Rangitikei Advocate TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1908. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, 21 January 1908, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 1908. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE suggestion -to which we referred yesterday in our local columns that in addition to or instead of the proposed dairy experimental station in the neighbourhood of iPeilding there should be established an experimental farm, seems a most excellent one. -It would be an .enormous advantage to the district to have a place -close at hand whore young farmers would acquire a knowledge of farming -under the same conditions as those prevailing on their -own farms. Hitherto in the North Island the -opportunities for scientific farming have hardly existed, as the land is .only just beginning to be free from logs and stumps. In the past settlers have ' been able to take advantage of the virgin fertility of the soil, but .even had they wished to farm on up-to-date lines tire -condition of their land would have prevented them from so doing. The future of farming is, however, going to be quite different from the past, aaid farmers will have to move with the times. The price now being paid for land which in many cases has had its fertility considerably reduced, by the habit of taking all out aud putting nothing back will not permit the use of careless or slipshod methods of farming. It is therefore desirable that the young men who will have to deal with the land in the future should know something of the proper system, knowledge which can only be acquired in the field. The ex- I pense of such a farm should not be j very great. It could not be expected to pay its way, but it should be run on lines that would enable it to do j so as nearly as possible. Many farmers have a distrust of training colleges in farming where everything is provided regardless of expense, because such a system accustoms the pupils to conveniences which they cannot hope to have on their own land. The manager of such an institution aaturallj ig i»-

dined to endeavour to have a model farm, but imperfections, where due to lack .of capital, would often be far more instructive than perfection due;to expenditure which would be impossible to the ordinary farmer. An excellent lesson would be offered by publishing the accounts of experimental farms in full, with notes showing where expense had been incurred by experiments which would not form part of the regular routine of a farmer’s work. We wish the project every success, as we feel sure that if not conducted on too ambitious lines it would prove of great value, and supply one of the needs of the district.

THE picture of the pair of suffragettes who chained themselves to the railings in front of Sir H. Oampbell-Bannermau’s official residence in Downing street cannot fail to raise a smile, though no doubt the members of'Cabinet who had their deliberations interrupted by the cries of the women outside the house must have been more irritated than amused. The curouis point in the suffragette campaign is that those who are. conducting it are for the most part well educated women 'who have deliberately chosen their present line of action in order to force public attention to what they consider to bo their just demands. No reasonable man of either party in Britain denies that women have a fair claim to vote on the same conditions as men, but neither side is anxious to add a lai’ge number of electors to the roll whose votes must be a matter of. conjecture. Even among those who admit that it is just to give women votes there is a feeling that the results would not be entirely satisfactory. The ground for this apprehension is put in a few words by Leoky,- the well-known historian, as follows : —‘ ‘ With women even more than men there is a strong disposition to overrate the curative powers of legislation to attempt to mould the lives of men in all their details by meddlesome or restraining laws, and an increase of female influence could hardly fail to increase that habit of excessive legislation which is one of the great evils of the time.” The experience of this country strongly supports Mr Lecky’s opinion, but there can be no doubt that in the not very distant future Britain will follow our lead, and give women the vote.

WRITING the other day ou the sub- , I joct of a proposed tram service beI tween Petone and the Lower Hutt ■ the Post remarked that in matters of the sort the: presumption was in favour of municipal control rather than private enterprise. In this country our Boroughs have hitherto ■ been too small to admit of a very i great development of municipal ownership, but with our well--1 recognised leaning to Socialistic ex- , periments there can be no doubt that in the future our Borough Councils ' will become interested to a large extent in business undertakings. Already the large centres have contracted enormous debts in order to provide public utilities, and the impression seems to be that any work undertaken by a public body must be a financial success. That this expectation is a sad delusion has already been proved by many local authorities in England, and it would be wise for New Zealand not to neglect those obvious lessons. The treasurer of the Borough of Preston, a town that is suffering to the tune of £86,000 a year for its enterprise in constructing a municipal dock, has published a return of the profits and losses on a number of similar undertakings. His figures show that out of 113 towns 76 are getting some return from their ventures, while 37 are losing money. The rates in some of the towns mentioned are enormous. At East Ham, where the rates have been reduced by 3d in the £ from tramway profits, the total is 9s Bd, and West Ham is a close second with 9s 7d, the trams having yielded only a penny in the pound. Third place is taken by Norwich,, where a sum equivalent to in the £ on the rateable value has been derived from markets and tramways, and where the rates are, nevertheless, 9s 5d in the £. The rates have had to come to the aid of all j manner of municipal undertakings. Gloucester has lost £4500 in the course of a year on its tramways, which means a rate of s}£d in the £, but it has more than made this up on the markets, water: and estates owned. Water has been ithe means of sending up rates in eleven towns, the amount at Stockton .being Is 2d in the £, representing a loss of £11,700; while three Boroughs are suffering from the acquisition of the electric light. Tramways show a deficit in eleven cases, and Eastbourne is contributing a halfpenny in the pound towards the expenses of its motor omnibuses. West Hartlepool has had an unfortunate speculation in clinker brick-making,’ for which it is paying a farthing in the pound ; whilst artisans’ dwellings are costing Wolverhampton a 4d rate.

WE referred some time ago to the bequest left by Miss Jeannes, of Pennsylvania, a Quakeress, to Swarthmore College, on condition that the institution gave up all Inter-collegiate sports. • The amount of the bequest was one million dollars, or £200,000, and the offer must have been a very tempting one, but after consultation with the heads of other colleges the authorities of Swarthmore cannot make up their

minds to retire from athletic competitions, and have attempted to makecompromise by offering to Observe the conditions experimentally. ‘The executors, however, refuse to hand over the money on these terms, and the college will therefore forego the bequest.