OUR POLITICIANS.

Northland Age, 20 September 1904, Page 3

OUR POLITICIANS.

SCHOOLTEACHERS’ SALARIES. 1 Mr. Massey (Franklin): The pay of some of our teachers holding important positions was less than the wages paid to pick-and-shovel men. v THE THREE KINGS. Mr. Massey (Franklin): About eighteen months ago there was a serious shipwreck there, attended with heavy loss of life; he referred to the wreck of the “ Elingamite.” The captains and officers of steamers engaged in the interprovincial trade felt the great necessity of a lighthouse being erected on the Three Kings in the near future.

BLACK-LEG IN CATTLE. Mr. Taylor (Christchurch City): He recollected that our costly Veterinary Department—possessed of all the knowlCgc that a Department of the kind ought to have, thoroughly up-to-date in every respect—wrote to the United States Chief Government Entomologist, and asked him what in the United States was regarded as the premier remedy for botfly—the scourge of the horse. And what was the reply. The reply was that the United States, with a population 'of seventy millions of sensible people, looked upon the bot-fly as the greatest friend of the horso, and that a horse that had not the bot-fly was not regarded as healthy. The bot-fly was an essential part of his digestive apparatus. Members might smile, but ho was quoting the actual facts. He was quoting these facts hoping that the Minister of Lands might , be encouraged, and in order to strengthen his hands, so that he might not be hurried into unnecessary expenditure in the pursuit of anthrax and black-quarter by the speech of the leader of the Opposition, who sometimes reached a point of dangerous enthusiasm upon such a subject as this.

CHINESE LABOUR IN SOUTH AFRICA.

Hon. Mr. Bigg: The “ Springfield Republican ” of the 6th May last has a very good article on the question, in which this appears:— “ Almost every American of first-rate academic and literary distinction has declared against Imperialism, and' that the greatest of their ecclesiastics do not find the ioroible subjection of their fellowmen to be a 4 regrettable necessity.’ ” A great American man of letters has invented this New Year’s toast, which probably describes best, what has been taking plikce under tho auspices of the British and other Governments:—

44 1 bring you the stately matron Christendom, returning bedraggled, besmirched, and dishonoured from pirate raids in Kaiao-chow, Manchuria, South Africa, and the Phillipines, with her soul full of meanness, her pockets full of boodle, and her mouth full of pious hypocrisies. Give her soap and towel but hide the looking-glass.”

That is tho American view of the kind of Imperialism that we have been encouraging—lmperialism at which I say the best minds not only of Amerioa, but also of Europe, revolt.