NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1131, 19 May 1911, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

It is always a little ainusiDg to observe the Smug complacency with which the Minister for Education airs his pious homilies and virtuous admonitions for the edification of .an admiring populace. But ho probably excelled all previous efforts in his speech at P.ukekohe on Wednesday last. Replying to the humiliating suggestion that on somo previous occasion he had talked "t\yaddle," this Superior Person proclaimed his superiority to tho rest of poor sordid humanity in the following words, taken from the Ministerial journal's report of his speech; Now it is a fact that my wife and 1 own between us J22000 or ,£3OOO worth land value, and if 1 had devoted thii 6aine time and energy to the business o.' money-getting for tne past fifteen, or twenty years as I have devoted to thii service of this country, then that .£2OOO or .£3OOO worth of land value might easily have been ,£20,000 or .£30,000. The difference between myself and the landowners ou the other sido is this: that I tpend all the profit I make out of landowning in trying to educate the peoplo of this country to demand their just rights in the land values of the countrv, while they spend a portion of their profits from 'land-owning in trying to confuse tho issues.and to prevent tho people from claiming or receiving their just rights. Coming from one of less exalted virtues this unctuous discourse on his own perfections, so clearly contrasted with the failings of those of common clay, might have been expected to provoke the forcible comments usually devoted to such painful outbreaks. But this exemplary, selfsacrificing Minister of tho Crown, who dabbles in land only in order that he may spend his profits for the benefit of those less fortunately situated, is abovo such rude criticism. Yet, despite his unworldliness, Mr. Fowlds is not without shrewdness of a sort. Here, for instance, is a word of warning which is extracted from, the sanie speech in which he so modestly disclosed to his Pukekohe audience the inner recesses of his noble nature and eo thoughtfully also

directed their attention to the wickedness of his opponents: When ,voi! find either a man or n woman boasting about thoir honesty and virtues and at the fame time imputing all manner of evil things to their neighbour?, you may take it that such people v,-nnt watching. Will oar readers please turn again to the first extract, from the speech of this immaculate Minister—and then read this second extract from the same speech—and then think a little.

Ora readers have heard so much of the obstinate refusal of the Ministerial organ in Christchureh to admit frankly the facts about the North and South Island railways that we should be sorry to have them think that the parochialism and disingenuousuess of our contemporary are general amongst our Southern friends. On Tuesday last the Southland Times concluded an article on the whole question with some honest admissions and some wholesome advice. ' "The broad fact," says the Times, "is that the North Island lines taken as a whole are profitable, while the South Island lines taken as a whole are not." It proceeds to refer to the impending transfer of seats in the House to the North Island, and adds: A demand for differential railways rates backed by a majority of members may prove irresistible, and the clear duty of South Island members in the circumstances is to combine to resist with the utmost determination any application for a new line which" may add to the disadvantage under which this island already lies.- For our losses wo have to thank those responsible for such gigantic blunders as the Otago Central, and if such blunders are' repeated our losses will certainly increase. For • that reason South Island members should combine solidly to oppose such proposals as the Lawrence-Roxburgh lino and tho extension of the Otago Central. We cannot agree that the South Island suffers any "disadvantages" v/hon it has the losses on its railways paid by the railway-users in this island. But we must welcome, on national grounds, any awaken.in'g of tho South to the folly and injustice of .wasting any more money there.

The Province of Marlborqugh, and the town of Picton in particular, to ba congratulated on the evidences of progress indicated by the largo undertaking inaugurated by the Minister for Bailways yesterday. The idea of Picton some day being a large and bustling shipping port, the terminus of a completed South Island Main Trunk railway line, has, to many, appeared as an idle dream. The prospect of large and swift ferry steamers making a rapid and comfortable connection between the terminal points of the North and South Island railway systems has ken treated as something almost too remote to trouble about. But the through Trunk line in the north is now completed and th-3 gap between the two sections of the South Island is closing up. The time is not so far distant when.the dreams'of.past years will become the realities of the present. The development of the large and fertile Province of Marlborough has been slow, but in more recent years land settlement has increased and progress has been accelerated. There cannot be the least doubt that there is a groat future ahead of the district and it is desirable, therefore, that proper encouragement should be given to settlois. Tho people of tho Sounds district proper made a very reasonable request when they urged upon Mn. ' Mildae that they should receive special consideration in the matter of wharfage fees. They have very few roads—nothing but tracks over a great part of tho country— unci are, in consequence, forced to rely on launches and use the waterway as a means of communication and transport. Seeing that so little has been done .for them in the way of oneninpr up means of communication* by land -it is not unreasonable that some concession should be made to them in wharfage fees. Jin. Millar appeared to be inclined to do something for them and we would suggest to him that the circuni; stances call for generous consideration.