NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1661, 30 January 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

• ♦-- A good deal of the time of the Board of the New Zealand Institute at its annual meeting yesterday was occupied with a discussion upon the financial problem involved in the v publication of the "Transactions." While everybody must feel obliged to encourage, as the germ of an ultimately bigger thino;, the publication of tho Institute's annual Volume, we

may be permitted to suggest that the' financial trouble with the printer could be got over by bringing the size of the annual volume into correspondence with the title of the "Transactions" to rank as a record of_ scientific value. It is a good thing that there are so many men willing to furnish papers to the Institute, but the "Transactions" must be more than a little irritating to those who are familiar with the. scope of Journals of scientific Societies in other countries. Much of what now appears in the "Transactions" could go unprintcd without robbing the world •of anything of value or discouraging the pursuit .of science in this country, The cost of printing the "Transactions" would bo a tiny item if tho Government were to undertake all the liability, iii the general expenditure of the State, but a pound spent in assisting the printing of unnecessary papers in the Institute's volume is something more than a wasted pound. We would far rather see a slim volume of useful original work than the fat volumes which contain so much that is, when it is original, only original. It was not, we judge, the intention of the founders of the Institute that it should be, as it has become, mainly concerned with nlere geological and biological surveys. In the meantime it is much to be hoped that the Government will contrive some means of publishing in a uniform way such scientific matter of value—it is not very much—as the Institute and some of the special Departments of State annually collect.

Mr. Gaynor, the Democrat Mayor of New York, has vetoed, and very rightly j~ we think, a proposal submitted to him for the regulation of moving picture shows by a system of censorship. It was suggested that the Board of Education should appoint one or more censors to examine these pictures in advance, and determine whether they should be exhibited or not.

' "1 do hot believe," he observes, "that tliß people of this country are ready to permit any censor to decide in advance what may be published for them to read, or what pictures may bo exhibited to them. Our laws forbid the publication of any'libellous, obscene, indecent,- immoral, of impure picture or reading matter. Is not that enough? If any ono does this he commits a criminal olfence, and may bo punished therefor. If-this ordinance', (the proposed censorship) bo legal, then a similar ordinance in respect of tho newspapers and the theatres generally would be legal. Are you of opinion that you have any such . power ■ as that? If so, you should probably begin with tho newspapers and'the so-called high-class, theatres. Once revive tho censorship and there is no telling how far wo may carry it." •

■. That is the only/logical point of view, but, of course, life is largely a compromise with logic. The determination of what is, or is not, indecent, libellous, and immoral is.the constitutional prerogative of our Courts of Law, for the extent of a particular offence is invariably and inevitably a matter of argument, not of arbitrary Ppinion; as expressed by a Eclcct' committee of cen-, sorship. The same protection-which is extended to the public under the law in respect of that which is indecent, libellous, and immoral, ought logically to be extended also krthb 5 individual against whpm an offence is alleged.'

'.The 'unpleasant discovery that this country has been put to the .expenso and' inconvenience of importing obsolete guns for mountain artillery woi'k will not tend to fortify;public confidence in our expert military, advisors. Quite the reverse. For the best part of a ycar'tjie Wellington mountain battery has been undergoing constant training in the handling of these guns, and now, within a fortnight, practically, of their annual camp and practice in shell-fire, their guns have been shipped to London, and the battery will have nothing better to do than trek aboui; the country, winter training has been wasted,' for its value will, not be tested. This must be most disheartening for the battery, and it' is certainly extremely bad business for the country. Some explanation is due to the public in connection with this matter. Upon whose recommendation was. this pattern of gun, which has bee'n but one brief year in the Dominion,, but is seven years out-of-date, selected ? What system of buying is in vogue that makes such .an extraordinary bungle possible! Are we to believe that it is possible for a mistake of this kind to escape the vigilance of the War Office, upon whoso friendly guidance we. have some legitimate claim? Or is it possible that the Ward Government, which was in office when the guns wore ordered, actually ventured to make its purchases direct through the High Com.missioricr's office, without consulting the War Office ? These are questions the public is entitled to ask, and a reply should be forthcoming. , We cannot afford to be exploited in this fashion, ;and if the person or persons officially responsible for this costly piece of blundering are ted to remain in our service, ,wc should_ like to know whether they are going to be saved from making further mistakes.

Before wo can indulge ourselves in this country with the reflection that General Botha's acquirement 6f the "mastery'' of the "Nationalists" in South Africa is a final victory over the anti-British irreconcilablcs, wc must wait for further events. Altliough the Prime Minister's resignation last month, in protest' against the reactionaries of whom Mr. Hertzoo is the leader, did him credit, it must not be forgotten that his resignation was nearly a year overdue. Before General ' Botha left England on the conclusion of the Imperial Conference he had encouraged people to believe that his very first act would be to. drop Mr. Hertzog overboard. Yet he went on enduring the- most intolerable anti-English and anti-Imperial activities on the part of his colleague. His resignation was at last forced upon him by • the resignation of Colonel Leuohars, • who • simply "could not endure the anti-Imperial sentiments and speeches of General Hertzoo." The strength of tho reactionary Boer party is clear enough from General Botha's unhcroic submission to the violent anti-British Sropaganda of his colleague. Those ritish Liberals have obviously spoken prematurely who have been citing the Ulstcrmcn the caso of South Africa as proof that a mere instrument can dissolve into nothing a long-standing racial bitterness and promote an immediate "union of hearts."