The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, April, 16, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 1233, 16 April 1914, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, April, 16, 1914. NOTES AND COMMENTS.

AT Tuesday’s Borough Council meeting, the Council defined a special area which is to carry the water and drainage scheme—set out elsewhere in this issue. It will- be noticed that considerably over one-third of the borough has been eliminated from sharing in the expense. True, the area cut out is, in the main, grazing land, and may not be required lor residential purposes for very many years to come, and if included would not be directly benefited

by the scheme. Bui Councillors are not elected as the trustees of ratepayers to be swayed by seutb ment —they must be actuated by the greatest good to the greatest, number, and a false step to-day may impose a grave injustice upon posterity. It is uufoitunate that grazing areas should be included in any borough, but while such obtains, owners must not be allowed to shirk their responsibilities. Can it be denied that the area cut out will not indirectly benefit by the expenditure of thirty or forty thousand pounds ? Will such laud depreciate in value as the result of carrying the loan proposals ? One Councillor makes a point of the fact that the land owners in the outskirts of the boiough were promised, when they asked to be merged into the county, that they would not be included in any rating scheme such as is now under consideration. But the Council never received any mandate from the ratepayers to make such promise. To eliminate any portion of the borough from itsshareoi shouldering tbe burden of water and drainage, under all tne circum stances, is wrong in principle. The Councillors who supported the motion acted in the interest of the few as against tbe many, and we suggest that a petition from the ratepayers in the restricted area be lodged against any portion of the borough being cut out. The only alternative to this—which would be regrettable —is to vote the scheme out.

The April Review of Reviews gives a lucid and very full summary of the Home Rule Bill. Many will see its actual provisions for the first time, for the text of the measure is not obtainable in this country, and the summaries in the reference books are so brief as to be quite misleading on some of the vital points. We learn, for instance, that the Irish control over Customs is limited absolutely to a 10 per cent, increase on the amount of the duty already levied, and that the local Parliament has no right to touch anything at all unless it is already subject to a duty imposed by the Imperial Parliament. A complicated system of rebates secures absolute tree trade between Ireland and Eugland. Great powers are vested in the Lord Lieutenant; for instance, no money Bills can Ire introduced into Parliament without his pre-. vious recommendation. The rights of the Protestants are safeguarded iu the Bill as far as is humanly possible in a measure of this sort. The authority of the Imperial Parliament remains unaffected and undimiuished. It retains jhe power of levying taxation in Ireland, and collects all the revenue. The financial provisions are fully explained, and altogether Mr Stead’s article is just what is wanted at the present time. An instructive map of Ireland shows the relative size of the three or four dissenting counties compared with the rest of Ulster and the other three Provinces. _ The real objection to the Bill in Ulster, according to Mr Stead, is a dread that the Roman Catholics will use the power Home Rule might give them to treat the Protestants unfairly. No doubt the Orangemen fear that their own methods in past years, when they had the power, may be tried on themselves when the positions are reversed. The Irish Parliament will at any rate have an opportunity of proving its entire lack of animus to Protestants during the next six years. The issue is now either temporary exclusion or the Bill as it stands. There is undoubtedly a strong feeling amongst Liberals that exclusion should be offered pending the bringing in of Home Rule all round, when Scotland, Wales, England and Ireland will be a Federation instead of a Union.