NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1475, 25 June 1912, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

"Bad form" in politics, <is experience has shown generations of ptili.iicians and political writers, is in the long run bad business too. A few weeks ago, it will be, rwnembered, Mk. Li.oyi)- Ok ok g k accttscd the Gixni.s and the .Cavex'disuk.s' (iamiiies which have tor many..' years furnished Die Imperial Parliament with the finest, of brains arid the purest of patriotism) of opposing the Weish Church Bill while their hands were "dripping with the fat of sacrilege." The Bill proposes to rob the' English Church iu Wales of a great deal of its property; and hand it. over -to the Stat-e, or, rather, to that portion of the State which votes for Ale. L'r.on)Georgb. 'THe;.;.eayipr ;stages of -itjic. controvei'sy, as we* recently recorded, were clouded by the ifsue, whether anyone could sjieak freely on the subject whose reirsoto : ancestor. ; had been the recipitht of lands wrested in the sixteenth, century from the Church. .-Ftiil of his ignorance,. and strong in his confidence tHat ho coulcl poison the voter's .mind, 31it." LloydGeorge to burstiiig;;pqint; ; . His gross assault on the Cecils and- Cavendishes culminated in'a specch on May IG, in which he .said':. ..

What wasuthb:; : Reformation';?,?'vT:h^^ Church, they/robbed;.! he mbeasU'de.s, they robbed the/almshouse?, -they robbed liits poor, and• iiviv, roblipd tin/dead. Then they come hcrf, anil" wo try. to recover jonio part.ol.Sise lor (he poor they acciis^/iis-of hands aro dripping ivith the'- tat" of tacrilege. ; i . .' ' It was then, at last, pointed out, that the original, grantees of the. proper- ■ tics taken front) the Giitholk Church, by Hkxky vm had; to pay for it in hard cash^as.'a , raatfoi\b^ and seller: 'This point • ha'cl been overlooked even by .the-. ll''cjt-iii!iisir.r Gazette, which hud be;m carried away by its 'party, passion'. A good deal sobered, by its reulisidior. pi the actual fact,.and a good deal cliiigusted by ian rhetori^;^;the^G^^^ifc^dld".iho cent tHe Lloyd-GeougeK sor t;of to be ended. This is ah admission.of the i nexpediencjSpf, ; :r tical controversy., which the.. Lujrkxsoxs and will do well'to take note of. ■

_ In giving what ho. wished the -public to bclieyq.ViW.as^ of what having blusteringly issued ;'a challenge -to the'.Qnpositiq'n hacl not slandered, his. Party, lie had. to back down' through ilin prompt ae- : tion of M.Pi forWaitemata—Mn.'.T.. Mackenzie'sought' to represent that' the. Press Association agents are. biased "against him. We have anything:;^t?.admmitibn;^.for the way in which some .of .the' subagencies ,of the -Association do their work, but; Me. . Mackenzie's complaint was ludicrous'. For months the agencies have flooded the press, of. the country; with' the rubbish talked, by .llcfprm party receive < scant.^qn^iHeratiffn'fjJV'ft'Jiave 1, from timo ..to: tnviSij-)laced on- record some of the more-.flagrant instances: of the prq : "L'ib!!ral !i bias of some.of the Association's sub-agencies, and especially of one of the local sub-, agencies. But, of course, -it is notorious that this, is the case even now.. In the actual ease.referred to by Mi',. MACKENziEcthe'PresS;^!^ port was substantially correct, even, on Mr. Mackenzie's own showing. His grievance .apparently is that, the report was .not submitted to him for decora!ion prior to dispatch; and it is a grievance .nobody nfced attend, to. The matter-is not of much importance, but-.'oui- Auckland correspondent's version.of the affair-wliic-h' wo publish this morning, lis. of interest. It is ara.usin^''Jb^b' ;^tW'wlgiJi- - out Prime Minister adding the PressAssociation;. of all. institutions,, .to all the other things which-he fancies are conspiring, against liim. 31 it. Mackenzie also: declared th;tt ''Gon- : servative" papers doctored the Press Association "telegrams.He gavo ho instances, of coitrser—that sort.. of. politician seldom, cares to come down to details. A\ : e do know that a generously long report of a speech delivered by one .of'his colleagues,-!. few days ago was-censored by the.Miiiisterialist press, not in the interests of decency (as it riiight well have been; and as it was by one or two antir Ministerialist papers) but in' the interests of (he "Liberal", parfcv. which, the newspapers concerned knew quite well, would suffer from the coarse invective of the Minister concerned. V: '■ ...........

