GENERAL NEWS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 220, 17 March 1914, Page 8

GENERAL NEWS.

THE PUBLIC SERVICE. New Zealand has adopted the policy of the public ownership of many utilities that in older lands have been exploited by private enterprise, and in that way a very large addition has been made to the number of 'State employees. Probably it is with this policy that Earl Grey quarrels, but apart from that aspect of the matter there is an obvious fallacy underlying his criticism. The proportion of the population employed by the State in the ordinary public services must necessarily be higher in a progressive young country than in an old country with a large population, because the organisation of the internal administration must be complete whether the number of people to be served is small or great.- More- 1 over, New Zealandera are an energetic, scattered people, highly educated and perhaps a little extravagant in ways that affect the State departments. They write an enormous number of letters, read many newspapers and send many telegrams, and their postal business is therefore unusually large. Tlien there are . the State railways employing i small' army'of flieW, who-strc no greater peril to the community in this service, assuming the .mass of. people to exercise the ultimate control, than they would be in private employment. There is danger against which we should guartf, of course, but the implication that the people employed in the public service are ' lying down upon the State" is absurd as- well as unjust. So long as these have to work for their living their spirit of independence is not likely i suffer more in State than in private employment.—Lyttelton Times.

A VALUABLE BOOK. ' Mr. Robert McNab, when speaking in Duniedin at the presentation of his library to the city, stated that in the »ection devoted to work done by celokrated New Zealanders before they came to our shores, the best book was "Mitla," written by Von Tempsky, giving tl)e story of a tour in Central America. "It is the only copy of that work I have ever seen," remarked the donor of the collection, Mr. McNab, however, could not have had time during his busy life in Wellington to go through all the travel works in the General Assembly Library, or be would have discovered there a copy of I "Mitla" (says the Lyttelton Times). So far as is known, .these are the only two copies of the work in New Zealand, tyajor Von Tempsky was a guerilla leader in Central Anierlca before hi came to New Zealand to win fame and a warrior's death iii the Taranaki bush. He travelled and fought in Mexico and the neighboring troubled States about the year 1800, and it was a long and adventurous. journey through Mexico •Which resulted in ' the publication of "Mitla." He was a gifted artist in i water-colors, and the. book is illustrat|ed with several sketches of Spanish- | American life and scenery from the brush of this accomplished soldier of fortune.

NATIONAL ANNUITIES. If tho Heform Government desires to firmly establish itself with the constituencies of the Dominion, it will need to devote attention to social, or domestic, legislation, us well as tile agrarian. The extension of the old-age pension system, the increasing of the salaries of school teachers and railway servants, the perfecting of superannuation scheme for members of the public service, are all good in their way. They do not, however, meet the case of the masses of the people who are not State dependents,. and . who contribute so largely to the public revenues. The man who works for a public body should bo as much entitled to superannuation as the man who is employed by the State. There should, indeed, be a scheme of superannuation which would embrace all sections of the community. The development of such scheme would, in time, extinguish a greater portion, if not the whole, of the liability under the old-age pension system.— Wairarapa Ago,

! ! GRSAT BRITAIN'S WEALTH. I In an address to the Canadian Club !at Ottawa, Sir George Parish said there was a notion prevalent in some quarters , a few years ago that London was cfiiisI ing to be the world's money market. On the contrary, during the past year, I when Berlin, Paris and New York had I less money to lend than usual, the Lon- | don market was open to all comers, an 1 was able to satisfy them to the extent of 240 millions sterling, of which flveI sixths was lent to the dominions and | foreign countries. The ability of England is, in fact, greater than ever before. Her investments in colonial and foreign countries now exceed 3500 millions sterling, and of this sum Canada has taken S(H) millions. The lendings have been principally for railway construction. Sir George Parish dwelt upon the growth of British wealth in various wuvs. The national income ho put at present at 2400 millions sterling per annum, ami expressed the belief that in thirty yenr ? it will be more than double that amount.