CURRENT TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 53, 23 July 1914, Page 4

CURRENT TOPICS.

ciuhacterlstiok of the bettor It is a -matter of common notoriety that the average- man who bets on the tote invariably arranges in advance for the payment of his just debts and the comfort of lus dependents. It is one of the characteristics of the breed. True, not every man who rushes to the machine to back a cert, lias hail the preliminary privilege of dealing in an ox or an ass; but it is, a matter of common observation that tote bettors are invariably lucky and invariably opulent. In addition bo the healthful mental and physical recreation wMch a man or woman receives when flic or she exchanges a sovereign for a ticket, than; is the exhilarating cirenirosfance that they always beat the machine, always "more than (bold their own!" That accounts for the habitual poverty of the bookmaker, and the men who make a perpetual loss when laying the odds. "Let the next man who slanders 11* as gamblers start off hv telling us f.h" exact meaning he attaches to the word,' says Sir Oeorgc Clifford. We should think so, indeed, and indeed!—Christchurch Star,

PARTY GOVERNMENT. The movement in favor of abolishing the wretch'id system of party governmn'iit is not confined to New Zealand. The Melbourne "Age" recently described title system "the father of a, vicious brood—public insincerity, malice, knavery, evil-speaking, megalomania, and deception." The remedy that it suggests is precisely what is being advocated in this Dominion, namely, an elective conn cv. The Age says: ' "Elective Ministries- will keep party bickerings outsjde tihe legislative chamber; enable men to vote according ,to their consciences instead of according to party dictation, give Ministers fixtures of 'tenure and thus silence T-") per cent, of the fall: intended to d'rivic them from office. The popular initiative will give the e'eetors direct power to rcctifv sins of commission. Parliament will bo broader based; it will attain lliigher ethical standards, it will .be animated bv better natriotis"!]' and citizenship and occur.-, n proper place in the public regard."