CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVI, Issue 296, 18 May 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

WELLINGTON'S FOODSTUFFS. According to Mr. F. T. Moore, a man prominent in Wellington affairs, the conditions connected with the supply of some of its foodshiffs are simply horrible. "Even now," he writes, ''virulently diseased pork is allowed to enter right into the shop of butchers before a belated inspection is made, and frequently such carcases go right into restaurants without any inspection whatever. This is because tile City Council has not sufficient regard for public health to insist that all pigs for human consumption shall be delivered alive at the city abattoirs. This violation of regard for the health of the community i» diabolical. The want of cleanliness on the part of many primary producers of milk and pork is a social outrage. Cows and gigs are herdeed in filthy prcmises.Filtli-ily-clad assistants, using iilthjr utensils and carts for the conveyances of milk and pork to the consumer, are common. Both commodities are frequently carried to market in the filthy carts which are used to convey the decomposing city refuse on whih many pig« aro grown and fattened. Why the civic authorities allow this frightful state of things to continue is amazing to me." Apparently Mr. Moore realises that nothing but a wholesome frightening will arouse the public to a consciousness of its dangci from a contaminated food supply.

AN INDIFFERENT FOSTER-PARENT. The State acta as a father and a mother to most of us already, and it ia an exccdingly indifferent sort of fosterparent. That it ia capable of going the whole hog and relieving persons from the necessity of exercising ordinary common sense and intelligence in business transactions is, to say the least of it, a nonsensical 'proposition. Whore is the State to obtain the necessary om. nisc-ieiico and sagacity to do everything right, wlien the majority composing' it are fallible mortals, prone to do foolish and improvident acts? The more the State undertakes to do on a man's behalf, the less likely he i» to do anything for himself, or to rely on liia own private judgment, and if he leans on the State altogether he will very soon find it a tyrannical master instead of an indulgent parent.—Christchurch 6un. POLITICIANS AND REPORTERS. A Ministerial newspaper has been trying to score a point against Sir Joseph Ward by presenting a "literal transcript" of its reporter's notes of some remarks the Liberal leader made in his Christchurch speech recently. The device is not new, and it is not particularly creditable. Not one public man in twenty, aa a matter of fact, can face an absolutely verbatim report of liia own speech with equanimity. Sir Joseph Ward and Mr. Massey both require a considerable amount of assistance from the reporters in the way of revision and excision. Sir Joseph'* besetting sin is a habit of introducing a remark in parenthesis and then omitting to finish the original sentence. Mr. Massey often betrays confusion of thought, and gets back to his point with an obvious effort. The clearest political speaker New Zealand has known in recent year* ia Sir John Fimllay, whose addressee are spoken as they might have been written, without a superfluous word, and obscure sentence or a break in the train ol thought. Sir John in a diflicult speaker from the point of view of the reporter, since every word lie utters is essential to hi'i argument. He gives the shorthand writer no breathing space.—Lyttelton Times. TWO HEWS. Those who are interetted iu strike situation/! may recall that the first serious strike in New Zealand under "arbitration" was e&uacd by tlio long delay of the Court in hearing a daitn for slaughtermen for increased wages. Sir Joseph Ward was not then in Opposition. The Continuous Government was still at the eenith of its power. Yet the slaughtermen'* strike, which could apparently have been easily prevented, was not settled "in two days," elicited 110 special legislation, and started the unrest which increased under the fostering influence of syndicalism until the pitched battle of November lust. — Auckland Herald.

Whether the strike eouhl or could not have been nettled in a couple of days by the legislation proposed by Sir Joseph Joseph Ward must remain a, moot point since Mr. ilassey win not ''big" enough to accept a suggestion l'rom & political opponent, but we believe ourselves that a great majority of the men would have welcomed any reasonable means of escaping from the hopelesa position into which they had been dragged much against their own sober judgment by their injudicious leadcra. Tho whole facts of the strike viewed at this distance go to show, indeed, that if a Seddon had been at the head of the Dominion's affairs last year there would have been no strike and none of the los.s and inconvenience and Buffering that arose out of the trouble.—Lytfelton Times.