NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1025, 14 January 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

In his address to the Primitive Methodist Conference yesterday, the retiring president (the Rev. S. Henderson) was able to show that the Primitive, Methodist Chtti'ch has been making steady and continuous progress in New Zealand. It is, as ■Mh. Henderson states, a workingman's Church, and a body of "cleanliving, hard-working, industrious .men and women" is a valuable asset to any State. As regards modern thought find its bearing oil religious belief, Mr. Henderson to take_up a conservative attitude, and if his views regarding the prevailing standards of morality are rather pessimistic, he certainly puts his linger on a number of evils which may well cause uneasiness to every thoughtful citizen. As he points out the law can do something to raise the moral tone of the community, but ample scope is left for the operations of all those voluntary societies, religious or secular, which;are working for the betterment of humanity. The Primitive Methodist Church has had a history of which any organisation might well be proud, and its outlook for the future is full of hope and encouragement. Mr. Henderson made sympathetic reference to the movement for union with the other branch of the great Methodist family. At the present time the whole Christian world is keenly aware of the paralysing influence which' the present unhappy divisions of Christendom is exerting on the work of the churches, arid i movements in the direction of closer union are in progress in various parts of the world. The next step to secure the union of the New Zealand Methodist Church . will be watched sympathetically by everyone interested in the religious life of the Dominion.

An interesting sidelight on the subject of the Referendum is afforded by a recent event in Switzerland. A proposal to introduce • proportional representation into the Swiss Federal elections was rejected through the Referendum by 265,184 votes against 240,305. Opponents of proportional representation, speaking in the Federal Assembly some time before the poll was taken, made prominent use of . the argument that the proposed new system would increase the importance of Parliament and diminish that of the Referendum and Initiative. Thus Herr Bkustlein compared the political power of the citizen to a knife with two blades—one sharp (the Referendum), and the other Dlunt (electoral voting), "If he can do nothing with the blunt blade, he can do all the more with the sharp We should havo thought the ordinary citizen would rather havo two sharp blades. Hekr Brustlein was more convincing when he described the work of the sharp blade:

There is here a row of beaped-up corpses, bill tlio- most numerous aro not those which you eau see, but those which, you cannot see, tho laws which were'not born because ,of fear of the.Keferendum.

■ That 'is a memorable exposition 1 ' of 1 the potential efficacy of the Referendum as a means of' protecting a country against tho . ill-considercd schemes of its politicians. At the same time tho purpose of the speech and the actual result of tho subsequent polling go to. show that. the Referendum may delay the progress of such sound principles as those of electoral justice and Parliamentary efficiency. Eventually it may be seen that the true Referendum is' not to relieve Parliaments of the task_ of. legalising, but to solve constitutional difficulties such as those created by .conflicts between an Upper and a Lower House.,