Rangitikei Advocate MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8792, 22 April 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate MONDAY, APRIL 22, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THERE arc persons in the world who by their portentous self-com-placency inspire all normal men with a desire to kick them, and some public bodies seem to suffer ’from the same objoctinnal characteristics. The Wanganui Education Board, for example, is at present affected with rather an exaggerated idea of its own importance, and consequently fails to appreciate the attempts of any other body in the district to promote educational efficiency. A short time ago the Martou Technical School Committee requested the Board to forward to the proper authorities a requisition for the sum of £2OO to erect a class room at the Martou Technical School suitable for commercial classes. The Committee lias been very active in the matter of collecting money, and extremely moderate in its demands on the public purse. The presumption therefore was that the request was a reasonable one, and in any case the application to the Board was a mere formal matter. The committee would doubtless have been glad to have had the support of the Board for its demand, but was perfectly prepared to push the matter through I once the formal notice had been put before the Government. The reuot 1

quest, unfortunately, did originate with the Board, and there fore when it came up for considera tiou, although the local reprosouta tiro, Mr Purnell, fully explained the application, the other members solemnly dissented from the proposal and resolved to apply to the Department for £IOO as a pound for pound subsidy. In its anxiety to administer a snub to a local committee the Board apparently neglected to consider that such an application was quite unnecessary, as the granting of a pound for pound subsidy by Government on subscriptions is a process that goes on automatically without the approval or disapproval of the Board affecting it in any way. We hope that the Board will learn

iu tho process of time that it is not the sole repository of wisdom iu the district, aud will consider the desirableness of encouraging rather than stifling local interest iu education.

THE reply of Mr McNah to the Auckland Farmers’ Freezing Company’s urgent request for the immediate augmentation for tho supply of railway trucks can hardly, says tho Herald, have satisfied tho Minister himself. For to say that ‘‘oyerjthiig is JjlwJwd frwpae wwl

of the colony to the other owing to ( the tremendous growth of traffic and ( £ the development of the country that j is going on, ’ ’ is to agree with the . complaint and to confess deplorable * 1 lack of foresight on the part of the j Administration. For this mendous growth of traffic” is in no i way new. For years the rolling plant of the Railway Department has been utterly inadequate, and the most persistent protest on the part of our merchants and producers has failed to procure amendment. The traffic is always increasing, the demand for trucks is always ahead of the supply, complaints are unceasing, yet no relief is provided. Mr McNab stated that the Government was not yet able to cope with the I dicfflulty, and promised to consult the Minister for Railways to see if some means for giving relief could not bo devised. One would imagine from this that the problem was an intricate one; yet in reality it is absurdly simple. The difficulty is that there are not enough trucks, and the remedy is to get trucks. The railway workshops, as'Mr Massey reminded the Government more than a year ago, are not the only workshops in the colony, nor is New Zealand the only part of the world where trucks ; are made. If 'trucks cannot be made sufficiently fast by the Department I private tenders should be called for, i J and if colonial tenders cannot be ohi taiued shiploads of trucks can always be imported. To tie up ‘ the industries of the colony because j there is not enough rolling stock on the railway to meet what have become normal and ordinary require - 3 meuts is entirely inexcusable and de--3 monstrates incapable administration of this great public service.

THE Colonial Premiers who are visiting England certainly cannot complain that they are not receiving enough attention. Prom the King downwards all classes seem to have combined to give them a really good time, and we can quite understand the feeling expressed that the Conference should have a more permanent character given to rt . The prospect of a continuous round of banquets and other social functions is attractive, and we can only almost spare a little sympathy for Sir William Lyue, who is among the Premiers but not of them when Royal and other invitations come to hand. So far as the practical work of the Conference has gone, Mr Dealviu’s proposal is the only one that lias really been discussed if we neglect tbo preliminary squabbles as to the amount of publicity and the status of Ministers other than Premiers. Put in brief, Mr Deakiu wishes to terminate the relations between the Colonial Office and the Colonies; he is willing to leave the Colonial Office in charge of the Crown Colonies, which are really governed from England, but wishes those colonics which are in a sense really independent States, to communicate with the Home Government by means of some now department, which inay be described roughly as a sort of standing committee of the Imperial Conference. The proposal has a good deal to recommend it though the difficulty is to decide exactly what the functions of tbo new office are to include. The Oolouies, or States, as we are to call them in future, will staud no interference with their practical independence, so the “Allied States Department” must uot bs too powerful or energetic, aud yet it must not be reduced to tbo position, of being a mere ornament. Wo hope that the enthusiasm of the Premiers, combined with the willingness of the British Government to meet their wishes may result in the evolution of a scheme which will prove satisfactory aud prevent tbo friction caused of late by the attempt to pour new wine into the old bottles of Downing street officialdom. °