NOTES OF THE DAY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 259, 27 July 1920, Page 4

NOTES OF THE DAY

Tho Government will bo well advised to bring tho law for the revocation of naturalisation into harmony with Imperial practice. Under tbi» Imperial Act of 1018 before naturalisation is revoked inquiry has to be made either by a com.mitteo appointed by tho Secretary of State and presided over by a person who holds, or has held, high judicial olHce, or, alternatively by the. • High Court. Uiider tho New Zealand Act of 1517, now in process of nmendmorit, naturalisation can, bo rooked by Order-in-Oouncil; that is-to say, by a decision of the Cabinet, without giving the nnturalised subject any opportunity of fficinf ifcj accusers and calling evidence. It is no doubt inadvisable that all such cases should bo heard in public. The British Act, with its alternative procedure, provides the necessary means for holding an inquiry in camera while preserving proper judicial procedure. Iri war. time the country was content temporarily to waive 6uch safeguarding of the liberty of tho subject, and to give the Executive the freest possiblo hand, in face of the national emergency. That emergency has now passed, and it is of the highest importance that tho hard-won constitutional rights and privileges of the subject should no longer bo capable, of withdrawal without judicial process; Precedents for arbitrary action by tho Executive aro exceedingly dangerous things to establish, and although present Ministers may bo most scrupulous in the use of their powers, all their successors may not bo equally so, in which case the Dominion will find that in accepting tho principle of substituting Ministerial decrees for trial by law it has made a nod capable of being used with disastrous, effect by an irresponsible Executive. * * * *

■When New Zealand said a final goodbye to twopenny postage on New Year's Day, 1901, it little thought it was merely 'flu rovoir for a brief twenty years. The new pest and telegraph rates, however, aTe merely another contribution to the vicious circle of rising prices and wages which has tho world in its clutch. Britain a few months ago increased her postago charges to about tho 6ame extent as we are to increase ours, and tho public will have to reconcile itself to the tax as best it may. The Government is necessarily obliged to obtain from some source the additional revenue needed to meet the increased pay to 'postal servants, and the most obvious way is to obtain it from those who use tho postal services. There comes a point, however, when increased rates lead to lessened -use, and it has to be seen, to what extent tho higher charges will cause tho public to curtail telegrams and telephone calls, and cut down the volume of their mail mattor. Cheap and rapid communication is one of tlio great ties that hold the Empire together, and it is with regret that any increased charge, is to bo iecorded, howover inevitable aud necessary it may tie.

In lifting its embargo on racing, tho Transport Workers' Federation has at last awakened to a fact that waa apparent to the public a month' or two ago. The jockeys have not the slightest intention of striking or holding up racing in any way, and any action taken by ether organisations, supposedly in tho interests of tho joekoys, was in reality nn injury to them so far as it threatened to interfere with their engagements, and at tho samo time a senseless and gratuitous interference with the convenience aJid recreation of the public. Thcso facls were apparent long before iho citizens of Auckland were inflicted witli tho nuisance of a tramway strike. Tho whole episode savours moro of comio opera than real life, and reduces the sympathetic striko to an absurdity.

« * » » Few people will knowingly desire to cat mutton two years dead, even with tho blindest faith in the efficacy of refrigeration in arresting decay. From the prnnTot' view of tho Now Zealand producer it is much to be preferred that the surplus meat stocks under tho commandeer should bo boiled dQfffl di?"

posed of in som» way other than by the retail sale of Joints in the butchers' shops in competition with current' shipments of meat. Tho retail butchers will naturally not acknowledge the age of tlip commandeer meat if they can help it, and any deterioration in quality will bo puit down by the consumers as an ordinary defect of our mutton, thus underlining its good flame; and at the same tune the market will be glutted and depressed. It is argued that the Imperial Government will lose no more in the end by boiling down the meat than in holding it for ealo in its present form. Tho point, of course, is ono for the Home authorities to decide. They have treated the Dominion fairly in the past, and it would be a happy solution if somo such step should be found to be |ho bast way out of their present difficulties. as it certainly would be of ours.

American newspaper comments on the outcome of the Republican National Convention make it oven clearer than the cablegrams did at the time that the selection of Senator Harding as the party's nominee for ■tho Presidency was essentially an affair of machine polities. One New York paper's initial comment on the event was; "To Republicans, the nomination has come as a dash of cokt .water, and to Democrats as an unexpected stimulant in what threatened .to be a ( dry year/' It was left to a Democratic journal to speak of "a commonplace and colourless candidate on a verboso and evasivo platform," but even Republican organs did" not hide their surprise at Mr. Harding's selection. One, which had advocated the nomination of Mr. Hoover, observed that those who controlled the party machine were evidently afraid to trust that candidate Presidential powers. "That they very much preferred Senator Harding," it added, "is, from our point of view, by no means an unmixed compliment to tho candidate." Evidently, in picking a "safe" party candidate, the Republicans to some extent oourted defeat. Given a straight-out contest, there is little doubt that Governor Cox, with hia definite stand 011 the League of Nations issue, and assured of a measure of support from Labour (whioh is not wholly absorbed in the Third Party) would have' excellent prospeots of election. These prospects may be clouded to a serious extent. however, by 'the nomination of Mr. W. J, Bryan as a Prohibition candidate for the Presidency. This raises a possibility, at least, that the Democratic vote may bo split with results as damaging as the Republicans suffered when Mr. Hoosevelt led the Progressives out of the fold.