Newspaper Notions

Free Lance, Volume II, Issue 64, 21 September 1901, Page 6

Newspaper Notions

IT is time that the enlightened practice of the law courts were extended to the benighted Legislature, the slave of ancient and umeasonable custom. — Westport "News," on Standing Orders. * » * We shall expect soon to hear the labour unions have joined forces with an employers' union to protect themselves from being victimised by undesirable legislation which is ost«nsibl\ made for their benefit. — Waimate "Witness." * * ♦ In this country you may bet a hundred or a thousand pounds with a bookmaker whom you may meet anywhere, and no one interferes , but if you are poor — or very cautious — and onlv stake a crown or so, you run the risk of being dragged to the police station, having your name published in the daily papers, and perhaps fined more than you can pay. —Sydney "Sunday Times." • » • Womanhood suffrage in Maonland does not appear to have materially strengthened the Temperance cau'-e. Mr. Isitt, one of the leaders of the movement, admitted that the fortitude of the women in the Cold Tea crusade had beon weakened by the threat of interested men that if prohibition were earned there would be a "bloody revolution" in New Zealand. — Sydney "Truth." • » # We are determined to hand the next person we perceive drowning a cat (or any other animal with fur on for that matter) in the water-hole behind this office over to the police as a dangerous menace to the health, wea'th, and prosperity of the community If that won't work, we'll start a home for strav cats, and run it on similar lines to. Dr. Barnado's zoo at our own expense - Charleston "Herald."

Ministers now-a-days aic not courageous enough to do anything heroic lt-st they should alienate the sympathy of i<offle supporters,. — Adelaide "Critic." Launcesto i citizens have, by 17()7 \ otes to 48-3, demanded that the Marine Boaid should be amalgamated with the City Council. It is intended to boom harboui refoim. — Hobait "Clipper " * • * If there is to be letrenchment we would like to see it practised by the head of the Government, his Ministers, and members of Paihament, and the money saved in this mannei be used for roading the back blocks -Palmeiston 'Standard." * * * The farmers have foi years left the Labour partv m undisputed possession of the political arena, and, having suddenlv awoke to their mistake, they console themselves by reviling not onlv the Government, but the Labour paitv, whose activity they should long ago ha\e emulated — Tuapeka 'Times " » * * The brewers are in mortaJ dicatl that the excise on beer will be raised to 4d or f)d per gallon. They maintain that they cannot carry on with the higher rate, as it is impossible to get it back from the public Some of the large brewery shareholders are alieady casting about for more profitable business openings, but the only chance they can see at present is to become bookmakeis — Melbourne "Punch " * * < Any prosperity which New Zealand enioys is attributable to well-known causes, to her natural wealth, and to the industry of her peop'e, and exists, nob because of, but in spite of, the rampant charlatanism of the past decade. A Government which can claim credit for such prosperity obviously places itself upon the horns of an extreme l.\ awkwaid dilemma.— Wanganui ' Chronicle " * #• # Agitators aie no doubt iespon>ible foi the demand foi increased wages, and if they succeed in carrying the dav, the goose that lays the golden egg will die from exhaustion induced bv o\er-pro-duction. Dredges will be shut down, and the men will be in the position of being able to c'aim higher wages — if they can find woik to do The nineh will be felt not only bv the dredge workers themselves but bv eveiv class in the community. — Mataura "Knsign "

An. Inglewood girl, who lately got man led, is .said to have starched and ironed her husband's shirt all over, and the way he tned to sit down was amusing. — Tnglewood "Record." * * • If the Premier wishes to stay industiial strife, let him recast his Conciliation Act, make industrial districts as laigo as possible, appoint another Judge, and, above all, clip the powers and pietensions of the so-called "Conciliation Boards." — Napier "Telegraph." * * # Certainly something more is wanted than what we cannot but term the bluster and bounce, the equivocations and denials, the loud-toned assertions and piechctions of the Premier. As Mr. Giadgnnd said, what we want now is "facts " and these Mr Seddon cannot give us — Queenstown "Mail." * * » It is an open secret that the Yorks regaided Premier Seddon as the most stupendous bore met on their travels. The white-haired boy of the M.L. Minlstiv, so far as the Royalties were concorned, was 'Jimmy" Carroll, whom they invited to stay with them when he visits England. — Sydney "Bulletin." * * * Why every art gallery (widely open to the public) may exhibit man's hideous nakedness in every conceivable shape and form, whilst a young man would be gaoled for exhibiting a picture of his best gnl's beauty unadorned, are questions we cannot decide. Can Pirani the Puie help us to a decision pp — Hastings "Bulletin " * * * Premier Seddon, swiping out blindly at Steward's pioposal that Ministers should be e'ected by Parliament, said, among other things, that it would mvoh e "cutting the painter with the Old Country-" Seddon grows incoherent in his latter days Whv doesn't he also add that it will lead to a large deposit of ambergris on Hokitika beach. — Sydnev 'Bulletin " * • * Labour legislation has advanced so far and so fast of late that it is astonishing to leam that less than eighty years ago one w orkman had to take as part of his wages such a miscellaneous collection of ai tides as calico, nbbon, cord, an umbiella, silk handkerchiefs, foreign watches, a, tea-chest, a parasol, an old mourning pall, and half a bushel of onions The "truck system" can hardly have gone to greater lengths. — Christ church "Press."

The amount of money spent on telegrams by the King of Kumara would make a very decent little screw for a modest bachelor. — Chnstchurch "Spectator." # * * "Wanted, a gentleman fond of sport to join medical man in carrying on an inebriate home. Suit a retired naval or military man with about £1000 capital. Address, Med., co. box 892, Willing's, 125 Strand." — "Army and Navy Gazette." * • • To-day, the erstwhile Ministerial candidate, who won his seat by mumbling the Seddonian shibboleth, is not afraid to impugn alike the veracity, the finance, and, indeed, the patriotism of the Premier. — Christchureh "Press." * * * Whether is it better for a man to earn £2 a week and be able to live for 30s, or to earn £3 a week and have to pay £2 19s 9d to keep going? This is one of the most important social questions that will have to be faced in the near future. — Chnstchurch "Spectator." * «- * A Colonial Treasurer who is engaged in perpetual strife with the AuditorGeneral of the colony creates more than a suspicion that there is a skeleton in the cupboard that will yet rattle its bones before the gaze of those who have to bear the brunt of all this reckless and extravagant administration. The worst has not been revealed. — "North Otago Times." ♦ » ♦ The present Government is apparently a record-breaking one. We do not like to foretell evil, and we are not going to prophesy anything at all, but it appears to us that unless the public expenditure and the public debt stop increasing so rapidly, it may come to pass that the present Government may badly beat all past records in the way of financial smashes. — Cromwell "Argus." • • • Happi y, in this country, we have not been cursed in our political hfewith anarchists and their cut-throat methods. But, as our population increases, the tendency towards this sort, of thing will increase, unless, indeed, it is checked by the spread of education and the limitation of foreign immigration. But the spirit which, born in advanced socialism, and fed by the morbid contemplation of social wrongs, ends eventually in anarchy has made itself manifest to some small extent in certain phases of our Labour troubles. — Auckland "Observer."