Newspaper Notions

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 51, 22 June 1901, Page 6

Newspaper Notions

THE leturned soldiers should form a union, to place their claims for back pay before the Conciliation and Arbitration Court. A test case for recovery is to be brought by a Contingenter shortl" for money owed since last year.— Auckland "Observer." * * * Even New Zealand bowlers won't federate with Australians. — Sydney "Sunday Times." * ♦ ¥■ By liis action, Mr. Lewis has really paid a very high compliment to those whom he was elected to depose from office. However, we suppose that Canterbury will survive the retirement of of the hon. gentleman.— Palmerston "Times." * ♦ • Last year the Government of New Zealand remitted taxation to the amount of £350,000, yet this year there will again be a surplus of something like £500 ; 000. So much for State socialism running a country. — Hobart "Clipper." * * * Neither the blare of trumpets, the booming of cannon, or the parrot-like cheers of the thoughtless will still the moans of those who are face to face with grim poverty. The gaunt army of the hungry will still march on. — Sydney "Truth." * * * Luke Leake is the new Westralian Premier's full name . When he triumphs o'er his foes He will find them very meek — Eager, as the saying goes, Instantly to "eat the Leake." —Melbourne "Punch." * • • Once the sacredness of the Sabbath has been repudiated there can be no defence against Sunday labour, and that community or nation which turns the day of rest into a day of selfish amusement will assuredly make it eventually a day of labour. — Invercargill "Times.'"* * • ♦ Two young lads employed in a certain office in this town, on hearing that the Yorks had arrived, walked into the Post Office, and sent His Royal Highness a telegram expressing their pleasure at his safe arrival. The telegram was acknowledged by the Duke's secretary.— Greymouth "Argus." * • • New Zealand Ms.H.R. have £2 deducted from their official screw for every day they are absent from Parliament during the session. If that law were enforced here, it is a query whether some of the members would not have to go up King-street to wipe ott their indebtedness to the State.— bydney "Newsletter." * * • The farmer looks round and he sees Unionism petted, pampered, conciliated by the Ministry, lauded by the press and getting almost everything it asks for, from the judges of the Courts. Naturally, the idea of a Farmers' Union strikes him as a cure for the ills of which he complains.— Carterton. "Observer. * * # A great effort is being made to improve the salaries of lady teachers, but the public mind is hardly prepared "for equal pay for equal work," or rather, we should say. it is generally recognised that except m the smaller schools a woman's work is not equal to the man's, and, in addition, that the man has greater calls on his purse. — Napier "Herald." * • • To those favoured individuals who are permitted to wear the bell-topper of distinction and the frock-coat of fealty we humbly ask that they desist from kissing the Royal hand, even if the Royal hand is in so helpless a state as to be of no assistance as a defence. As New Zealand is an example to all the world (in its own imagination) of progress, let it try to be an example to the Commonwealth for sobriety of conduct. — Auckland "Observer." * ♦ * Our Sovereign Lord the King is merely the first gentleman in the Empire, and his son the second. If they wear the white flower of a blameless life, they accomplish all that is expected from them. If they set a good example to the "upper ten" of the Empire, they fulfil our most reasonable anticipations. We are loyal rather to kingly virtues than to the mere persons who display them. — Masterton "Times."

During the last municipal elections in New Zealand, the authorities in Wellington attracted much attention all over the colony by their bungling in connection with the elections there. — Napier "Telegraph." • • # Let the terms Conservative, Liberal, and Radical be buried — they are only terms glibly used to divert electors from voting in a manner to promote their own interests and that of the colony. — Hamilton "Argus." • » • New Zealand politicians in Melbourne for the festivities hinted vaguely at a big Imperial billet for Premier Dick Seddon. Run down, the rumour is that the Maorilander is to receive the Governorship of a British dependency as a reward for his robust Imperialism. Stranger things have happened. — Melbourne "Punch." * ♦ ♦ The idea of erecting stands for the old age pensioners in the chief centres while the celebrations in honour of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall are going on was a master-stroke of Mr. Seddon's. It was quite the right thing to do, too. The idea is obviously Mr. Seddon's owjq : it has the unmistakable stamp of his resourceful brain about it. — Dunedin "Witness." * * • For our part, we look upon Prohibition as a delusion and a snare, but we would willingly give all our support in favour of State monopoly of the drink traffic, believing that, under those conditions, the most complete amount of control can be effected over a trade that is specially difficult to deal with. — Taieri "Advocate." • • • It seems like unwarranted extravagance that decorations should be put up in other towns near which the Duke will not pass. When it comes to ornamenting the Masterton Post Office, the matter is being carried to extreme lengths. It seems very much as if of late we are going to extremes, and it is time the brake was strongly applied. — Masterton "Star." ♦ * » King Dick was the only prominent political personage who absented himself from Melbourne's big jamberoo. Although Premier Seddon was badly bitten with Jingoism, he could not see his way clear to neglect Maoriland business; and at this time his hands are full of his fight with the coal monopolists and shipping ring. — Hobart "Clipper." • ♦ • It is becoming evident that those who are best fitted by education to have a voice in the framing of the laws of the colony are getting sick and tired of the useless struggle against an administration with so large a majority, and are quite content to allow the present Government to have complete control of the finances of the colony. — Palmerston "Standard." ♦ * * The Wellington City Council has notoriously been for years past an apathetic, unprogressive body, and it is simply astounding to us that the ratepayers have gone on so long without rising as one man to demand reform. It can only have been through the most stupid mismanagement and scandalous neglect that the water-supply has not long ago been strengthened. — Blenheim "Express." * * * For the producer there is no paternal Act to fix the price of his produce, no court to which he can appeal if wheat and wool are low, and in politics he is a factor not much considered as compared with the trades-unionist. Industries are protected to enable higher wages to be paid to operatives ; the burden falls principally on the farmer. — Whangarei "Advocate." * * # Mr. Lewis's attitude, in resigning the seat for Christchurch, is not that of the hero who fights to the last. It rather suggests an endorsement of the philosophy involved in "I eanna be fashed." < We may say. therefore, in the homely vernacular which had a place in some correspondence recently published in our columns, that he is "a cocktail." — i Napier "Telegraph." < * * * , It is said that a lady, who had been refused Government invitations to the ( late festivities, on inquiring why her maid wanted four nights in one week, was paralysed by the answer: "You see, Madam, mv uncle, who is in Parliament, has got me invitations to the i conversazione, "At Homes," and the ] State concert."— Sydney "Newsletter." J • • * i Mr. John Holmes, in conversation with our representative, said that the work which the Premier, Mr. Ward, and himself had put through lately was 1 simply stupendous. Telegrams and messages in reference to the Royal visit ' demanding answers poured in from all parts of the colony, and never gave them a moment's rest.— New Plymouth ] "Herald."