THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1906.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8305, 7 December 1906, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1906.

It is not 'surprising that considerable interest shculi have been centred in the resnifc of the Manukau poll, which wu publish in our columns this , morning. It will be seen that an Opposition candidate, in the person of Mr P. W. Lang, has been returned to represent the eleotorato of Mauukau. His majority is most substantial, and knowing, as erery intelligent student of politics In this country must know, that it would be absurd to attach any special importance to tbe result of any bye-eleotion, it is, nevertheless, most apparent thai' the electors of tbe Manugau have voted for tbe freehold. The freehold is the one jand tha only tenure that will be regarded as satisfactory by the agricultural classes throughout this country. Tbe defeat of the Government candidate was not unanticipated. The Auckland Star—the most Govbrnment organ >n the colony, we should presume—went to some pains to explain that the electors of Manukau, if "they return the Government candidate, would not be voting for the Land Bill, but simply for Liberalism. The result of the poll is pretty conclusive evidence that tbe voters in the Man ukau electorate were not caught in such a web of deoeit; but, ruther, that they clearly reoogniso that Mr MoNab's Land Bill was not only utterly unworkable but absolutely apart from the rea> ueeda of the country. Tho Bill of the new. Minister for Lands would only throw open freehold land for occupation in Hawke's : Bay and Canterbury, but Young New Zealand, wbo r*opa*ly roparas a very keen sentiment for closer settlement, is perfeotly well aware that Mr MoNab's Bill is utterly inadequate and largely contrary to the views ot his fellowcolonists. We do not attach very great importance to the result of the Manukau election, excepting as going to show that the electors of Manukau, in common with tbe great majority of the people of this conn-

try, ara not in sympathy with Mr MoNab's ideal land tenure. Iheit experience, and the experience of tbelr fathers before them, has taught them that a oolicy of freehold and close settlement; is the one and the only polioy for the people of this country.

The Wew Zealand Press is not the only Press that wants a more liberal libel law. The Chief Secretary of New South Wales was waited on recently by a deputation from the Country Prass Association, which put before him some startling evidence of the need tor reform. The president of the Association declared that every country pressman worked with his life in bis bands, under an Act framed at a time wbon people walked about in chains. Only a few days before one of the deputation bad been served witb a writ for £I,OOO fur reporting the utteranoea of a Supreme Court Judge. The sacretary of the Association mentioned that a few days before a country journalist clipped from "Hansard" a question put in Parliament and the answer thereto, and published the extract without comment. Preliminaries for a suit for libel were at once set on foot. A journalist who published without comment an auditor's report on soma municipal doings was sued and brought to Sydney twice witb six witnesses. Ihe jury returned a verdint in his favour without leaving the box, but the case cost him £SOO, and as ha never got a penny from the other side, it xuined him. The amount was more than bis small business cou'd stand. The speaker himself had defended twelve libel actions, all of them successfully, and of these nine were purely and simply attempts at blackmailing. In one case be was sued for publishing a report which was admitted to be true in every particular, but the plaintiff claimed ihut the publication had injured him. To pay the costs of this oase he had to sell the first house be ever owned, over the bead of a siok child. Another member of the deputation instanced a oase in wbioh he bad employed a raputable shorthand writer to report a oase, and, knowing bis danger, had published it in full —nine columns of it. He was served with a writ for libel for not publishing a "full report" because some very small portiou was alleged to have been omitted. It was pointed out to the Minister—who gave a very sympathetic reply —that the present law simply encouraged blaokmail, and it pressed most severely on country journalists, who had less means afciheir disposal than the town newspapers. It is interesting to note that the British law is not considered perfect by English journalists, who complain that they are being repeatedly harrassed Jibel actions set on foot by penniless people as speculations. If these people win, they make money; if they don't they have nothing to lose. West Australia sots a good example by allowing a newspaper, if it thinks the plaintiff is a man of straw, to apply to the. Supreme Court for an order requiring him to make a deposit against the contingency of his beinu required to pay costs.

The theory that very fast; motoringdemoralises the nerves has beea revived by do i?ag a medioal .authority than Sir Jumes CrichtonBrowne, who declares that it has a tendency to lead in tbe direotion of hnmlcldal mania. D?. Forbes Winaiow, the most, eminent meata* specialist of the present day, holds the same opinion. It is impossible, ho eays, for the brain to keep pace with a motor oar going at the rate Of 80 miles an hoar, and there ia a momentary mental vacancy daring which the mental condition becomes automatin, and fcbo individual irresponsible, A constant repetition of this coaditiou must be injurious. "Mental fatigue and meutal excitement," he states, "are both primary causus of insanity, aud batfc these occur in excessive motoring. It ia difficult to imagine anyone after a day of severe motoring being able to indulge in tranquil and refreehing sleep. The brain will not have recuperated itself, and the motorist will awaKo ia tbe morning unrefreshed and tired. A constant repetition, of this sort of thing must iu che end cause serious mental mischief." It would be interesting to know whether these two eminent doctors have bsen guided at all by personal experience. The motorists are against them. Mr S. P. Edge, who dellghia in very rapid motoring, says that travelling at a great paoe is healthful and exhilarating, and that this exhilaration has been mistaken for mania. He claims that motoring, by teaching the man to control his passions and retain his presence of mind in emergencies, gives a man strong nerves and rapid judgment "Tbe reference to horaioidal mania is equally foandlese," he says, "J can honesliy say—and the same thing applies to other racing motorists—that 1 would rather lose a Gordon-Bennett race than kill o dog." Another prominent motorist, who knows all the leading | motorists in England, declares that, so far from developing a tendency to homioidal mania, they are growing I kindlier and healthier. So much

for the positiviets. A neutral point of me i was given by Mr U9erbohm Tree the other day, whim be related .how his driver lost control of the brakes descending a hill, with a precipice on one side, a rooky wall on the other, and two carte ahead on the narrow road, one going down and one comiug up. By what Mr Tree humourously called a happy dispensation the oar crashed into one cart, and then into the other, The oocaaion was too serioas for words, and Mr Tree regarded his drivn- with the cold eye of reproach. "Not a bad advertisement, Governor," said the driver, cheerfully, in spite of the fact th«t. it nas almost au obituary notice. Here is a oase of nerve to support Mr Edge's oase.