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Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9051, 10 February 1908, Page 4

Writing in the '"Westminster Review," Mr Hartley Williams makes some astonishing and sweeping statements in regard to the English public school-boy. He comments as follows: —"Turning for a moment to the subject of moral culture, it is with deep regret that one feeis compelled to add that the code of morals in the large majority of our public schools is not a high one, and that the standard of morality is distinctely Jow. It is neither necessary nor advisable to go into detail; anyone who has sppnt some years of his life in a public school, and many a master, who by some fortuitous occurrence has been enabled to penetrate the screen which veils the inner life of a public ■school, cannot conscientiously deny the truth of this lamentable allegation. Purity, honour, chivalry, pity, and moral courage are not among the attributes which are to be found appertaining to the large majority of boys at any of our large public schools."

Mr Kettle, S.M., doesn't see why prohibited persons should not wear a badge, and has remarked, facetiously we presume, "Police officers wear stripes, blue ribbon people wear little badges, and are proud of them, why should not a prohibited person wear some distinguishing mark?" Mr Kettle must know that in British communities it is not usual to make public guys of criminals. To place a distinguishing mark upon prohibited persons would be a species of refined torture that only certain persons can appreciate, and the suggestion itself, we are afraid, is evidence of a lack of sympathy with the creatures so unfortunate as 10 be the subjects of prohibition orders. It would, probably, be to the advantage of many an unfortunate "culprit, and thereby to the benefit of the Dominion, as a •whole, if magistrates were educatod in criminology, and in the humane methods, which are being used to day in differenc parts of the world,, in the treatment of criminals.

Apropos of the question of increased fire insurance rates, Mr Kirkeiy General Manager of the South British Insurance Company, has informed.an Auckland "Star" reporter that New Zealand has never been a profitable field for insurance companies. The loss for 1907, he believed, would be £50,000, and the present year had opened badly, and, under the most favourable circumstances, the loss must be at least £200,000:. Mr Kirker, also, remarked—and obviously it is so —that unless rates were raised to a paying point all companies must suffer a heavy loss. We do not know whether the State Fire Insurance Department is making profits or not, but we cannot see how that institution can make profits while private companies are losing money. Apart from other considerations altogether, the present condition of fire insurance business in the dominion emphasises one point very clearly, and that is that legislation that brings the people generally into competition with private enterprises, legitimately conducted, is always of a very dangerous character. It must now be apparent to everyone that increased premiums in regard to insurance against fire will speedily be brought into operation, despite the fact that when we published certain information; the other day, the representatives of city journals were unable to obtain direct confirmation of our report.