PRESS COMMENTS.

Hokitika Guardian, 10 April 1929, Page 8

PRESS COMMENTS.

On the principle th:it half a loaf is better than no oread, the advocates ol .summer-time gratefully accepted the solution olforeil which will be remembered as one of last acts ot the Reform Government. With Mr I. H • Sidoy occupying ail exalted position in ,sir .Joseph Ward's Cabinet, the Into re should he full ol hope. II a majority in the new Parliament is not favourable to a full hour’s .summertime, it might he possible to further the project by degrees. Doubtless, il the great army of gardeners, goiters, bowlers, tennis players, cricketers, and other lovers of open-air and out-ol-doors pursuits keep their eye firmly lixco upon the goal their desire will eventually he satisfied in tin* lull and complete possession of an hour ol sum-mer-time Meanwhile, most ol us will hid a reluctant farewell to the longer duration of daylight.—“Otago Daily Times.”

It would be well for the Minister, before proceeding to make any change, to [jet the considered opinions of others uesides the magistrates upon the Children’s Courts Child welfare officers and leadin'' educationists ought to he consulted. There are psychological aspects of the problem to he taken into account, and without at all suggesting that magistrates are incapable ol appreciating them it can he reasonably urged that they are not expected to lie experts in t,..'is domain. Not unlil his investigations are carried info a wider field should the Minister take action. When lie takes it, there should be assurance that the essential difference hetweeen the lieydey in the blood ol “young hopefuls” and the downright eripiinal intent of others of the same age will lie recognised and treatment he differentiated accordingly. “New Zealand Herald.”

If an argument were needed for the establishment of a cancer hospital at Dunedin it lias been supplied by Dr. L. E. Barnett in a letter to “The Dominion,” in which he says that laboratory research necessitates ample accommodation, animal houses, elaborate equipment, and especially trained personnel, and could not at present be satisfactorily undertaken anywhere else than at the spac.'ous Medical School the Dominion possesses at Dunedin where already there h the nucleus of a cancer research depirrtment. Those who know appear to ho practically unanimous that facility o.‘ access is ot fai less important than facility ol postgraduate study and concentrated research. Witliout touching Canterbury, the clinical material at Dunedin Hospital is already too surely supplied by Otago and Southland. Tn 1927 there was intensive study of TOO cancer eases at Dunedin, pud in I92<j intensive .study of 7~> cas.es, It is not only the post-graduates but’Xew Zealand's medical profession of to-morrow who benefit by such training.—Dunedin “Star.”

To Mr Atmore it is “inconceivable that a Minister should he merely the mouthpiece of any permanent official.” 'i nough himself well served by his advisers, he wished to lay it down that a Minister should “control the policy of lii.s Department.” These are timely words, and, so far as Mr Atmore is able to enforce them, he will deserve the thanks of democracy for standing out against bureaucracy. It is no imaginary evil to which Air Atmore has in set terms opposed himself. Officialdom lias so greedily laid hold of power in New Zealand, and shows so great an appetite for more, that it is a real question. Who are, or are to he, tlie masters of this country—the people, their elected and removable representatives, or their paid servants? So far is this true that when Mr Atmore speaks of its being “ineoneeivanle” that a Minister should be a mere mouthpiece, he says what the facts have aread.v, and over and over again, contradicted. Such a situation is not “inconceivablefor it lias already occurred.—Christchurch “Sun.”