and, therefore, of any excuse for, oxistence—in accordance with the "veto" resolutions. Why, otherwise, should Me. Redmond throw away his only means of forcing the Government to clear away the obstacles to a Home Rule Bill? But it is in> possible that Mr. Asqtjith can have asked for, much less obtained, Royal guarantees that the "Veto" Bill will Bo passed into law. Mb. Redmond's. decision to support the Budget'must therefore be _ understood as nothing more than his payment for another sort of guarantee, namely, the adoption of Home Rule as a first plank in all future Liberal policy.; Apparently there are to be no concessions to Ireland In the resurrected Budget, and.it will in consequence be a Budget whole-heartedly opposed by the Irish people and their Parliamentary, representatives. We are. therefore promised the paradox of a Budget agreed to by a House of Commons in which there is a-major-ity against its provisions. The true character of the Government's policy stands out in high colour from Me. Ghubchill's and Ms. Keib Hakdie's speeches, reported yesterday. Me. Kzib. Haedie says that if tho attack on the Second Chamber fails, if, that is to say, it meets, obscurantist resistance from tho Lords or the Throne, "the agitation will sweep aside all restraints." /.At least Mr. Haedie is logical, with the courage of his logic. Whether he is wise in .thus letting the cat out of Radicalism's bag is another question. If the Government, failing to obtain from tho King what its wants,. appeals to the country in the manner of Mk. Hakdie's speech, with the war-cry "The King or the Budget," it will, we suspect, be unpleasantly surprised at the result.

We should havo thought that Mr. Wilford had been a reader of newspapers long enough to know the difference Tjotween editorial comment and news items. Apparently he cannot even see it when it is pointed out to him, or more probably ho does not, in this particular instance, choose to see it. In tho Druids' Hal Hast evening, as at Aro Street the night before, he alluded to a paragraph in which The Dominion had merely reported some eulogistic references to himself. The occasion was Mn. Wilford's laying aside of tho chairmanship of tho Harbour Board. Several of hjs fellow members had made complimentary remarks, as men do on snch occasions. The Dominion reported tho meeting, and did not make any comment upon tho matter. Mn. 'Wi&fohd now professes to' believe that in reporting other people's views we were expressing our own, and he talks about our "change of attitude." Such a transparent artifice will .surely deceive nobody, and Mr. WiiiFORD, in "trying it on," pays a very poor compliment to the electors. As we are not inclined to permit any possibility of our atti-

fcudc being misrepresented or misunderstood, wc again repeat that ■wo-' have expressed no other opinion on this matter than that citizens would do well in choosing their Mayor to take warning from the plight into which the Harbour Board hap drifted during Me. Wilfoed's long connection with it. That opinion we still hold. If the citizens of Wellington are prepared to place the heavy responsibilities attached to the office of Mayor in the hands of the late chairman of the HarbouT Board in face of the position disclosed, and regardless of the fact that he is already heavily burdened with private and public duties, they do so with their eyes open and at their own risk.