NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1527, 24 August 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

, The decisive Test match has been played in the triangular cricket contest between Britain, Australia, and South Africa, and the Mother Country, as was generally expected, has emerged triumphant. Both Australia and Britain defeated the South Africans, but up to the match just ended neither the Home team nor the Australians had scored an advantage over tho other, each of the previous matches having ended in a draw. It had been agreed therefore that tho third game should be played out and the winners be declared the victors in the triangular contest. It was very unfortunate that the weather conditions proved so bad and that tho game could not be decided without leaving any room for doubt as to the relative merits of the two teams. As it is it would seem that the Australians had rather the worst of the luck in the matter of the wicket. But even if this is concedod it must be admitted that everything points to the superiority of the winners and the result would probably have been the same at least three times out of five under quite normal AVhilo tho Englishmen arc deserving of every credit for their win, the Australians, despite their disastrous breakdown on a bowlor's wicket, are also entitled to congratulations on their performances during the present tour. No one at the outset of the tour gave them any chance of winning first place in the triangular Tests and there was very considerable doubt as to whether they would not be last on tho list. The team, owing to the dispute between leading players and the Board of Control, was largely composed of young playei-B unfamiliar with English wickets and English conditions, and not very much was expected of it. That it has done so well is much to its credit, and probably the trouble which necessitated the sending of the. "colts" instead of the "vstemip" to represent the Commonwealth will in tho end prove ben-

cficial to Australian cricket both on and off the field. In one particular tho victory o£ the Reform sentiment of the nation hag been fruitless. We refer to the continued plague of deputations, which is raging quite as badly as ever. Ministers may be honestly glad to receive the flocks of deputations who have been besieging the Parliament Buildings, and they may moreover feel that democratic ideas forbid even the discouragement of this tiresome institution. They will also probably disagree with us, when we suggest that they should abolish the deputation system in its present form. There is nothing to bo lost, from any point of view worth considering, by substituting written negotiations for verbal conversations on those matters with which 90 per cent, of the deputations arc concerned. Ordinarily a deputation consists of a series of speeches by the members of the delegation and a reply by the Minister. ■ What special reason worthy of consideration is there why the speeches and tho Minister's reply should not be exchanged through the Post Office 1 The views of John Smith desirous of a railway alteration should be as good written as spoken, if they are any good at all: and similarly there is no special virtue in thc_ physical voice of a Minister which is wanting in his written word. When tho Ward Min-> istry took office, some of its members led us all to hope that the plague of. deputations would bo stayed. It requires some courago in the Reform Government to break up this time-wasting, energy-wasting, and money-wasting institution, but it is obviously desirable that it should be dono.

Tins week's Gazette furnishes, in the shape of the four-weekly railway returns, its usual monthly indictment of the management of the railways. The return brings the figures down'to July 20, and it is |made quite clear— of courso it is for the hundredth time —that the Southern lines are run at a heavy loss, so heavy that even the profits from the.Northern lines cannot prevent the railways system from being a drag on tho country. We give the net revenue from the Northern and Southern halves of the Bystem for the period ended July 20, together with.the 1911 figures, for purposes of comparison:— Increase 1911. 1912. or decrease. .£' <£ ,£ North 392,806 202,110 9,214 increase South 205.839 206,363 2,476 decrease This is the first time, we believe, that in the first 16 weeks of the financial year (the autumn-winter period) the Southern system has yielded a revenue lower than the revenue in the corresponding period of the preceding year, and only a trifle greater than the revenue from the Northern lines. Tho reorganisation of tho management is to be undertaken by the Eeform Government, and obviously the Reform Government has come into .power, not a moment too soon. The railways are still drifting to the bad; they have got so farto the bad, indeed, that Mr. Herries will be fortunate if he can prevent the real deficit from being very largo this year.

The unfortunate habit of % member for Ghristchurch North of interjecting comments of his own while his fellow members are speaking in the House of Representatives led last evening to his own downfall. As a matter of fact, he has landed himself in trouble fairly often with his interruptions, which do not add to the dignity of debate nor enhanco his own personal popularity, and the present instance of his offending would be hardly worth noting but for the fact that it stripped him of his pose as an "Independent" untrammelled by any pledge to vote for any party in the House. Members could not fail to havo noticed that despite his professions of independence, his speeches and his votes, by_ a quite remarkable coincidence, always went to support the antiReform party; but who could doubt such a model of all the virtues ? Last evening, however, as stated, he overreached himself. In order to contradict a statement by tho member for Oamaru, the member for Christchurch North admitted that "he (Mb. Isitt) "was pledged absolutely to support the Mackenzie Ministry." Later on, when he saw the trap his impetuousness had led him into,.he sought to wriggle out of it by ondeavouring to explain that he was only pledged to vote for the Mackenzie Ministry on a no-confi-dence motion! And yet Mr. Isitt protests that he is,treated as a joke.