NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1046, 8 February 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The moral responsibility of a man who commits a crime when so hopelessly intoxicated as, in ordinary lanpuag:. to be irresponsible for his actions, is a question concerning which there can be interminable dcbale if .it is agreed to forget the dominating consideration.' In a recent decision in one of our Courts it was held that a ' man who, when drunk, had broken the law against obscene language, was not a proper ijubjcct for punishment. At Auckland on Monday, however, Jcncu: Edwards laid down the' only safe

nilo in such-eases. He would tnko rosulucc stoiis, he said, against "the cncouragcmcnfc of the idea that ;i man cc'.iid plead that he was intoxicated 111 order to bo freed from tho responsibility for the offenco." The necessity fur insisting on responsibility has two hates. In the first place, there must he no license to p'jnunit crime attached to the state of inebriety. In the second place, it was novcr more noccssary than at this, time, as we have .so often insisted, to check that "rot" in the public standards which is everywhere showing itself in a flabby sentimentality and a shrinking from a firm and courageous severity of judgment— only in regard to crime, but in regard to nearly everything else. A cable message printed 011 Monday reported that in tho introduction to a Blue Book on Crime issued by the Homo Office, the steady increase of criminality in Britain during the last decade was due, amongst other causes, to "the growth of compassion for criminals, mitigation of the strictures of prison discipline, and relaxation of miblic sentiment regarding crime.

Mr. Millar stated last session that if the Foxton people could got the Sandon light- railway complotcd, to the great advantage of a very wide tcrritorv, he'was prepared bo to manipulate tho Foxton wharf charges as to make tho Foxton Harbour "go hung." Most people then imagined .that Mn. Millaii had given, the completest exposition possible of his ignorance of the most elementary principles of economics and of his equal ignoranco of tho most ordinary principles of statesmanship. But 110 has almost gone one hotter. _ It appears that farmers at Gebbic'fi Valley, in the Little River district, in Canterbury, have lately been sending their barley to market by road, that being more convenient and economical' than sending it by rail. This matter was brought, under the notico of Mr. Millar on Saturday; and, according to tho Lyttcltoii Times, ho "expressed a strong sonso of indignation." "If the farmers," ho added, "deliberately send their produce past the railway, they will find that tho service to Gobbie's .Valley will have to be l'egulated according to traffic on the line, and this may moan ii reduction of the number of trains per week." Omit the word "deliberately," and consider this statement as amended, and it is reasonable enough. But' the tone of it, and Mr. Millar's "indignation," make it perfectly clear that "Mn. Millar has threatened the farmers who choose to send their grain to market in the best' way that they will suffer for their temerity if they continue to do so. Mr. Millar is, unhappily, so very weak on economics, and has such a strangely perverted view of the function of the railways and his duty as director of this'great public concern, that we would not care to undertake to convince him how wrong and foolish is his behaviour. But most other pcoplo will see how serious an offenco is tho position tho. Minister has taken up. Instead 6f simply running the railways to pay by fair, means, and to assist, and' facilitate communication, exchango, and development of every kind," ho'considers it proper to use his power as a weapon to oppress persons j.nnd , districts. The farmers 'find that to send their grain by road is economical from their point of view, and, therefore, economical from tho point of view of the nation, which profits best from free and natural exchange, and individual and district economies. Mn. Millar says, in effect, "Patronise the railways, and so act against your, own interests, and against the nation's interests, or you will find that tho public's rajlways,will,he manipulated to ,pauso'"you great inconvcniThat is exactly the method of tho American Trusts; it would anywhere bo called."restraint of trade." No wonder that even the LtjttrltonTimes could not help feeling a little outraged at the Minister's reprehensible attitude.

Those' people in llys country who arc in favour of "compulsory voting"—the Attorney-General is one of them—will be interested to learn that the Italian Government lias proposed to compel every doctor to vote afc elections. The principle is already established in Spain, and the result is said by one of the Italian newspapers to have been very good. We nave in the past expressed the opinion that the voter who must be forced to thc s poll—the voter who would not vote if ho were not compelled—is upon 'the whole just the voter whose vote is not worth recording. It is a rather curious thing that .the Socialist party in Rome is greatly opposed to tho Government's proposal. The Socialists there consider that tho greater the number of electors who_ actually vote tho smaller will' be their own chances.;' This calculation is regarded-as probably 'accurate, since' tho abstentions are mainly among tho mjddle-class electors. This is a fact worthy of attention in this city just now, where the new rolls for the forthcoming municipal elections are being prepared. It seems that while the Labour party is. doing its best.to secure the enrolment of all-its friends the general public is displaying a regrettable indifference to the necessity that the Radical vote shall not unduly preponderate in the rolls. With compulsory enrolment and compulsory voting there would be little chance of any Radical successes worth speaking oj; but the principle is a bad one., Wo must continue to rely upon the possibility that the prudent elector jvill not require compulsion in order to perform. his