CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 310, 23 May 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

CURTAILING PUBLIC EXPENDITURE. It sounds fine and large for .Air. Massey to tell his country audiences that he has found the "commitments" to be vastly in excess of the "available funds." His audiences know no better. But Parliament will not be satisfied with the repetition of rubbish of this sort unless the Reform members are ready to cry "Aye" at the bidding of their leaders without any regard to the facts or to their own credit. Mr. Allen, at any rate, knew all about the "commitments" and the "available funds" when he framed his Estimates. There may be something in Mr. McDonald's suggestion that the Government wishes to curtail the expenditure this year in order to make a "splash" next year, when the elections are in sight. They have committed so many of the improprieties they have attributed to their predecessors that even this one would not surprise us. But if the country discovers that it is being starved this year for the purpose of providing a feast next year it will not feel very kindly disposed towards its entertainers when they go to the polls.—Lyttelton Times. TERRITORIALS AND THE PRESS. We do not for a moment think that, generally speaking, the officers or men of our defence forces are so foolish as to think that they are above criticism, hut it is just as well that any of them who may happen to entertain such an idea should get rid of it at once. Free criticism is good for all public persons, civil or military, and the very fact that such an occurrence as that which happened at the camp at Sutton is possible emphasises the need for independent observation and comment. If the impression should get abroad that the presence in camps of newspaper reporters, who ara really the representatives of the general public, is regarded with disfavor by the military authorities, a feeling of uneasiness would be caused, and a weapon placed in the hands of the small, but noisv, minority who have no love for the defence scheme. The best way to avoid this is to give every facility to press representatives to do their.work without fear or favor, and in view of the uglv allegations which were not dealt with by the Court the necessity for a full and searching investigation should' he patent to the military authorities.—Wellington Dominion.

THE PUBLIC TRUST OFFICE. . If properties are handed over to the care of the Public Trustee there is the absolute guarantee of the State against' default. Within human limits it is impossible for anybody owning or interested in an estate placed in the Public Trust Offices for administration to loss by mismanagement or fraud. The State guarantees the client against such contingencies. But who' is there to give such a guarantee to those who have placed their trust in, for example, Walter Shaw, the Timaru bankrupt solicitor and land speculator? The answer is. Nobody. Who can guarantee the good ■ faith or business capacity of any private lawyer? Again, absolutely nobodv. We do not desire to be misunderstood. Our remarks are not to be misinterpreted as a charge or slur against an honorable profession comprising men, generally sneaking, of high capacity and probity But defaulting solicitors are not bv any means outside the public knowledge or experience. Quite a number of specific instances could be quoted, were it necessarv, in which lawyers have departed with trust monevs and the proceeds of trust estates. Therefore, we ask all interested —and who is not?—to remember these salient facts, emphasised by the affairs of Walter Shaw, bankrupt solicitor and laud speculator, before they think of condoning the "Reform" scheme to water down the enormous benefits of the Public Trust Office.—Wellington Times.

DIFFICULTIES OF CABINET MINISTERS. It is only those who have been a little the scenes" in the political world who can fully appreciate the trials of Cabinet Ministers. The pathetic stories of poverty and distress that they .have to listen to are very depressing, and it must be a hard trial for a Minister to have to say "no" to many of the supplicants for a position in the Government employ for their boys or girls. It is no'uncommon occurrence for a widow in distressed circumstances to interview a Cabinet Minister and earnestly beg and plead that a daughter may be given a position in a telephone office, just as a little help towards the family being able to make a living. It seems only ft small request to make, but such requests are so numerous that the majority of them have to be denied. The pathetic scenes that occur inside the Ministerial sanctum are a closed page to the general outside world, but thev are a eontinmil worry to human men in authority. Tt must he very hard to say "no." thereby conveying disappointment and utter hopelessness, when the word "yes" would make the outlook so much brighter for some deserving unfortuante who has been beaten in life's struggle for even a decent existence.—Eltham Argus. THE NEW ZEALAND'S GUNS.

Lieutenant Down gave some interesting particulars about the sriina of the New Zealand in Ohristchnrch the other day. Tlie effective range of the 12in Sim, he said, was probably from twenty to twenty-five miles, but to secure that the gun would have to have an elevation of about 35 degrees. As mounted on board the vessel that elevation could not be secured. The turrets limited the elevation, which save a maximum range at sea of ton miles, all that was likelv to be wanted in the case of a navnl engagement. For bombardment purposes greater elevation could and had been seeured by heeling the ship by means of

the. water tank. In firing a shell ten miles it rose in the course of its trajectory to a height of over fiOOO feet. Sometimes in the course of battle practice at Home fishermen would come between the vessel and its target, and the owner, as soon as he perceived his plight, would become most frantically concerned and signal desperately for the cessation of lire. But the naval officers paid no heed, for they well knew that the shells of which he was afraid were well over a mile above his head.

CAUSES OF WAR. Germany, says the correspondent of the London Standard at The Hague, covets a strip of land on the Netherlands foreshore, and he adds—with how little basis of truth we do not know—that the proposed transfer is regarded as fraught with sinister possibilities. Perhaps! Certainly the appropriation of Holland, or even a bit of it, would not improbably be regarded as a casus belli by France and England! At least this is what that much-travelled sportsman, administrator and writer, Sir Harry Johnston, thinks. In his most recent contribution, "Common Sense in Foreign Policy," he draws up a list of the causes for which England might rationally go to war, and among them are attempts bv Germany to annex Holland against the will of her people, or to control the mouth of the Scheldt with or without their consent, or to annex territory in Eastern or Northern France, or to tamper with the independence of Belgium or Denmark. The quarrel with Revolutionary France began with the freeing of the Scheldt bv Dumouriez; and Sir Harry Johnston's policy is exactly that of Pitt, with Germany in the place of France. Not that he is hostile towards Germany as a nation, but neither, for that matter, was I Pitt towards France. But, like Pitt, he is a fanatical believer in the doctrine of the balance of power, the revival of which, says the Radical Manchester Guardian, in the last ten years is the greatest danger to the peace of Europe, "id needs to be resisted with the whole f orce of Liberalism.