WELLINGTON TOPICS.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 June 1921, Page 5

WELLINGTON TOPICS.

THE NEW CENSORSHIP. MINISTERIAL CONTROL. (Special Correspondent.) Wellington, June 17. It seems that the Acting-Prime Minister himself, on second thoughts, is not quite sure the Government retains the power it exercised during the war to censor cable messages dispatched from the Dominion. He confessed as much as this to an interviewer yesterday who wanted to know with what authority the edict had gone forth requiring that no message purporting to express the views of any New Zealand Minister of the Crown on any Imperial question affecting any problem connected with the association of the United Kingdom and New Zealand should be sent, ax.iiy without the written authority of the Minister concerned. Probably the power assumed during the war, Sir Francis Bell confessed, no longer existed, but at the present time it was particularly desirable that a report of the statements of a responsible Minister should be submitted to him before being transmitted to England or to foreign countries. This surreptitious revival of the censorship, I presumably, is intended as a.check uport Ministers’ indiscretions as well as upon reporters’ inaccuracies, and no one appears to be greatly concerned about the matter; but the man in the street is quoting it as an entertaining commentary upon the professions of a progressive democracy. QUALITY OF PARLIAMENT. Mr. G. R. Sykes, M.P., who is in'town to-day, has been subject to a good deal of chaff over his tilt at Lord Bryce and his “Modern Democracies” at a fire brigade re-union within his own constituency at the end of last week. Mr. Sykes’ grievance against the venerable historian was that he had declared that in New Zealand “public life attracts too little of the nation’s best intelligence,” and, as a consequence, “the average of knowledge and ability in Parliament is not high.” The member for Masterton took this as a personal affront to him self and his fellow members, and Jumped to the conclusion that the author of •Modern Democracies” would have only ■■literary and university men” admitted to the counsels of the nation. But so far from this being the case, at eightytwo years of age, Ixird Bryce adheres’to his early democratic professions with quite extraordinary tenacity. He mereI !v deplores that more of the best brains I of the country are not devoting themselves to its service. This is a regret which has been expressed again i\nd again during the last thirty or forty years and implies no speical reproach to Mr. Sykes and his colleagues. FIRE-BLIGHT. The conference of the Fruit-growers’ Federation now sitting here has been giviqg a good deal of attention to the tircblfght' pest, and the majority of the delegates* appear to have been driven to the conclusion that nothing short of the complete elimination of hawthorn root and branch, as the Government biologist put it, will give a reasonable chance of saving the pear and apple orchards of the Dominion from the ravages of the disease. Professor Foster, of the United States, would offer no opinion as to what might be necessary in this respect in New Zealand, but in America it had been found absolutely essential to eradicate hawthorn in order to save the f - industry. The professor held out no hope of getting rid of the disease altogether In America that had been found impossible, and the best the orehardists could do was to maintain a constant war against the pest. IM Minister of Agriculture, poor man, i» torn between the conflicting interests of the stock-raisers and the fruit-growers but in view of the representations made to him by the conference he.can do otherwise than decree that the hav thorn hedges must go.

EDUCATION AND ECONOMY.

The Minister’s emphasis of the need for economy in the Education Department and the directors suggest.on tor „ review of the whole post-primary course of instruction are naturally causing some uneasiness among people who regard the Dominion’s education sys tern as one of its most precious possessions. It is feared that the Government is contemplating some sweeping reduction in the expenditure upon the department, which will not affect me lv the position of the members of the teaching staff, but also the accojnmodaiion and the facilities provided for the children. The Minister protests, however, that he never has had in mind anv economies that could impair the efficiency of the system, and that his sole idea is to get for the country better value for its money. At present the post-primary course leads to nowhere in particular, and in many cases the efforts of the teachers and the children are wasted, but under a properly coordinated system a definite goal would be kept in view and much better resuits would be obtained. That would be true economy, even if it did not result in a saving of expenditure.