NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1052, 15 February 1911, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Government arc to, be complimented on having made'a very satisfactory selection of members to constitute the first Prisons. Board set.up under the new Act providing for indeterminate sentences. Dr. FindlaY, we imagine, is mainly' responsible for the choice made, and.j ho has : acted wisely in leaving no room for any suspicion of political influences having affected the decision of Cabinet in tho matter. -No exception', s° far' as wo arc awaro, can do taken to any. of the appointments and; most of thorn will receive hearty approval. The duties of the board'aro both important and,difficult. ;It is.a very serious matter in-: deed to-Bcn.d.-.a-mah to gaol under an. indeterminate sentence, .and. the public,., to .have -lull confidence that the very great powers entrusted.to tho Supremo Court, Bench arc not likely to lead,,to. injustice, must bo given some assurance that the persons so sentenced aro. not lost sight of. The purpose of-.tho. law, is, a' good one, but no loophole rniist be left for abuses springing up under it. Alive and capable Prisons Board is the best'safegiiard possible", not only in tho interests of the prisoners, but for tho welfare of society. The .Board js expected to .review the cases, qf all, prisoners regularly, and at.cpmpariitiyely. short intervals; and jrnake'such,recommendations to it .desirable', re-, garding .the treatment,'of, individual, prisoners' and^illsd'as to their' Release, ori'prqbation'or,'final'discharge.. Thtf responsibility "thus placed on tho' members of'tnc : Board is a heavy one. We have no doubt that the g_entlemon appointed fully realiso this and that they will not in any way underrate the seriousness of the duty they,: have undertaken. ■'

It' '.%[ a , ' very^'long , ' tinie '-'since we began to 'show, from our monthly,' analyses of tho railway returns, that tip Government has been inflicting an injustice on tho people of this island and an injury on tho whole country by making the under-railed North Island pay for the losses on tho unwieldy Southern' system. .We are. glad to'notice; that the'enforce-. ment of :this"truth"has ,; now"'b<icoino a regular fcatur&of'som'cof'our cbritemporarie's;, ■"• Th'o ; matter' is' one of too much'J importance to be dropped, and this is-i'ealised'by'.' the .chief apologist for i tho South, the Ministry's Christchurch organ, which on Friday last endeavoured' to set its caso upon its logs again. It quotes some figures which show—though far less clearly than the figures for whole years—how the net revenue from the Northern system has outstripped tho: net revenue'from the Southern system, 'despite: the fact; that thero aro. about 400 miles more of line in the South than in the North.' It adds, hQwcvcr: "'

"Probably, if-d. close analysis of tho figures wero mado it would bo found that by excluding tho earnings of the Wclling-ton-Mariaw'atu railway from tho returnsend tho provincial expenditure from the capital cost, as good ..a case could be made' out .for new construction in' the South ■ Island as undoubtedly exists for more railways in the North.'

It commends "this'littlo arithmetical exercise" to "the Opposition organ! in Wellington" as it likes to call The Dominion. Why "we should work out this absurd littlo sum again wo do not know, as it has no sort of bearing on any question under the sun. But we can understand our contemporary's reluctance to work it out just now. It tried to do so onoe, .and made an awkward mistake' in its figures, as it realised very quickly. Tno facts aro perfectly simple. There aro 1100 odd miles of railway oporated ■ in tho North, and 1500' odd in the South IslanS. During 1909-10 the net revenue from the Northern system was £546,567, and from the Southern system£s32,l2s, 0r,4.21 per cent and per cent respectivcly_ on tho cost of tho opened lines. This, as we showed; on August 20 last, mqant (taking interest on capital at £3 16s. per cent) that the profit from the Northern system was £53,206, tho -loss "in the South being £52,243.. For the first 40 weeks of this year the net revenuo from tho North exceeded that from the South by 'about' £45,000, and the excess'will probably be £73,000,. at tho.end of the year. This shows clearly enough that the South has really no claim to further railway construction until the urgent needs of the Nor,th arc.met.

It will probably surprise a good many pcoplo to learn that a large proportion of poor people in England prefer the workhouse to the old ago pension. Mr. M'Namaka, in a recent speech, set out to explain why bo many pensions arc going abegging and in doing so expressed tho view that it was duo to the insufficiency of tho pension.- Many of the old pcoplo in tho workhouses aro so very feeble and helpless that unless thoy had friends to assist thorn they are obviously- better off where they arc than thoy would bo outside with five shillings a week. This is especially tho caso in London. The fact that so many preferred to remain was quoted as evidence of the change that had come over Poor Law administration in recent years. Somo fitcts concerning tho refusal have been published. Thus at one large London workhouse which has Bomo 2000 inmates, with. 700 more in the infirmary, 500 were 'eligible for

pensions, yet only some 50 or 60 had applied to leave the House and take their pensions. They have warmth, light, and clothing found for thorn, have become used to havjng their meals at regular hours, with medicine and medical comforts whenever necessary, and their lives are practically free from anxiety. With their maintenance in the house costing, say, about eight shillings per head per week, how is it likely that they will be able to "fend" for themselves with 3s. loss , ! The Master of the poorhouso in question remarked to a representative of a daily 'paper: "They have no furniture of any kind, and although the Visiting Committee of the union is holding a special meeting for the purpose of arranging for the provision of blankets and warm clothing for those who have intimated their intention of going.out in the.course of the week, unless they have friends who arc prepared to take them in they won't ; stand the charige_ for long, especially in this raw wintry weather. At best they can but go to a 'doss-house' where they will have to pay on the lowest scale fourpencc a night for their beds, or 2s. Bd. a week, 'leaving only 2s. 4d. for food and clothing, while they will have to turn out of their quarters at- six o'clock in the morning and not.be admitted until six or eight o'clock-.at night." There is some satisfaction at least in the knowledge that the old people find the workhouse \as comfortable as would, seem.to be indicated. ' l . .