NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 845, 17 June 1910, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Although the Californian . Government has decided to prohibit tho holding' of tho Johnson-Jeffries fight within the borders of the State, there is no reason to believe that the affair will not take place. It is only a matter of finding a ,State or country in which the law and the authorities arc either complacent or powerless. One need not he an extreme opponent of, professional boxing contests to feel that this match should, not bo allowed to take place, for the objections to it are of a kind that haVe nothing to do with' the general question at issue between the supporters and' opponents of this particular kind of sport.' Even those who believe that professional boxing has its uses can see that the violent feeling which has gathered about the projected match is evil in itself and is charged with very dangerous possibilities. The bulk of the American people interested' in tho affair, who make up a very considerable section of the nation, arc' not interested as sportsmen desirous of knowing which of tho pugilists is the better, and ready to applaud the winner whether he is the negro or tho white man. It is their hope and expectation that the negro will be soundly defeated. Hatred of the negro population has been stirred by Johnson's successes and racial feeling is ccrtainly the worse for the influences which have been at work in conncction with the match. If by any chance Johnson were to defeat Jeffries in the presence of a largo and furiously-excited audience, the result would almost certainly be serious trouble, if not bloodshed, for the impulse to adopt the methods of "Judge Lynch" would be- infinitely greater than it is in most cases of lynching. These arc doubtless the considerations that have weighed with Governor Gillett, whoso duty it is, as the chief authority in the State, to maintain law and order.

The return of Me. Myers for the Auckland East scat has fulfilled expectations,' although many thought that with the number of candidates in the field a second ballot would he necessary. So far as political parties are concerned the result will make very little difference. The Government has lost a seat, but it can hardly be said that it has lost a whole vote. Mr. Myers, though classed as an Independent Liberal, will probably be found voting more often with the Government than against it. No _ doubt it will be quoted as an evidence of weakness that the Government did not venture to put up a straight-out Government candidate; but the same can be said of the Ilcform party. The latter, however, has the satisfaction of knowing that the Government' has lost something, even though it may not bo vory much. The most significant feature of the election is the utter failure of the Labour party. Despite the strenuous endeavours of Messrs. T. E. Taylor and D. M'Laren, M.P.'s, assisted towards the end by Mr. A. W. Hogg, M.P., to arouse enthusiasm and also to enrol the Prohibition party under the Labour banner, the public held aloof and the Labour candidates p'roper between them polled only a little more than one thousand out of tho 8000 votes on the roll. The truth is that the public, and for the matter of that, the working classes themselves, have no confidence in these self-constituted Labour leaders. Mr. Myers has every reason to feel pleased with his handsome win.

The English mail brings particulars oi the "steal" attempted' by tho Lower House of the Transvaal Parliament, to which brief reference was made in the.cable news early last month. The amount paid to each member is .EISOO for ordinary sessions, and £10, with a day additional, for extraordinary sessions. The short session that closed at the end of April was an extraordinary session and was summoned n? such,

bub the legislators, afflicted with a divine discontent that our own Liberal M.P.'s can understand and sympathise with, were so dissatisfied that the Government moved a resolution in the Lower House that the session should bo treated as an ordinary one and the full £300 paid. Unfortunately a few members of the Upper House threatened opposition, "and the Government, afraid of bringing the affair into the glare of open criticism, and seeing that in any case the resolution in itself carried no weight, and that there would be a difficulty in carrying the necessary legislation in the limited time at their disposal, immediately prorogued Parliament without bringing the matter before the Upper House at all, but with the intention of using for their purpose the extraordinary powers conferred upon the Governor by the Audit Act of meeting unforeseen expenditure when Parliament is not in session." An interim injunction was issued by the Chief Justice forbidding the payment of salaries at the ordinary rate, but the Supreme Court finally decided that the- Executive must have some latitude. This ending of the affair will be considered by our own Liberal M.P.'s the only one consonant with humanity and art. The Kst of us may compliment the Transvaal on the fact tliat its Legislature was not allowed to rise to the Now Zealand level without at least some extra-Parliamentary opposition.