Rangitikei Advocate. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXI, Issue 8784, 11 April 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. THURSDAY, APRIL 11, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

THE nows that a son of Gciieral Qrouje lias been elected a Rhodes scholar is one of the most surprising pieces of nows yet received from a country that has been fertile in surprises. It was Mr Rhodes who first enraged the real direction of the ambition of the Transvaal Boers, andj t •was he' who deliberately sot himself to checkmate their designs. The annexation of Matabeleland and Rhodesia checked the expansion of the Transvaal to the north, and the i Boers gradually found themselves hemmed in by British territory or British protectorates on every side. Without startling inaccuracy Mr Rhodes may bo said to have been the real originator of the Boer war, which ended in the annexation of the Transvaal and Orangia. The Boers meant to make South Africa Dutch; Mr Rhodes resolved that it should be British, and lie succeeded in attaining his object. It seems strange, therefore, that a sou of old Crouje should accept a benefaction from the great enemy of his race. Looked at from the Boor point of view, it may, however, bo regarded as a spoiling of the Egyptians, that the money of the hated Rhodes should bo used to educate a Boer to defeat the British on the field of politics, and thus to make up for his father’s surrender at Paardeburg. Whether this be so or not, we may rejoice that the son of our old foe will have an opportunity during his residence at Oxford of gaining a wider culture than is possible on the veldt, and of mixing with men who represent much that is best in the British race.

THE Government scheme in New Zealand for the erection of workmen’s cottages has been such a dismal failure that it will provide some consolation to its promoters to find that the London City Council has fared little better in its efforts. In spite of the boast of the Progressive members of the Council as to the results attained, the routs charged by the Council for houses it has built are 25 per cent higher than those of houses erected by private persons or companies under similar conditions. The - housing schemes have consequently made slow progress. There has been a difficulty in letting the few houses built, and empty houses have added to the current cost. Great efforts have been made to prove that the housing schemes have been a financial success, but it lias been found impossible to show anything but a loss, oven after - valuing the land taken at a low rate or even allowing nothing at all for its value. “Of all the agencies,” says the Times, “ which have attempted housing, the Loudon County Council h«s most conspicuously failed. The contrast between its performance and its promises is positively ludicrous. ” It seems as if there was a blight resting on Municipal and Governmental enterprises. In the hands of public bodies undertakings which appear certain to succeed, either fail to pay the expenses of management or are carried on in a manner which would not be tolerated from private persons. Even our railway system, which is so often referred to as a magnificent success, would probably bo far better conducted by a private company. Wo put up present management because there is no other means of transit but- the slowness and infrequency of trains, the lack of trucks when they are required, and tho general paraiysis that seizes the system when there is any unusual traffic, all show how far our railways are from real efficiency.

THE facility with which the public can bo gulled must be a constant surprise oven to those who make their living by taking advantage of popular .credulity. It is a cause of some surprise, however, to find a person, presumably so respectable as a Dunedin City Councillor, endeavouring to persuade meu with the keen intelligence which always marks ratepayers’ associations that they will one day be able to get all the benefits provided by the municipal organisation without paying for them. The other niglit at a meeting of Dunedin Ratepayers' 1 Association Mr Connor, a City Councillor, said that if the ratepayers returuedjto the City Council only men of sound business principles it was possible that in 10 years or so Dunedin might be in the happy position of not requiring to levy any rates. The gas works were showing good profits, and there was nothing to hinder good profits being obtained from the water suppi. . The trams were pay-

iug, and the Waipori electric power was sure to pi’oye a groat asset, while the rents from endowments wore improving every year. Without being too sanguine, he predicted that with the right class of men controlling municipal affairs ratepayers were within sight of.' a rateless Dunedin. *lf the citizens of Dunedin prefer paying unnecessarily high prices for gas, water, tramways, and electric power in order to save the pockets of ratepayers, it is their own concern. It would, however, bo a more satisfactory method to conduct municipal trading on businesslike lines, and use the so-called profits to reduce the price paid for gas, water, and power. Such a course would further the prosperity of the district hy encouraging the establishment of industries requiring gas er electric power, whereas Mr Connor wishes to make it more difficult tor such enterprises to exist by using them as sources of reyenne to save tli. pocket of the ratepayer.