EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 10061, 1 February 1909, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Tub Ota go Run Classification Commissioners, appointed, to retiie birth of port on the runs in the new 'noaiES. Otago district- whose li-

I censes will end in March, 1910, have made recommendations which, whatever may be their merits, would have the effect- of increasing settlement; If the report be adopted by the Government, a large number of small grazing runs will be created by the subdivision of large areas which "have had their day. No pastoral lease should now be so magnificent as to earn for its holders a princely return. It is better that two persons should make £SOO each than that a single lessee should reap £SIOOO. That seems to be the idea which has actuated the Commissioners. A great deal, however, must "be taken on trust by t'hose who are not familiar with the eountry dealt with, and it is possible that even more minute subdivision than that sug- j gested may be desirable. The settlers in the localities of the runs will be consulted by the Commissioners, who are holding meetings, and they will express their views as to what should be done with these lands so us to promote the "reatest possible advantage to all concerned. It may, therefore, be reckoned that no run which can advantageously be cut up will remain intact, but that, in pursuance of the policy of "the greatest good to the greatest number/' which has been the watchword of our progressive Government, there will be a discriminating subdivision which will make room for some of those southern land seekers whose hearts have been made sick by hope deferred. Such an opportunity as the present does not occur more than once in 14 or 21 years, and the fact that, in the majority of cases, the Commissioners recommend that the terms of the runs which are to be re-let should be 14 years only is significant that the sentiment "'the land for the people" is paramount." Everybody who is anxious to promote real prosperitywill desire that prejudice will not be allowed to influence our land administrators in dealing with pastoral runs once more, after the lapse of so many years. The time has arrived when the country cannot afford to allow large areas of land, whether private or public, to ho occupied to the disadvantage of both the people and the Government. The marvellous transformations which have taken place where (here has been a narcehncnt of large properties needs no demonstration in the columns of a newspaper. They proclaim their existence in every department of our national life. Moreover, the greatest successes in settlement have occurred on properties which were declared to be so unfit for subdivision that those who went on to them would be ruined. In all the closer settlement transactions of the State there has not been a solitary failure ex- 1 cc-pt in the minds of the absurdly censorious. whilst the successes have been such as to entitle the promoters to everlasting thanks. There need be no fear that the subdivision of runs might be too minute. It is easier to rectify the trouble if subdivisions should be made too small to he profitable than it would be if thoy were made so large as to deprive the landless of their rights till the end of a. long period of years unless compensation be paid for. Not that the terms are too long, for 14 years is the shortest tenure that should be given if lessees are to improve their leases and make them as productive as possible. When all the past-oral properties have been investigated and a decision has been arrived at. may it not be expected that numerous new. prosperous, and happy homes will be added to those which already exist as monmuments to John M'Kenzie and his stalwart co-workers.

Tin-: banquet to Mr J. A. Macpherson at

Naseby was marked Tin-; retrogression- by such warm apnp XASEiiY. preciation for the guest- that he may fee) that it was worth while to suffer defeat so that he might learn how keenly he was appreciated: and that would be something like a calamity, for it is desirable that Mr Macpherson should find his way into the Legislature. On reading the account of what is credited to the exMember for Mount Tda in the shape of help to farmers and miners, one is forced to conclude that n large proportion of them must have suffered from a lapse of intellectual ca-pacity when they were called upon to make their final choice of a member at the end of last year. A number of those who voted for Dr Chappie created an electoral diversion by voting for Mr Scott, because he promised to do precisely what l)r Chappie, the man they wanted, said ought not to be done, and what Mr Macpherson. l)eing one of the people, could not view with any other feeling but. political abhorrence. So that, either in a fit of mental: vacuity, or actuated by unworthy motives, Liberals threw away their votes on Mr Scott, from whom they can expect little or nothing that they want. The Ron. Mr Duncan expressed a just estimate of these peculiarly whimsical persons and of Mr Macpherson, whose career in Parliament was such as should have won him, not only the appreciation .of Central Otagons, but also their votes, if they care for their own interests. It was asserted during the election excitement, that Dr Chappie ruined his Liberal opponent's chances by counselling his friends to vote for Mr Scott in the second ballot. We take this opportunity of denying this slander and of stating that, not only did Dr Chappie not exhibit- such irrational vindictivenees, but he did his utmost —as a loyal supporter of the Party of Progress was bound to do —to induce those who supported him to bestow their votes on Mr Macpherson. But, instead of talcing the doctors advice, a- majority of the electors of Tuapeka chose Mr Scott, who is a faithful' representative of thatdecadent coterie designated the Opposition, which has its being not because the country wants it, but because it wants the country. In a more lucid interval at some time in the near future, both Mr Macpherson and Dr Chappie will be gladly returned to our Legislature, from which- they would 1 not ha-ve been excluded if they had not come into antagonism.

