NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1630, 23 December 1912, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Our readers will doubtless remember that most humorous feature of the month or two following the election last year, namely, the vociferous complaint of tho Ward party that it did not get itself sufficiently before the public. The dreadful "Tory" newspapers (which happen to bo anti-Tory and as nearly Whig as it is possible to be nowadays) were very sharply censured for not giving more space to their opponents. But the grievance of our friende on the anti-Reform side had no foundation, and their complaints were merely the outcome of their disappointment over the election returns. The. Socialists and extreme Eadicals are in a ,worse case: thoy are quite sure that the Villainous capitalistic press is all the time suppressing and colouring news —doing it out of sheer lbve of being wicked. We do not have much of an opportunity here of learning from the Socialist press what honest journalism is, although one remembers that Socialist journalism did not appear to know that at Waihi a constable was shot. From America, however, comes a fine example of the honour of the anti-capitalistic press that suppresses nothing. At the Indianapolis murder trial M'Maniqal gave a full account of the story which J. B. M'Namara, while on a hunting trip with M'Maniqal, told of the Los Angeles. explosion. (M'Namara, it will be remembered, confessed his crime.) This is how the Socialist Call reported M'Manigul's evidence: "After reaching the woods and fixing their camp, M'Namara gnvo some details of the Los Angeles 'Times' explosion. But he was not.--very free with his confi'dences." Simply that,_ and nothing more. Your Socialist writer can change his tune brilliantly when it suits him, and handle the truth as carelessly as anyone.

A. curious case, illustrating the validity of the ancient Bill of Rights as a check upon Parliament, was lately determined in England. Mr. T. Gibson Bowles holds some Government stock, and tho Bank of England, following the usual practice, deducted income \ tax from the dividends, due to him. It so happened that the deduction was made at a time when the income tax provisions, of the 1911 Finance Act nad expired, a-nd the income tax provisions of the 1912 Act were not passed. The Resolution of the House in Committee of Ways and Means had been carried; but the Judge held that the committee resolution was not an authority to collect taxes. Under the Bill of Rights no tax can be collected which is not actually authorised by an Act signed by the Kino. Mr. Bowles scored a real triumph, as everyone admitted, but tho practice followed by this Government has been followed by every Government for over thirty years. And as a matter of fact tho Court's decision will be extremely inconvenient, because it certainly must affect the collection of Customs duties. Nobody questioned the rightness of the judgment, but poor Mr. Bowles came in for sqmo slaps in tho Liberal press for hie inconvenient poking into his ancient rights. The Government will probably bring in some amending legislation, and the illegal practice will be legalised. The wonder is that tho formloss mass of British law and Government works so well that curious little stoppages like this one are not the rule, instead of the very rare exception.

Now that stipendiary racing stewards ha.ve at last been appointed to supervise horse racing in New Zealand, the race-going public will no doubt be eagerly on the look-out for results. They must not bo disappointed if there is no immediate marked increase in the, number of suspensions and disqualifications of ridors or owners. Many will probably regard any failure in this rospect as an evidence of tho failure of the system of paid stewards. Of course, it will prove nothing of the kind. The purpose behind the appointment of stipendiary stewards is tho prevention rather than the detection of improper practices, although the two things naturally go hand in hand. The duties of the stewards will, we assume,, inelitds an unobtrusive supervision over the manner in whicli jockeys conduct themselves away from race meetings as well as at race meetings—their associates, modo of living, etc. They should be able to advise clubs as to the issuing of licenses to riders and trainers, and thus gradually weed out the undesirable element who cling to the fringe of the sport under tho pretext that they, make their living by riding or training, whereas their record indicates that they live by their wita. They aro a harmful and corrupting influence. There are indeed many things the stipendiary stewards can do in the way of purifying the sport besides watching races with a view to detecting any suspicious or improper practices. As to the qualifications of the gcntlomeri appointed by the Racing Conference Committee the public naturally aro very much in the dark, seeing that two of the number are Australians. Probably the conimittco in selecting two stipendiary stewards from beyond the Dominion

wcro influoneod by tho fact that they would enter on their duties free from any of personal tioH or aßsociation with thorn flctivcly engaged in the n/)orfc in New Zcalund.