NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1078, 17 March 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

A common belief of the ignorant is that _ the proposals of modern Radicalism and State Socialism arc new, as new and fresh as the motorcar and wireless telegraphy. Most of them, however, arc very old. The fundamental principle of the Arbitration Act, for example, appears in English statutes of soven hundred' .vears ago, And even then it was

old: it appeared in the Haiimuiuiu | Code when Babylon was still a power. Students of history know that many of the devices of the modern Radical and State Socialist had their clay, and their result, in.ancient Rome. The London Spectator recently had an illuminating article upon this point, in which it showed, what all historians are agreed upon, that the ruin of Rome was due to several distinct causes: (]) a declining birth-rate and the dissolution of the marriage tie; (2) overwhelming taxation, especially on land; (3) the introduction of a casta system through Government action; (4) the attempt of the State to act as a universal providence: (5) the endowment of idleness; (6) the neglect of national defence by the refusal to train the population to arms. The fearful burden of the taxes, the most striking feature of the later Roman polity, might have been borne had the public revenue not been squandered by the Government on the maintenance of a horde of officials. The greatest evil of all was the system of public doles, introduced by Caius Gracchus with the intention of securing the support of the proletariat. The principle of taxation was to'transfer to the Imperial Treasury as much as possible of the wealth in circulation—the principle of our own Government—and the ultimate result was financial exhaustion through waste. The Spectator finds abundant reason to fear that the same evil tendencies arc at work again in Britain: For many years past there have been charges of reckless waste and unwise methods of raising funds brought against all parties, both in State and municipal politics, and in several instances they appear to have been well founded. While, on the one hand, taxation has become more severe, nnrl the public obligations greatly increased, the methods of expenditure have been open to criticism. What in Rome took centuries to bear its fruit will in this more rapid and complex age take only decades. The first results of a Socialistic experiment running counter to : sound established principles are pleasant, as the early dreams of the opium-eater are pleasant. And those who claim that the. first results prove the essential beneficence of the experiment aro as foolish as those who would extol opium on .the results of the first trial of it. Under the heading,"A.Big Job" the Teruuka Leader calls-attention to a remarkable clause in the Reserves and : Other Lands Disposal and Public Bodies -Empowering' Act of last session. This is the "washing-' up'' Act. It consists of 98 clauses and- runs over 60 printed pages. It was rushed through all its stages in the House on December 1 along with a number of other Bills, and was whirled .through the Council next clay without a word of debate after a two-minute speech by the Attor-ney-General. It "is no wonder, therefore, that--'the clause referred to was unnoticed, by Parliament, and has since remained unnoticed by the press. The purport of it is that on receiving £1000 the Government, through the Public Trust Office,- shall advance .£6OOO at il per cent, to the Trades Hall Trustees in Auckland to acquire a site and erect a Trades Hall. The Tcrauka Leader asks whether this is a proper-investment for public funds: "Is there a private firm in existence which would lend £6000 on such a, security? Then, if there is not, what does this mean ? Does it not mean barefaced bribery and corruption to secure the votes of the Auckland workers?" Our contemporary goes on to say that in Tcmuka the public—workers and employers, gentle and simple—want a hall very badly, but cannot get it, "yet a section of the Auckland community get a hall built for them." We quote another passage from the Leader's article: "Looking at the whole affair, wo regard it as a dirty job, deliberately intended to corrupt and bribe the workers of Auckland. If a farmer" wanted to buy a farm worth £7000, and had only £1000, would-the.Government lend him £6000? They would not, but they have lent it to the Auckland workers, and the reason is the-farmer has only a few votes at the most, while the workers have thousands." The case is clearly one that calls for explanation.