NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1749, 14 May 1913, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY.

In cnnncction with the question of Municipal Reform a correspondent suggests that a step which would be advantageous in more respects than one would be a reversion to the practice of the election of Mayor by councillors instead of by the public. There is a good deal to be said in favour of this method of choosing the Mayor of a Borough. For one tiling it offers an incentive to citizens l;o offer their services as councillors who might not be inclined to come forward for the more, modest, ollice unless it carried with it the prospect, of the Mayoralty, lint more important than 1 his, if oilers a dire.cl, incentive to councillors to qualify, by iitLoulkni i<> lh«?ir duties as councillors, for the Mayoral chair,

There can bo little doubt that councillors arc better able to judge of the work of their fellow councillors than are the general public, and in choosing a Mayor to preside over them from amongst their own number they would in most cases endeavour to make a selection which would do them and the city justice. Moreover, the election of the Mayor by the councillors would make more clear tho proper relative positions of Mayor and councillors. At present the tendency is to exaggerate tho importance of the Mayoral office at the expense of tho general body of councillors, which is not calculated to elevate the standard of the Council by attracting to it those- who may bo best qualified to render service on it,. Prior to 1875 this method prevailed here, and while we have had many admirable Mayors under the present system the same can be said for the old procedure. The matter is one which from time to time c mes up for discussion, but it is not a subject in which any very keen interest is taken, and there is even a tendency to regard it as a retrograde stop. Of course it is nothing of tlie kind, and on the whole it would probably meet with tho support of those best qualified to express an opinion upon its merits.

The Taranaki branch of the New Zealand Farmers' Union is of opinion that political economy should ho made a compulsory subject in our "higher schools." It is not quite clcar what is meant by tho term "higher schools" mentioned in the resolution, but there arc many good reasons why this important subject should find a place in some part of our national education system, though tho reasons by which the Taranaki members of the Farmers' Union support their proposal arc not well chosen. Political economy Should not l:e introduced .into our schools for the purpose of "counteracting the injury caused by the dissemination of fallacious views by the Socialists and single-taxc-rs," but with the sole object of spreading sound knowledge. It may serve the purpose sought by our Taranaki friends, but its justification must be tho same as that of all other subjects taught in our State schools and colleges, namely, its utility and truth. It is not the business of State teachers in their official capacity to be influenced in any way by the burning political or social questions of the day, or to aim at counteracting tho ideas of this or that section of the community; but it is their business to make their pupils understand the foundation principles of the subjects they are called upon to deal with. Political economy may rightly be called a science. Professor Chapman states that "positive economic science takes as its object neither more nor less than tho explanation of economic data in the manner of the natural scicnces, or, as we may put it, the tracing of causc and effect in the economic universe." There must always be difference of opinion about the things that really matter, and if on that account instruction in subjects of such fundamental _ importance as political economy is to ho entirely shut out from the schools, half the value of our education system will be lost. It would probably be very difficult to find a place for economic science in the primary school course though years ago it was taught in the highest classes. Something, however, might bo done to give the pupils in the secondary and technical sthools some knowledge of its fundamental principles.

The agitation which is being revived in favour of better railway communication with the Wairarapa and the opening-up of the large and fertile area of East Coast land which would bo tapped by a loop-line of railway from Mastcrton to Waipukurau, is of' particular interest just now in view uf the recently published railway returns. There arc several rival schemes for establishing better means of railway communication with the Wairarapa and East Coast, and tKo task of discriminating between the merits of cach would not be an easy matter. When—as no doubt will be' the case—they arc brought directly under the notice of the Massey Government by deputation and resolution, the whole matter will probably have to bo gone into tk novo, and will, we trust, receive something more than the off-handed consideration which has been extended by previous Governments to those who have bestirred themselves in this matter in the past. The very plain lesson of the railway returns of the working railways of.the country for some years past has been that it pays to construct railways in the North Island, while it involves loss to build them in the South. This, of course, docs not nv2an that all the North Island railways pay and all the South Island do not, but that the railways as a whole in the North Island earn more than sufficient to pay the cost of working and the interest charges on the money borrowed to construct them, while the South Island railways, as a whole, are unable to make ends meet in these respects, and are, in consequencc, a. burden on the North. Despite the fact that there are 1G52 miles of railway in the South Island, as compared with only 1109 miles in the North Island, the net profit from the North Island section is actually larger than that from the South. The figures for the last year arc as follow: ExpenHevpinie. ditiire. Net profit. North T. 2,100,(332 1,428,M!0 071,772 South I. 1,870,309 1,270,719 593,020 The percentage of profit earned by the North Island Hues is over <U per cent, whereas the South Island railways show a profit of about 1 per ccnt less. In face of these figures, coupled with the fact that the expenditure on South Island lines already cxcceds that in the North by over two millions, it is only natural that the Government should, in considering the question of future railway development work, pay special attention to the claims and advantages of the North. Amongst such claims to consideration will, of coursc, be the Wairarapa and East Coast proposals.