PRESS COMMENT

Hokitika Guardian, 9 January 1929, Page 5

PRESS COMMENT

M id-Dccombcr is for tlic great part ■of tins community the pleasantest time of tire year, the reason being that almost everyone is living in the future. .'lt will he time enough when the. New Year ironies round to contemplate the sterner realities of existence; for the present there is no need to look beyond festivities and holidays. It must he admitted that the exhiliration does nut usually outlast the month, for, as Stevenson so acutely points out, “It is hotter to travel hopefully than te arrive.’’ It is hotter to he filled with thoughts of Christmas than with Chrisuiast pudding.—“ The Press,” Christchurch.

The greatest deterrent that the Juvenile Court system overlooks is the birch. It seems a pity to send hoys to tlie Horstal, casting them into society that may stimulate rather than subdue their rebellious tendencies, when the best corrective of all lies at hand. Cases of sheer mischief such as occasionally bring a less fortunate class of youngster before the courts are not uncommon at hoys’ schools. There the application of the cane has a salutary effect. After the birch, the tactful supervision of child welfare officers—liven we would have fewer youngsters running wild for the sake of getting a thrill out of their adolescent years.” [ “The Sun,” Auckland.

It is no exaggeration to say, not only that l)r Blackmore has long been New Zealand’s foremost authority in the camapign against tuberculosis, but that he has been that campaign, its head and front, its brain and spirit and strength. ‘Without his perpetual effort and example, his skill as an organiser and administrator, and his expert personal knowledge and personal treatment of hundreds of individual cases, the Dominion would not have succeeded one-half as well as it has in beating down a terrible disease. Oqly rarely docs a man contribute as Dr Blackmore has contributed to the health and welfare of the public. Ho is rewarded by his own knowledge of what he has done, and—perhaps a satisfaction as great, at least a satisfaction which enriches the other—by his knowledge that the value of his service is everywhere gratefully understood and will not bo forgotten.— Christchurch “ Sun.”

While the proposal of the Government to establish Ministerial offices in the three principal centres outside Wellington has something of the appearance of a seasonable novelty, it is one that may be cheerfully commended. The tendency has been so much towards official centralisation that anything that savours of the reverse process, and is stamped, however faintly, with the colour of decentralisation, comes as a pleasant surprise. It will no doubt appeal to the civic pride of the larger communities outside the seat of Government to harbour Ministers of the Crown in at least a semi, residential sense in their midst. On the whole, however, the scheme should obviate the necessity of so many of those little trips to Wellington on the part of deputations and individuals that wisli to get into personal touch with representatives of the Governmcn. There being nothing in any way elaborate about it, for it is merely, according to Sir Joseph Ward’s explanation, an arrangement that should suit the convenience of both Ministers and the public, x there will be no harm done if it should not prove to be very workable in practice.—“Otago Daily Times.”