We arc nijfc sure; .that tiie- wicked weather we h;i'\e 'b'ee.ii '•xperiencing for the past :ii'x''months is not 'more in the mouths of mini than the fiotia!ly imclesirablij politics of thq snipeperiod. When... tiie sun lias' pecpeu out, it has been but to (icridft ««• wlien the baiiometer has; ri.se.n. it has been jusf. a taunt. .Bad enough r,s we liavc bL':;n off, in pur weather a'mi in t-ho .oflicial Ifordpasjs,' thci-'i "ai;b'; ; neople in Canterbury who fancy they have been as badly off as pofeibU'. PiiofEssoii AVau.j of Cantai'hurv Coli lege, turning-.asido from his 'beloved ■ poetry and literature, has given to the Ghvistchiirch public, in a longarticle, the results of nis privntf; ol)servation of "C'aiiterbu.r.y weather." He pleads for a local weather exp.ivf, and he makes out a very si rong case. A very strong -:casii, ; . ;thafc isj/;if Canterbury can liii: giAtjt : ii:';iiictd6fbfegist of its own; but lhat< is siot. feastbln, so that Pnoi-'Essoii W.n.r, merely establishes the incraliliility (in Canterbury, at any rati") of the official forecast. ''Very rarely.'' he says, and most peqpi'e wlio liiidw C;int ;r----uury, or uv«(i t'jj^tclnfliclj,' >{'lt agree with Him v

the. Government, prophet forecast a disturbance: which is not -'already; advertised to the Canter-bury dwellers fay the usual ':iVo.i:'-wes.ter ! si-girs-,"' "To fclie inland [Caiiti?,r.l)(iry] -ctwpl- : lei'.," lie-siiys i'igni-n t "this, rise: o,r fall [of the .barometer solemnly registered in tire, "otlicial forecast." [ is no guitii'.' 1 He also mentions the things tliat Cawfcrftiiry peo.pie wAiiUk Ultc to he told. Wellington people are not in a inii.ch diffcreiit case. The, official. reply is generally 'that a- local lalsifieation does not i.inpugn a -general'; forecast-. ]t; would be as well ii the generality of the general forecast were more strongly emphasised. . Wo do. not- complain oft our own local account—our weather has gone, hopelessly to the dogs—but it is absurd that' our Meteorological Office, should be. so placed, or so constiiiit-ed, thai. .Fp.OFESS.ott Wai.i, is able, bv i iiier'o reference to newspaper files, to produce this striking table from part of a. month's \v'ea,the.r ,i'u Cliristcli.urcli: Government Invoice Gcods delivered ... ?ii shape ot in sllape of- ' Weather l'orcrast. Jinijifnll, 12th—Kain prolia'b.le 13th—Eainfall Xii. in most parts. IGt'ii—jj.xji'e.ct rain Htls—Kainfall Nil. generally. Uth—Heavy rain 15th—Rainfall .02 prDba.ljlo -genpr-r,. ally. ... I:7th—Sq.ua.n.r. shqtv-- l"th—liainfall -.99.5 cry weather. loih—C'old and 18'k—l?ainfail .05 fi'.uv.tvy weather, jieavy rain -in must -parts', halland snow in,. ■; South,. : i9i'n--M,n-h rain 10th—IJitinfaH .01 probalilo general- . •Jilt h—Cold and show- 20!.h—Rainfall .011. orv weather... .; ■25'tii— and 2iit!i—Rainfall .03,1 stormy . .geiierailx20(h—Rain probable 2G'h—R<iinfall .12 . igsncrally.; ' . : J.7-tli-Hlndi'cntions. for 27th—-Eainfall .15' rain in all; psi ts. ' nf the country. ■ ■.2Stti J T7'Ht i a'yY :■ -Tfiiiv 28th'-r- : RauifaiK-J!S probnbUi in-vitany ii!)*h ahd ' carts, especially .'!oth—Uaim'ail .065 on East C?a--t. ' The heaviest of all the nctual rainfalls in Miis.-table—.ls inch—is little -■ more than a heavy shower. Ths hor- : vots of the forecasts woii Id . seem to ; have required for' justification sin ; inch of rain at least. The actual total "ivas a small fraction of this. And ■ yet Cantorbury "complains.- " "