WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Hokitika Guardian, 20 June 1921, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

I THE NEW CENSORSHIP. ministerial CONTROL. t (Our Special Correspondent, l . WELLINGTON, June 'I?. , H scorns that the Acting Prime Slin- , istcr himself, on second thoughts, is t not quite sure the Government retains . I the power it exercised during the war to censor cable messages dispatched ! from the Dominion. He confessed as . much as this to an interviewer yesters day who wanted to know with what authority the edict had gone forth rev quiring that no message purporting to - express the views of any New Zealand ? Minister of the Crown on any Imperial ; question affecting any problem eonnect:l cd with the association of the United s Kingdom and New Zealand liould he i sent away without the written authority i of the Minister concerned. Probably s the power assumed during the war, Sir 1 Francis Bell confessed, no longer existi ed, but at the present time it was particularly desirable that a report of the , statements of a responsible Minister ? should he submitted to him before lmi ing transmitted to England or to foreign countries. This surreptitious re- ‘ vival of the censorship, presumably, is * intended as a check upon Ministers in- , discretion as well as upon reporters’ iu--1 accuracies, and no one appears to be greatly concerned about the ranttei , I but the man in the street is quoting ■ it as an entertaining oommentory upon the professions of a progressive democracy. QUALITY OF PARLIAMENT. : Mr G. R. Sykes, M.R., who is in ’ town to-day, has been subject to a good deal of chaff over his tilt at Lord Brv • and his “Modern Democracies” at a 1 fire brigade reunion within bis own con. 1 stituency at the end of last week. Mr 1 Sykes’ grievance against the venerable historian was that he had declared that in Now Zealand “public life attracts too little of the nation’s best intelligence and, as a consequence, “the average of ’■ knowledge and ability in Parliament is not high.” The member for Masterton took this ns a personal affront to himself and his fellow members, and jumped to the conclusion that the au- ’ thor of “Modern Democracies” would ' have only “literary and university men” admitted to tho counsels of the nation. But so far from this being the 1 case at eighty-two years of age, Lord 1 Bryce adheres to his early democratic ’ profession with quite extraordinary tenacity. He merely deplores that more of the best hrains of the country are not devoting themselves to its sorvice. Tliis is a regret which has been expressed again and again during the last thirty or forty years and implies no special reproach to Mr Sykes and his colleagues. FIRiEuBLTGHT. The conference of the Fruitgrowers’ Federation now sitting here has been giving a good deal of attention to the fire-blight pest nrul the majority nf the delegates nonpar to have been driven to the conclusion that nothing short of the complete elimination of hawthorn root and branch, as the Government Bioloi o-ist nuts it, will give a reasonable A ° •

chance of saving the pear and apple; orchards of the Dominion from the ravages of the disease. Professor Poster, of the United States, would offer no opinion as to what might be necessary in this respect in New Zealand, but in America it had been found absolutely essential to eradicate hawthorn in order to save the fruit industry. The professor held out no hope of getting rid of the disease altogether. In America that had been found impossible and the best the orchardists could do was to maintain a constant war against the pest. The Minister of Agiiculture, poor man, is torn between the conflicting interns of the stock raisers and the fruit growers, hut in view of the representations made to him by the Conference he can scarcely do otherwis* than decree that the hawthorn hedges

must go. EDUCATION AND ECONOMY. \ The Minister’s emphasis of the need for economy in the Education Department and the Director’s suggestion for a review of the whole post-primary course of instruction are naturally causing some uneasiness among people who re- | ga,i-d the Dominions education system as one of its most precious possessions. It is feared that the Government is contemplating some sweeping reduction in the expenditure upon the Department, which will not affect merely the position of the members of the teaching staff, but also the accommodation and the facilities provided for th * children. The Minister protests, however, that he never has had in mind any economies that could impair the efficiency of the system, and that -..s sole idea is I to get for the country better value for its money. At present the post-prim-ary course leads to nowhere in particular and in many cases the efforts of the teachers and the children are wasted, but. under a properly c O -ordinatod svstem a definite goal would be kept in view and much lietter results would be obtained. That would be economy even if it did not result in a saving of expenditure.