NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1662, 31 January 1913, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

• 'iAmonost- soveral belated' Parliamentary. papers which reached Us yesterday, is a return'/ showing; the amo'unts paid for -Government advertising to newspapers published, in this country for the three years ended March 31 last. Over. 200 periodicals, were patronised by the Gov-' eminent, and for. tho three- years the ,sum .of £37)611 was expended,', k striking feature, of the return' is ; tho fact that the expenditure, which'had been £10,408 in 1910-11, jumped-to. £.15,684 in election.year, and as the Cost of "advprtising'the election cannot have accounted for the differ-' ence, it is obvious that the old' Government spent a great deal in an attempt to.'Wceten" some of tho smallor journals. .Of the £10,496 expended ; in 191041, only £9 was Said for'\advertisements' in The ominion, or less than one-sixtieth • of the sum paid to a local papor of email circulation, which was 'a faithful upholder of Spoils politics!. Nobody will "yenturo to say how— ; nobody over really belipved in'hia heart--that'. the treatment accorded tc this "and_ to a,,few other journals was not dishonest,' The new Government has simply, decided to make no discrimination as to the politics of tho newspapers, although it bottlcl with advantage to.tho country have decided to revise the list by cutting off the list thoso;small papers which few peoplo ever see or read, or which arc\of a class in which advertise-:-monts are of small value, if of any. value at all. But wo only recall the~ figures of the return, by way of reminding tho public of tho'unashamed jobbery which in this matter, as in so.many others, was the special pleasure of tho old Spoils party, which still indulges tho vain hope that it will ever be granted a secon'd term of misgovernment. V ' •:

New York haa quite 'recently had tho painful oxporienco of having its. social Vices and corrupt police administration Bervcd up in unpalatable detail in the press reports of tho Aldermen's Investigation Committee, which has been inquiring into, various allegations of polico collu-' ?ion with keepers of disorderly houses, allegations arising out of the shocking disclosures that were made at tho, trial of Police-Lieutenant Beoker for complicity in the murder of Rosenthal, the gaming-house, keeper. The Now York ■■'Evening Post, /very naturally scandalised by what has been drawn daily out' of the mouths of notorious rascals who have. been : summoned from the under: world to give evidence, observes:

"There may be other cities in. which there is more vice, or in which its manifestations, aro more revolting, than in our own. But there is another, aspect of tho vico question no les3 serious than this. How the city government affects vico is one thing; how vico affects tho city government is another. .And in this regard New York has an ignoble preeminence over all tho great cities of tho world. . . . Is there, in ' any of these cities,' a great depository of governmental power .w ; hich stands in any'such relation to the commercial exploitation of vice P Is there,' in any of them,' a man. with whom tho whole pooplo havo to'reckon as co-ordinate'in strength with' the community itself, and whose friends and friends' friends' systematically..profit, by blackmail levied on tho keepers of brotiiels and disreputable hotelß, or by being" in that trade themselves?. It is over this filthy morass of prostitution and bribery and blackmail that the structure of-Tam-power is built. And it is the man at tho centre of this 6ystem that they havo allowed to get such a hold on public power as to overshadow tho State Legislature, to paralyse the Governor, and to coino dangerously noar to decking a great political party in the nation," ;•■

This is the result of machine politics, whose influence is invariably corruptive by reason of tho fact,that its fighting strength is dependent upon the quantity of .the largesse which it is able to bestciw upon its satellites. The other, day, Mr. Andrew Fisher, Prime' Minister of Australia. by the grace of the Labour Caucus maohine, declared that the Constitution of Australia"was copied from the Constitution of tho United States,; which was tho' worst in the world, in that it had failed to protect tho people. Mr. Fisher apparently is unablo to see that it is not the Constitution of a country which is primarily at fault, but -tho'- political • '-'spoils" system devised-by_ a special coterie \rtosirOus of fattening oh the sweets of office. If anybody is' to blame for, the continued existence of such an undesirable autocracy it is the public which suffers the cvii.

When this country decided to cmbark upon a new system of defence,' it understood that it would have'to pay for it,'but it expected that thcro would be no unnecessary oxpendit.tro. Wo aro afraid that the Danartment has not kopt a care-

ful eye upon this point, and we should not be surprised if the Minister, who is also Minister for Fin-" ance, has not taken cognisanoo of the fact. Thero is reason to beliovo that the pruning knifo has had to be used here and there, chiofly in cutting down extravagances that took root under the last administration. A caso in point iB presented to the public - to-day; in a 'Parliamentary return, published yesterday, relating to the officers sent .to' England for training, and their salaries and allowances. Ab will be seen, the allowances are very liberal—too liberal, ,it s ( seems to lis.' In the case of cer--taih (Jfficers of higher rank, the allowances total over £270 each; in others, over £180. Out of this have to be paid travelling expenses and hire of lodgings and camp furniture when at schools of instruction and manoeuvres. It would have been moro businesslike, and quite just to the_ officers concerned, if actual and •I6gitiraatc<expenditur6 in respect of these items had been refunded, and we are pleased to noto that Bomo such rule is to govern these grants ill--the future. We notice,,also, that two of the officers, who were due to return last October, have obtained an extension of their, training in England. No' doubt the Departriiciit has some reason for granting .these extensions, but for our part, we do. not think that a refresher course should extend over a year. Itvis' time now that our Territorial 'force had the benefit of the training which theso officers' have . been receiving. In. the case of the Staff College ;studcnts, the positidn, of course, is altogether difforont. In future, the practice of sending officers Home should be strictly limited to-those Who qualify by examination for the Staff College' course. With other officers for: whom refresher courses 'are- deemed desirable, schools of;instruction Conducted by our own Headquarters Staff ought, to suffice.