NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1605, 23 November 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

The Minister for Railways, at Te Aroha, summed up very ■ well the achievements of tho Reform Government since their accession to power. It probably has not yet fully dawned on the public how much the new Government has really accomplished in the few months that it has been in office. How many, we wonder, realise that the right to the freehold has now been conceded to hundreds of Crown tenants who previously were debarred from • owning their holdings ? But more important even than the granting- of the right to existing Crown tenants to own the land they have settled on, and on which they have made their homes, is the establishment of the principle that it is desirable that the country shall be settled by small farmers, who shall own their holdings. The best antidote to the poisonous ideas of the Socialists and Land Nationalises is to build up a race of small farmers, who, holding the freehold of the land they occupy, will resist to the uttermost the fallacious and pernicious doctrino that the country will flourish more vigorously under a system of landlordism than it is likely to do if the tillers of the soil are free from the yoke of tho landlord, and can call the land their own. The Massey Government, by conceding the right to the freehold in limited areas, has not only assured the land being put to the best use and worked to the utmost limits of its productivity, but it has given a guarantee of a future stability which could not bo hoped for where the interests of the occupiers of the land were merely those of tenants, fettered by the terms of their leases, and lacking the deeper and stronger ties inevitably associated with the ownership of iand. So also in connection with the Native land question. As Mj Herries pointed out, the Reform Government in the few months it has beon in office has done more towards a real solution of the Native laud question than its predecessors even attempted in three times as many years. Then there wafe the Public Service Bill, removing the Public Service from the harmful influence of. political control; and the in-, crcase in the graduated tax, and so on. So much was accomplished by the Government in the short time at its disposal that it is not surprising if many of the public have failed to-, grasp the importance and extent of j tho work done.

The very admirable work done by the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals has never been fully recognised by the public of Wellington, Probably in an o££-

handed fashion most pcoplo have felt at one time or another that the organisation was a deserving one and worthy o£ encouragement; but for the most part their appreciation has carricd them no further. The result is seen in the struggle which the society ha-s to make ends meet financially. We are told that it is only able to pay its inspector Gs. Cd. a day. Those who know Inspector Seed must realise that it would bo difficult to place a price on the value of his services in the cause of suffering animals. His whole-souled enthusiasm is such that money cannot buy, and in addition he possesses great tact and admirable judgment. It might he said that ho lives for the work lie has undertaken, and that no matter what the remuneration he would find it difficult to tear himself away from it. But the very fact that the services of such a man are available makes it the more desirable that he should bo adequately recompensed. Apart, however, from tho question of Mr. Seed's position, the public should do much moro than it has done to assist in the work of tho society. It almost invariably falls on tho shoulders of the few to carry on tho active work of such' a society, but thoso who cannot' spare the timo can at least render some financial assistance, however small, to ensure the work being undertaken. We shall be glad at any time to reccive contributions towards the funds of the society, and to forward them on to the treasurer. At the present time assistance of this kind would be very welcome, arid it is well deserved. A correspondent throws out a suggestion to the Minister of Finance on the subject of future loan raising, His idea is that a sinking fund of 2 per cent, should be created in connection with all future loans, which would ensure the repayment of the loans within 30 years of their flotation. It is plain from our correspondent's remarks that his. idea is that this very substantial sinking fund charge should not merely serve the purpose of providing for a speedy liquidation of any future loans raised, but that it should also have the wholesome effect of: impressing ,on the public and the Government of the day the fact that borrowing involves Berious obligations, and is not a thing to be entered on lightly. There is a great deal of very sound sense in the letter containing tho suggestion referred to, whicn we puDlish elsewhere. We should say, however, that the Minister of Finance at the present moment is probably more deeply impressed witn the evils of reckless borrowing on shortdated debentures than any man in the Dominion. He and his Government and the whole country are now suffering .for the incompetence and recklessness of the financial methods which characterised the later years of office of the Continuous Ministry. Mr. Allen, we imagine, does not require to have it impressed on him at tne moment that there is every need for sound and cautious finance; but he might well consider whether it is not worth while making the sinking funds for future loans something real, instead of the shadowy thing which Sir Joseph Ward tried to, make so much of and failed.. ' 1 Some weeks ' ago "attention" was drawn in our columns to the statement by Richard Arnst, the sculler, that he "made no excuses for his defeat by. Barry, declaring that 1 he simply met a better man." This statement was commended to the notice of our Opposition friends—-it was so refreshingly different from their method. Arnst's comment caught the attention also of the Manchester Guardian, which, in its issue of October 11 has, a little editorial upon it, It found'the confession refreshing," ."for international athletes are often bad losers. A happy circumstance is that usually, in the long progress of athletic rivalry between British , and colonial men, the losers have taken defeat in a good spirit. But there have been exceptions: there was the foolish man who growled publicly and unsportsmanly at Leanaer's defeat of tne Australians at Stockholm. The Guardian notes the exceptions, and asks why should there be any exceptions at all'. Partly,, it sayß, because of a distorted form of patriotism, but partly also—and this is a fact which we should like all athletes to ponder upon—"because of the excessive value which many athletes and non-athletes attach to the mere results of any competition." There is much excuse for those pessimists who believe that athletics will go down into ruin because of their intensity, since the more intense they become, and the more they are framed into statistics of records,' and wins and losses, the more will the tale of scalps overtop in importance the joy of combat. Is : it not a significant fact that a leading English journal should seize joyfully, as a possibly hopeful. sign, a confession which