NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1543, 12 September 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

_ One of the most interesting sections of the report of the Cost of Living Commission was that in which the effective teaching of economics is recommended. This is a matter in which the Government could with advantage become active, but it is exceedingly likely that certain classes of politicians and certain political groups will not be kindly disposed towards this much-to-be-de-sired innovation in our education system. Who is not familiar with the Radical politicians who deride the natural laws of wealth and industry when they stand in the way of crude legislative . experiments'? How often ono haw heard it said of some simple economic principle ( that "that is all right in Great Britain, but it does not apply here." This strange frame of mind, as common in Australia as in New Zealand,, was illustrated in a remarkable way last week when a member of the Victorian Ministry spoke about a proposal by the University Council to establish a Chair of Economics. "There was a fear amongst Ministers," he said, "that the importation of a professor from the other end of the world, unacquainted with Australian conditions and ideals, was not likely to immediately facilitate the successful study of economics in this State." Perhaps this Minister knows as well as anybody else that economic principles are as independent of latitude and longitude as the binomial theorem is independent of the climate, but it is possible that he really does fancy that economic truths in Britain are not necessarily true in Victoria. He would only be sharing a very common delusion in that case.

The Government is somewhat awkwardly situated respecting the proposal to erect a suitable museum building here. This work.is urgently needed. The valuable specimens and records stored in the old wooden building in Museum Street should certainly be housed in a fire-proof building as soon as possible. Many of the things coujd not be replaced and the loss to the country should a fire occur would in some respects be calamitous. For years the necessity for a safer and more commodious storehouse for these treasures has been pressed upon the Continuous Ministry, but without avail until very recently when the matter was considered in conjunction with the general scheme of rebuilding of Parliament ' House and the erection of public offices, etc., in the vicinity of Sydney Street. The Massey Government, however, has not an overflowing public works funds, and it is pledged to developmental work which may be expected to make heavy inroads into the funds available for the current year. Next year, Mr. Massey states, the position jnay be more favourable for the consideration of the new museum project. We sincerely trust that it will. AVo have no sympathy with the craze for large and costly public buildings which has led to so much misdirected expenditure of public money under the Continuous Ministry, but the necessity of providing a suitable museum building is so obvious and so urgent, that no one can reasonably object to the work being pressed forward at the earliest possible moment. Not many people in New Zealand would, care to proclaim themselves anti-Imperialists, but there is a brand of Imperialism which all levelheaded and sincere believers in the Empire can and should condemn. This is the loud . brass-band-and-champagne Imperialism of .whi'h there are still some exponents. In a recent speech Lord _ Selborne touched upon this offensive thing, ami he ascribed to it a good deal of the anti-Imperial sentiment that can be found in Great Britain. "We had suffered terribly," he said, "from I the music'hulls. The effect of the blatant songs in music-halls had turned many just-minded men into hostile critics of Empire/' There is a good deal of truth in this, as everyone will admit who has'watched the development of tho_anti-Imperi.il party on the Liberal side in Britain. Mr. Kipling is not guiltless of the charge Lokd Skiborne brings against the music-halls. In ~Xcw Zealand there has of late years been an encouraging absence of blatancy and jingoism, but there has nevertheless been an intolerable deal of rhetoric and a great iiisiifliciuncy of action. That the Empire is, as Lord Sfxbohne put it in the same speech, "the greatest trust ever given to a collection of people on this earth" id pretty well realised by most men in the Empire aowadayt, but there

is little profit in grasping a great and sobering truth unless one is prepared to affirm that truth by action where action is called for. To-day wo print a cabled summary of a striking speech by Sin George Eeid at a banquet in Ottawa. If Australia and Canada had not _ begun to shoulder their responsibilities, Sin George Eeid's speech would have hollow rhoapmontadc. The capture of the Crowe seat by the British Unionists at the by-elec-tion at the end of July led, as could have been anticipated, to some wonderful feats of political arithmetic. The Unionist candidate polled G260 votes, tho Liberal 5294, and the Labour man 2485. As the Liberals had won the seat by huge majorities at the thrco preceding elections, the Unionists had good reason for rejoicing. Yet some of tho Liberal newspapers extracted some > comfort from the figures by assuming that the Labour votes would all have gone to the Liberal in a straight-out contest. The fact remains, however, that while the Liberal beat the Unionist by 1342 votes in January, 1910, he was this time in a minority of nearly 1000. The Observer published an interesting table to snow the n'ggregate vote cast in those constituencies in which by-elections have been held since the general election in. December, 1910. The aggregates in December, 1910, were: Liberal, 90,061; Unionist, 61,795; Labour, 1643. The aggregates in the by-elec-tions are remarkably different: Unionist, 72,860; Liberal, 66,996; Labour, 4890. There has thus been an increase in the Unionist vote, in these constituencies, of 11,065, and a decrease of 23,065 in the Liberal vote. Immediately after the Crewe reverse came the'crushing Liberal defeat in North-West Manchester. This long tale of Liberal defeats must in time have the result of destroying the Government's confidence in itself and in its measures, for no Government can hold out and push on when it is made clear again and again that it has lost the confidence of the nation.