NOTES OF THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 2170, 8 June 1914, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY.

Pkobably the bulk of tho public ■ have grotvft vaimy of fch<s speecftflwking of tho politicians of all pat* ties wbo have been so fur--iottsly electioneering during the past, few. months. The meeting of Parliament this month may _ coflfiiifl the orato.fs. to Wellington for a time; and, while the public will still fact the mrws-pajjei-s well filled.with political talk, it is not likely to,bo so stale and unprofitable as most of the speeches now being made. All tho questions of the moment have teen, threshed th-i'iadbare, The- failure of 'Sir Joseph Ward to prod nee a policy has" crippled the efforts of his snpportoi's and driven them to resort to a class of extravagaat criticism which is discounted by the obvious exaggeration and distortion ef trifles and by over-use. The public are not ail foots and the great majority of those who trouble to read the reports of political spcaeh»s have, discovered long ere this that there is very liitto fact m tho attftcfes ma tie on TlinUt«i's,,and ix great deal of wild assertion B/aA senseless abuse. On thij other hand Ministers have sppfcft so frequently in.reply to their opponent*, that there is now Utile that is new to be found in their public speeches. A respite from both sides should prove a welcome relief.

EvEßt year in mjcbwinler a ecu-* sws is taken of those who spend -tl» night homeless in the stroete of London -without heel os shelter. On tho night t)i February 14 last tho olSdais of the London County Council counted 340 persons destitute and shivering out in the open through the slight. Of the total, ilfl vrero men, lIS woment a»d five were chilflrosi. t'hc count is fnade over an area eight -miles from East-to West and five miles from North to South, having St. Paul's Cathedral as its centre' A certain proportion of those counted as "homeless" may secure temporary shelter for a feV hoars, with or without free food, but without a bod, and at the. expiration' nf ttro period of shelter they go out into the streets again. In addition there v/erc over 20,C00 persons in a state of extreme poverty in tho liccivwl lodging-houses aad casual wards. Thirty-two women wfli'o that nighfc turned away from the common lodjy-ing-houscs because they were unable to pay for a bed, and of these six ; ware accompanied by their husbands "Doubtless," tho report acids, ''these were genuinely homeless and wo«<d probably remain in the streets all night." ft is stated that.* large proportion of the. men who cannot puy for a bed in the- lodging-houses prater to walk the. streets rather than go to the casual wards. It is a 'istnal picture of the squalor heMath the wealth and inagmfieenw of a. great city. But it has one bright side: so far as these rough annual censuses arc n guide, the number of flic very poor has decreased by approximately 20 per cent, during the ifist live year's. Nike years ago the British Admiralty built the Dreadnought am!.

closed ait era in naval history. Every other battleship in th« world was at one stroke rendered obsolete. Naval strength since that date has boon measured hi terms of Dreadnoughts and super-Dreadnoughts only, and in their rush to build these'mighty engines of destruction the European Powers hava saddled themselves with liabilities amounting to many hundreds of millions', Nov/ we have Sib Pekcv Scott telling us that the Dreadnoughts aire already out, or date, and that the only weapons that will coiißt i« the war of the future will be submarines and seaplanes, Bits. Perot Scon- may be right or he may be wrong. We all know, how. ever, that Dreadnoughts were built to fight Dreadnoughts and not submarines or seaplanes. , The race for them has been responsible for the larger part of the increase of 75 per oenfc in the naval expenditure of the Great Powers during the last twelve years. Submarines and seaplanes cost far less, to build than leviathan battleships, InvE in the light of past experience only the' most optimistic will look to see the burden of defence diminished by the progress of invcatioo.

It would seem that- the efforts of "the Flyiag Squadron", in the far south have, not been of an impresalVc fiatwe. Those of Uism who Lave journeyed there appear to iiavb had good audiences, m;t- none of ttifflji has been taken with tiafc seriousness which they no doubt hoped for, and perhaps expected. The ■South-' laml tuna, discussing a- confcefnplafc* ed visit of Mlt. .L, M. Isitt* waxes facetious on the subject: We have already kid tiro (privilege, it remarks, of attention from Mr, Q. W. Basse 1 .! aitd Mr. Atavore, iff. Btedl probably wonrhsra *rhy Mr. Afensre denied it necessary' to follow Mm to Southland, <m<l bolh will how woflttwr- what Mr, feitt's abject is since they themselves hswo completely destwiyett the Qovcmiment's reputation in tin's district and ma.olo every -Mat seeuro for anyone who likes to stand in ttfi .natnc of. this Opposition. What is there foe- Mr. Isitt to (Jo? Perhaps tlta esDltWiation is that Mr. Russell skV Hm Government, iff, At-mo-re came down. aiul Idc-ked the body, and Mr. Isitt »cw propastis to reiuove a?m bury tlie remains. Tfeso members fcf the . flying Squathsw are-, really vary fi.Mvour nbw.it the impressiop, Mr, Jfossey lifts produced whenever he has gefie. The same, papoir, remarking, on the fact that in his Iftvercargil! speech the Pkijib MikiStek Hover ones referred to the member fot .Nelson's Southland- addresses, s,%ys it was quite plain that Hit. Ma-ssey did not trouble himself shout. Mil. Atf* More or his speeches at all lor the wry good reason that he declined to take the representative of Nelson serious!) - . There- are quite a lot of people in and out of Parliament who view Mi;. Atmoius's political effort? as unworthy of serious attention, The award of the Arbitration Court placing the 'Liverpool State Col)wry on an ocjiin-lity with' pri-vately-owned ifiiues so far as. labour rates are concerned hS-s m&ro than

a passing interest. ,fhe mUionalisin.g of _ iridnsif its is the Aid ingredient irt the Socialistic wanflce* for ■ifltl-oducingtbe Eniltaxriinfo. Eliminate tlw!_ capitalist, tt-o ar-6 fcnld, aftd eo&noroie lii-s will be satral. Unforfctiriately tho dttel of indsstey is a, thnse-epr&erod one between labou** . capital, and c»nsulflt?,i\ The poiirt, therefor*, arisfcs sis to whoift' capital's share shall #o. Wimfevcr the theoretical Socialist may dream in bis armchair*. the ob,|e«t of public ownership of industrial midertakiflgs is practically always to benefit the consumer, llw fchnro of cap-ifni is net usually a,large s.ffloxmfc on tho hint-over of aa imhtsfcry, By the time the coasari.ier gets his reductions in pries not mticj} is left ■of it, Arid [fiifcss a aatioß-iiisftd un-dcrtftkin-fc brings with It these' benefits to the generaj public," iY.ho.s&

money is imid.i in. it, 'its reason for existence lias gone. It TjEcosnes not basiaess tat pin-o p'bitafeopy. Net much reflection is neofed to sticny that Stats; ownership <s.f jn-ft«S» tvics brinsrs u3 little tMaict the IJiowis. sfefijd to exist at tfee afrcl of the Socialist fginkrv. What ti» pliiks* opium's sjtrihe Was to the seiches 6l the Middle &4m So is textboo'k. "Socialism" to the .Gconofflfcg of to-rtaj