NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1395, 22 March 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Tn another column of this issue will be seen a Government advertisement which has boon refused to this journal although sent to other newspapers. There is, of course, nothing new in this abuse of power. It has been done so often and exposed so fully that, not only our own regular readers, but the public throughout New Zealand, thoroughly understand this contemptibly bit of petty tyranny. The Government's behaviour in this matter has bean unable to command defence even by the more responsible units of the "Liberal" press. The larger "Liberal" journals have been glad generally to maintain a shamefaced silence. Yet the Party that stoops to this corrupt practice is tho Party that is being commended by its journalistic backers as one that can rule the nation through lavgc-hcart-edness and high-mindedness. It is said that corrupt Executives in the past sometimes caused tho British House of Commons to vote money for "Secret Service" and then put the amounts thus voted into their own party electioneering funds. ■ Similarly, the Ward Administration's practice of distributing its advertising in such a way as to reward its friends and punish its political opponents, instead of so as to get the best value for the taxpayers' money, is a method of applying national funds to party purposes. And even in its dying hours the Ward Administration cannot give up this habit. One or two of its actions during the late session of Parliament were hailed as siirns of death-bed repentance, but it docs not repent of the boycott. Probably it cannot. The thine is a part of its very nature. It will not give un converting; public funds to part}- uses until it gives up [hi ghost.

The figures of the tramways working supplied by the new Board of Management disclose a disturbing condition of things. Tho tables compare tho 11 months ending February 29, 1912, with the 11 months ending February 28, 1911, and the comparison is not in favour of the current year. Here are the main figures given: 1911. 1912. Tram, revenue ... £127,140 Tram, expenditure—' Working exs. ... £55,209 .£90,721 Capital charges X 53.245 -£M,72u Tram, "surplus" JU,iW JC],GOI Units supplied-... J.Oin.O: I .') 5,255,501 I'asseiijrers carried 20,702,7311 21.331.359 Car mileage 2,007,1117 2,079,804 The new Board's method of setting out the figures encourages us to hope that tin era of clear and frank book-keeping has begun. Hitherto it has been impossible for the ordinary citizen to know from the published accounts what has been the true position. We have no hesitation about saying that the finances of tlu tramways are not satisfactory, and we trust that the new Board will use its opportunities—it is assured of public confidence and public support—to make candour and efficiency their cardinal aims. In the meantime Councillor M'Kenzik is moving, in a series of shrewd questions, for returns relating to provisions for depreciation and renewal. His questions imply a doubt as to the soundness of the Council's handling of this part of the finances of the system, and it is a doubt that has much good reason behind it. It is an encouraging thing to find even one Councillor interesting himself in the fundamentals of tramways finance. There almost begins to be cause for believing that the citizens will soon obtain a full view of the facts about their largest corporate undertaking.

The latest London papers to hand contain many expressions of the indignation with which tho sentence on Mr. Bertrand Stewart was received in England. Mr. Stewart, it will be remembered, was found guilty by the German Supreme Court of "attempted betrayal of military secrets," and was sentenced to detention in a fortress for three, years and six months. The whole case was heard in secret, and the conviction appears to have been based upon the uncorroborated testimony of an informer. The indignation of the British.public was due not only to the severity and apparent injustice of the sentence, but also very largely to the strange procedure oE the German Supreme Court. The Times expressed the general feeling when it wrote : Throughout the British Empire and the United States of America it is the privilege of overy prisoner to 1)0 tried m open Court. The nation learn (ho whole of tho evidence against him and tho whole of tho evidence for him, they have both tested and sifted by counsel, they hear the upon both sides and tho Judge's summing up, and they know that the decision is entrusted to a jury impartially chosen. Thnt is the way in which Germans charged with espionage are tried among us. It is not the way in which our fellow-subjects who aro accused of this offence are tried in Germany. In all English nnd American cases public opinion is able to express assent to the verdict and sentence, or dissent from them, with the fullest knowledge of all that has been done nnd said in Court. That is the authentic British note. It would be an ill day for any free community if it should ever be drugged into the_ belief that justice can safely be administered in camera, or lose its deep-rooted aversion to secret cases. The deputation which asked the City Council last night for a grant of money in aid of the purchase of pictures from the Baillie collection made out a very good case. There can be no doubt that the collection of pictures by eminent English artists which Mr. John Baillie will shortly bring to Wellington will be the best that has come to this country from oversea since the International Exhibition at Christchurch. Mr. Baillie, besides having a standing witfi Wellington people as a former resident of the city and active member of our Academy of Fine Arts, is the proprietor of a high-class art gallery in London, and in the selection of the pictures he is bringing here he has had the, advice of Mr. 'George Clausen, II.A. The opportunity of securing some of these works of art for Wellington ought not to be missnd. There shdilcl be before very long a worthy building in which to house them, as the country is committed to the erccti6n' in Wellington of a National Art Gnlli:vy. To this new gallery the Academy of Fine Arts will probabh , transfer I he small bill choice colli,"tion of pictuivs wow hanging in its quite inadequate premises in

Whitmore Street, and it is now calling upon the public, as well as the municipality, to assist it in augmenting this nucleus of a great national collection of pictures liy acquiring seme, of those which are to Ire exhibited by Ik. Bai 1.1,113. It has long been recognised as an eminently right and proper thing for municipalities to aid the culture of the citizens, not only by means of libraries and museums, but also by placing noble works of art where even the poorest of the people may come within their gracious influence. Some of tin great English cities have risen magnificently to this duty, and Wellington lias shown by its annual grant to the Academy that it is not entirely unmindful of what is expected of it. The Acting-Mayor said last night, in reply to the deputation, that the present was an inconvenient time to spare any considerable sum from the City Treasury, but we trust the Finance Committee, to which the matter was referred, will realise that the opportunity is unique, and that such an addition to the attractions of Wellington as may now bii made will incidentally be not altogether unprofitable even from the purely financial point of view.