NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1357, 7 February 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The City Council will doubtless realise that it cannot very well treat the trouble with the tramway men as a thing that is over and done with. It has to face at least one real problem that the strike has presented, namely, the method of dealing with the decisions of the Tramways Committee respecting any employee, with which is connected the relation between the Committee's functions and the functions of the Tramways Manager. In the meantime we would draw attention to a point raised by a correspondent whose letter we printed yesterday. The strikers, he pointed out, and those Labour organisations and agitators who supported thdra, were really fighting against the avowed aims and objects of Labour. One of the principal planks in the Labour platform is the public ownership of industries—an object that is, of course, purely Socialistic. "Here," says out , correspondent, "we have two such Departments —the Tramways and the Electric Lighting—which should be examples of Labour's objects. They are run for the people by the people, with practically no margin of profit, in order to give the public their utmost benefits, and yet a section of the owners arc fighting against their own schemes, forfeiting their principles in quite a side issue." Tho Socialists tell us that with the extinction of private enterprise the public will consist of a happy, virtuous, and altruistic mass of people, to whom violence, selfishness, and discontent will be unknown. Yet nothing is more certain than that men will still be men, possessing all the weaknesses of humanity, und.T any form of /iovcrnment. The frainwaymen, if 'ihe Labour-Socialist gospel were a true one, would have cheer fully Imrnc anything, serene in their knowledge that Hit'.v were employed by trie people and that "haled Capital" wits drawing no dividends from the tramways. Nay, they would have worked on merrily even if their wages had rcducnW to one nh ill ing a week.

Hut they Fi'll tlioy lii\d n riiuirrp], and ki> flii-y slnick work. And sd, luidcr llii! I'xfcudcd pulilic (iwncrsliip fliul, Liilniiir-iSoi'inlisls tlresmi (if, ivu sliall si'c just Mi: , .same truuMcß ns sci -, at pri'stni l '.

Tr is not a lilt It l iilnusing to find evidences of a sort of wild despairing hope on Hie part of some of our worried "Liberal" friends that the tramways strike 'may somehow work out to their political advantage. In December this nation decided that "Liberalism', must go. In February some loud-voiced agitators eiicouinucd the tramwaynien to break the lav because they disliked a certain, ticket, inspector. Therefore I lie Ijefonu party will .not succeutl in taking office. S.o liic ni-gtiiili'iil; appears to Villi, i it is thoroughly "Lilwrai" logic. But the PniiiG Minister was very nice to the men, and went an errand for the Council 1 So he was and so he did. Bui what has all this to do with the political situation i Mil. Payne, M.P. for Grey Lynn, appears to have been persuaded to fancy that the strike somehow has a bearing on the coming session. He is reported, cevtainly in a doubtful place, as having said that "though Labour members were pledged to vote against Sin Joseph Ward on a noeonfidence motion, the afctifcudo taken by the supporters of the Reform party and The Dominion newspaper over the strike would even justify the Labour members in breaking that pledge. He did not say that the Labour members would break their election pledge to vote against Sir Joseph Ward, but still it opened up the question in a new light." Mn. Payne seems to have been singularly misinformed if he. really made that statement. The Dominion is responsible only for itself, and holds to its opinions—opinions shared by papers that support the Government. But what have "the supporters of the Reform party" to do with the strike any more than the supporters of any other party 1 Somebody has been telling fairy stories to the member for Grey Lvnn, as he will doubtless discover for himself when he makes inquiries. But surely he spoke in haste when he said that The Dominion's criticisms of the strike leaders would justify him in breaking the pledge that he' fravo to the Reform voters in Grey Lynn who placed him in his present position. But perhaps Mr. Payne has been grievously and damaging!)' misreported.

It is only natural that the appointment of Mn. J. Hislop to the Under-Sccretaryship of Internal Affairs should have provoked no little hostile comment The Prime Minister, unable to meet tho objections urged against the appointment, has taken refuge in a warm eulogy of Mr. Hislop, which may not be undeserved, but which is certainly quite irrelevant. The question is, not whether the new Under-Sccretary is an industrious and intelligent man who can fill the post well, but whether an equally competent man could not have been found whose position actually entitled him to the post. The Prime Minister shrank froin touching the other point, namely, the plain duty of a Government that h;is received notice of dismissal not to make any important appointment at all. We print another letter to-day on tho subject from a correspondent who expresses very forcibly what we know is a growing disgust amongst Civil Servants at ll)o extent to which the "Liberals" have used the service for political and party ends. .The case for a Civil Service Board is overwhelming. The removal of the service from the reach of political wirennllers is necessary quite as much in the interests of Civil Servants as in the interests of the public. The Reform party docs not wish, and does not need, to perpetuate the gross abuses of "Liberalism," and when it takes office this will be one of its largest acts of reform.