NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 149, 19 March 1920, Page 6

NOTES OF THE DAY

In view of the disclosures made at the inquiry before the Election Court, the voiding of the election for tho Stratford scat %vill not occasion any very great surprise. The. electoral law is properly _ strict in the matter of corrupt or illegal practices at elections,.and it is difficult to sec how the Court could have justified the use of moving pictures and orchestral entertainment as a legitimate electioneering device. It •must be obvious that'if such practices were permitted _ and became general the competition for public fa"our would ultimately resolve itself into a contest as to which candidate could provide the best "free show." In the case of the Stratford contest, the Court held that the offence was not in the nature of a corrupt practice, but was an illegal practice under the Act, and the Judges decided that Mit._ Masters ■mould be pcrmitted-to again contest the scat Mould he so desire. This nrobably means another, contest between the Hon. J. B. Hine and Mr. Masters. Mr. Hine's services to the district and to the country are such that his defeat in December last came as a great surprise to most people, and it was generally attributed to over-confidence on the part of many o'f his supporters. His absence from the district while serving in tho war,, where he was severely wounded, 1 no doubt placed him at some disadvantage in the matter of local affairs, but it would be astonishing indeed if after the fine example he set in early offering his services and going_ into the fighting line's, his constituents should holcl.it to his detriment i As a member of the Jtoform Ministry _ now firmly established' in office his reelection for tho seat would enable him to render useful service _in a Ministerial capacity, possibly ih the role of Minister of Public Works.

It is doubtful whether the reported action of four Napier schoolmasters in advising their pupils to attend school without boots and stockings will have any noticeable! effect in reducing the present high cost of living against which it is a demonstration. In that respect it will probably not rank as a success. As a practical application of the advice to return to a simpler life, however, it has possibilities. In the present warm weather, and particularly in view of the present and prospective price of boots, an effort to popularise the habit of going barefoot has everything to commend it. If this sort, of movement extends at all, wo shall have to look for a revival of the hatless brigade, now sadly shrunken _in numerical strength from what it was a fewyears back. Economy, the world is told in all the languages of civilisation, should be the watchword of the day. A close overhaul of our customary .individual expenditure could doubtless be. made to lead to the elimination of many items that really contribute little to our- comfort and happiness.

The protest of the Victoria Collogo Graduates' Association against the payment of scholarship fees to a man who had been interned as a German during the war is as proper as the, attitude of the College Council towards it is unsatisfactory. Tho reply that the scholarship had been gained before the war does not ob-

'-■fate. I he fact that if it. was not forthwith terminated 'in the declaration of war it should most, certainly have been on-its holder being interned. Enemy subjects wore- not universally intornod, but only after

investigation of their particular cases. The authorities presumably satisfied themselves in each case that good reasons existed for internment. Yet wo find the Victoria College Council, in effect, asserting that such grounds as these are too trivial for the termination' of a scholarship.