NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1614, 4 December 1912, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

If the .protest of the Dunedin Presbytery (reported to-day) against tho practice in Dunedin of drilling cadets on Sundays is based on substantial grounds, some explanation is due from the military authority directly concerned. The Defence Department has nothing to gain, and a great deal to lose in its relations with the general public if it deliberately sanctions a proceeding as must surely be obvious to the General Staff, is an offence to the religious scruples of most, people. The Presbytery intends to interview the Minister for Defence on the subject, and the facts of the ease will probably show that the General buiif at Headquarters is unaware of what has no doubt been purely a local arrangement. We shall indeed bo surprised to hear that these Sunday drills have received official approval, for the General Officer Commanding the Forces has hitherto shown a disposition to meet public sentiment in every way possible in his administration of the new scheme of univorsal military training.

The result of the municipal elections in Sydney will relieve the anxietv which was felt that the Municipal Labour Assembly in that citv might, by the effectiveness of its'organisation, carry a majority of the seats on the Council. Labour contested every scat and made a bold bid to capture the Council. As .row I* shows tho ptu;fc,y »ot only failed ki hold ita owa. but lost quo

wiit to the Liberals. _ The new Council will have 17 Liberals, five Labour members, and four Independents, and most of the last-named are stated to lie sympathetic towards Labour. One significant incident of the elections was the defeat of Sin Allen Taylor, cx-Lord Mayor, by Mr. M'Gree, a member of the Municipal Labour Assembly. Municipal affairs in Sydney are in a very critical position at present, and the intrusion of the political element as represented by tne attempt of the Labour party to place the city under a class administration was regarded with grave concern. "Never in the history of the administration of the city," said Si it Allen Taylor to an interviewer just prior to the elections, "has the position been more critical. It depends entirely upon the business knowledge of the aldermen who are clcctccl whether the ship shall be kept off the rocks. Once class administration is brought into civic affairs, disaster must follow. What wc want is men with the time and ability to uphold the city's prestige." The Sydney Daily Telegraph regarded the situation as sufficiently serious to warn the electors of the danger that threatened the city, and pointed out that' Socialism, with the same class programme that it has before the Federal and State Parliaments, had organised a campaign for the capture of the Town Hall, which, if the enterprise were_ successful, would become a mere adjunct of the Trades Hall.

"Tliis party," said the "Telegraph," "oxists for the betterment of one section of the community only, that included in. the Tanks of trades unionism, and should it get control of the City Council, the in.terests of that class will have to do studied at the expense of the rest of the ratepayers. Municipal government is not an agency for the aggrandisement of any clique or party, and once it is made subservient to purposes of that kind the carrying out of its true functions will bo impossible. Hence we have no hesitation in saying that upon the results of the forthcoming elections the welfare of the city is at stake to a greater degree than it 'has been on any other occasion since Sydney was incorporated. The municipal government of Sydney has now grown into a huge business concern involving the management of millions of money, j'arty politics have no more to do with it than 'With the financing of any other business. . . . The proper men' to bo entrusted with these functions, therefore, are those with some proved capacity for handling large business undertakings. Men of no experience in dealing with big financial propositions could with the very best of intentions plunge the affairs of tho city into chaos, and bring all the extensive improvement schemes now in progress for the benefit of the citizens to ruin."

Happily, the warning was heeded, and Sydney is to be congratulated upon a very fortunate'escape from the domination of the Trades Hall.

As day follows day the reason for the secession of the Pethick Lawrences from the Pankhurst party in the suffragette movement becomes more clearly defined, for the policy of the ultra-militant followers of Mrs. Pankhurst and her daughter is now being expressed in an utter defiance of the law and rights of public property. Previously the public demonstrations of the suffragettes were directed chiefly to the persecution of politicians who were opposed to the agitation for female suffrage. As recent events show, this policy.,has. been; changed,'<to the • extreme annoyance of the general public, against whose property the most wantbn and outrageous vandalism is being perpetrated daily. We hear of phosphorus being dropped in pillar-boxes, doors of private residences painted with the words "Votes for Women," and so on. This is riding rough-shod over society with a vengeance, and such contumacious defiance of law and order must inevitably and completely estrange the generai body of public opinion. The recent defeat of Me. Lansbury (Suffragist candidate) in the by-election for Tower Hamlets, is an indication of that contingency. Whether the authorities will hold the Pankhursts personally responsible for the tactics of their followers remains : to be seen —the London Daily Mail has drawn the attention of the Home Secretary (the Bight Hon. Reginald M'Kenna) to the Pankhursts' liability for these outrages as evidenced in-their Leicester speech—and the Government's duty in that respect is plain.