NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 975, 16 November 1910, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Prime Minister yesterday indulged in one of his periodical outbursts against The Dominion, co'ncerning which we have nothing more to say than this: that he did not attempt to controvert one single statement in the article which provoked his displeasure. He wisely confined himself to abuse and vague generalities, a form of argument in which we are prepared to admit frequent practice has given him some skill. Our readers can see for themselves from the very full report which we publish elsewhere how Sir Joseph Ward acquitted himself on the present occasion. There was one point in his speech—a reference not to the matter in the article, but to the authorship—which perhaps calls for attention. The Prime Minister accused the.member 1 for Wellington North, Mr/Herdhan, of writing the article, or, in the alternative, of dictating it. _ This statement affords an excellent illustration of the utter recklessness of the head of the Government. There is not a shadow of truth in it. Mr. Herdman knew no more about the writing of the article in question than' the Prime Minister himself. He neither wrote, dictated, or "inspired" the article. The London Spectator, on an occasion on which, as the result of .an attack, it felt called on to discuss the authorship of certain articles published in its columns, icplied in something like the following, terms:—"The . articles in question were written by the person: who .; is .writing these words—that is by the. editor of the Spectator." This reply, with the substitution of Dominion for Spectator, 'exactly fits the circumstances of' the ,present case. There is one other remark that calls for attention. Sir Joseph Ward was so very satisfied with his own acumen in this matter that he ventured - the , assertion: "I know your (Mr. Herdman's) writing so well that I am not likely to make a mistake." We do not, know where tlw Prime Minister obtained his insight .into the literary work of the member for Wellington North—if, indeed, there is any such work on record — but in case he should be labouring under a still further delusion, it may interest him to learn that Mr. Herdman not only is not a contributor to the columns of The Dominion now, but he never has been. Mr. Herdman probably is quite indifferent to the angry attack made on him, but the Prime Minister's obvious duty is to admit his error and apologise with as good grace as possible for : the' injustice he has done. That standing grievance of a section of our public men—the small space given to .New Zealand in the cable news printed by the British newspapers—is ■, -revived by Sir Hobert Stout in a letter to the National Review. Some months ago a writer.in that periodical took exception to some complaints, made by Sir Robert upon this point, .and he is replied to by .the Chief Justice in a letter printed in the' October num-. ber of the Review. After some liminary observations, Sir Robert . Stout says: . In November the New Zealand telegrams published in the "Times" occupied 11J inches of space; only five issues of the "Times" had cables from Now Zealand, 21 issues had none. In December the space occupied was 13 inches, and tho issues' that had cables were seven. In the measurements given the headlines havo not. been measured. Australia was somewhat better represented, but it has six States and an area nearly equal to tho United States of America, if Alaska and the island territory of the United States are omitted. Tho total space in November for Australian cables for all the States was 108} inches, or an average of 18 inches per State, nnd in Dccemlwr tho space was 485 inches, or not 8 inches per State. I wonder what would bo thought of the most trumpery daily paper in New Zealand it we had such meagre nows of Europo? AVe have many columns every day. Sir Robert would have been much . more interesting if he had mentioned what space, if he were the editor of, say, the Times, ho would devote daily to New Zealand. It would.be very pleasant, indeed, if little Europe would give as much space to New Zealand nows as New Zealand . gives to European news. But wo are. half inclined to think that the British editors may know a little about the relative value of news. And we feel almost certain that Europe is more important to New Zealand than New Zealand is to Europe. Sir Robert's argument as to area may be a sound one. It should lead to a strong agitation for better treatment for . the • Sahara desert. And Patagonia is a big place too, and a much-ncglcctcd one. Tho truth of the matter is, of course, that our doings arc not of sufficient interest or importance in competition with the news of tho world at largo to win for us greater space than wc receive. Even cheaper cable rates would be more likely to bring us additional news of the outside world than give tho outside world news of vlb.