Ragitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXIV, Issue 9392, 12 March 1909, Page 4

Ragitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, MARCH 12, 1909. EDITORIAL NOTES.

THE young farmer of Temuka, who, after a four years engagement to a farmer’s daughter, found her too quiet for his taste and refused to marry Her, has discovered thac even the quietest girl can be roused and has had to pay £2OO damages for breach of promise. Tho-young /man may have been dazzle d by some sprightly damsel whose bright eyes

and challenging glances reinforced by dainty dress and a trim figure,: seemed to offer a prospect of per* petual bliss in married life. Beside such a charmer the quiet country mouse would have no chance, and would prove unable to retain the Affections of the fickle youth. Whether this theory as to the cause of the broken engagement is true or not the quiet young lady was not to be shelved so easily, and she sought solace for her blighted affections in the Law Courts. The case serves to draw attention once more to the old problem of why certain girls get married, and others, though to all appearances they would make excellent wives, remain single. There are few women who, in the course of their lives, do not have one or more opportunities of marriage. They may, it is true, never actually receive a proposal, but that is only because they do not allow matters to proceed to that stage. There is a large class of women who marry at the first opportunity they get; they make good average wives, but almost any man would have suited them as well as the one they have married. Other girls who appear very attractive lose their chances because they become so accustomed to admiration that though they have a multitude of followers they lack the power to secure the affection of one. Some others who appear eminently fitted for married life never marry simply because they fix a standard which a possible husband must attain, and refuse to be tempted to lower it. Thus [for a woman to remain unmarried is not, as many think, a sign that she has failed in life, but simply shows that she has met no one she cared to marry. The average man is certainly not the kind of person to inspire great enthusiasm and it is a merciful arrangement that so many women become, temporarily at least, blind to bis defects. Otherwise man would really have to bestir himself to amend his ways, a course that would be most inconvenient and troublesome.

THE Minister for Public Works considers that New Zealand requires 10,000 miles of railway and maintains that to borrow one million a year for railways as the country Is now doing is a safe policy. We have had far too much of this kind of talk in the past and it is quite time that Ministers gave it up. Railways are useless without population, and there seem few signs that onr population is likely to increase rapidly. At present there is one mile of railway in the Dominion for every 400 people, and the cost of each mile is nearly £IO,OOO. In the United Kingdom with a population of 44 millions, there are 23,000_miles of railway or roughly one mile for 2000 inhabitants. The plea that country requires to be opened ,up may be a reason for the construction of roads, but it is no excuse for spending money on railways while population is scanty. The analogy of the railways of the United States and Canada which were pushed ahead of settlement is a delusive one if applied to New Zealand conditions. In the former countries population was encouraged to come in to occupy the vacant lands, whereas in New Zealand the cry is already that the land is too full. Turning to Mr McKenzie’s proposal to borrow a million annually for railways in the future as in the past it is worth pointing out that though a million may have been borrowed annually for the extension of railways the amount actually spent has been far less. * During the last few prosperous years only £360,000 annually has been spent on additions to open lines, the balance of the loans having been frittered .away on the existing lines. We, therefore, have no sympathy with the pretext that money is required to extend railways when in the past so much has 'been diverted from its legitimate nse.

THE figures as to unemployment, supplied by MrTregear to the Minister of Labour, effectually dispose of the contention that newly arrived immigrants are unable to obtain work 'here. Ont of 774 applicants for work in the week ended February I7th, 400 had been under five years in New Zealand, and 374 over five years. Only 50 of the whole number were assisted emigrants. It would seem as if the new' men were more energetic and more willing to take to any work that offered than those who have waxed fat under the labour legislation in force here.