PRESS COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 2 September 1926, Page 4

PRE S S COMMENT

The Dominion may be forgiven for a somewhat Pharisaical attitude of thankfulness that we are not as America is. and although our elections arc conspicuous for the absence of all forms of corruption, it is to be hoped that the magnitude of financial backing of any party will never be tho dominating influence in selecting repicsentatives lor local bodies or for Pailiament.—“Lyttelton Times.”

Probation is giving an offender a chance to make good and keep good, and its success must depend quite as much, upon the absence of undue attention by the probation and other civil authorities, as on the efforts of the probationer to rehabilitate himself and become law-abiding as weir as selfreliant. In other words, the system is designed to enable probationers to work out their own salvation. Obviously, therefore, so long as it is seen that probationers are going the right way, the less interference the hotter. It is by knowing when advice is needed, and how to give it that probation officers will make the scheme increasingly successful year by year.—Taranaki “Daily News.”

In surveying the whole question of the status of the Dominion, a South African newspaper sneers at New Zealand for being content to remain in “the swadding clothes of colony-hood.” If there ho any truth behind the sneer it is not discreditable to the responsible representatives of this Dominion. When the subject was discussed by the British Empire Delegation at the Paris Peace Conference, the late Air Massey was chary about clamouring for the new status of Dominion nationhood. He was content to see New Zealand toddle sturdily as an infant Dominion. And his successor does well to imitate a good man and a level-headed Statesman.—Christchurch “Sun.”

No one can doubt that the gap lietwoen Christchurch and Pic-ton will have to he bridged some day. that the East Coast route is tho only possible one for a “trunk” line linking Auckland with the Bluff, and that the settlors between Parnassus and Wharanui would not produce more if they had hotter transport. But it is just as impossible to 'doubt that their immediate needs could not he met by better roads and an improved motor service. and that railways should no longer be constructed at huge cost in sparsely populated areas unless it has been proved that there is no substitute for them.—Christchurch “Press.”