Too few people will estimate the real importance of the suggesTiii-: hand that gestions which were hocks made at the the ritAPLE. Labor League Conference at Portsmouth the other day. This league is no screaming sisterhood. It is a serious organisation inspired by the purest- arid most beneficent motives." We need hardly say that its members are drawn from the poorer classes, for it is not considered to be to • the advantage of the rich to "pamper" the lower orders. We dare say that- the idea promulgated at the league's meeting that the State should make provision for a mother "four months before childbirth and for a year afterwards," will strike those who are able to direct their own affairs in such a matter as being entirely unwarrantable. The classes' care for the masses is as finely ordered as possible. It is of the same quality as that which is bestowed on a mere animal, though not so anxious. So long as men and women are kept in fit condition .to work that is; the beginning and end of the responsibility of the seeker after money. This may sound harsh, and even incomprehensible, but it is truer of the Anglo-Saxon race than one cares to acknowledge. We tell those who ineline to indignation at the suggestion which emanates from the Women's Labor League that the kindly care which is desired, for the sake of those women who find the race-for life a hopeless struggle for bread is not new. German communities are by law necessitated

to take care of poor mothers under the circumstances mentioned. It is something for the rich to do which, keeps alive any humane sentiments which may linger in their natures, and, though it saddles them with responsibilities, they may leam to view those responsibilities as privileges which entitle them to bear the hall mark of humanity. The care which is taken of helpless mothers in Germany is promotive of an increase in the population in thatcountry, for it is a- set-off against, the rage for infertility amongst- the well-to-do, There would be no wailing over the children that are not- born, and over children that are brought into the world sadly handicapped by physical weaknesses, if the ruling classes of a country were to recognise that children are a legacy conferred upon the State, and that without an adequate succession of them there must- be national decay. ''Thou shall not muzzle the ox that treadeth out the corn" is u command which was issued as much for the sake of the owner as of the animal. The greed of man, unhindered, has no bounds and may even be so profound as to defeat itself. It is doing so. now. !)r Worrall, a 'high and respected authority on the subject, declares that married women should not work for livelihood, and that the effect of- their working is a "curtailment of life, diminished capacity to enjoy and work and endure the strain of maternity, lessened vigor in their offspring—evils which must react upon the state of the race/' In Great Britain, a million and a-quarter women and girls labor hi factories, workshops, and laundries. "The professional woman extends her scope, creating new fields of employment in some directions and driving out the men in others," says a- writer in the January number of Cassell's Magazine. The same authority says that in Lancashire the death-rate among babies in the iirst year of their lives is over two hundred out- of every thousand, M and that "it would be a good thing for Lancashire and for England if no married woman, whose husband is in good health, was allowed to work another day in the mills." The housewives of Xew Zealand are bewailing the dearth of female domestic helps which is due to the birth-rate and the necessity that girls and women must take any work they can get to make a living and to their preference for a life which affords them greater liberty and variety of experience than is the lot of domestics, unless tliey are favored with specially indulgent mistresses. The subject is as pregnant with difficulties as it is full of interest, and it is the duty of every citizen of this young country to think it out carefully with a mind, free from the narrow ideas and prejudices with which the natures of even the best of us become saturated. Our own Legislature has already discussed the necessity for dealing kindly with the mother and children of the less favored classes, and have done something worthy of a country which professes to have a young and an impression- , able heart. 1