CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 7, 9 June 1913, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

CROWN LAND VALUING. With a knowledge of the ramifications of Land* Board business and the egregious blunders that are being made in the administration, we are convinced that the time has arrived when there should be an alteration in the system of valuing. Members of Land Boards should consist solely of men who have a knowledge of land values. These members should be legally empowered to review the values of the Government valuers aa they may deem fit. If this were done, and the number of land districts were increased, so that members could acquaint themselves with the details of every case, we should not hear of excessive profits being made by speculators at the expense of the State, or of losses of time and money being made by the less fortunate settlers who take thirdclass laud at a first-class rental.—Wairarapa Age.

- BANK DIVIDENDS. We strongly hold the opinion that banks should not be permitted to pay dividends of 15 per cent.' at all. When more than 10 per cent, is paid over a series of years, one of three things is happening: either the reserves are not being sufficiently built up, or the employees are not being adequately remunerated, or the public are paying an extravagant price for the accommodation they are receiving.—-Dunedin Star.

HELP FOR THE BACKBLOCKS. There should be ho talk in America of the "way-back," nor in New Zealand of the "backblocks." Eapid communication with the towns in regard to transit and telephone services must be established, and the country should, as far as possible, he catered for liberally in regard to comforts and amusements. All this is feasible, and were the Government to move in the direction of improving the conditions in the country they would be assisting materially towards the solution of a perplexing problem. There is no reason why, with the exercise of a little ordinary wisdom on the part of Ministers, the cult of the country life should not become firmly established in the minds of the growing population.— Southland News.

SPORT AND WORK. "The majority of our rising generation would ratlier be good cricketers and footballers than good workmen," said a prominent Queensland employer recently in a discussion 011 the influence of sport. He declared that one of the principal factors in the decline of skilled workmanship was the widespread prevalence of sport. "To the youth of to-day it is the be-all and end-all of life," he said. "A young man will spend much time and thought in getting himself fit to take part in sport 011 Saturday afternoon. If the .same energy were; expended in striving to make himself n better workman the community at large would be benefited." Of course, there is 110 reason at. all why prowess in athletics should not be associated with the keenest business enterprise.

A l ,! AX I NT"! I > M PKTKN'CK. It would he liiu'd to find a more trenchant example of the Germans' amazing incompetence in the management of men than the present state of Alsace-Lorraine. In the four decades which have elapsed since the Franco-Prussian war, time has ef'aced manv bitter recollections, and the layer of Herman culture beneath the outward covering of French civilisation has provided the Germans with a good foundation to work on. Yet they have effected practically nothing towards creating a feeling of patriotism towards (lermany among the population of the new provinces. The Alsatians have lost consciousness of belonging politically to France without being able to return to feel themselves an integral part of the German Empire. Instead of patriotism they have a kind of lofty scepticism which infuriates the Gorman. T1 tis is the impression formed by Mr. G. Valentine Williams, the Paris correspond-

ent of the Daily Mail,-and formerly Reuter's correspondent in Berlin, after a recent visit to Strasburg. The Prussion gendarme stalks through the country, a brief of German citizenship in one hand, a sharp sword in the other. He demands the people of Alsace-Lor-iaine shall speak German and think German and accept German nationality as a vassal State. This demand the population of the annexed provinces unhesitatingly rejects, for it is alien to its nature, and is iii', direct contradiction with the whole of its history.

"WHOLLY AND UTTERLY WRONG." Mr. Balfour made a strong attack upon school examinations in the House of Commons recently. "I would like to hear a really good controversy about our system of competitive examinations, he said. ''ln some respects competitive examinations are an absolute necessity, but we get into the habit of talking of that which is an unhappy necessity as if it were an admirable institution. They really are most soul-killing institutions. They are very bad for the teacher and very bad for the taught. Examination results are alone the test by which all scanned the merits of a system, and results upon the pupil, and the benefit to the whole country. I believe that to be wholly and utterly ■wrong from beginning to end." New Zealand has made one or two rather feeble efforts to throw off the examination incubus, but it still presses cruelly and deterioratinglv on both teachers and taught.